Pliny the Younger (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus) was born ca. 61 A.D. He was the nephew and adopted son of Pliny the Elder. As a Roman senator he was sent in 111 to be governor of Bithynia and Pontus in Asia Minor, seemingly to bring much needed reforms to that area’s local government. Presumably it was here that he died ca. 113.
Noted as a letter writer, it was at Rome that Pliny initially published nine books of letters covering the years 97 to 109. A tenth book, which appeared after his death, contains his most famous letter (X.XCVI), that to the emperor Trajan (52 or 53–117), requesting assistance as to how Pliny should deal with the Christians who were considered as members of a secret sect. The emperor’s reply (X.XCVII) is also contained in the same book.
Bautz 7:745–49 * CATH 11:516–18 * CHECL 59 * EC 9:1627–28 * EEC 2:699 * EEChr 2:928 * LTK 8:357–58 * NCE 11:442–43 * NCES 11:420–21 * ODCC 1301 * PEA (1894) 21.1:439–56 * PEA (1991) 9:1141–44
J. Variot, “Les lettres de Pline le Jeune: correspondance avec Trajan relativement aux chrétiens de Pont et de Bithynie,” RQH 24 (1878) 80–153. * E.-Ch. Babut, “Remarques sur les deux lettres de Pline et de Trajan relatives aux chrétiens de Bithynie,” RHL, n.s., 1 (1910) 289–305. * A. Kurfess, “Plinius und der urchristliche Gottesdienst,” ZNeW 35 (1936) 295ff. * R.M. Grant, “Pliny and the Christians,” HTR 41 (1948) 273–74. * W. Schmid, “Ein Verkannter Ausdruck der Opfersprache in Plinius’ Christenbrief,” VC 7 (1953) 75–78. * L. Herrmann, “Les interpolations de la lettre de Pline sur les chrétiens,” Latomus 13 (1954) 343–55. * F. Fourrier, “La lettre de Pline à Trajan sur les chrétiens (X, 97),” RTAM 31 (1964) 161–74. * F. Smuts, “Waarvan is die Christene voor Plinius aangekla?” Acta Classica 8 (1965) 71–85. * D.H. Tripp, “Pliny and the Liturgy—Yet Again,” SP 15.1 (1984) 581–85. * F. Manns, “‘Ante lucem’ dans la lettre de Pline le Jeune à Trojan (Ep. X, 96),” Ant 62 (1987) 338–43. * F.J. van Beeck, “The Worship of Christians in Pliny’s Letter,” StudLit 18:3–4 (1988–89) 121–31. * D.H. Tripp, “The Letter of Pliny,” in StLit, 80–81. * M. Testard, “‘… carmenque Christo quasi Deo dicere … ,’” RELA 72 (1994) 138–58.
It is my custom, O lord, to refer all questionable issues to you. Who can better resolve my doubts and instruct my ignorance? (288)
Never have I been present when Christians have been questioned in court. And so I do not know what offense is to be punished or investigated and to what extent. Nor am I certain whether any distinction should be made among Christians on the basis of age, whether the young should be treated differently than adults, whether pardon should be granted to those renouncing their beliefs, whether someone who once was a Christian gains nothing by ceasing to be a Christian, and whether the name itself without the offense is to be punished or whether only offenses consistent with the name are to be punished. (289)
Meanwhile, this is the procedure I followed in regard to all who were brought before me on the charge of being Christians. I asked them if they were Christians. If they answered affirmatively, I asked them a second and third time, threatening them with punishment. If they persisted, I ordered their execution. Whatever the nature of their admission, I believed that their stubbornness and firm obstinacy were not to go unpunished. There were others of similar insanity, but since they were citizens of Rome, I ordered that they were to be sent to that city. (290)
Before long and as is often true, the charges increased in variety as they became more widespread. There exists an anonymous writing containing the names of many accused persons. From among these I considered dismissing those who denied that they were or ever had been Christians if they repeated after me an invocation of the gods, if they offered wine and incense to your image which I ordered to be brought into court for this purpose along with the images of the gods, and if they cursed the name of Christ, which, as I understand it, no true Christian can be forced to do. Others, whose names an informer gave me, first admitted the charge and then denied it; they said that they had ceased to be Christians two or more years previously and some of them even twenty years previously. All venerated your image and the images of the gods and cursed the name of Christ. (291)
They also declared that the substance of their guilt or error amounted to no more than this: they customarily gathered before dawn on a fixed day to sing in alternation a hymn to Christ as if to a god, and they bound themselves by an oath, not in a criminal conspiracy, but to refrain from robbery, theft, or adultery, from breaking their word, from reneging on a deposit. After this they usually dispersed, reassembling later on in order to take food of a common and harmless kind. And so I believed that it was all the more necessary to seek the truth from two female slaves, who are called “ministers,”a doing so by means of torture. I found nothing except a degenerate, excessive superstition. (292)
I have, therefore, postponed any further consideration while awaiting your counsel. The matter seems worthy of your consideration, especially in light of the number of persons to be tried. For numerous persons of every age and every class, of each gender, are being brought to trial, something that is likely to continue. Not only the towns but villages and the countryside are being defiled through contact with this evil superstition. It seems possible for this to be checked and cured since the people have indeed begun to frequent the temples, which had been almost entirely abandoned for a long time. And the sacred rites, having been abandoned, are again being performed; the flesh of sacrificial meat is on sale everywhere though till recently it was hard to find anyone buying it. It is easy to believe from this that a large number of people could be corrected if they were given an opportunity to make a retraction. (293)
You acted correctly, my dear Pliny, in investigating the cases of those denounced to you as being Christians. It is impossible to formulate a general principle that can be applied as a fixed norm. These people are not to be sought out; if they are brought before you and found guilty, they must be punished. Yet if anyone denies being a Christian and proves this by offering supplications to our gods, this person shall be pardoned as being repentant however suspect this person’s former conduct may have been. Anonymous accusations, however, shall not be introduced into the proceedings. They set a very bad example and are foreign to the spirit of our age. (294)
This document, also called the Testament of Our Lord in Galilee—not to be confused with the Testamentum Domini (WEC 3:142)—is perhaps the most widely known of the apocryphal epistles of the apostles. The work presents itself as a series of revelations given by the risen Lord to the eleven apostles. Redacted in Egypt or Asia Minor, the document, originally written in Greek (now lost), exists in Ethiopic, Coptic (incomplete), and Latin (one leaf). Some date it as early as 130; others as late as 160.
Altaner (1961) 82–83 * Altaner (1966) 124–25 * Cross 85 * Goodspeed 22–24 * Quasten 1:150–53 * Steidle 282 * Tixeront 72 * CATH 1:703 * DTC 1.2:1602 * EEChr 1:382 * LTK 3:732 * NCE 2:412 * ODCC 1592
B. Poschmann, Paenitentia Secunda (Bonn, 1930) 104ff. * J. Hoh, Die kirchliche Busse im zeiten Jahrhundert (Breslau, 1932) 64–72.
5. […] When we had no bread but only five loaves and two fishes, he commanded the people to sit down, their number being five thousand not including the children and the women. We set pieces of bread before them, and they ate and were filled, and from what remained over we filled twelve baskets full of the fragments, asking one another and saying, “What mean these five loaves?” They are the symbol of our faith in the Lord of the Christians (in the great Christendom), even in the Father, the Lord Almighty, and in Jesus Christ our Redeemer, in the Holy Spirit the Comforter, in the holy Church, and in the remission of sins. (295)
15. But you commemorate my death. Now when the Pasch comes, one of you will be cast into prison for my Name’s sake; and he will be in grief and sorrow because you keep the Pasch while he is in prison and separated from you. […] And I will send my power in the form of my angel Gabriel, and the doors of the prison shall be opened. And he shall come forth and come unto you and keep the night watch with you until the cock crows. And when you have accomplished the memorial which is made of me, and the agape, he shall again be cast into prison, for a testimony, until he shall come out of there and preach what I have delivered to you. And we said to him: “Lord, is it then needful that we should again take the cup and drink?” He said to us: “Yes, it is needful until the day when I come again with them that have been put to death for my sake.” (296)
27. For unto that end I went down to the place of Lazarus and preached to the righteous and the prophets, that they might come out of the rest which is below and come up into that which is above; and I poured out upon them with my right hand the water of the life and forgiveness and salvation from all evil as I have done to you and to them that believe in me. But if anyone believes in me and does not obey my commandments, although having confessed my name, he or she has no profit from this but runs a vain race; for such will find themselves in perdition and destruction because they have despised my commandments. (297)
The apocryphal Acts of John, written no later than the early third century, purports to be an account of Saint John’s missionary travels in Asia Minor. Perhaps originating from the area of Ephesus, the work, originally in Greek and evidencing certain Docetist tendencies, has come down to us in various incomplete manuscripts.
Altaner (1961) 76–77 * Altaner (1966) 137–38 * Bardenhewer (1913) 1:437–42 * Bardenhewer (1908) 105–6 * Bardenhewer (1910) 84–85 * Cross 79–80 * Goodspeed 70–73 * Quasten 1:135–37 * Steidle 280 * Tixeront 70–71 * CATH 6:411 * DCB 1:29 * DTC 1.1:354–57 * EEChr 1:12 * NCE 2:411 * ODCC 881
H. Lietzmann, Messe und Herrenmahl (Bonn, 1926) 240–43. * E. Freistedt, Altchristliche Totengedächtnistage und ihre Beziehungen zum Jenseitsglauben und Totenkultus der Antike, LQF 24 (Münster, 1928). * P. Batiffol, “L’Eucharistie” in La présence réelle et la transubstantiation, 9th ed. (Paris, 1930) 189–203. * J. Quasten, Monumenta Eucharistica et Liturgica Vetustissima (Bonn, 1935) 339–41. * A.C. Rush, Death and Burial in Christian Antiquity, SCA 1 (Washington, D.C., 1941) 262–64.
72. The next day John, accompanied by Andronicus and the brethren, came to the sepulcher at dawn—it now being the third day after Drusiana’s death—that we might break bread there. […] (298)
85. Having said this, John prayed, took bread, and carried it into the sepulcher to break. He said: “We give glory to your name which converts us from error and from cruel deceit. We give glory to you revealed to us what we have seen. We bear witness to your loving kindness which appears in various ways. We praise your good name, Lord, who pointed out those refuted by you. We give thanks to you, Lord Jesus Christ, because we believe that your grace is unchanging. We give thanks to you who had need of our nature that should be saved. We give thanks to you who has given us this sure faith, for you alone are God, both now and ever. We your servants give you thanks, O Holy One, for we have assembled according to your command and are gathered out of the world.” (299)
86. Having thus prayed and having glorified God, he went out of the sepulcher after imparting to all the brethren the Eucharist of the Lord. […] (300)
94. Before he was taken by the lawless Jews, who also were governed by the lawless serpent, he gathered all of us together and said: “Before I am handed over to them, let us sing a hymn to the Father, and so may we go forth to what lies before us.” He told us, therefore, to form as it were a ring, holding one another’s hands; he stood in the midst of them and said, “Answer Amen to me.” He began, then, to sing a hymn and to say: (301)
Glory be to you, Father.
And we, going about in a ring, answered him: Amen.
Glory be to you, Word. Glory be to you, Grace. Amen.
Glory be to you, Spirit. Glory be to you, Holy One.
Glory be to your glory. Amen.
We praise you, O Father, we give thanks to you, O Light,
wherein darkness does not dwell. Amen. […]
109. And he [John] asked for bread and gave thanks as follows: “What praise or what offering or what thanksgiving shall we, breaking this bread, name other than you only, Lord Jesus? We glorify your name which was spoken by the Father; we glorify your name which was spoken through the Son; we glorify you entering through the Door. We glorify the Resurrection which you showed us. We glorify your way, we glorify your seed, your word, your grace, your faithfulness, your salt, your unspeakable treasure, your plough, your net, your greatness, your diadem; for us you were called the Son of Man, who gave us truth, rest, knowledge, power, the commandments, confidence, hope, love, liberty, refuge in you. You, Lord, are alone the root of immortality, the font of eternity, and the seat of the ages. Called by all these names for our sake who now call upon you by them, may we make known your greatness which now is invisible to us but can be seen only by the pure, being portrayed in your manhood only.” (302)
110. He broke the bread and gave it to all of us, praying over each of the brethren that he might be worthy of the grace of the Lord and of the most holy Eucharist. He himself likewise partook and said, “May I also share a portion with you,” and “Peace be with you, my beloved.” (303)
In his On Baptism (WEC 1:26-E) Tertullian speaks unfavorably about a presbyter in Asia Minor who was deposed from his office for writing a certain Acts of Paul, which relates the story of a woman named Thecla, a disciple of Paul, who baptized herself. And so the Acts of Paul, certainly a piece of romantic fiction, originates before the year 190. The content and extent of the Acts only became known in 1904 when a fragment of a Coptic translation in the library of the University of Heidelberg was published.
The work contains three independent treatises: (1) The Acts of Paul and Thecla (from which the passages given below are taken), (2) The Correspondence of Paul with the Corinthians, and (3) the Martyrdom of Paul.
Altaner (1961) 73–74 * Altaner (1966) 136–37 * Bardenhewer (1908) 100–101 * Bardenhewer (1910) 80–81 * Bardenhewer (1913) 1:418–24 * Goodspeed 65–70 * Quasten 1:130–33 * Tixeront 72–73 * CATH 1:702 * DCB 1:29 * DTC 1.1:361–62 * EEChr 1:12–13 * LTK 7:1510–11 * NCE 2:410 * ODCC 1238
[…] Then they sent in many beasts, while Thecla stood and stretched out her hands and prayed. When she had finished her prayer, she turned and saw a great pit full of water, and said, “Now is the time for me to wash.” And she threw herself in, saying, “In the name of Jesus Christ I baptize myself on the last day.” […] (304)
[…] But as Paul went in, the guards, being asleep, he broke bread and brought water, gave her to drink of the word and dismissed her to her husband Hieronymus. But he himself prayed. (305)
[…] And immediately, when the Spirit that was in Myrta was at peace, each one took of the bread and feasted according to custom […] amid the singing of psalms of David and of hymns. And Paul too enjoyed himself. […] (306)
But Paul could not be sorrowful because of Pentecost, this being a kind of festival for those who believe in Christ, both catechumens as well as believers; there was great joy and abundance of love, with psalms and praises to Christ, to the confirmation of those who heard. […] (307)
This apocryphal work, originally in Greek, was written toward the end of the second century, probably in Asia Minor.
Altaner (1961) 74–75 * Altaner (1966) 134 * Bardenhewer (1908) 98–100 * Bardenhewer (1910) 79–80 * Bardenhewer (1913) 1:414–18 * Cross 81 * Goodspeed 73–78 * Steidle 279 * Tixeront 69 * CATH 4:702 * DCB 1:29 * DTC 1.1:360–61 * EEChr 1:13 * LTK 8:99 * NCE 2:410 * ODCC 1261
II. They brought Paul bread and water for the sacrifice so that he might pray and distribute it to every one. Among those present was a lady named Rufina who also desired to receive the Eucharist from Paul. As she approached Paul, who was filled with the spirit of God, he said, “Rising from the side of one who is not your husband but an adulterer, you, attempting to receive the Eucharist of God, do not worthily approach the altar of God.” […] (308)
Very little is known of the life of Melito, bishop of Sardis in Lydia. Writing ca. 190 to Pope Victor (189–99), Polycrates of Ephesus refers to Melito as a “eunuch who lived entirely in the Holy Spirit, who lies in Sardis, waiting for the visitation from heaven when he will rise from the dead” (Eusebius, Church History, V.XXIV.5). Furthermore, according to Polycrates, Melito ranks among the “great luminaries” of Asia.
A list of Melito’s writings has come down to us through Eusebius (WEC 2:81), yet the vast majority of these works exist only in fragments or have been entirely lost. But a fourth-century papyrus text of a Homily on the Passion, or the Pasch, was discovered and published in 1936 by Campbell Bonner; other manuscripts containing the text have since been located.
CPG 1: nos. 1092ff. * Altaner (1961) 133–35 * Altaner (1966) 88–89 * Bardenhewer (1908) 62–63 * Bardenhewer (1910) 105–6 * Bardenhewer (1913) 1:547–57 * Bautz 5:1219–23 * Cross 103–9 * Goodspeed 112–15 * Hamell 42 * Jurgens 1:81 * Quasten 1:242–48 * Steidle 32 * Tixeront 82 * CATH 8:1126–29 * CE 10:166–67 * DCB 3:894–900 * DictSp 10:979–90 * DPAC 2:2207–9 * DTC 10.1:540–47 * EC 8:645–46 * EEC 1:551 * EEChr 2:745–46 * LTK 7:86–87 * NCE 9:631–32 * NCES 9:477–78 * ODCC 1068 * PEA (1894) 15.1:553–54 * PEA (1991) 7:1192–93 * TRE 22:424–28
C. Bonner, “The Homily on the Passion by Melito Bishop of Sardis,” Annuaire de l’Institut de philologie et d’histoire orientales et slaves 4 (1936) 108–19. * C. Bonner, “The Homily on the Passion by Melito, Bishop of Sardis,” in Mélanges F. Cumont, vol. 1 (Brussels, 1936) 107–19. * C. Bonner, “The New Homily of Melito and Its Place in Christian Literature,” Actes du Ve Congrès international de papyrologie (Oxford, 1937) 94–97. * C. Bonner, “Two Problems in Melito’s Homily on the Passion,” HThR 31 (1938) 175–90. * G. Zuntz, “On the Opening Sentence of Melito’s Paschal Homily,” HThR 36 (1943) 290–315. * E.J. Wellesz, “Melito’s Homily on the Passion: An Investigation into the Sources of Byzantine Hymnography,” JThSt 44 (1943) 41–52. * H.H. Straton, “Melito of Sardis, Preacher Extraordinary,” AThR 29 (1947) 167–70. * A. Wifstrand, “The Homily of Melito on the Passion,” VC 2 (1948) 201–23. * C. Bonner, “The Text of Melito’s Homily,” VC 3 (1949) 184–85. * P. Nautin, “L’homélie de ‘Méliton’ sur la Passion,” RHE 44 (1949) 429–38. * R.M. Grant, “Melito of Sardis on Baptism,” VC 4 (1950) 33–36. * P. Nautin, Le dossier d’Hippolyte et de Méliton dans les florilèges dogmatiques et chez les historiens modernes, Patristica 1 (Paris, 1953). * O. Perler, Ein Hymnus zur Ostervigil von Méliton? (Papyrus Bodmer XII), Paradosis 15 (Fribourg i. S., 1960). * S.G. Hall, “Melito in the Light of the Passover Haggadah,” JThSt, n.s., 22 (1971) 29–46. * G.F. Hawthorne, “Christian Baptism and the Contribution of Melito of Sardis,” in D.E. Aune, ed., Studies in the New Testament and Early Christian Literature: Essays in Honor of Allen P. Wikgren (Leiden, 1972) 241–51. * S.G. Hall, ed., Melito of Sardis: On Pascha and Fragments (Oxford, 1979). * A. Hansen, The “Sitz in Leben” of the Paschal Homily of Melito of Sardis with Special Reference to the Paschal Festival in Early Christianity, diss. (Ann Arbor, 1981). * F. Trisoglio, “Dalla Pasqua ebraica a quella cristiana in Melitone di Sardi,” Aug 28 (1988) 151–85. * L. Cohick, “Melito of Sardis’ ‘Peri Pascha’ and Its ‘Israel,’” HThR 91 (1998) 351–72. * A. Stewart-Sykes, The Lamb’s High Feast: Melito, Peri Pascha, and the Quartodeciman Paschal Liturgy at Sardis, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 42 (Boston, 1998). * L. Cohick, The Peri Pascha Attributed to Melito of Sardis: Setting, Purpose, and Sources, Brown Judaic Studies 327 (Providence, RI, 2000).
Melito—being a Quartodeciman, namely, one of those Asiatic Christians who observed the Christian Pasch on the same day as the Jews observed the Passover—no doubt preached the following homily on this day. There is no explicit mention of baptism. Melito, comparing the two Testaments, presents the Exodus and the paschal meal as types or figures of Christ’s redemptive work.
1. The text of Scripture on the Hebrew Exodus1 has been read, and the words of the mystery have just been explained: how the sheep was sacrificed and how the people were saved.2 (309)
2. Understand, then, dearly beloved, that the mystery of the Pasch is both new and old,3 eternal and temporary,4 corruptible and incorruptible,5 mortal and immortal. (310)
3. According to the Law it is old,6 but according to the Logos it is new; in its figure it is temporary, in its grace, eternal;7 corruptible in the sacrifice of the lamb, incorruptible in the life of the Lord;8 mortal by burial in the earth, immortal is his resurrection from among the dead. (311)
4. Old is the Law, but new is the Logos; the type is temporary, grace is eternal; corruptible is the lamb, incorruptible is the Lord; sacrificed as a lamb, resurrected as God. For “like a sheep he was led away to slaughter,”9 yet he was not a sheep; like a lamb without a voice;10 yet he was not a lamb. The figure has passed away, and the truth has been found. (312)
5. Replacing the lamb is God who has come,11 replacing the sheep is a man, and the man is Christ who contains all things.12 (313)
6. Certainly the sacrifice of the sheep, the observance of the Pasch, and the writing of the Law have been fulfilled in Christ Jesus,13 in view of all that occurred in the old Law and even more in the new order.14 (314)
7. For the Law has become the Logos,15 the old becomes new16—both coming from Sion and Jerusalem17—the commandment is grace, the type is truth,18 the lamb is the Son,19 the sheep is a man, and the man is God.20 (315)
8. Born as a Son,21 led forth as a lamb, sacrificed as a sheep,22 and buried as a man,23 like God he rose again from among the dead, by nature being God and man. (316)
9. He is all things:24 the law in that he judges, the Logos in that he teaches,25 grace in that he saves,26 father in that he begets, Son in that he is begotten,27 sheep in that he suffers,28 man in that he is buried, God in that he rises. (317)
10. This is Jesus Christ: “to him be glory forever and ever.”29 (318)
11. This is the mystery of the Pasch as described in the Law, as just read. (319)
The Exodus account
I wish to explain in detail the words of Scripture:30 how God gave orders to Moses in Egypt when he, on the one hand, wanted to subject the Pharaoh to slavery, and when, on the other hand, he wanted to deliver Israel from slavery through the hand of Moses. (320)
12.”Behold, he says, you will take a lamb without flaw or blemish, and toward evening you will sacrifice it” with the children of Israel,31 and at night you will eat in haste32 and you will not break any of its bones.33 (321)
13. You will do this, as is written:34 in one and the same night you will eat it, by families and tribes,35 your loins gird, your staff in hand.36 This is the Pasch of the Lord,37an eternal memorial for the children of Israel.38 (322)
14. Take some blood from the sheep, and then anoint the doorposts of your houses, by placing on them the sign of blood in order to ward off the angel.39 For behold I will strike Egypt and in a single night Egypt will be left without offspring, both human and of animals.40 (323)
15. Then Moses, having slaughtered the sheep41 and with the children of Israel having accomplished at night the mystery, marked the doors of the houses to protect the people and to ward off the angel. (324)
Egypt’s misfortune
16. Once the sheep was slaughtered42 and the Pasch was eaten,43 once the mystery was accomplished and the people had rejoiced, and once Israel was marked, then the angel began to strike Egypt,44 a country not initiated into the mystery, not participating in the Pasch, not marked with blood, not protected by the Spirit; it was the enemy, the unbeliever. (325)
17. In a single night the angel smote Egypt and left it childless. For the angel, having bypassed Israel and seeing it marked with the blood of the sheep, went against Egypt and overcame the stubborn Pharaoh with grief, clothing him not with mourning garb or a tattered cloak but with all of Egypt in distress, mourning its firstborn. (326)
18. For all Egypt, plunged into pain and calamity, into tears and beating the breast, went to the Pharaoh; it was completely in mourning not only in its appearance but also in its soul; rending not only outward garb but also its nursing breasts. (327)
19. It was a strange sight: on one side were those beating their breasts, on the other side those crying out in sorrow. In the middle sat the grieving Pharaoh on sackcloth and ashes,45 clothed in a deep darkness as in a funeral garment, girded by all of Egypt as by a tunic of grief. (328)
20. For Egypt clothed the Pharaoh like a garment of lamentation. This was the tunic weaved for the body of the tyrant; this was the garment with which the Angel of Justice clothed the merciless Pharaoh: bitter grief, impenetrable darkness,46 and the loss of the children. The angel continued to dominate the firstborn, for swift and insatiable was the death that struck them. (329)
21. A strange trophy could be seen over the dead who had fallen at a single blow.47 And the route of those who fell became the nourishment of Death. (330)
22. If you listen, you will be astonished at this unbelievable misfortune. This is what befell the Egyptians: a long night and an impenetrable darkness,48 a groping death, a destroying angel,49 and a hell consuming50 their firstborn. (331)
23. But who was more unheard of and terrible you still have to learn. In deep darkness insatiable Death was hiding; and the unfortunate Egyptians were groping in this darkness. But on the order of the angel, death, ever watchful, seized the firstborn of the Egyptians. (332)
24. If anyone, then, was groping the darkness, he was led away to Death. If a firstborn griped with his hands a dark body, he uttered from his frightened soul a mournful and terrible cry:51 “Whom does my hand touch? Whom does my soul fear? What darkness surrounds my entire body? If my father, help me! If my mother, help me! If my mother, have pity on me! If my brother, speak to me! If my friend, be kind to me! If my enemy, depart from me! For I am a firstborn.” (333)
25. But before the firstborn could be silenced, the great Silence grasped him and said: “You are my firstborn. It is I, the Silence of death, who are meant for you.” (334)
26. Another firstborn, noticing the seizure of others who were firstborn, denied his own identity to avoid dying a cruel death. “I am not a firstborn. I am the third offspring.” But death, incapable of being deceived, seized the firstborn who, head forward, fell silently. In one blow the firstborn of the Egyptians perished.52 The first to be begotten, the first to be born, the one who was desired, the one who was cherished, was struck down: not only the firstborn of humans but also those of dumb animals. (335)
27. Heard throughout the plains of the country was the bellowing of animals grieving over those they nourished: the heifer for its calf, the mare for its colt, and the other beasts who brought forth; bitterly and pitifully they grieved over their firstborn. (336)
28. There was lamentation and the striking of the breast at the destruction, at the death, of the firstborn. All Egypt gave off the odor of unburied corpses.53 (337)
29. The sight was terrible: Egyptian mothers with dishevelled hair, distraught fathers screaming in Egyptian, “How wretched are we! At a single blow we have been deprived of our firstborn infants.”54 Striking their breasts, they clapped their hands to the dance of death. (338)
30. This was the unhappiness that afflicted Egypt, a land instantly deprived of its infants. (339)
Israel protected by the blood of the lamb:
a prefigure of the blood of the Lord
Israel, however, was protected by the slaying of the sheep55 and was given light by the blood that was shed;56 the death of the sheep was like a rampart for the people. (340)
31. O strange and inexplicable mystery! The slaying of the sheep was the salvation of Israel, the death of the sheep became the life of the people; and the blood warded off the angel. (341)
32. Tell me, O angel, what held you off? The slaying of the sheep or the life of the Lord? The death of the sheep or the figure of the Lord? The blood of the sheep or the Spirit of the Lord? (342)
33. Clearly you were kept away because you saw the mystery of the Lord being realized in the sheep, the life of the Lord in the slaying of the sheep, the figure of the Lord in the death of the sheep. This is why you refrained from striking Israel, but only Egypt did you deprive of its infants. (343)
34. What is this unexpected mystery? Egypt stricken for its loss? Israel protected for its salvation?57 Listen to the meaning of the mystery. (344)
Figure and model
35. Dearly beloved, what has been said and what has happened is nothing if it is separated from the symbolic meaning and from the plan that has been sketched beforehand. Everything done and everything said participate in the symbol—words in their symbolic meaning, the event in the prefiguring—so that just as the event is made known by its figure so also words are clarified by their symbol. (345)
36. If something is to be built, there must be a model by which we can see what will be built. For this reason we construct a model out of wax, clay, or wood: namely, that what will be constructed—taller in height, stronger in resistance, beautiful in form, and rich in construction—may be seen through a small and perishable sketch. (346)
37. But when is realized that to which the figure was destined, then is destroyed what formerly bore the image of the future. Now it is useless because it ceded its image to what exists in truth. What was formerly precious becomes worthless when what is truly precious appears. (347)
38. Everything has its proper time:58 the model has its proper time, the material has its proper time. You construct the model of the work. You desire this because in it you see the image of what will come.59 You furnish materials for the model. You desire this because of what will arise because of it. You complete the work; that alone you desire, that alone you love, for in it alone you see the model and the material and the reality. (348)
Figures of the Old Testament fulfilled in the New Testament
39. What is true for corruptible things is surely true for incorruptible things. What is true for earthly things, is surely true for heavenly things.60 The salvation given by the Lord and truth have been prefigured in the people of Israel; the prescriptions of the Gospel have been proclaimed beforehand by the Law. (349)
40. The people, then, were like the sketch of a plan, and the Law like the drawing of a parable; the Gospel is the explanation and fulfillment of the Law,61 and the Church is the reservoir of reality. (350)
41. The model, then, was precious before the reality, and the parable was wonderful before its interpretation. In other words, the people were honored before the Church was built, and the Law was admirable before the Gospel was revealed.62 (351)
42. But once the Church was established and before the Gospel was preached, the model became useless, yielding its power to the reality; and the Law came to an end, transferring its power to the Gospel.63 Just as the figure became useless when it transferred its image to what truly exists, and just as the parable became useless when it was clarified by its interpretation, (352)
43. So also was the Law fulfilled when the Gospel was revealed,64 and the people of Israel lost their identity when the Church was established, and the model was abolished when the Lord was revealed.65 And today what formerly was precious has become worthless after what is precious by nature was revealed. (353)
44. Formerly the slaying of a sheep was precious; now it is worthless because of the life of the Lord. The death of a sheep was precious; now it is worthless because of the salvation of the Lord. The blood of a sheep was precious; now it is worthless because of the Spirit of the Lord. The silent lamb was precious;66 now it is worthless because of the blameless Son.67 The temple here below was precious; now it is worthless because of Christ on high.68 (354)
45. Jerusalem here below was precious; now it is worthless because of Jerusalem on high.69 The small inheritance was precious;70 now it is worthless because of abundant grace.71 For it is not in one place nor in a small area72 that God’s glory has been established, but divine grace has been poured out to the ends of the earth,73 and there the omnipotent God has pitched his tent74 through Jesus Christ “to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”75 (355)
The structure of salvation
46. You have heard the explanation of the figure and what corresponds to it. Listen also to the structure of the mystery. What is the Pasch? The name comes from what happened: from pathein [to suffer] comes paschein [to suffer or: to celebrate the Passion = Pascha]. Learn, then, who it is who suffers and who shares in the pain of the one who suffers,76 and why the (356)
47. Lord came to earth: so that, clothing himself with the suffering one,77 he carries this person off to the highest heavens. (357)
The sin of humankind
It was through the Word78 that “God in the beginning created heaven and earth”79 and all that is in them. He made humankind from the earth and breathed life into them.80 Then he placed humankind in Paradise, toward the east, in Eden,81 in order to live there in happiness. As a law, God commanded, “From every tree of Paradise you may eat for nourishment, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not eat; on the day you do you will die.”82 (358)
48. But just as humankind, like a lump of earth capable of receiving two kinds of seeds,83 was by nature disposed to receive good and evil, so hostile and greedy advice was received; touching the tree, he broke the commandment, disobeyed God, and was then thrown into this world as if into a prison of the condemned.84 (359)
49. He multiplied, lived a long time,85 returned to the dirt for having eaten from the tree,86 leaving an inheritance to his children. As an inheritance he bequeathed his children not chastity but unchasteness,87 not incorruptibility but corruptibility,88 not honor but dishonor, not freedom but slavery, not royalty but tyranny, not life but death,89 not salvation but perdition. (360)
50. Extraordinary and terrible was the destruction of mortals upon the earth.90 This is what happened to them: they were carried off by tyrannical Sin and led to the waters of passions where they were swamped by insatiable pleasures: by adultery,91 by fornication, by immodesty,92 by evil thoughts, by love of money,93 by murder,94 by the spilling of blood,95 by the tyranny of wickedness, by the tyranny of lawlessness. (361)
51. For the father drew the sword against his son, and the son raised his hand against his father and impiously struck the breasts that fed him; a brother killed brother,96 and the host was unjust to the guest, and friend killed friend, and man slew man, by the right hand of the tyrant. (362)
52. All on earth became guilty of murder, fratricide, patricide, infanticide.97 But something more frightful and strange was found: a mother touched the flesh that she brought into the world; she also touched those being nourished at her breasts; and she killed in her womb the fruit of her womb; and the unhappy mother became a dreadful tomb, having devoured the infant she carried within her.98 (363)
53. Enough! However, one will still find other strange things, things that are more frightful and more shameless: a father coveting the bed of his daughter, a son that of his mother, a brother that of his sister, a man that of another man,99 “each covets his neighbor’s wife.”100 (364)
54. Sin rejoiced at this. Being the collaborator of Death, it first penetrated the souls of mortals and prepared for it like fodder the bodies of the dead.101 Upon every soul sin placed its mark, and those it marked have begun to end their days.102 (365)
55. All flesh, then, fell under the domination of sin,103 and every body under the power of death,104 and every soul was expelled from the house of flesh.105 What had been taken from the earth was reduced to earth,106 and what had been given from God107 was imprisoned in Hades. There was the dissolution of beautiful harmony and the disintegration of a beautiful body. (366)
56. Humankind, divided by Death, was encircled by unhappiness and a strange captivity—like a captive108 having been dragged along under the shadow of Death.109 The image of the Father110 lay abandoned, alone. This is why the mystery of the Pasch was fulfilled in the body of the Lord. (367)
The passion of the Lord, prefigured and announced
57. But the Lord had already preordained his own sufferings in the patriarchs, the prophets, and in all the people, having sealed them through the Law and the prophets.111 If something is to be new and wonderful, it must be prepared in advance; in this way, once it comes into being, it is believable because it has been prefigured for a long time. (368)
58. The same is true for the mystery of the Lord—long prefigured and today made visible. This is believable because it has come to pass, even though deemed extraordinary by mortals. Old and new is the mystery of the Lord: old according to its figure, new according to grace. But if you look at this figure, you will see the truth through the figure’s fulfillment. (369)
59. If you desire that the mystery of the Lord be seen, look at Abel who was likewise slain,112 at Isaac who was also bound,113 at Joseph who was also sold,114 at Moses who was also exposed,115 at David who was also persecuted,116 at the prophets who also suffered because of Christ.117 (370)
60. Look also at the sheep that was slain in Egypt, at him who struck Egypt and who through blood saved Israel.118 (371)
61. Furthermore, it is always through the voice of the prophets that the mystery of the Lord is announced. Moses said to the prophets, “And you see your life suspended before you, night and day, and you will certainly not believe in your Life.”119 (372)
62. And David, “Why do the nations rage? Why do the people plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the princes gather against the Lord and against his Anointed.”120 (373)
63. And Jeremiah, “I am like an innocent lamb led to slaughter. They devised schemes against me, saying: ‘Come, let us cast wood on his bread and cut him off from the land of the living, and certainly his name will be remembered no longer.’”121 (374)
64. And Isaiah: “Like a sheep he was led to slaughter and like a lamb that is silent before its shearers, he did not open his mouth. Who will tell his generation?”122 (375)
65. Numerous other things were announced by many of the prophets about the mystery of the Pasch which is Christ: “to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”123 (376)
The figure fulfilled
66. He is coming out of heaven124 to earth in order to suffer; he clothed himself with this by the womb of a virgin125 from whom he came forth as a man. With a body capable of suffering he took upon himself the suffering of one who suffered;126 he destroyed the sufferings of the flesh and by his own spirit killed the death that destroys life. (377)
67. He was led like a lamb and slaughtered like a sheep.127 He freed us from slavery to the world128 as he freed us from the land of Egypt. He delivered us from the bonds of slavery to the devil129 as he delivered us from the hand of the Pharaoh. He sealed our souls with his own Spirit130 and the members of our body with his own blood. (378)
68. He covered death with shame and sent the devil into mourning as Moses did to the Pharaoh. He smote iniquity131 and deprived the children of injustice, as Moses did to Egypt. He delivered us from slavery into freedom,132 from darkness into light,133 from death into life,134 from tyranny into an eternal kingdom.135 He made us a new priesthood and a chosen people forever.136 (379)
69. He is the Pasch that is our salvation.137 He suffered much in many [who came before him]. He was killed in Abel,138 bound in Isaac,139 exiled in Jacob,140 sold in Joseph,141 exposed in Moses,142 sacrificed in the lamb,143 persecuted in David,144 dishonored in the prophets.145 (380)
70. He became incarnate in a virgin,146 hung on a cross,147 buried in the earth,148 raised from the dead,149 and lifted up toward the highest heavens.150 (381)
71. He is the silent lamb,151 the lamb that was slaughtered,152 the lamb born of Mary,153 the fair ewe; he was taken from the flock,154 dragged off to be slaughtered,155 slain during the evening156 and buried at night. No bone of his was broken;157 his body in the earth knew no corruption;158 he rose from the dead159 and raised up humankind from the depths of the tomb.160 (382)
72. He was put to death. And where? In the middle of Jerusalem. Why? Because he cured its lame, cleansed its lepers, restored sight to its blind, and raised up its dead.161 This is why he suffered. It is written somewhere in the Law and in the prophets: “They have returned evil for good, and my soul is forlorn.162 They plot evil against me, saying, ‘Let us bind the Just One, for he confounds us.’”163 (383)
Reproaches addressed to Israel: the unspeakable crime
73. O Israel, why have you committed this new crime? You dishonored him who honored you. You despised him who valued you.164 You denied him who confessed you. You repudiated him who proclaimed you.165 You killed him who gave you life.166 What have you done, O Israel? (384)
74. Has it not been written for you, “You will not shed innocent blood lest you die miserably”?167 “I have,” says Israel, “killed the Savior.” Why? “Because he had to suffer.”168 You are in error, O Israel, in such quibbling in regard to the murder of the Lord. (385)
75. He had to suffer, but not by you. He had to be dishonored, but not by you.169 He had to be judged, but not by you. He had to be hung on a cross, but not by your right hand. (386)
76. These, O Israel, are the words that you should have uttered to God: “O Master, if your Son had to suffer and if this was your will, may he suffer but not by me;170 may he suffer by people of another race, may he be judged by the uncircumcised, may he be nailed [to the cross] by a tyrannical hand,171 but no, not by me.” (387)
77. But you, O Israel, you did not utter these words to God. You have not purified yourself before your Master; you have not (388)
78. been intimidated by his works; neither by the withered hand restored healthy to the body;172 nor by the eyes of the blind opened by his hand;173 nor by the paralyzed bodies made sound by his voice;174 nor by the most wonderful miracle of a man already dead for four days and raised from the tomb.175 You, on the contrary, have scorned all this. At the time of the Lord’s immolation, toward evening, you prepared for him (389)
79. sharp nails176 and false witnesses, ropes and whips, vinegar and gall, the sword and afflictions, as for a bloody brigand.177 Lashing lashed his body178 and placing thorns on his head,179 you even bound his good hands180 which formed you from the earth,181 and you gave him gall to drink, he who nourished you with life;182 and you put to death the Savior on the day of the Great Feast. (390)
80. And you were enjoying yourself;183 he, on the other hand, was hungry; you were drinking wine and eating bread, he had vinegar and gall;184 your face was radiant, his was somber; you were rejoicing, he was afflicted; you were singing psalms, he was condemned; you were beating time, he was being nailed;185 you were dancing, he was being buried; you were reclining on a soft couch,186 he was in a tomb and coffin. (391)
Israel’s injustices and ingratitude
81. O criminal Israel, why have you committed this unspeakable injustice187 of hastening your Savior into unmentionable sufferings, your Master, who formed you, who created you, who honored you, who named you “Israel”?188 (392)
82. But you have not been found to be “Israel,” for you have not seen God;189 you have not recognized the Lord; you have not known, O Israel, that it is he, the Firstborn of God,190 who was begotten before the morning star,191 who made light to rise, who made the day to shine, who separated the darkness,192 who established the first boundary, who suspended the earth,193 who dried up the abyss,194 who spread out the firmament,195 who brought order to the world,196 (393)
83. who arranged the stars in the heaven, who had the luminaries shine,197 who created the angels in heaven, who placed there the thrones,198 who made for himself mortals on earth.199 It was he who chose you,200 who guided you from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, from Abraham to Isaac and Jacob and to the twelve patriarchs.201 (394)
84. He led you to Egypt202 and protected you; with great care he nourished you.203 He gave you light by a column of fire and covered you with a cloud.204 He divided the Red Sea205 and led you through it206 and scattered your enemy.207 (395)
85. He gave you manna from heaven;208 he gave you drink from the rock;209 he gave you the Law on Horeb;210 he gave your descendants the Promised Land;211 he sent you the prophets,212 who raised up your kings.213 (396)
86. He came to you, he who cured your suffering ones and who raised up those among you who were dead. It is against him that you act sacrilegiously, against him that you commit injustice. It is he whom you sent to death. It is he whom you sold for a piece of silver214 after having put a price of two drachmas on his head.215 (397)
Against ungrateful Israel
87. O ungrateful Israel, come, be judged before me for your ingratitude. What value have you placed on being guided by him? On the election of your fathers?216 On the descent into Egypt? And on being fed there by good Joseph?217 (398)
88. What value did you place on the ten plagues?218 On the column of fire during the night? On the cloud during the day?219 On the passage through the Red Sea?220 What value did you place on the gift of manna from heaven?221 On the distribution of water from the rock?222 On the giving of the Law on Horeb?223 On the inheritance which is the Promised Land?224 On the blessings you have received? (399)
89. What value have you placed on those who suffer? On those whom he cured when he was present? Value for me, then, the withered hand, which he restored to the body!225 (400)
90. Value those born blind to whom he gave light by his word!226 Value, then, the dead who were buried,227 whom he raised from the tomb after three, four days! Priceless are the gifts he gave you. And you, far from honoring him, have only shown him ingratitude in return; you have given him evil for good,228 suffering for joy, and death for life, (401)
91. him for whom you should die. (402)
The pagans treated him better
Should a pagan king be taken captive by his enemies, war is waged on his behalf, a rampart is scaled, a city is destroyed, ransoms are sent, messengers are dispatched, so that he be recovered, that his life be restored, or that he, if dead, receive a burial.
92. You, on the other hand, have voted against your Savior.229 In fact, he, before whom the nations bowed,230 whom the uncircumcised admired, whom foreigners glorified,231 for whom even Pilate washed his hands,232 it is he whom you sent to death during the Great Festival. (403)
The bitter herbs: a figure of Israel’s punishment
93. This is why the Feast of the Unleavened Bread is bitter for you, as has been written for you, “You will eat unleavened bread with bitter herbs.”233 Bitter for you the nails you sharpened,234 the tongue you whetted,235 the false witnesses you presented,236 the bonds you prepared,237 the whips you wove,238 Judas whom you paid.239 Herod whom you obeyed,240 Caiaphas whom you trusted,241 the gall you prepared,242 the vinegar you cultivated,243 the thorns you gathered,244 the hand you made bloody. You sent your Savior to death in the middle of Jerusalem. (404)
Invitation to the pagans
94. Listen, all families of the nations,245 and see: an unspeakable murder has taken place in the middle of Jerusalem, in the city of the Law, in the city of the Hebrews, in the city of the prophets, in the city believed to be just. And who has been slain? I blush to say this, and yet I have to speak. If the murder had occurred during the night, or if it had taken place in an uninhabited area, it would be easy to remain silent; but now in the middle of the street or the city,246 yes, in the middle of the city—with all looking on—the unjust murder of the Just One was committed.247 (405)
95. And so he was raised upon a cross, and an inscription was added,248 indicating him who was slain.249 Who is this person? It is hard to say; yet not to say is still more dreadful. But listen while trembling before him on whose account the earth trembled.250 (406)
96. He who suspended the earth is himself suspended,251 he who fixed the heavens is himself fixed [upon the cross];252 he who strengthened everything is held upon the cross; he who is the Master is insulted;253 he who is the king of Israel is removed254 by the hand of Israel. (407)
97. O unheard-of murder! O unheard-of injustice! The appearance of the Master has been changed, his body stripped naked;255 he was not even considered worthy of a garment so that he not be seen.256 This is why the luminaries turned away, and with them the day became dark257 so as to conceal the naked one upon the cross, thus obscuring not the Lord’s body but human eyes. (408)
98. And when the people were not trembling, the earth trembled;258 when the people were not seized with fright, the heavens were frightened; when the people did not tear apart their garments, the angel did so;259 when the people were not lamenting, it was the “Lord who thundered from heaven and the Most High who spoke.”260 (409)
The destruction of Israel
99. O Israel, this is why you did not tremble in the presence of the Lord, you were not seized with fear in the presence of the Lord, you did not lament in the presence of the Lord, you did not utter cries of sorrow for your firstborn; you did not tear your garments when the Lord was hung, so you tore them for those of your own who were slain. You abandoned the Lord; you were not found by him.261 You crushed the Lord; you were crushed down by the earth. You lie dead; (410)
100. He rose from among the dead262 and ascended into heaven above.263 (411)
The triumph of Christ
Being Lord, he assumed human nature, he suffered for those who suffer,264 he was bound for those in bonds, he was judged for the guilty,265 he was buried for those who are entombed. (412)
101. He rose from among the dead and cries out to you,a “Who will judge me?266 Let him face me! I freed the condemned; I gave life to the dead;267 I raised up him who was buried.268 (413)
102. “Who speaks in opposition to me?” “I,” he says, “am the Christ,269 I who have destroyed death,270 triumphed over the enemy,271 trampled hell underfoot,272 bound the strong,273 and carried off mortals to the heights of heaven.” “It is I,” he says, “the Christ.”274 (414)
Call to receive the forgiveness of sins
103. “Come, then, all families of men275 steeped with sins, and receive the forgiveness of sins.276 For I am your forgiveness;277 I am the Pasch of salvation;278 I am the lamb that was immolated for you;279 I am your ransom;280 I am your life;281 I am your resurrection;282 I am your light;283 I am your salvation;284 I am your king;285 I lead you to the heights of heaven;286 I will raise you up;287 I will show you the eternal Father;288 I will raise you up with my right hand.” (415)
Final apotheosis
104. This is he who made heaven and earth,289 who in the beginning formed the human race,290 who was announced by the Law and the prophets,291 who was incarnate in a virgin,292 who hung upon a cross,293 who was buried in the earth,294 who was raised from among the dead,295 who ascended to the highest heavens,296 who is seated at the right hand of the Father,297 who has the power to judge and to save all;298 through him the Father created everything299 from the beginning and for the ages. (416)
105. He is the “alpha and omega”;300 he is the “beginning and the end,”301—the inexplicable beginning and the incomprehensible end—, “he is the Christ”;302 he is the King;303 he is Jesus;304 he is the Strategus;b he is the Lord;305 he was raised from among the dead;306 he is seated at the right hand of the Father.307 He bears the Father and is borne by the Father;308 “to him be glory and power forever. Amen.”309 (417)
Melito: On the Paschc
Peace to the writer and to the reader and to those who love the Lord with simplicity of heart.310 (418)
Little is known of the life of Aristides. But in 1878 an Armenian fragment of an Apology attributed to him was published at Venice. Then in 1889 a Syriac manuscript of the whole work was discovered on Mount Sinai. This in turn led to the discovery of the work’s original Greek found in the religious novel Lives of Barlaam and Josaphat, which appear among the writings of John of Damascus (ca. 655–ca. 750). The treatise has two sections: the first (chapters I–XIV) treats the false teaching of the Barbarians, Greeks, and Jews; the second (chapters XV–XVII) gives the true teaching of the Christians, the standard by which all other religious doctrines are to be judged. In many ways the work resembles the Letter to Diognetus (WEC 1:34).
CPG 1: nos. 1062–67 * Altaner (1961) 118–19 * Altaner (1966) 64–65 * Bardenhewer (1913) 1:171–86 * Bardenhewer (1908) 46–48 * Bardenhewer (1910) 36–38 * Bautz 1:212–13 * Cross 45–47 * Goodspeed 97–99 * Hamell 37 * Jurgens 1:48–49 * Quasten 1:191–95 * Tixeront 34–35 * CATH 1:822 * CE 1:712–13 * CHECL 37–38 * DCB 1:160 * DHGE 4:187–91 * DPAC 1:346–47 * DTC 1.2:1864–67 * EC 1:1907–8 * EEC 1:72–73 * EEChr 1:111–12 * LTK 1:973 * NCE 1:798 * NCES 1:666–67 * ODCC 101 * PEA (1991) 1:1100 * RACh 1:652–54
G.C. O’Ceallaigh, “Marcianus Aristides, on the Worship of God,” HThR 51 (1958) 227–54.
XV. Christians […] give thanks to God every hour, doing so for all meat and drink and other blessings. […] If there are any among them who are poor and needy, and if they have no spare food, they fast two or three days in order to supply to the needy their lack of food. They observe the precepts of their Messiah with much care, living justly and soberly as the Lord their God commanded them. Every morning and every hour they give thanks and praise to God for his loving kindness toward them; and for their food and their drink they offer thanksgiving to him. And if any righteous person among them passes from the world, they rejoice and offer thanks to God, and they escort the body as if the deceased were setting out from one place to another near-by. And when a child has been born to one of them, they give thanks to God.a And if moreover it happens to die in childhood, they give thanks to God the more, as for one who has passed through the world without sin. And further if they see any one of them dies in ungodliness or in one’s sins, for such they grieve bitterly and sorrow as for one who goes to meet his or her doom. (419)
Converted to Christianity as an adult, Theophilus was, according to Eusebius (Church History, IV.XX), the sixth bishop of Antioch and is considered among the early Christian apologists. Few details are known of his life. He died between 185 and 191.
CPG 1: nos. 1107ff. * Altaner (1961) 131–33 * Altaner (1966) 75–77 * Bardenhewer (1908) 65–67 * Bardenhewer (1910) 52–54 * Bardenhewer (1913) 1:278–90 * Bardy (1929) 60–61 * Goodspeed 117–18 * Hamell 43 * Jurgens 1:73–77 * Quasten 1:236–42 * Steidle 32–33 * Tixeront 45–47 * CATH 14:1113–18 * CE 14:625–26 * DCB 4:993–99 * DictSp 15:530–42 * DPAC 2:3405–6 * DTC 15.1:530–36 * EC 11:1952–53 * EEC 2:831–32 * EEChr 2:1122 * LTK 9:1472 * NCE 14:72 * NCES 13:932–33 * ODCC 1606 * PEA (1894) 5.2 (n.s.) 2149
W. Hartke, “Ueber Jahrespunkte und Feste, insbesondere das Weihnachtsfest,” Akademie der Wissenschaft. Sektion für Altertumswissenschaft 6 (Berlin, 1956) 13–17.
This defense of Christianity, written to answer the objections of a certain Autolychus, a heathen friend of Theophilus, is the only writing of Theophilus to have come down to us. In three books the author shows the superiority of the Christian religion over that of the pagans.
I.12. As to your laughing at me and calling me “Christian,” you do not know what you are saying. First, because what is anointed is sweet and useful; it is not to be laughed at. Can any ship be serviceable and seaworthy unless it has first been caulked? What tower or house is beautiful and useful unless it has been anointed? And what person upon entering this life or a gymnasium is not anointed with oil? And what work has either decoration or beauty unless it is anointed and burnished? Also, the air and all that is under heaven is in a certain way anointed by light and spirit. Are you unwilling to be anointed with the oil of God? And so we are called Christians because we are anointed with the oil of God. (420)
The Letter of Barnabas is neither a letter nor the product of Barnabas, the good friend of Paul. More a theological discourse, it has two sections: chapters I–XVII focusing on the Old Testament; chapters XVIII–XXI being of a moral nature and describing, as does the Didache I–VI (WEC 1:178–86), the ways of light and darkness.
The work, originally written in Greek, states nothing about its author nor does it claim apostolic authority. Nonetheless, Clement of Alexandria (WEC 1:44) and Origen (WEC 1:43) both say that the “letter” comes from the hand of Barnabas. Yet the fact that the author has a distinct and evident bias against Judaism and even views the Old Testament as the work of the devil militates against the letter being written by a disciple of Paul, who saw the Old Testament as a cherished and divine institution.
Once commonly believed to have originated from the area of Alexandria, the manuscript’s homeland might be Syria or Asia Minor.
There is great variety as to the document’s date, anywhere from 70–150, with the years 117–32 perhaps being more probable.
CPG 1: no. 1050 * Altaner (1961) 80–82 * Altaner (1966) 53–55 * Bardenhewer (1908) 22–25 * Bardenhewer (1910) 20–23 * Bardenhewer (1913) 1:86–98 * Bardy (1929) 67–68 * Goodspeed 20–22 * Hamell 25–26 * Jurgens 1:13–16 * Quasten 1:85–92 * Steidle 281 * Tixeront 18–19 * CATH 1:1256 * CE 2:299–300 * DCB 1:260–65 * DHGE 6:848 * DictSp 1:1245–47 * DPAC 1:481–84 * DTC 2.1:416–22 * EC 2:865 * EEC 1:111–12 * EEChr 1:167–68 * LTK 2:18 * NCE 2:103 * NCES 2:102 * ODCC 159 * PEA (1894) 3.1:25 * PEA (1991) 2:453 * RACh 1:1207–17 * TRE 5:238–41
K. Thieme, Kirche und Synagoge: die ersten nachbiblischen Zeugnisse ihres Gegensatzes im Offenbarungsverständnis: der Barnabasbrief und der Dialog Justins des Märtyrers, neu bearbeitet und erläutert, Kreuzritterbücherei 3 (Olten, 1945). * E. Ferguson, “Baptism from the Second to the Fourth Century,” ResQ 1 (1957) 185–97. * L.W. Barnard, “The Epistle of Barnabas—A Paschal Homily?” VC 15 (1961) 8–22. * B. Neunheuser, Baptism and Confirmatio (St. Louis, 1964) 60–61. * L.W. Barnard, “The Day of the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ in the Epistle of Barnabas,” RB 78 (1968) 106–7. * G. Saber, “Le baptême dans l’Epitre de Barnabé,” Mel 4, no. 2 (1968) 194–214 [Arabic, French summary]. * K. Wengst, Tradition und Theologie des Barnabasbriefes, Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte 42 (Berlin and New York, 1971). * F.S. Barcellona, ed., Epistola di Barnaba = Barnabae Epistula: introduzione, testo critico, traduzione, commento, glossario e indici, Corona Patrum 1 (Turin, 1975). * J.-L. Vesco, “La lecture du psautier selon l’Epître de Barnabé,” RBibl 93 (1986) 5–37. * J.C. Paget, “The Epistle of Barnabas: Outlook and Background,” Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2, series 64, diss. (Tübingen, 1994). * R. Hvalvik, “The Struggle for Scripture and Covenant: The Purpose of the Epistle of Barnabas and Jewish-Christian Competition in the Second Century,” Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2, series 82, diss. (Tübingen, 1996).
XI.1. Let us now see whether the Lord has taken care to reveal in advance anything concerning the water [of baptism] and the cross. (421)
XI.2. As to the water, Scripture when speaking about Israel says that they did not know how to receive the baptism that brings the pardon of sins but that they should obtain another for themselves. (422)
XI.3. The prophet, in fact, says: “O heaven, be astounded and let the earth tremble the more at this since this people have done two evil things: they have forsaken me, the living source of water, and they have dug out for themselves a cistern of death. Is Sinai, my holy mountain, a rock in the desert? For you will be like young birds, flying away when they are ejected from the nest.”1 (423)
XI.4. And the prophet also says: “I will walk before you and level the mountain and I will break the gates of brass, and I will shatter the iron bars, and to you I will bestow secret, hidden, invisible treasures. In this way they may indeed know that I am the Lord God.” (424)
XI.5. And “you will dwell in the lofty cave of a strong rock where water is never lacking. You will see the king in his glory, and your soul will meditate on the fear of the Lord.”2 (425)
XI.6. By another prophet he says: “Whoever acts thus will be like this tree which, planted by streams of water, will produce fruit in due time. Its leaves will not fall; all that they do will prosper. It is not the same for the impious, no, not at all. Rather, they are like the dust that the wind chases from the face of the earth. This is why the impious shall not be raised in judgment, nor will sinners stand in the counsel of the just. For the Lord knows the way of the just, but that of the ungodly will perish.”3 (426)
XI.7. Notice that he describes at the same time the water and the cross. (427)
XI.8. This is what he means to say: Happy are those who have planted their hope in the cross and have gone down into the water. For, he says, their reward will be given “in due season.” At that time, he says, I will repay. But now, when he says “its leaves will not fall,” he means that every word of faith and love coming from your mouth will be for many the reason for their conversion and hope. (428)
XI.9. Yet another prophet says, “And the land of Jesse will be celebrated more than any other.”4 This means that he glorifies the vessel of his Spirit. (429)
XI.10. What does he then say? “There was a river flowing from the right and wonderful trees growing out of it. Whoever eats from it will live forever.”5 The meaning here is that when we go down into the water, we are full of sins and blemishes, but when we ascend out of the water we bear fruit in our hearts, having in spirit fear and hope in Jesus. (430)
XI.11. “Whoever eats of these will live forever.”6 This means, he says, that whoever hears these words and believes will live forever. (431)
XV.1. Furthermore, as to the Sabbath, this is what is written in the Decalogue which God personally gave to Moses on Mount Sinai: “With a pure hand and a pure heart keep holy also the Sabbath of the Lord.”7 (432)
XV.2. Elsewhere he says, “If my children observe the Sabbath, then I will be merciful to them.”8 (433)
XV.3. As to the Sabbath, he mentions it at the beginning of creation: “And in six days God made the work of his hands. He completed it on the seventh day, a day on which he rested and which he made holy.”9 (434)
XV.4. Pay attention, my children, to the meaning of the phrase “He completed it in six days.” This means that the Lord will lead the universe to its completion in six thousand years. He himself is my witness when he says, “Behold, one day of the Lord will be like a thousand years.”10 And so, my children, it is “in six days,” in six thousand years, that the universe will end. (435)
XV.5. “And on the seventh day he rested.”11 This means that when his Son will have come to put an end to the time of the lawless one, to judge the lawless, and to change the sun, the moon, and the stars, he shall then rest on the seventh day. (436)
XV.6. Furthermore, he says, “You shall keep it holy with pure hands and a pure heart.”12 If, then, anyone can now by having a pure heart sanctify this day which God has made holy, then we are totally deceived. (437)
XV.7. To be sure, when we enjoy true rest, when we shall be able to do so because we have been made righteous ourselves and have received the promise, when there is no more sin but when all things have been renewed by the Lord, then we shall indeed keep it holy because we ourselves have first been made holy. (438)
XV.8. Finally he said to them: “Your new moons and your Sabbaths I do not endure.”13 Notice how he expresses himself: your present Sabbaths are not acceptable to me; only the Sabbath I have made, and on which, after having given rest to all things, I will make a beginning on the eighth day, namely, the beginning of another world. (439)
XV.9. So it is that we celebrate as a joyful feast the eighth day on which Jesus rose from the dead and after manifesting himself ascended into heaven. (440)
† Translated from Epistolarum Libri Decem, ed. R.A.B. Mynors, Scriptorum Classicorum Biblotheca Oxoniensis (Oxford, 1963) 338–40.
a. Some translate the Latin ministrae as “deaconesses.”
† Translated from Epistolarum Libri Decem, 340.
†† Translation (adapted) from M.R. James, The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford, 1926) 487ff.
† Translated from R.A. Lipsius and M. Bonnet, Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha, vol. 2.1 (Hildesheim, 1990) 192ff.
† Translation from New Testament Apocrypha, vol. 2, rev. ed., ed. W. Schneemelcher, English translation ed. R. McL.Wilson (Louisville, 1992) 245, 252–53, 258, 264.
† Translated from Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha, vol. 1, ed. R.A. Lipsius and M. Bonnet (New York, 1990) 36.
† Translated from Sur la Pâque, trans. and ed. O. Perler, SChr 123 (Paris, 1966). Subheads are adapted from those given in the French translation of the text.
1. See Exod 12:1–32. 2. See Exod 12:21, 27; Deut 16:2; Isa 53:7; 1 Cor 5:7; 1 Pet 1:18ff.; Titus 2:14; Jude 5. 3. See Matt 13:52. 4. See 2 Cor 4:18. 5. See 1 Cor 15:53ff. 6. See John 1:17; 2 Cor 3:1–16. 7. See John 1:16ff. 8. See Eph 6:24. 9. Isa 53:7; Acts 8:32. 10. See Isa 53:7; Acts 8:32. 11. See John 1:14, 29, 36. 12. See Wis 1:7; Eph 4:10; 1 Cor 8:6; Gal 3:28; Col 1:15–18; Heb 1:3. 13. See Rom 10:4; Matt 5:17. 14. See Heb 2:10. 15. See John 1:14. 16. See 2 Cor 5:17. 17. See Isa 2:3; Mic 4:2. 18. See John 1:14, 17; Rom 6:14. 19. See John 1:29, 36; 1 Cor 5:7; Rev 5:6, 12. 20. See John 1:12–14. 21. See Matt 1:21–25; Luke 1:31; 2:7. 22. See Isa 53:7. 23. See 1 Cor 15:4. 24. See 1 Cor 15:28; Col 1:19; 3:11; Eph 1:23. 25. See John 1:9. 26. See John 1:14, 16ff.; Eph 2:5, 8. 27. See John 1:18; Heb 1:5; 5:5; Acts 13:33 (Ps 2:7). 28. See 1 Cor 5:7. 29. 2 Tim 4:18; Gal 1:5; see 2 Pet 3:18.
30. See Exod 13:3–32. 31. See Exod 12:3, 5ff.; 1 Pet 1:18ff. 32. See Exod 12:9, 11. 33. Exod 12:46; Num 9:12; see John 19:36. 34. See Exod 12:11. 35. See Exod 12:8; Num 9:11. 36. See Exod 12:11. 37. See Exod 12:11, 27. 38. See Exod 12:14, 17, 24. 39. See Exod 12:7, 13, 22. 40. See Exod 12:12, 29; Ps 135:8. 41. See Exod 12:28. 42. See ibid. 43. See Exod 12:46. 44. See Exod 12:29. 45. See Jonah 3:6.
46. See Exod 10:21. 47. See Wis 18:12. 48. See Wis 17:2; Exod 10:21. 49. Ps 35:5. 50. See Prov 1:12. 51. See Wis 18:10. 52. See Wis 18:12. 53. Ibid.
54. Ibid. 55. See Exod 12:13, 23; Wis 18:6–9. 56. See Eph 5:14; Heb 6:4; 10:32. 57. See Wis 19:6. 58. See Eccl 3:1–8. 59. See Col 2:17; Heb 8:5; 10:1.
60. See John 3:12. 61. See John 1:16–18; Matt 5:17; Luke 4:21; Rom 10:4. 62. See John 1:17; Rom 3:31; 7:12, 14, 16; 1 Tim 1:8. 63. See Rom 8:4; Gal 4:4; Eph 1:10. 64. See 2 Cor 4:4–6. 65. See 1 Tim 3:16. 66. See Isa 53:7. 67. See 1 Pet 1:19; Heb 9:14. 68. See Rev 21:22. 69. See Gal 4:24–26; Heb 12:22; Rev 3:12; 21:2. 70. See Num 34:2; 36:2. 71. See Ps 2:8. 72. See Deut 16:5ff.
73. See Mal 1:10–12; Acts 2:17 (Joel 3:1); Titus 3:6. 74. See Zech 2:14ff.; Rev 21:3. 75. 2 Tim 4:18; Gal 1:5; see 2 Pet 3:18. 76. See Heb 4:15. 77. See Phil 2:5–11. 78. See Wis 9:1; Ps 33:6; John 1:3. 79. Gen 1:1; see 2:4. 80. See Gen 2:7. 81. Gen 2:8. 82. Gen 2:16–17. 83. See Matt 13:24–30. 84. See Gen 3. 85. See Gen 3:16, 20; 4:1, etc.; 6:3. 86. See Gen 2:17; 3:19. 87. See Gen 2:25; 3:7. 88. See Wis 2:23. 89. See Gen 3:4, 19; Rom 5:12. 90. See Rom 1:24–32. 91. See Matt 15:19. 92. See 1 Pet 4:3. 93. See 1 Tim 6:10. 94. See Matt 15:19; Rom 1:29. 95. See Rom 3:15 (Prov 1:16; Isa 59:7).
96. See Gen 4:8; 1 John 3:12. 97. See John 8:44; 1 John 3:12. 98. See Deut 28:53–57. 99. See Rom 1:27. 100. Jer 5:8. 101. See Rom 5:12–21. 102. See Prov 1:12. 103. See Rom 7:14, 17. 104. See Rom 7:24. 105. See 2 Cor 5:1. 106. See Gen 3:19. 107. See Gen 2:7; Eccl 12:7. 108. See Eph 4:8 (Ps 68:18). 109. Matt 4:16; Luke 1:79 (Isa 9:1); Job 3:5; 12:22, etc. 110. See Gen 1:26ff.; Sir 17:3; Wis 2:23. 111. See Luke 24:25–27, 44ff.; Acts 3:18; 8:32–35; 17:2ff.
112. See Gen 4:8. 113. See Gen 22:9. 114. See Gen 37:28. 115. See Exod 2:3. 116. See 1 Sam 18:6–11. 117. See Matt 5:12; 23:31; Acts 7:52; Jas 5:10. 118. See Exod 12:3ff. 119. Deut 28:66. 120. Ps 2:1ff.; Acts 4:25–26. 121. Jer 11:19. 122. Isa 53:7–8. 123. 2 Tim 4:18; Gal 1:5; see 2 Pet 3:18. 124. See John 6:33, 41–42, 51. 125. See Luke 1:26–38; Phil 2:6ff. 126. See Isa 53:4; Matt 8:17; 1 Pet 2:21–25. 127. See Jer 11:19; see Isa 53:7; Acts 8:32; Rev 5:12. 128. See 1 Pet 1:18; Titus 2:14. 129. See Heb 2:14ff. 130. See Eph 1:13; 4:30; 2 Cor 1:22.
131. See Titus 2:14. 132. See Rom 8:21; Gal 5:1. 133. See 1 Pet 2:9; Col 1:12–13; Eph 5:8, 12–14; John 3:19; Acts 26:18; 2 Cor 4:6. 134. See 1 John 3:14. 135. See 2 Pet 1:11. 136. See Exod 19:6; 1 Pet 2:5–9; Rev 1:6; 5:10; Titus 2:14. 137. See 1 Cor 5:7. 138. See Gen 4:8. 139. See Gen 22:9. 140. See Gen 28:1ff. 141. See Gen 37:28. 142. See Exod 2:3. 143. See Exod 12:1–28. 144. See 1 Sam 18:6–11. 145. See Matt 5:12; 23:29–35; Acts 7:52. 146. See Matt 1:23 (Isa 7:14); Luke 1:26ff. 147. See Gal 3:13 (Deut 21:22ff.); Acts 5:30; 10:39. 148. See 1 Cor 15:4. 149. See Rom 8:34. 150. See Mark 16:19; Acts 1:11; 1 Tim 3:16. 151. See Jer 11:19; Rev 5:12. 152. See Isa 53:7; Acts 8:32. 153. See Matt 1:21, 23 (Isa 7:14), 25; Luke 1:31. 154. See Exod 12:3, 5, 21. 155. See Isa 53:7. 156. See Exod 12:6. 157. See Exod 12:46; Num 9:12; Ps 34:20; John 19:33, 36. 158. See Acts 2:27, 31 (Ps 16:10). 159. See Rom 8:34. 160. See 1 Cor 15:1–58; Eph 4:8 (Ps 68:18). 161. See Matt 11:5; Luke 7:22. 162. Ps 35:12; see Gen 44:4; Ps 38:20; 1 Sam 25:21. 163. Isa 3:10, LXX. 164. See Isa 52:14.
165. See Acts 3:14; Matt 23:37. 166. See Acts 3:15; 5:30; 1 Thess 2:15. 167. Jer 7:6; 22:3. 168. See Matt 16:21; Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22; 24:26; Acts 3:18; 17:3. 169. See Isa 53:3. 170. See Matt 26:42; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:42. 171. See John 18:31; 19:6ff. 172. See Matt 12:9–13; Mark 3:1–5; Luke 6:6–10. 173. See Matt 9:27–31; 11:5; Luke 7:22. 174. See Luke 5:18–26; Matt 9:2–8; Mark 2:3–12. 175. See John 11:1–44. 176. See John 20:25. 177. See Matt 26:59–62; Mark 14:55–59; Luke 22:66–71. 178. See John 19:1; Matt 27:26. 179. See Matt 27:29; Mark 15:17; John 19:5; John 19:2. 180. See Matt 27:2; John 18:12, 24; Mark 15:1. 181. See Gen 2:7. 182. See Matt 27:34 (Ps 69:21), 48. 183. See Amos 6:4–6. 184. See Matt 27:34, 48; Ps 69:21. 185. See John 20:25; Luke 24:40. 186. See Amos 6:4.
187. See Mic 6:3–4. 188. See Gen 32:29; 35:10. 189. See Gen 32:31. 190. See Heb 1:6. 191. See Ps 110:3. 192. See Gen 1:3–5; Ps 136:7–9. 193. See Gen 1:6–9. 194. See Gen 1:2. 195. See Gen 1:6–8; Ps 136:6. 196. See Sir 16:25. 197. See Gen 1:14–18; Ps 136:7–9. 198. See Col 1:16. 199. See Gen 2:7. 200. See Isa 44:1ff.; Ps 33:12; 47:5; Acts 13:17. 201. See Acts 7:8. 202. See Jer 2:6. 203. See Gen 37–50; Exod 1–12. 204. See Exod 13:21, etc.; Ps 78:14; 105:39. 205. See Exod 14–15; Ps 136:13. 206. See Ps 136:14; 106:9; Wis 10:18. 207. See Ps 136:15; 106:11; Wis 10:19. 208. See Exod 16:4–35; Ps 78:24; 105:40; 1 Cor 10:3. 209. See Exod 17:4–7; Ps 136:16; 1 Cor 10:4, etc. 210. See Exod 19–31. 211. See Josh 11:23ff.; Ps 78:55; 136:21ff. 212. See Matt 23:34. 213. See 1 Sam 8:5, etc.; Acts 13:21ff. 214. See Matt 26:14–15; Mark 14:10–11; Luke 22:3–5. 215. See Matt 17:24–27.
216. See Gen 12:1ff. 217. See Gen 37–48. 218. See Exod 7:14–12:36. 219. See Exod 13:21. 220. See Exod 14–15. 221. See Exod 16:4–35. 222. See Exod 17:4–7. 223. See Exod 19–31. 224. See Josh 11:23, etc.; Ps 78:55; 136:21ff. 225. See Matt 12:13. 226. See Matt 9:27ff.; 11:5; 15:30; John 9:1ff.; 11:37. 227. See Matt 11:5; John 11:1ff. 228. See Gen 44:4; Ps 35:12; Jer 18:20. 229. See Matt 26:59–66. 230. See Matt 2:2, 11; 15:25. 231. See Matt 8:5–13; John 12:20ff. 232. See Matt 27:24. 233. Exod 12:8. 234. See John 20:25. 235. See Matt 27:6–23. 236. See Matt 26:59–61. 237. See Matt 27:2; John 18:12, 24. 238. See Matt 27:26; John 19:1. 239. See Matt 26:14ff. 240. See Luke 23:7–15; Acts 4:27. 241. See Matt 27:20. 242. See Matt 27:34; Ps 69:22.
243. See Matt 27:48; Ps 69:22. 244. See Matt 27:29. 245. See Ps 22:28; 96:7. 246. See Wis 2:10–20; Isa 52:13–53:2. 247. See Acts 3:14. 248. See John 3:14; 8:28; 12:32, 34. 249. See John 19:19ff.; Mark 15:26. 250. See Matt 27:51. 251. See Acts 5:30; 10:39 (Deut 21:22). 252. See Acts 2:23. 253. See Matt 27:39–43. 254. See Matt 27:42; Mark 15:32; John 1:49; 12:13. 255. See Matt 27:35; John 19:23ff. 256. See Matt 27:35; John 19:23ff. 257. See Matt 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44–45. 258. See Matt 27:51. 259. See Matt 27:51. 260. Ps 18:13; see John 12:28.
a. Some suggest that nos. 101 and 102 may have been parts of a preexisting liturgical hymn.
261. See Rom 10:20ff. (Isa 65:1ff.). 262. See Rom 8:34. 263. See Mark 16:19; Acts 1:2, 11, 22; 1 Tim 3:16. 264. 1 Pet 2:21. 265. See 1 Pet 2:23. 266. Isa 50:8ff.; see Mic 6:1ff. 267. See Rom 4:17; 8:11; 1 Cor 15:22. 268. See John 6:39–40, 44, 54. 269. See Mark 14:61ff. 270. See 1 Cor 15:26; 2 Tim 1:10. 271. See Col 2:15. 272. See Acts 2:27 (Ps 16:10). 273. See Matt 12:29; Mark 3:27. 274. See Eph 4:8–10 (Ps 68:19). 275. See Ps 22:28; 96:7. 276. Acts 10:43; 26:18; 2:38. 277. See Eph 1:7; Col 1:14. 278. See 1 Cor 5:7. 279. See John 1:36; Rev 5:12. 280. See Matt 20:28; Mark 10:45; 1 Tim 2:6; 1 Cor 1:30; Eph 1:7; Col 1:14; Rom 3:24; Heb 9:15. 281. See John 1:4; 6:33, 35, 48; 11:25; 14:6; Col 3:3ff.; 2 Tim 1:10; 1 John 1:2; 5:11ff. 282. See John 11:25. 283. See John 1:4, 9; 3:19; 8:12; 9:5; 12:46; 1 John 1:5; Luke 2:32; Acts 13:47 (Isa 49:6); 1 Pet 2:9. 284. See Acts 4:12; 13:47 (Isa 49:6); 2 Tim 2:10; Heb 2:10; 5:9; 1 Pet 2:2. 285. See Matt 21:5 (Zech 9:9); John 12:15; John 1:49; 18:33, 37; Rev 15:3; 17:14; 19:16. 286. See Eph 4:8–10 (Ps 68:19). 287. See John 5:21; 6:40. 288. See John 14:8ff. 289. See Gen 1:1. 290. Gen 2:7.
b. Strategus: a Greek official having broad military, political, and civil powers.
c. This subhead appears in the manuscript tradition.
291. See Luke 24:25–27. 292. See Matt 1:23 (Isa 7:14); Luke 1:26ff. 293. See Acts 5:30 (Deut 21:22); 10:39, etc. 294. See 1 Cor 15:4. 295. See Rom 8:34. 296. See Mark 16:19; Acts 1:2, 11, 22; 1 Tim 3:16. 297. See Ps 110:1; Matt 26:64; Mark 16:19; Rom 8:34; Col 3:1; Eph 1:20; 1 Pet 3:22. 298. See John 5:22, 27–29. 299. See John 1:3; Col 1:16ff. 300. Rev 1:8; 21:6; 22:13. 301. Rev 21:6; 22:13. 302. John 7:26, 41; Acts 9:22; see Matt 16:16; 26:63ff. 303. See Matt 21:5 (Zech 9:9); John 12:15; John 1:49; 18:33, 37; Rev 15:3; 17:14; 19:16; Matt 27:11, 37, 42; Mark 15:2, 32; Luke 23:3, 38; John 18:37. 304. See Matt 1:21; Acts 4:10–12. 305. See Acts 2:36; Phil 2:11. 306. See Rom 8:34. 307. See Mark 16:19; Acts 1:2; 11:22; 1 Tim 3:16. 308. See John 10:30, 38; 14:9, 11, 20; 16:15, 32; 17:21. 309. Rev 1:6. 310. See Acts 2:46.
† Translation (modified) from ANF 10 (i.e., vol. 9) 277–78.
a. Give thanks: some understand this as a hidden reference to baptism.
† Translated from PG 6:1041–42.
†† Translated from Epître de Barnabé, trans. and ed. P. Prigent, SChr 172 (Paris, 1971) 160–67, 182–89.
1. Jer 2:12–13; Isa 16:1–2. 2. Isa 45:1–3; 33:16–18.
3. Ps 1:3–6. 4. Unidentifiable citation. 5. Unidentifiable citation but cf. Ezek 47:1–12. 6. Ezek 47:9. 7. Exod 20:8. Cf. Ps 24:4. 8. Jer 17:24. 9. Gen 2:2–3. 10. Ps 90:40. 11. Gen 2:2. 12. Exod 20:8.
13. Isa 1:13.