Let us now, however, proceed to examine the evidence for the reality of
miracles, and to inquire whether they are supported by such an amount of
testimony as can in any degree outweigh the reasons which, antecedently,
seem to render them incredible. It is undeniable that belief in the
miraculous has gradually been dispelled, and that, as a general rule,
the only miracles which are now maintained are limited to brief and
distant periods of time. Faith in their reality, once so comprehensive,
does not, except amongst a certain class, extend beyond the miracles of
the New Testament and a few of those of the Old,(1) and the countless
myriads of ecclesiastical
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and other miracles, for centuries devoutly and implicitly believed, are
now commonly repudiated, and have sunk into discredit and contempt. The
question is inevitably suggested how so much can be abandoned and the
remnant still be upheld.
As an essential part of our inquiry into the value of the evidence for
miracles, we must endeavour to ascertain whether those who are said to
have witnessed the supposed miraculous occurrences were either
competent to appreciate them aright, or likely to report them without
exaggeration. For this purpose, we must consider what was known of the
order of nature in the age in which miracles are said to have taken
place, and what was the intellectual character of the people amongst
whom they are reported to have been performed. Nothing is more
rare, even amongst intelligent and cultivated men, than accuracy of
observation and correctness of report, even in matters of sufficient
importance to attract vivid attention, and in which there is no special
interest unconsciously to bias the observer. It will scarcely be denied,
however, that in persons of fervid imagination, and with a strong
natural love of the marvellous, whose minds are not only unrestrained
by specific knowledge, but predisposed by superstition towards
false conclusions, the probability of inaccuracy and exaggeration is
enormously
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increased. If we add to this such a disturbing element as religious
excitement, inaccuracy, exaggeration, and extravagance are certain to
occur. The effect of even one of these influences, religious feeling,
in warping the judgment, is admitted by one of the most uncompromising
supporters of miracles. "It is doubtless the tendency of religious
minds," says Dr. Newman, "to imagine mysteries and wonders where there
are none; and much more, where causes of awe really exist, will they
unintentionally mis-state, exaggerate, and embellish, when they set
themselves to relate what they have witnessed or have heard;" and he
adds: "and further, the imagination, as is well known, is a fruitful
cause of apparent miracles."(1) We need not offer any evidence that the
miracles which we have to examine were witnessed and reported by persons
exposed to the effects of the strongest possible religious feeling and
excitement, and our attention may, therefore, be more freely directed to
the inquiry how far this influence was modified by other circumstances.
Did the Jews at the time of Jesus possess such calmness of judgment and
sobriety of imagination as to inspire us with any confidence in accounts
of marvellous occurrences, unwitnessed except by them, and limited to
their time, which contradict all knowledge and all experience? Were
their minds sufficiently enlightened and free from superstition to
warrant our attaching weight to their report of events of such an
astounding nature? and were they themselves sufficiently impressed with
the exceptional character of
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any apparent supernatural and miraculous interference with the order of
nature?
Let an English historian and divine, who will be acknowledged as no
prejudiced witness, bear testimony upon some of these points. "Nor is
it less important," says the late Dean Milman, "throughout the early
history of Christianity, to seize the spirit of the times. Events which
appear to us so extraordinary, that we can scarcely conceive that
they should either fail in exciting a powerful sensation, or ever be
obliterated from the popular remembrance, in their own day might pass
off as of little more than ordinary occurrence. During the whole life of
Christ, and the early propagation of the religion, it must be borne
in mind that they took place in an age, and among a people, which
superstition had made so familiar with what were supposed to be
preternatural events, that wonders awakened no emotion, or were speedily
superseded by some new demand on the ever-ready belief. The Jews of
that period not only believed that the Supreme Being had the power
of controlling the course of nature, but that the same influence was
possessed by multitudes of subordinate spirits, both good and evil.
Where the pious Christian of the present day would behold the direct
agency of the Almighty, the Jews would invariably have interposed an
angel as the author or ministerial agent in the wonderful transaction.
Where the Christian moralist would condemn the fierce passion, the
ungovernable lust, or the inhuman temper, the Jew discerned the workings
of diabolical possession. Scarcely a malady was endured, or crime
committed, but it was traced to the operation of one of these myriad
daemons, who watched every opportunity
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of exercising their malice in the sufferings and the sins of men."(1)
Another English divine, of certainly not less orthodoxy, but of
much greater knowledge of Hebrew literature, bears similar testimony
regarding the Jewish nation at the same period. "Not to be more
tedious, therefore, in this matter," (regarding the Bath Kol, a Jewish
superstition,)" let two things only be observed: I. That the nation,
under the second Temple, was given to magical arts beyond measure;
and, II. That it was given to an easiness of believing all manner of
delusions beyond measure."(2) And in another place: "It is a disputable
case, whether the Jewish nation were more mad with superstition in
matters of religion, or with superstition in curious arts:--I. There was
not a people upon earth that studied or attributed more to dreams than
they. II. There was hardly any people in the whole world that more used,
or were more fond of, amulets, charms, mutterings, exorcisms, and all
kinds of enchantments. We might here produce innumerable instances."(3)
We shall presently see that these statements are far from being
exaggerated.
No reader of the Old Testament can fail to have been struck by the
singularly credulous fickleness of the Jewish mind. Although claiming
the title of the specially selected people of Jehovah, the Israelites
exhibited a constant and inveterate tendency to forsake his service for
the worship of other gods. The mighty "signs and wonders" which God is
represented as incessantly working
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on their behalf, and in their sight, had apparently no effect upon
them. The miraculous even then had, as it would seem, already lost all
novelty, and ceased, according to the records, to excite more than mere
passing astonishment. The leaders and prophets of Israel had a perpetual
struggle to restrain the people from "following after" heathen deities,
and whilst the burden of the Prophets is one grand denunciation of the
idolatry into which the nation was incessantly falling, the verdict of
the historical books upon the several kings and rulers of Israel proves
how common it was, and how rare even the nominal service of Jehovah.
At the best the mind of the Jewish nation only after long and slow
progression, attained the idea of a perfect monotheism, but added to the
belief in Jehovah the recognition of a host of other gods, over whom
it merely gave him supremacy.(1) This is apparent even in the first
commandment: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me;" and the
necessity for such a law received its illustration from a people who are
represented as actually worshipping the golden calf, made for them by
the complaisant Aaron, during the very time that the great Decalogue
was being written on the Mount by his colleague Moses.(2) It is not,
therefore, to be wondered at that, at a later period, and throughout
patristic days, the gods of the Greeks and other heathen nations were so
far gently treated, that, although repudiated as Deities,
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they were recognized as Demons. In the Septuagint version of the Old
Testament, where "idols" are spoken of in the Hebrew, the word is
sometimes translated "demons;" as, for instance, Psalm xcvi. 5 is
rendered: "For all the gods of the nations are demons."(l) The national
superstition betrays itself in this and many other passages of this
version, which so well represented the views of the first ages of the
Church that the Fathers regarded it as miraculous. Irenaeus relates how
Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, brought seventy of the elders of the Jews
together to Alexandria in order to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into
Greek, but fearing that they might agree amongst themselves to conceal
the real meaning of the Hebrew, he separated them, and commanded each
to make a translation. When the seventy translations of the Bible were
completed and compared, it was found that, by the inspiration of God,
the very same words and the very same names from beginning to end had
been used by them all.(2) The same superstition is quite as clearly
expressed in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul, for instance, speaking
of things sacrificed to idols, says: "But (I say) that the things which
the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I
would not that ye should be partakers with
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demons. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons; ye
cannot partake of the Lord's table, and of the table of demons."(l)
The apocryphal Book of Tobit affords some illustration of the opinions
of the more enlightened Jews during the last century before the
commencement of the Christian era.(2) The angel Raphael prescribes,
as an infallible means of driving a demon out of man or woman so
effectually that it should never more come back, fumigation with the
heart and liver of a fish.(3) By this exorcism the demon Asmodeus, who
from love of Sara, the daughter of Raguel, has strangled seven husbands
who attempted to marry her,(4) is overcome, and flies into "the
uttermost parts of Egypt," where the angel binds him.(5) The belief in
demons, and in the necessity of exorcism, is so complete that the author
sees no incongruity in describing the angel Raphael, who has been sent,
in answer to prayer, specially to help him, as instructing Tobias to
adopt such means of subjecting demons. Raphael is described in this book
as the angel of healing,(6) the office generally assigned to him by the
Fathers. He is also represented as saying of himself that he is one of
the seven holy angels which present the prayers of the saints to God.(7)
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There are many curious particulars regarding angels and demons in
the Book of Enoch.(1) This work, which is quoted by the author of
the Epistle of Jude,(2) and by some of the Fathers, as inspired
Scripture,(3) was supposed by Tertullian to have survived the universal
deluge, or to have been afterwards transmitted by means of Noah, the
great-grandson of the author Enoch.(4) It may be assigned to about a
century before Christ, but additions were made to the text, and
more especially to its angelology, extending probably to after the
commencement of our era.(5) It undoubtedly represents views popularly
prevailing about the epoch in which we are interested. The author not
only relates the fall of the angels through love for the daughters of
men, but gives the names of twenty-one of them and of their leaders; of
whom Jequn was he who seduced the holy angels, and Ashbeel it was who
gave them evil counsel and corrupted them.(6) A third, Gadreel,(7) was
he who seduced Eve. He also taught to the children of men the use and
manufacture of all murderous weapons, of coats of mail, shields,
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swords, and of all the implements of death. Another evil angel, named
Penemue, taught them many mysteries of wisdom. He instructed men in
the art of writing with paper [--Greek--] and ink, by means of which, the
author remarks, many fall into sin even to the present day. Kaodeja,
another evil angel, taught the human race all the wicked practices of
spirits and demons,(1) and also magic and exorcism.(2) The offspring of
the fallen angels and of the daughters of men were giants, whose height
was 3000 ells;(3) of these are the demons working evil upon earth.(4)
Azazel taught men various arts: the making of bracelets and ornaments;
the use of cosmetics, the way to beautify the eyebrows; precious stones,
and all dye-stuffs and metals; whilst other wicked angels instructed
them in all kinds of pernicious knowledge.(5) The elements and all the
phenomena of nature are controlled and produced by the agency of angels.
Uriel is the angel of thunder and earthquakes; Raphael, of the spirits
of men; Raguel is the angel who executes vengeance on the world and the
stars; Michael is set over the best of mankind, i.e., over the people
of Israel;(6) Saraqael, over the souls of the children of men, who are
misled by the spirits of sin; and Gabriel is over serpents and over
Paradise, and over the Cherubim.(7) Enoch is shown the mystery of
all the operations of nature, and the action of the elements, and he
describes the spirits which guide them, and control the thunder and
lightning and the winds; the spirit of the seas, who curbs them with his
might, or tosses them forth and scatters them through the mountains of
the earth; the
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spirit of hoar frost, and the spirit of hail, and the spirit of snow.
There are, in fact, special spirits set over every phenomenon of
nature--frost, thaw, mist, rain, light, and so on.(1) The heavens and
the earth are filled with spirits. Raphael is the angel set over all the
diseases and wounds of mankind, Gabriel over all powers, and Fanuel over
the penitence and the hope of those who inherit eternal life.(2)
The decree for the destruction of the human race goes forth from the
presence of the Lord, because men know all the mysteries of the angels,
all the evil works of Satan, and all the secret might and power of those
who practise the art of magic, and the power of conjuring, and such
arts.(3) The stars are represented as animated beings.(4) Enoch sees
seven stars bound together in space like great mountains, and flaming
as with fire; and he inquires of the angel who leads him, on account of
what sin they are so bound? Uriel informs him that they are stars which
have transgressed the commands of the Highest God, and they are thus
bound until ten thousand worlds, the number of the days of their
transgression, shall be accomplished.(5) The belief that sun, moon, and
stars were living entities possessed of souls was generally held by the
Jews at the beginning of our era, along with Greek philosophers, and we
shall presently see it expressed by the Fathers. Philo Judaeus considers
the stars spiritual beings full of virtue and perfection,(6) and that to
them is granted lordship over other heavenly bodies, not absolute, but
as viceroys under the Supreme
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Being.(1) We find a similar view regarding the nature of the stars
expressed in the Apocalypse,(2) and it constantly appears in the
Talmud and Targums.(3) An angel of the sun and moon is described in the
Ascensio Isaiae.(4)
We are able to obtain a full and minute conception of the belief
regarding angels and demons and their influence over cosmical phenomena,
as well as of other superstitions current amongst the Jews at the time
of Jesus,(5) from the Talmud, Targums, and other Rabbinical sources. We
cannot, however, do more, here, than merely glance at these voluminous
materials. The angels are perfectly pure spirits, without sin, and not
visible to mortal eyes. When they come down to earth on any mission,
they are clad in light and veiled in air. If, however, they remain
longer than seven days on earth, they become so clogged with the earthly
matter in which they have been immersed that they cannot again ascend to
the upper heavens.(6) Their multitude is innumerable,(7) and new angels
are every day created, who in succession praise
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God and make way for others.(1) The expression, "host of heaven," is
a common one in the Old Testament, and the idea was developed into a
heavenly army. The first Gospel represents Jesus as speaking of "more
than twelve legions of angels."(2) Every angel has one particular
duty to perform, and no more; thus of the three angels who appeared
to Abraham, one was sent to announce that Sarah should have a son, the
second to rescue Lot, and the third to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.(3)
The angels serve God in the administration of the universe, and to
special angels are assigned the different parts of nature. "There is not
a thing in the world, not even a little herb, over which there is not
an angel set, and everything happens according to the command of these
appointed angels."(4) It will be remembered that the agency of angels
is frequently introduced in the Old Testament, and still more so in the
Septuagint version, by alterations of the text. One notable case of such
agency may be referred to, where the pestilence which is sent to punish
David for numbering the people is said to be caused by an angel, whom
David even sees. The Lord is represented as repenting of the evil, when
the angel was stretching forth his hand against Jerusalem, and bidding
him stay his hand after the angel had destroyed seventy thousand men
by the pestilence.(5) This theory of disease has prevailed until
comparatively recent times. The names of many of the superintending
angels are given, as, for instance: Jehuel
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is set over fire, Michael over water, Jechiel over wild beasts, and
Anpiel over birds. Over cattle Hariel is appointed, and Samniel over
created things moving in the waters, and over the face of the earth;
Messannahel over reptiles, Deliel over fish. Ruchiel is set over the
winds, Gabriel over thunder and also over fire, and over the ripening of
fruit, Xuriel over hail, Makturiel over rocks, Alpiel over fruit-bearing
trees, Saroel over those which do not bear fruit, and Sandalfon over the
human race; and under each of these there are subordinate angels.(1) It
was believed that there were two angels of Death, one for those who died
out of the land of Israel, who was an evil angel, called Samael (and at
other times Satan, Asmodeus, &c), and the other, who presided over the
dead of the land of Israel, the holy angel Gabriel; and under these
there was a host of evil spirits and angels.(2) The Jews were unanimous
in asserting that angels superintend the various operations of nature,
although there is some difference in the names assigned to these
angels.(3) The Sohar on Numbers states that "Michael, Gabriel, Nuriel,
Raphael are set over the four elements, water, fire, air, earth."(4) We
shall presently sec how general this belief regarding angels was amongst
the Fathers, but it is also expressed in the New Testament. In the
Apocalypse there appears an angel
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who has power over fire,(1) and in another place four angels have
power to hurt the earth and the sea.(2) The angels were likewise the
instructors of men, and communicated knowledge to the Patriarchs. The
angel Gabriel taught Joseph the seventy languages of the earth.(3) It
appears, however, that there was one language--the Syriac--which the
angels do not understand, and for this reason men were not permitted
to pray for things needful, in that tongue.(4) Angels are appointed as
princes over the seventy nations of the world; but the Jews consider
the angels set over Gentile nations merely demons.(6) The Septuagint
translation of Deuteronomy xxxii. 8 introduces the statement into the
Old Testament. Instead of the Most High, when he divided to the nations
their inheritance, setting the bounds of the people "according to the
number of the children of Israel," the passage becomes, "according to
the number of the angels of God" [--Greek--]. The number of the nations was
fixed at seventy, the number of the souls who went down into Egypt.(6)
The Jerusalem Targum on Genesis xi. 7, 8, reads as follows: "God spake
to the seventy angels which stand before him: Come, let us go down and
confound their language that they may not understand each other. And
the Word of the Lord appeared there (at Babel), with the seventy angels,
according to the seventy nations, and
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each had the language of the people which was allotted to him, and the
record of the writing in his hand, and scattered the nations from thence
over the whole earth, in seventy languages, so that the one did not
understand what the other said."(l) Michael was the angel of the people
of Israel,(2) and he is always set in the highest place amongst the
angels, and often called the High Priest of Heaven.(3) It was believed
that the angels of the nations fought in heaven when their allotted
peoples made war on earth. We see an allusion to this in the Book of
Daniel,(4) and in the Apocalypse there is "war in heaven; Michael and
his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought, and his
angels."(5) The Jews of the time of Jesus not only held that there
were angels set over the nations, but also that each individual had
a guardian angel.(6) This belief appears in several places in the New
Testament. For instance, Jesus is represented as saying of the children:
"For I say unto you that their angels do always behold the face of my
Father which is in heaven."(7) Again, in the Acts of the Apostles, when
Peter is delivered from prison by an angel, and comes to the house of
his friend, they will not believe the maid who had opened the gate
and seen him, but say: "It is his angel" [--Greek--].8 The passage in the
Epistle to the Hebrews will likewise be remembered, where it is said
of the angels: "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth for
ministry on
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account of them who shall be heirs of salvation."(1) There was at the
same time a singular belief that when any person went into the private
closet, the guardian angel remained at the door till he came out again,
and in the Talmud a prayer is given for strength and help under the
circumstances, and that the guardian angel may wait while the person is
there. The reason why the angel does not enter is that such places are
haunted by demons.(2)
The belief in demons at the time of Jesus was equally emphatic and
comprehensive, and we need scarcely mention that the New Testament is
full of references to them.(3) They are in the air, on earth, in the
bodies of men and animals, and even at the bottom of the sea.(4) They
are the offspring of the fallen angels who loved the daughters of
men.(5) They have wings like the angels, and can fly from one end of
heaven to another; they obtain a knowledge of the future, like the
angels, by listening behind the veil of the Temple of God in Heaven.(6)
Their number is infinite. The earth is so full of them that if man had
power to see he could not exist, on account of them; there are more
demons than men, and they are about as close as the earth thrown up out
of a newly-made grave.(7) It is stated that each man has
10,000 demons at his right hand, and 1,000 on his left, and the passage
continues: "The crush on the Sabbath in the Synagogue arises from them,
also the dresses of the Rabbins become so soon old and torn through
their rubbing; in like manner they cause the tottering of the feet. He
who wishes to discover these spirits must take sifted ashes and strew
them about his bed, and in the morning he will perceive their footprints
upon them like a cock's tread. If any one wish to see them, he must take
the afterbirth of a black cat, which has been littered by a first-born
black cat, whose mother was also a first-birth, burn and reduce it
to powder, and put some of it in his eyes, and he will see them."(l)
Sometimes demons assume the form of a goat. Evil spirits fly chiefly
during the darkness, for they are children of night.(2) For this reason
the Talmud states that men are forbidden to greet any one by night, lest
it might be a devil,(3) or to go out alone even by day, but much more by
night, into solitary places.(4) It was likewise forbidden for any man to
sleep alone in a house, because any one so doing would be seized by
the she-devil Lilith, and die.(5) Further, no man should drink water by
night on account of the demon Schafriri, the angel of blindness.(6)
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An evil spirit descended on any one going into a cemetery by night.(1)
A necromancer is defined as one who fasts and lodges at night amongst
tombs in order that the evil spirit may come upon him.(2) Demons,
however, take more especial delight in foul and offensive places, and an
evil spirit inhabits every private closet in the world.(3) Demons haunt
deserted places, ruins, graves, and certain kinds of trees.(4) We find
indications of these superstitions throughout the Gospels. The possessed
are represented as dwelling among the tombs, and being driven by the
unclean spirits into the wilderness, and the demons can find no rest in
clean places.(5) Demons also frequented springs and fountains.(6) The
episode of the angel who was said to descend at certain seasons and
trouble the water of the pool of Bethesda, so that he who first stepped
in was cured of whatever disease he had, may be mentioned here in
passing, although the passage is not found in some of the older MSS.
of the fourth Gospel,(7) and it is argued by some that it is a later
interpolation. There were demons who hurt those who did not wash their
hands before meat. "Shibta is an evil spirit which sits upon men's hands
in the night; and if any touch his food with unwashen hands, that spirit
sits upon that food, and there is danger from it."(8)
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The demon Asmodeus is frequently called the king of the devils,(1) and
it was believed that he tempted people to apostatize; he it was who
enticed Noah into his drunkenness, and led Solomon into sin.(2) He
is represented as alternately ascending to study in the School of
the heavenly Jerusalem, and descending to study in the school of
the earth.(3) The injury of the human race in every possible way was
believed to be the chief delight of evil spirits. The Talmud and other
Rabbinical writings are full of references to demoniacal possession,
but we need not enter into details upon this point, as the New Testament
itself presents sufficient evidence regarding it. Not only one evil
spirit could enter into a body, but many took possession of the same
individual. There are many instances mentioned in the Gospels, such as
Mary Magdalene, "out of whom went seven demons" [--Greek--],4 and the man
whose name was Legion, because "many demons" [--Greek--] were entered into
him.(5) Demons likewise entered into the bodies of animals, and in the
narrative to which we have just referred, the demons, on being expelled
from the man, request that they may be allowed to enter into the herd of
swine, which being permitted, "the demons went out of
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the man into the swine, and the herd ran violently down the cliff into
the lake, and were drowned,"(1) the evil spirits, as usual, taking
pleasure only in the destruction and injury of man and beast. Besides
"possession," all the diseases of men and animals were ascribed to the
action of the devil and of demons.(2) In the Gospels, for instance, the
woman with a spirit of infirmity, who was bowed together and could not
lift herself up, is described as "bound by Satan," although the case was
not one of demoniacal possession.(3)
As might be expected from the universality of the belief in demons
and their influence over the human race, the Jews at the time of Jesus
occupied themselves much with the means of conjuring them. "There was
hardly any people in the whole world," we have already heard from a
great Hebrew scholar, "that more used, or were more fond of, amulets,
charms, mutterings, exorcisms, and all kinds of enchantments."(4)
Schoettgen bears similar testimony: "Caeterum judoeos magicis artibus
admodum deditos esse, notissimum est."(5) All competent scholars are
agreed upon this point, and the Talmud and Rabbinical writings are full
of it. The exceeding prevalence of such arts alone proves the existence
of the grossest ignorance and superstition.
{116}
There are elaborate rules in the Talmud with regard to dreams, both
as to how they are to be obtained and how interpreted.(1) Fasts were
enjoined in order to secure good dreams, and these fasts were not only
observed by the ignorant, but also by the principal Rabbins, and
they were permitted even on the Sabbath, which was unlawful in
other cases.(2) Indeed, the interpretation of dreams became a public
profession.(3) It would be impossible within our limits to convey an
adequate idea of the general superstition prevalent amongst the
Jews regarding things and actions lucky and unlucky, or the minute
particulars in regard to every common act prescribed for safety
against demons and evil influences of all kinds. Nothing was considered
indifferent or too trifling, and the danger from the most trivial
movements or omissions to which men were supposed to be exposed from
the malignity of evil spirits was believed to be great.(4) Amulets,
consisting of roots, or pieces of paper with charms written upon them,
were hung round the neck of the sick, and considered efficacious for
their cure. Charms, mutterings, and spells were commonly said over
wounds, against unlucky meetings, to make people sleep, to heal
diseases, and to avert enchantments.(5) The Talmud gives forms of
enchantments against mad dogs, for instance, against the demon of
blindness, and the like, as well as formulae for averting the evil eye,
and
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mutterings over diseases.(1) So common was the practice of sorcery and
magic that the Talmud enjoins "that the senior who is chosen into
the Council ought to be skilled in the arts of astrologers, jugglers,
diviners, sorcerers, &c, that he may be able to judge of those who are
guilty of the same."(2) Numerous cases are recorded of persons destroyed
by means of sorcery.(3) The Jewish women were particularly addicted to
sorcery, and indeed the Talmud declares that they had generally fallen
into it.(4) The New Testament bears abundant testimony to the prevalence
of magic and exorcism at the time at which its books were written. In
the Gospels, Jesus is represented as arguing with the Pharisees, who
accuse him of casting out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils.
"If I by Beelzebub cast out the demons [--Greek--] by whom do your sons
cast them out? Therefore let them be your judges."(5)
The thoroughness and universality of the Jewish popular belief in
demons and evil spirits and in the power of magic is exhibited in the
ascription to Solomon, the monarch in whom the greatness and glory
of the nation attained its culminating point, of the character of a
powerful magician. The most effectual forms of invocation and exorcism,
and the most potent spells of magic, were said to have been composed
by him, and thus the grossest superstition of the nation acquired the
sanction of their wisest king. Rabbinical writings are
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never weary of enlarging upon the magical power and knowledge of
Solomon. He was represented as not only king of the whole earth, but
also as reigning over devils and evil spirits, and having the power
of expelling them from the bodies of men and animals, and also of
delivering people to them.(1) It was indeed believed that the two demons
Asa and Asael taught Solomon all wisdom and all arts.(2) The Talmud
relates many instances of his power over evil spirits, and amongst
others how he made them assist in building the Temple. Solomon desired
to have the help of the worm Schamir in preparing the stones for the
sacred building, and he conjured up a devil and a she-devil to inform
him where Schamir was to be found. They referred him to Asmodeus, whom
the King craftily captured, and by whom he was informed that Schamir is
under the jurisdiction of the Prince of the Seas, and Asmodeus further
told him how he might be secured. By his means the Temple was built,
but, from the moment it was destroyed, Schamir for ever disappeared.(3)
It was likewise believed that one of the Chambers of the second Temple
was built by a magician called Parvah, by means of magic.(4) The Talmud
narrates many stories of miracles performed by various Rabbins.(6)
The Jewish historian, Josephus, informs us that, amongst
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other gifts, God bestowed upon King Solomon knowledge of the way to
expel demons, an art which is useful and salutary for mankind. He
composed incantations by which diseases are cured, and he left behind
him forms of exorcism by which demons may be so effectually expelled
that they never return, a method of cure, Josephus adds, which is of
great efficacy to his own day. He himself had seen a countryman of his
own, named Eliezer, release people possessed of devils in the presence
of the Emperor Vespasian and his sons, and of his army. He put a ring
containing one of the roots prescribed by Solomon to the nose of the
demoniac, and drew the demon out by his nostrils, and, in the name of
Solomon, and reciting one of his incantations, he adjured it to return
no more. In order to demonstrate to the spectators that he had the power
to cast out devils, Eliezer was accustomed to set a vessel full of water
a little way off, and he commanded the demon as he left the body of the
man to overturn it, by which means, says Josephus, the skill and wisdom
of Solomon were made very manifest.(1) Jewish Rabbins generally were
known as powerful exorcisers, practising the art according to the
formulae of their great monarch. Justin Martyr reproaches his Jewish
opponent, Tryphon, with the fact that his countrymen use the same art as
the Gentiles, and exorcise with fumigations and charms [--Greek--], and he
shows the common belief in demoniacal influence "when he asserts that,
while Jewish exorcists cannot overcome demons by such means, or even
by exorcising them in the name of their Kings, Prophets, or Patriarchs,
though he admits that they might do so if they adjured them in the name
of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
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Jacob, yet Christians at once subdued demons by exorcising them in the
name of the Son of God.(1) The Jew and the Christian were quite agreed
that demons were to be exorcised, and merely differed as to the formula
of exorcism. Josephus gives an account of a root potent against evil
spirits. It is called Baaras, and is flame-coloured, and in the evening
sends out flashes like lightning. It is certain death to touch it,
except under peculiar conditions. One mode of securing it is to dig down
till the smaller part of the root is exposed, and then to attach the
root to a dog's tail. When the dog tries to follow its master from the
place, and pulls violently, the root is plucked up, and may then be
safely handled, but the dog instantly dies, as the man would have done
had he plucked it up himself. When the root is brought to sick people,
it at once expels demons.(2) According to Josephus, demons are the
spirits of the wicked dead; they enter into the bodies of the living,
who die, unless succour be speedily obtained.(3) This theory, however,
was not general, demons being commonly considered the offspring of the
fallen angels and of the daughters of men.
The Jewish historian gives a serious account of the preternatural
portents which warned the Jews of the approaching fall of Jerusalem, and
he laments the infatuation of the people, who disregarded these Divine
denunciations. A star in the shape of a sword, and also a comet, stood
over the doomed city for the space of a whole year. Then, at the feast
of unleavened bread, before the rebellion of the Jews which preceded the
war, at the ninth hour of the night a
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great light shone round the altar and the Temple, so that for half
an hour it seemed as though it were brilliant daylight. At the same
festival other supernatural warnings were given. A heifer, as she was
led by the high-priest to be sacrificed, brought forth a lamb in the
Temple; moreover, the eastern gate of the inner court of the Temple,
which was of brass, and so ponderous that twenty men had much difficulty
in closing it, and which was fastened by heavy bolts descending deep
into the solid stone floor, was seen to open of its own accord, about
the sixth hour of the night. The ignorant considered some of these
events good omens, but the priests interpreted them as portents of evil.
Another prodigious phenomenon occurred, which Josephus supposes would be
considered incredible were it not reported by those who saw it, and
were the subsequent events not of sufficient importance to merit such
portents: before sunset, chariots and troops of soldieis in armour
were seen among the clouds, moving about, and surrounding cities. And
further, at the feast of Pentecost, as the priests were entering the
inner court of the Temple to perform their sacred duties, they felt an
earthquake, and heard a great noise, and then the sound as of a great
multitude saying: "Let us remove hence."(l) There is not a shadow of
doubt in the mind of Josephus as to the reality of any of these wonders.
If we turn to patristic literature, we find, everywhere, the same
superstitions and the same theories of angelic agency and demoniacal
interference in cosmical phenomena. According to Justin Martyr, after
God had made the world and duly regulated the elements and the rotation
of the seasons, he committed man and all
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things under heaven to the care of angels. Some of these angels,
however, proved unworthy of this charge, and, led away by love of the
daughters of men, begat children, who are the demons who have corrupted
the human race, partly by magical writings [--Greek--] and partly by fears
and punishments, and who have introduced wars, murders, and other evils
amongst them, which are ignorantly ascribed by poets to God himself.(1)
He considers that demoniacs are possessed and tortured by the souls of
the wicked dead,(2) and he represents evil spirits as watching to seize
the soul at death.(3) The food of the angels is manna.(4) The angels,
says Clement of Alexandria, serve God in the administration of earthly
affairs.(5) The host of angels and of gods [--Greek--] is placed under
subjection to the Logos.(6) Presiding angels are distributed over
nations and cities, and perhaps are also deputed to individuals,(7) and
it is by their agency, either visible or invisible, that God gives all
good things.(8) He accuses the Greeks of plagiarizing their miracles
from the Bible, and he argues that if certain powers do move the winds
and distribute showers, they are agents subject to God.(9) Clement
affirms that the Son gave philosophy to the Greeks by means of the
inferior angels,(10) and argues that it is absurd to attribute it to the
devil.(11) Theophilus of Antioch, on the other hand, says that the Greek
poets were inspired by demons.(12) Athenagoras states, as one of the
principal
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points of belief among Christians, that a multitude of angels and
ministers are distributed and appointed by the Logos to occupy
themselves about the elements, and the heavens, and the universe and the
things in it, and the regulating of the whole.(1) For it is the duty of
the angels to exercise providence over all that God has created; so that
God may have the universal care of the whole, but the several parts be
ministered to by the angels appointed over them. There is freedom of
will amongst the angels as among human beings, and some of the angels
abused their trust, and fell through love of the daughters of men, of
whom were begotten those who are called Giants.(2) These angels who have
fallen from heaven busy themselves about the air and the earth; and the
souls of the Giants,(3) which are the demons that roam about the world,
work evil according to their respective natures.(4) There are powers
which exercise dominion over matter, and by means of it, and more
especially one, who is opposed to God. This Prince of matter exerts
authority and control in opposition to the good designed by God.(5)
Demons are greedy for sacrificial odours and the blood of the victims,
which they lick; and they influence the multitude to idolatry by
inspiring thoughts and visions which seem to come from idols and
statues.(6) According to Tatian, God made everything which is good, but
the wickedness of demons perverts
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the productions of nature for bad purposes, and the evil in these is due
to demons and not to God.(1) None of the demons have bodies; they are
spiritual, like fire or air, and can only be seen by those in whom the
Spirit of God dwells. They attack men by means of lower forms of matter,
and come to them whenever they are diseased, and sometimes they cause
disorders of the body, but when they are struck by the power of the word
of God, they flee in terror, and the sick person is healed.(2) Various
kinds of roots, and the relations of bones and sinews, are the material
elements through which demons work.(3) Some of those who are called gods
by the Greeks, but are in reality demons, possess the bodies of certain
men, and then by publicly leaving them they destroy the disease they
themselves had created, and the sick are restored to health.(4) Demons,
says Cyprian of Carthage, lurk under consecrated statues, and inspire
false oracles, and control the lots and omens.(5) They enter into
human bodies and feign various maladies in order to induce men to offer
sacrifices for their recovery that they may gorge themselves with the
fumes, and then they heal them. They are really the authors of the
miracles attributed to heathen deities.(6)
Tertullian enters into minute details regarding angels and demons.
Demons are the offspring of the fallen angels, and their work is the
destruction of the human race. They inflict diseases and other painful
calamities upon our bodies, and lead astray our souls. From their
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wonderful subtleness and tenuity they find their way into both parts of
our composition. Their spirituality enables them to do much harm to men,
for being invisible and impalpable they appear rather in their effects
than in their action. They blight the apples and the grain while in the
flower, as by some mysterious poison in the breeze, and kill them in the
bud, or nip them before they are ripe, as though in some inexpressible
way the tainted air poured forth its pestilential breath. In the same
way demons and angels breathe into the soul and excite its corruptions,
and especially mislead men by inducing them to sacrifice to false
deities in order that they may thus obtain their peculiar food of fumes
of flesh and blood. Every spirit, whether angel or demon, has wings;
therefore they are everywhere in a moment. The whole world is but one
place to them, and all that takes place anywhere they can know and
report with equal facility. Their swiftness is believed to be divine
because their substance is unknown, and thus they seek to be considered
the authors of effects which they merely report, as, indeed, they
sometimes are of the evil, but never of the good. They gather
intimations of the future from hearing the Prophets read aloud, and set
themselves up as rivals of the true God by stealing His divinations.
From inhabiting the air, and from their proximity to the stars and
commerce with the clouds, they know the preparation of celestial
phenomena, and promise beforehand the rains which they already feel
coming. They are very kind in reference to the cure of diseases,
Tertullian ironically says, for they first make people ill, and then,
by way of performing a miracle, they prescribe remedies either novel or
contrary to common experience, and then, removing the cause, they are
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believed to have healed the sick.(1) If any one possessed by a demon be
brought before a tribunal, Tertullian affirms that the evil spirit, when
ordered by a Christian, will at once confess that he is a demon.(2) The
fallen angels were the discoverers of astrology and magic.(3) Unclean
spirits hover over waters in imitation of the brooding (gestatio) of the
Holy Spirit in the beginning, as, for instance, over dark fountains and
solitary streams, and cisterns in baths and dwelling-houses, and similar
places, which are said to carry one off (rapere), that is to say, by the
force of the evil spirit.(4) The fallen angels disclosed to the world
unknown material substances, and various arts, such as metallurgy, the
properties of herbs, incantations, and interpretation of the stars;
and to women specially they revealed all the secrets of personal
adornment.(5) There is scarcely any man who is not attended by a
demon; and it is well known that untimely and violent deaths, which are
attributed to accidents, are really caused by demons.(6) Those who go
to theatres may become specially accessible to demons. There is the
instance, the Lord is witness (domino teste), of the woman who went to a
theatre and came back possessed by a demon; and, on being cast out, the
evil spirit replied that he had a right to act as he did, having found
her within his limits. There was another case, also well known, of a
woman who, at night, after having been to a theatre, had a vision of a
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winding sheet (linteum), and heard the name of the tragedian whom she
had seen mentioned with reprobation and, five days after, the woman
was dead.(1) Origen attributes augury and divination through animals
to demons. In his opinion certain demons, offspring of the Titans or
Giants, who haunt the grosser parts of bodies and the unclean places of
the earth, and who, from not having earthly bodies, have some power of
divining the future, occupy themselves with this. They secretly enter
the bodies of the more brutal and savage animals, and force them to make
flights or indications of divination to lead men away from God. They
have a special leaning to birds and serpents, and even to foxes and
wolves, because the demons act better through these in consequence of
an apparent analogy in wickedness between them.(2) It is for this reason
that Moses, who had either been taught by God what was similar in
the nature of animals and their kindred demons, or had discovered it
himself, prohibited as unclean the particular birds and animals most
used for divination. Therefore each kind of demon seems to have an
affinity with a certain kind of animal. They are so wicked that demons
even assume the bodies of weasels to foretell the future.(3) They feed
on the blood and odour of the victims sacrificed in idol temples.(4)
The spirits of the wicked dead wander about sepulchres and sometimes
for ages haunt particular houses, and other places.(5) The prayers of
Christians drive demons out of men, and from places where they have
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taken up their abode, and even sometimes from the bodies of animals,
which are frequently injured by them.(1) In reply to a statement of
Celsus that we cannot eat bread or fruit, or drink wine or even water
without eating and drinking with demons, and that the very air we
breathe is received from demons, and that, consequently, we cannot
inhale without receiving air from the demons who are set over the
air,(2) Origen maintains, on the contrary, that the angels of God, and
not demons, have the superintendence of such natural phenomena, and
have been appointed to communicate all these blessings. Not demons, but
angels, have been set over the fruits of the earth, and over the birth
of animals, and over all things necessary for our race.(3) Scripture
forbids the eating of things strangled because the blood is still in
them, and blood, and more especially the fumes of it, is said to be
the food of demons. If we ate strangled animals, we might have demons
feeding with us,(4) but in Origen's opinion a man only eats and drinks
with demons when he eats the flesh of idol sacrifices, and drinks the
wine poured out in honour of demons.(6) Jerome states the common belief
that the air is filled with demons.(6) Chrysostom says that angels are
everywhere in the atmosphere.(7)
Not content, however, with peopling earth and air with angels and
demons, the Fathers also shared the opinion common to Jews(8) and
heathen philosophers, that the heavenly bodies were animated beings.
After fully discussing the question, with much reference to Scripture,
{20}
Origen determines that sun, moon, and stars are living and rational
beings, illuminated with the light of knowledge by the wisdom which is
the reflection [--Greek--] of eternal light. They have free will, and as it
would appear from a passage in Job (xxv. 5) they are not only liable to
sin, but actually not pure from the uncleanness of it. Origen is careful
to explain that this has not reference merely to their physical part,
but to the spiritual; and he proceeds to discuss whether their souls
came into existence at the same time with their bodies or existed
previously, and whether, at the end of the world, they will be released
from their bodies or will cease from giving light to the world. He
argues that they are rational beings because their motions could not
take place without a soul. "As the stars move with so much order and
method," he says, "that under no circumstances whatever does their
course seem to be disturbed, is it not the extreme of absurdity to
suppose that so much order, so much observance of discipline and method
could be demanded from or fulfilled by irrational beings?"(1) They
possess life and reason, he decides, and he proves from Scripture that
their souls were given to them not at the creation of their bodily
substance, but like those of men implanted strictly from without, after
they were made.(2) They are "subject to vanity" with the rest of the
creatures, and "wait for the manifestation of the sons of God."(3)
Origen is persuaded
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that sun, moon, and stars pray to the Supreme Being through His only
begotten Son.(1) To return to angels, however, Origen states that the
angels are not only of various orders of rank, but have apportioned to
them specific offices and duties. To Raphael, for instance, is assigned
the task of curing and healing; to Gabriel the management of wars; to
Michael the duty of receiving the prayers and the supplications of men.
Angels are set over the different churches, and have charge even of the
least of their members. These offices were assigned to the angels by
God agreeably to the qualities displayed by each.(2) Elsewhere, Origen
explains that it is necessary for this world that there should be
angels set over beasts and over terrestrial operations, and also angels
presiding over the birth of animals, and over the propagation and growth
of shrubs, and, again, angels over holy works, who eternally teach
men the perception of the hidden ways of God, and knowledge of divine
things; and he warns us not to bring upon ourselves those angels who are
set over beasts, by leading an animal life, nor those which preside over
terrestrial works, by taking delight in fleshly and mundane things,
but rather to study how we may approximate to the companionship of the
Archangel Michael, to whose duty of presenting the prayers of the saints
to God he here adds the office of presiding over medicine.(3) It is
through the ministry of angels that the water-springs in fountains and
running streams refresh the earth, and that the air we breathe is
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kept pure.(1) In the "Pastor" of Hermas, a work quoted by the Fathers
as inspired Scripture, which was publicly read in the churches, which
almost secured a permanent place in the New Testament canon, and which
appears after the canonical books in the Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest
extant MS. of the New Testament, mention is made of an angel who has
rule over beasts, and whose name is Hegrin.(2) Jerome also quotes an
apocryphal work in which an angel of similar name is said to be set over
reptiles, and in which fishes, trees, and beasts are assigned to the
care of particular angels.(3)
Clement of Alexandria mentions without dissent the prevailing belief
that hail-storms, tempests, and similar phenomena do not occur merely
from material disturbance, but also are caused by the anger of demons
and evil angels.(4) Origen states that while angels superintend all the
phenomena of nature, and control what is appointed for our good, famine,
the blighting of vines and fruit trees, and the destruction of beasts
and of men, are, on the other hand, the personal works(5) of demons,
they, as public executioners, receiving at certain times authority to
carry into effect divine decrees.(6) "We have already quoted similar
views expressed by Tertullian,(7) and the universality and permanence
of such opinions may be illustrated by the fact that, after the lapse
of many centuries, we find St. Thomas Aquinas as solemnly affirming that
disease and tempests are the direct work of the devil;(8) indeed, this
belief prevailed
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throughout the middle ages until very recent times. The Apostle Peter,
in the Recognitions of Clement, informs Clement that when God made the
world He appointed chiefs over the various creatures, even over the
trees and the mountains and springs and rivers, and over everything in
the universe. An angel was set over the angels, a spirit over spirits, a
star over the stars, a demon over the demons, and so on.(1) He provided
different offices for all His creatures, whether good or bad,(2) but
certain angels having left the course of their proper order, led men
into sin and taught them that demons could, by magical invocations,
be made to obey man.(3) Ham was the discoverer of the art of magic.(4)
Astrologers suppose that evils happen in consequence of the motions
of the heavenly bodies, and represent certain climacteric periods as
dangerous, not knowing that it is not the course of the stars, but the
action of demons that regulates these things.(5) God has committed the
superintendence of the seventy-two nations into which He has divided the
earth to as many angels.(6) Demons insinuate themselves into the bodies
of men, and force them to fulfil their desires;(7) they sometimes appear
visibly to men, and by threats or promises endeavour to lead them into
error; they can transform themselves into whatever forms they please.(8)
The distinction between what is spoken by the true God through the
prophets or by visions, and that which is delivered by demons, is this:
that what proceeds from the former is always true, whereas that which is
foretold by demons is not always true.(9) Lactantius says that when the
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number of men began to increase, fearing that the Devil should corrupt
or destroy them, God sent angels to protect and instruct the human race,
but the angels themselves fell beneath his wiles, and from being angels
they became the satellites and ministers of Satan. The offspring of
these fallen angels are unclean spirits, authors of all the evils which
are done, and the Devil is their chief. They are acquainted with the
future, but nob completely. The art of the magi is altogether supported
by these demons, and at their invocation they deceive men with lying
tricks, making men think they see things which do not exist. These
contaminated spirits wander over all the earth, and console themselves
by the destruction of men. They fill every place with frauds and
deceits, for they adhere to individuals, and occupy whole houses, and
assume the name of genii, as demons are called in the Latin language,
and make men worship them. On account of their tenuity and impalpability
they insinuate themselves into the bodies of men, and through their
_viscera_ injure their health, excite diseases, terrify their souls with
dreams, agitate their minds with phrensies, so that they may by these
evils drive men to seek their aid.(1) Being adjured in the name of God,
however, they leave the bodies of the possessed, uttering the greatest
howling, and crying out that they are beaten, or are on fire.(2) These
demons are the inventors of astrology, divination, oracles, necromancy,
and the art of magic.(3) The universe is governed by God through the
medium of angels. The demons have a fore-knowledge of the purposes of
God, from having been His
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ministers, and interposing in what is being done, they ascribe the
credit to themselves.(1) The sign of the cross is a terror to demons,
and at the sight of it they flee from the bodies of men. When sacrifices
are being offered to the gods, if one be present who bears on his
forehead the sign of the cross, the sacred rites are not propitious
(_sacra nullo modo litant_), and the oracle gives no reply.(2) Eusebius,
like all the Fathers, represents the gods of the Greeks and other
heathen nations as merely wicked demons. Demons, he says, whether they
circulate in the dark and heavy atmosphere which encircles our sphere,
or inhabit the cavernous dwellings which exist within it, find charms
only in tombs and in the sepulchres of the dead, and in impure and
unclean places. They delight in the blood of animals, and in the putrid
exhalations which rise from their bodies, as well as in earthly vapours.
Their leaders, whether as inhabitants of the upper regions of the
atmosphere, or plunged in the abyss of hell, having discovered that
the human race had deified and offered sacrifices to men who were dead,
promoted the delusion in order to savour the blood which flowed.and the
fumes of the burning flesh. They deceived men by the motions conveyed
to idols and statues, by the oracles they delivered, and by healing
diseases, with which, by the power inherent in their nature, they had
before invisibly smitten bodies, and which they removed by ceasing to
torture them. These demons first introduced magic amongst men.(3) We may
here refer to the account of a miracle which Eusebius seriously quotes,
as exemplifying another occasional
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function of the angels. The heretical Bishop Natalius having in vain
been admonished by God in dreams, was at last lashed through the whole
of a night by holy angels, till he was brought to repentance, and, clad
in sackcloth and covered with ashes, he at length threw himself at the
feet of Zephyrinus, then Bishop of Rome, pointing to the marks of the
scourges which he had received from the angels, and implored to be again
received into communion with the Church.(1) Augustine says that demons
inhabit the atmosphere as in a prison, and deceive men, persuading them
by their wonderful and false signs, or doings, or predictions, that
they are gods.(2) He considers the origin of their name in the sacred
Scriptures worthy of notice: they are called [--Greek--] in Greek on
account of their knowledge.(3) By their experience of certain signs
which are hidden from us, they can read much more of the future, and
sometimes even announce beforehand what they intend to do. Speaking of
his own time, and with strong expressions of assurance, Augustine says
that not only Scripture testifies that angels have appeared to men with
bodies which could not only be seen but felt, but what is more, it is a
general report, and many have personal experience of it, or have learned
it from those who have knowledge of the fact, and of whose truth there
is no doubt, that satyrs and fauns, generally called "Incubi," have
frequently perpetrated their peculiar wickedness;(4) and also that
certain demons called by the Gauls _Dusii_ every day attempt and effect
the same uncleanness, as
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witnesses equally numerous and trustworthy assert, so that it would be
impertinence to deny it.(1)
Lactantius, again, ridicules the idea that there can be antipodes, and
he can scarcely credit that there can be any one so silly as to believe
that there are men whose feet are higher than their heads, or that grain
and trees grow downwards, and rain, snow, and hail fall upwards to the
earth. After jesting at those who hold such ridiculous views, he points
out that their blunders arise from supposing that the heaven is round,
and the world, consequently, round like a ball, and enclosed within it.
But if that were the case, it must present the same appearance to all
parts of heaven, with mountains, plains, and seas, and consequently
there would be no part of the earth uninhabited by men and animals.
Lactantius does not know what to say to those who, having fallen into
such an error, persevere in their folly (_stultitia_), and defend one
vain thing by another, but sometimes he supposes that they philosophize
in jest, or knowingly defend falsehoods to display their ingenuity.
Space alone prevents his proving that it is impossible for heaven to be
below the earth.(2) St. Augustine, with equal boldness, declares that
the stories told about the antipodes, that is to say, that there are men
whose feet are against our footsteps, and upon whom the sun rises
when it sets to us, are not to be believed. Such an assertion is not
supported by any historical evidence,
{137}
but rests upon mere conjecture based on the rotundity of the earth. But
those who maintain such a theory do not consider that even if the earth
be round, it does not follow that the opposite side is not covered with
water. Besides, if it be not, why should it be inhabited, seeing that on
the one hand it is in no way possible that the Scriptures can lie, and
on the other, it is too absurd (_nimisque absurdum est_) to affirm that
any men can have traversed such an immensity of ocean to establish the
human race there from that one first man Adam.(1)
Clement of Rome had no doubt of the truth of the story of the
Phoenix,(2) that wonderful bird of Arabia and the adjoining countries,
which lives 500 years; at the end of which time, its dissolution being
at hand, it builds a nest of spices, in which it dies. From the decaying
flesh, however, a worm is generated, which being strengthened by the
juices of the bird, produces feathers and is transformed into a Phoenix.
Clement adds that it then flies away with the nest containing the bones
of its defunct parent to the city of Heliopolis in Egypt, and in full
daylight, and in the sight of all men, it lays them on the altar of the
sun. On examining their registers, the priests find that the bird
has returned precisely at the completion of the 500 years. This
bird, Clement considers, is an emblem of the Resurrection.(1) So does
Tertullian, who repeats the story with equal confidence.(2) It is
likewise referred to in the Apostolic Constitutions.(3) Celsus quotes
the narrative in his work against Christianity as an instance of the
piety of irrational creatures, and although Origen, in reply, while
admitting that the story is indeed recorded, puts in a cautious "if it
be true," he proceeds to account for the phenomenon on the ground
that God may have made this isolated creature, in order that men might
admire, not the bird, but its creator.(4) Cyril of Jerusalem, likewise,
quotes the story from Clement.(5) The author of the almost canonical
Epistle of Barnabas, explaining the typical meaning of the code of Moses
regarding clean and unclean animals which were or were not to be eaten,
states as a fact that the hare annually increases the number of its
_foramina_, for it has as many as the years it lives.(6) He also
mentions that the hyena changes its sex every year, being alternately
male and female.(7) Tertullian also points out as a recognized fact the
annual change of sex of the hyena, and he adds: "I do not mention the
stag, since itself is the witness of its own age; feeding on the
serpent it languishes into youth from the working of the poison."(8) The
geocentric
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theory of the Church, which elevated man into the supreme place in the
universe, and considered creation in general to be solely for his use,
naturally led to the misinterpretation of all cosmical phenomena. Such
spectacles as eclipses and comets were universally regarded as awful
portents of impending evil, signs of God's anger, and forerunners of
national calamities.(1) We have already referred to the account given
by Josephus of the portents which were supposed to announce the coming
destruction of the Holy City, amongst which were a star shaped like a
sword, a comet, and other celestial phenomena. Volcanoes were considered
openings into hell, and not only does Ter-tullian hold them to be so,
but he asks who will not deem these punishments sometimes inflicted upon
mountains as examples of the judgments which menace the wicked.(2)