contained no longer mere hearsay concerning these Jews, but the things
that you yourself had seen and heard. Now you will do well to make
inquiry more particularly on the following points: 1st, Does this sect
of Jews, (or Christians if they are to be so called) possess any sacred
books? 2nd, As touching this son of the Divine Being, of whom you
speak, was he (according to their saying) begotten by the superior god
from some human mother; or came he into the world as the child of some
divine mother? or in what other way? For I assume, of course, that his
followers do not believe him to have been born of a human father. But
if he was also not born of a human mother, then what certainty is there
that he had human flesh and blood; and in that case, how could he be
subject to death? But perhaps they say that he did not really die? In
that case, however, he did not really rise from the dead; so that both
his death and life would seem to have been a make-believe, the death a
not dying, and the life a not existing; yet it is not easy to see why
even an inferior god should come into the world for the purpose of not
existing; 3d, Touching the wonderful works said to have been wrought
by this Christus, were they all acts of healing such as you describe?
Or were there not also some such tricks and portents as wizards and
enchanters and jugglers profess to perform, such as the breathing of
fire from the nostrils, and the changing of earth into bread, and of
water into blood, and the producing of sudden banquets and then causing
them to vanish again, and the summoning up of apparitions, and drawing
down the moon from the sky, and other such vulgar marvels? 4th, This
rising again of Christus from the grave, was it seen and attested by
enemies as well as by friends? And, if so, did the enemies turn to his
side, being convinced by the marvel? Or, if not by enemies, was it at
least seen (according to what the Christians themselves affirm) by
impartial witnesses? And did these, by reason of what they saw, believe
in him and follow him? And after his rising from the grave, did he eat
and drink and bathe and lecture and sleep as before? Or, if not, in
what respects was his manner of life changed, and in what guise did
he appear, and moving with what motion? Also if he was, as you say,
executed like a slave upon the cross, did his limbs manifest, to all
that saw him, the marks of his execution? Or did these scars appear to
some, but not to others? Lastly, forget not to inquire (for this is of
the greatest importance) whether any touched him, and also how he came
among his followers, after his rising again; whether by opening the
doors in the usual way and ascending stairs, or whether the doors being
shut, he shewed himself in the midst of his friends. My fifth and last
question is, what laws has this leader laid down for his followers? and
on this point I would have you inform me as fully and exactly as you
can.
“Because I have asked you so many questions, my dear Onesimus, you will
probably infer (and you will not be wrong) that the subject attracts me
and that I set much value on your information: which indeed come to me
all the more seasonably because here, in this very neighborhood, these
Jews, or Christians, have been of late making no small stir; especially
at Ephesus, where that same Paulus of whom you speak, has been these
many months, openly teaching the philosophy of your Christus, and his
lectures, (or as some say his portents) have drawn away many pupils
to hear him, who also have accepted that purification by water which
gives admission to this sect. And from what I have heard I gather that
their philosophy—for religion it can scarce be called having no gods
except perchance one, nor scarce any rites or sacrifices, nor any
processions, nor feasts, nor holidays—after the manner of the doctrine
which is ever in the mouth of our young friend Epictetus, deals mainly
with the practice and not much with the theories and speculations of
life. For many that were before noted for thieves or drunkards or loose
livers are reported to have been turned from their swinish living by
Paulus, so as to live lives wellnigh worthy of philosophers. Moreover,
strange to relate, this magician, for so they call him, sets himself
against all magic in others; and many of his followers, turning from
their so-called magic arts, have brought their Ephesian charms and
their books of magic, yea, and even their lawful silver shrines of
Ephesian Artemis herself, to be burned or melted down. So great indeed
is the diminution of the purchase of the shrines that by this time
the silversmiths begin to cry out; and I heard but yesterday that
complaints are coming in from the graziers who fatten the victims for
the temples, that their business is diminished and like to slip away
from them altogether if this new superstition be not checked.
“As to exorcism, you did not amiss to remind me that attested cases of
sudden healing are not to be put aside merely because the illiterate
multitude calls them by absurd names and explains them by absurd
causes; but perhaps I also shall not do amiss to remind you (surrounded
as you are by all manner of superstitious and credulous people) that
every such case is assuredly to be explained, if not by deceit and
fraud, then by some moving of the imagination (for imagination is a
powerful causer of many undreamed effects), or else by some other cause
or causes of which we may for the time be ignorant.
“Take for example the following instance of one reported to have been
raised from the dead; which I myself have with great expense of time
and labor but recently searched out and for the truth of which I can
vouch. About a month ago our friend Nicostratus came to me—in that
state of frenzy which, as you know, is customary with him when he has
anything to relate which he cannot himself explain—saying that a
nobleman in some part of Phrygia or Cilicia had been raised from the
dead after being a month or more entombed, and that he had spoken with
a Laodicean, one who had either seen it done or at least knew all the
facts, and could attest their truth; but Nicostratus himself knew no
more about the matter, and, as I found on questioning him, he proposed
to inquire no further about it, but to spread the rumor throughout all
Colossæ, just as he imparted it to me. With much ado I obtained from
him the name of the Laodicean (for the futile creature had well-nigh
forgotten even that), and on the first occasion that offered itself I
went to Laodicea to see him. The story of the Laodicean was to this
effect, that the dead man had died of a fever, and had been buried
so long that the body must needs have become corrupt: and behold, a
magician came to the door of the sepulchre and pronounced charms and
incantations, and straightway the door flew open and the dead man came
forth alive, wrapped in his grave-clothes; but what was the name of
the deceased, and who it was that raised him up, and when and where it
was done—concerning all these points he neither knew anything, nor had
he himself seen it, nor heard anything from any eye-witness. Tracing
the matter backward I learned at last the name of the man supposed
to have been raised from the dead, no nobleman at all, but an honest
dyer of Hierapolis, Tatias by name, and my informant told me that
the said Tatias, though he had indeed died from a fever, had not yet
been buried at the time when he was restored to life; he added the
name of the physician who had seen Tatias laid out for burial; but
who had raised him from the dead he did not know. So to the physician
I went; and here at last I gained some glimpse of the truth. For
I understood from him that Tatias had not died of fever, but of a
sudden flux of blood to the head, such as is commonly called syncope.
Notwithstanding, the physician stoutly affirmed that Tatias was really
dead; not unnaturally, because his own credit was else like to have
been diminished, if he had suffered one that was still living to be
laid out for burial. Thence going to Tatias himself—a man of sense and
understanding and in spite of his superstition, able to discern truth
from falsehood—I heard the whole story according to the exact truth,
and here it is, set down exactly from his lips.
“It seems that he had been a pupil or hearer of one Philippus, a
Christian (who, as I take it, is the same Philippus as he of whom you
made mention in your last letter to me), and having embraced this
new religion, he had been desirous for some days of receiving the
purification customary for the initiated; but some accident still
delaying it, he grew perturbed, lest it should be more than accident,
and lest the gods were against his being purified. At last, on the
appointed day, purposing to go with others of the uninitiated to the
pool where the rite was to take place, he was suddenly called away
to see his mother, who being seized with a violent fever was said by
the messenger to be on the point of death. But finding her sickness
to be only slight, and no danger at all of death, he determined to
hasten with all speed to the mysteries, hoping that he might after
all not be too late, for the day was not yet far spent. So coming at
last into the place of assembly in great heat and fatigue of body
and still greater trepidation of mind lest it should be all in vain,
and he a second time ‘disappointed of salvation’—for these were his
very words—in this condition of mind and body he was called upon in
the midst of a great multitude already assembled to stand up on some
kind of platform and there to make profession of his new religion. So
mounting up he adventured to speak in due form; but behold some demon
(to use the man’s own words, for he spoke as one of the ignorant) had
wholly possessed him, depriving him of the power of speech and causing
all things to appear to turn round before him; and anon he fell to the
ground, and was taken up for dead, and brought back to his own house,
and being given over by the physician as dead, he was washed, laid out,
and all things made ready for his entombment.
“But during all this time, though the man was lying on his back not
able to move hand or foot, yet was he not wholly dead. For though he
could not so much as stir an eyelid, yet was he aware, he says, of the
presence and words of the physician, and of the waiting of the women
and the mourners, and able to understand the speech of those who stood
around him; and a deep horror fell upon him lest he should be carried
out and entombed alive, and die miserably before he had attained to
salvation; ‘but,’ continued he, ‘the more my horror grew upon me,
the less seemed my power to move, being bound fast by the fetters of
Satan.’ However he took some comfort because he heard his friends say
that they had sent for Philippus (who was at that time absent from
Hierapolis) to come and offer up prayers. What followed I will now
recount in the words of Tatias himself. ‘When,’ said he, ‘the man of
God entered the chamber, I was at once aware of his presence, all
standing up to salute him, and I also desired to stand up but could
not; then I was aware that he drew nigh to me, and I felt he looked
on my face though I saw him not; and he said aloud that it was not
well that I should die till I had made confession of my faith and been
washed in the living water; then the sound of the mourners ceased and
there was a deep silence, and I knew that he was looking on me again,
and a certainty began to possess me that I should be delivered; and he
spoke a second time saying that he did not believe that I was dead,
but that I slept, and that it was the Lord’s will that I should be
awakened; and at the word he took me by the hand, and I felt a thrill
through my body, as if the bands of Satan began to be loosened; and
then calling me by name he adjured me in the name of Jesus of Nazareth,
who arose from the dead, to rise up and walk. And straightway strength
seemed to flow into every part of my body, and my limbs no longer
refused to obey me, and I sat up and spoke and magnified God.
“My reason, dear Onesimus, for describing to you thus fully this matter
of Tatias, is two-fold; first, that you may perceive that no truth is
to be rejected or passed over; secondly, that you may be encouraged to
remember that many things which at first seem false or fabulous, or
else contrary to nature, will, when sifted and examined, appear to be
neither false nor unnatural, but true and in accordance with nature.
Therefore I beseech you, as long as you are in Syria, and in condition
to find out anything new about these Jews, search with all zeal; and
trust not to hearsay but test all things yourself as far as you may,
seeking the truth with a just sobriety and incredulity. Spare not
pains nor labor: for without doubt some great cause must needs be at
work to produce so great effects as are wrought by these Christians;
men for the most part illiterate and inexperienced in philosophy; who
notwithstanding appear to have attained a remarkable skill, not only in
the healing of certain diseases, but also in turning many of the viler
sort towards courses of honesty and virtue. Search therefore and with
all diligence; but forget not the proverb:
Sober incredulity
Is the wise man’s security.
§ 4. HOW THE CHRISTIANS HONORED THE PROPHETS OF THE JEWS.
“ONESIMUS TO ARTEMIDORUS, HEALTH:
“To proceed with the answers to your questions. These Christian Jews
have no sacred books of their own; but they use in their worship the
sacred books of their countrymen. For although they (or at least many
of them) reject the sacrifices and festivals and laws ordained by their
ancient law-giver Moses, yet do they by no means reject the books of
oracles or prophecies which they commonly call ‘the Prophets.’ Now many
of these prophecies predict that there shall come a great ruler of the
nation of the Jews, who shall deliver them from all their enemies and
make them to be conquerors of the world; and this their future Ruler
or Redeemer they use to call ‘Messiah,’ (which word means ‘sent,’
because he is to be ‘sent’ from God). So far therefore both the older
Jews and the new Jews agree; but the great difference is this; the
former look forward to the coming of their ‘Messiah,’ the latter say
he is already come, and that he is no other than he whom they call
Christus. Now because it is a great stumbling-block to the older
Jews to suppose that their conquering Messiah was not only himself
conquered but also slain with insults and with the death of a slave,
for this cause the Christians spare no pains to shew that the oracles
of the older Jews themselves predicted that he should be so slain;
and they also labor to shew that the same books of prophecy foretold
how the Messiah should be born, and the manner of his life; and that
all these predictions are fulfilled in the birth and life of their
Christus. Hence it comes that they think it of little account to say
that Christus did this or that, or that he was born and died at such a
place and at such a time, unless they can also add that ‘all this was
done that the words of this or that prophet might be fulfilled.’ And
more than this; as often as they have read one of the passages of the
prophecies appointed to be read in their worship, first one arises and
then another, water-carriers and tent-makers and leather-cutters and
the like, all attempting to shew that this sentence and that sentence
point to none other than Christus; and in this fashion not only do they
strain the words of their prophets and enforce them to receive all
manner of meanings which they could not naturally have, but also they
unwittingly encourage and, as it were, vying with one another, provoke
their own and one another’s imaginations to remember some new things
that Christus did, or said, that perchance fulfil the words of the
prophecy.
“Hence proceeds already a manifest alteration of the doctrine of
the Christians, and more is likely to proceed. For you may already
perceive different shapes of teaching among them, and each later shape
departs further from the truth in order to come nearer to the ancient
prophecies. Thus, for example, there was read in our presence in the
synagogue an ancient dirge which is commonly interpreted to predict
the death of the Messiah, wherein it was said that his hands and feet
were pierced, and that gall and vinegar were given him to drink, and
that his enemies divided his raiment and cast lots for it, and that the
passers-by wagged their heads at him and mocked him for his trust in
God, saying, ‘He trusted in God, let God therefore deliver him, if He
will have him.’ Now, after this had been read and after the principal
speaker, who was a man of some discretion, had pointed out that this
prophecy was fulfilled by Christus, I took occasion, when we left the
synagogue, to question the man thus:
_Onesimus._ Say you then that in all points this prophecy was fulfilled
by Christus?
_The Speaker._ In these points—that his hands and feet were pierced,
and that his enemies derided him, and that vinegar was given him to
drink.
_Onesimus._ You say well, for a draught is wont to be given to those
who are condemned to death; but tell me further, did any cast lots
for his raiment, and did the bystanders say these precise words
‘He trusted in God,’ and the like? And is it so handed down in your
Tradition?
_The Speaker._ It is not indeed so handed down in our tradition; but it
may have been so.
When I had thanked him for his courtesy I hastened forwards to an
honest and illiterate leather-cutter to whom I put precisely the same
questions; but now mark the different replies in this, which I call the
second, shape of the Christian doctrine.
_Onesimus._ Tell me, good friend, was this prophecy, whereof we heard
but now, fulfilled in all points by Christus?
_Leather-cutter._ Assuredly.
_Onesimus._ And did his enemies cast lots for his raiment?
_Leather-cutter._ Assuredly.
_Onesimus._ And did the bystanders say ‘He trusted in God’ and use
these exact words?
_Leather-cutter._ Assuredly.
_Onesimus._ And are these things taught in the Tradition concerning the
acts and deeds of Christus?
_Leather-cutter._ Not that I remember.
_Onesimus._ Then did Simeon, or Lucius, or Petrus, or Paulus or any
other ever teach thee these things in the synagogue?
_Leather-cutter._ Not that I remember.
_Onesimus._ Then, prithee, how knowest thou that these things are so?
_Leather-cutter._ Because it must needs be that all things that are
written in the Law and the Prophets should be fulfilled in Christus.
“Behold, my dear Artemidorus, the second shape of the Christian
doctrine; which, if it be not speedily committed to writing, what third
or fourth shapes it may assume, the wit of man cannot conjecture. But
one thing is certain, that in every case the leather-cutter will carry
the day against the learned man, and the man who believes everything
against the man of discretion who believes some things and rejects
others. Thus, although Christus died not a generation ago, and was
born (as is thought) scarce more than two generations ago, yet already
are there current many fables and stories which overshadow the things
that he really did, and the doctrine that he really taught, and all
this because of the ancient prophecies of his nation; so that, for my
part, whensoever I hear one of their teachers say that Christus said or
did this or that, and make no mention of any prophecy, then I incline
to believe him; but when he adds that Christus said or did anything
‘that a prophecy might be fulfilled,’ then I shut my ears against the
man’s words, knowing that they are, in all likelihood, imaginations and
fancies.
“A second noteworthy point is, that they make frequent use of figures
of speech, and these sometimes so mixed up with facts and histories
that it is hard to understand whether they are to be taken according
to the letter or not. Thus, for example, whereas they assert that
their ancient Lawgiver gave them bread called manna and water from the
rock, this they mean literally; but whereas they say that Christus was
in no way inferior to him, for that he also gave them ‘bread from
heaven’ and ‘living water,’ yea, also and (as some add) ‘wine instead
of water,’ all these phrases are to be taken, not according to the
letter but, (most say,) spiritually. Yet even some of these relations
my friend the leather-cutter accepts as literally true, and his opinion
will soon prevail; such confusion is there between the figures of
speech and facts of history in the minds of the illiterate. Again, when
the teachers speak of being ‘delivered from death,’ they mean (for
the most part) not that which we call death but rather the decay and
corruption of the soul; and in the same way, when they speak of the
unclosing of the ears of the deaf, and of the eyes of the blind, and of
making the lame to walk in the straight path, in all these cases their
meaning (and the meaning of the prophets) is not to speak of the things
of the body, but of the things of the soul. Yet even these the common
sort have begun to interpret not of the soul but of the body, and hence
have arisen already many perversions of the history of the acts of
Christus.
“From this cause have proceeded, I doubt not, many of the false
accusations which are commonly reported against these Christians and
which I myself once ignorantly believed. For example, whereas they
are commonly charged with slaying and eating a little child (and many
also add that the Christians cover the child with meal, and then
cause those who would fain be initiated, to cut the meal with their
knives so that they may be unwittingly led to perpetrate murder),
the charge arises, as I am persuaded, from the misunderstanding of
certain words used by the Christians in their mysteries. For in these
secret rites, offering up no sacrifice of their own, they commemorate
(as I am informed) the sacrifice of Christus; calling by that name
his miserable death, and affirming that it was voluntary and that he
thereby offered up his life for the world; and for this cause they not
only call him the Son of God but also the Lamb of God, and just as
those who offer up a victim partake of the flesh of a victim, even so
do these Christians, partaking of bread and wine, profess solemnly that
they eat the body and drink the blood of the Son or Child of God; and
hence has sprung the belief of the common people that the Christians
slay and eat a little child. As touching the charge of incest commonly
brought against them, I am persuaded that this also is groundless; but
it is possible that the Christians calling one another brethren and
sisters (as being members of one brotherhood) have caused those who
love them not, to suppose that brothers and sisters are permitted in
their sect to unite in marriage. But another cause might be alleged,
for they are wont to speak of their state or republic sometimes as
the New Jerusalem, but sometimes as a living person, the Mother of
the Faithful, and, speaking of the parentage of Christus, they say
that this Mother gave birth to him, describing her (in poetic figures
and with numbers that are customary in their sacred books) as a Woman
clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a
crown of twelve stars, and they say that she brought forth a man-child
who should rule all nations with a rod of iron, which man-child is
no other than the ‘Messiah,’ or Christus. But again, others using a
different figure describe the republic not as a Mother, but as a Bride,
chaste and spotless, being betrothed to Christus, whom they praise as
the Bridegroom; and this manner of speech, strange as it may seem to
us Greeks, is familiar to them, being commonly used in their books
of prophecies, which often speak of their nation as a Bride, and the
superior god as the Bridegroom. Now it is possible that some, hearing
that, among the Christians, the Son is betrothed to the Mother, and
not staying to consider whether this betrothal be a figure of speech
or true according to the letter, have affirmed that incest is allowed
among them. But whatever may be the cause of the error, an error it is
beyond all question. For these Christians, however they may fall short
in understanding, are not inferior to philosophers in the purity of
their lives. Much more I have to write about the traditions of these
people, which I must defer till my next letter.”
§ 5. OF THE ANCIENT HISTORIES OF THE JEWS.
“ONESIMUS TO ARTEMIDORUS, HEALTH.