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| A Letter from Origen to Africanus.
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A Letter
from Origen to Africanus.
————————————
Origen to Africanus, a
beloved brother in God the Father, through Jesus Christ, His holy
Child, greeting. Your letter, from which I learn what you think
of the Susanna in the Book of Daniel, which is used in the Churches,
although apparently somewhat short, presents in its few words many
problems, each of which demands no common treatment, but such as
oversteps the character of a letter, and reaches the limits of a
discourse.3028
| 3028 [See Dr.
Pusey’s Lectures on Daniel the Prophet, lect. vi. p. 326,
327; also The Uncanonical and Apocryphal Scriptures, by Rev. R.
W. Churton, B.D. (1884), pp. 389–404. S.] | And I, when I
consider, as best I can, the measure of my intellect, that I may know
myself, am aware that I am wanting in the accuracy necessary to reply
to your letter; and that the more, that the few days I have spent in
Nicomedia have been far from sufficient to send you an answer to all
your demands and queries even after the fashion of the present
epistle. Wherefore pardon my little ability, and the little time
I had, and read this letter with all indulgence, supplying anything I
may omit.
2. You begin by saying, that when, in my
discussion with our friend Bassus, I used the Scripture which contains
the prophecy of Daniel when yet a young man in the affair of Susanna, I
did this as if it had escaped me that this part of the book was
spurious. You say that you praise this passage as elegantly
written, but find fault with it as a more modern composition, and a
forgery; and you add that the forger has had recourse to something
which not even Philistion the play-writer would have used in his puns
between prinos and prisein, schinos and
schisis, which words as they sound in Greek can be used in
this way, but not in Hebrew. In answer to this, I have to tell
you what it behoves us to do in the cases not only of the History of
Susanna, which is found in every Church of Christ in that Greek copy
which the Greeks use, but is not in the Hebrew, or of the two other
passages you mention at the end of the book containing the history of
Bel and the Dragon, which likewise are not in the Hebrew copy of
Daniel; but of thousands of other passages also which I found in many
places when with my little strength I was collating the Hebrew copies
with ours. For in Daniel itself I found the word
“bound” followed in our versions by very many verses which
are not in the Hebrew at all, beginning (according to one of the copies
which circulate in the Churches) thus: “Ananias, and
Azarias, and Misael prayed and sang unto God,” down to “O,
all ye that worship the Lord, bless ye the God of gods. Praise
Him, and say that His mercy endureth for ever and ever. And it
came to pass, when the king heard them singing, and saw them that they
were alive.” Or, as in another copy, from “And they
walked in the midst of the fire, praising God and blessing the
Lord,” down to “O, all ye that worship the Lord, bless ye
the God of gods. Praise Him, and say that His mercy endureth to
all generations.”3029
But in the
Hebrew copies the words, “And these three men, Sedrach, Misach,
and Abednego fell down bound into the midst of the fire,” are
immediately followed by the verse, “Nabouchodonosor the king was
astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his
counsellors.” For so Aquila, following the Hebrew reading,
gives it, who has obtained the credit among the Jews of having
interpreted the Scriptures with no ordinary care, and whose version is
most commonly used by those who do not know Hebrew, as the one which
has been most successful. Of the copies in my possession whose
readings I gave, one follows the Seventy, and the other Theodotion; and
just as the History of Susanna which you call a forgery is found in
both, together with the passages at the end of Daniel, so they give
also these passages, amounting, to make a rough guess, to more than two
hundred verses.
3. And in many other of the sacred books I found
sometimes more in our copies than in the Hebrew, sometimes less.
I shall adduce a few examples, since it is impossible to give them
all. Of the Book of Esther neither the prayer of Mardochaios nor
that of Esther, both fitted to edify the reader, is found in the
Hebrew. Neither are the letters;3030
| 3030 This should
probably be corrected, with Pat. Jun., into, “Nor are the
letters, neither,” etc. |
nor the one written to Amman about the rooting up of the Jewish nation,
nor that of Mardochaios in the name of Artaxerxes delivering the nation
from death. Then in Job, the words from “It is written,
that he shall rise again with those whom the Lord raises,” to the
end, are not in the Hebrew, and so not in Aquila’s edition; while
they are found in the Septuagint and in Theodotion’s version,
agreeing with each other at least in sense. And many other places
I found in Job where our copies have more than the Hebrew ones,
sometimes a little more, and sometimes a great deal more: a
little more, as when to the words, “Rising up in the morning, he
offered burnt-offerings for them according to their number,” they
add, “one heifer for the sin of their soul;” and to the
words, “The angels of God came to present themselves before God,
and the devil came with them,” “from going to and fro in
the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” Again,
after “The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away,” the Hebrew has not, “It
was so, as seemed good to the Lord.” Then our copies are
very much fuller than the Hebrew, when Job’s wife speaks to him,
from “How long wilt thou hold out? And he said, Lo, I wait
yet a little while, looking for the hope of my salvation,” down
to “that I may cease from my troubles, and my sorrows which
compass me.” For they have only these words of the woman,
“But say a word against God, and die.”
4. Again, through the whole of Job there are
many passages in the Hebrew which are wanting in our copies, generally
four or five verses, but sometimes, however, even fourteen, and
nineteen, and sixteen. But why should I enumerate all the
instances I collected with so much labour, to prove that the difference
between our copies and those of the Jews did not escape me? In
Jeremiah I noticed many instances, and indeed in that book I found much
transposition and variation in the readings of the prophecies.
Again, in Genesis, the words, “God saw that it was good,”
when the firmament was made, are not found in the Hebrew, and there is
no small dispute among them about this; and other instances are to be
found in Genesis, which I marked, for the sake of distinction, with the
sign the Greeks call an obelisk, as on the other hand I marked with an
asterisk those passages in our copies which are not found in the
Hebrew. What needs there to speak of Exodus, where there is such
diversity in what is said about the tabernacle and its court, and the
ark, and the garments of the high priest and the priests, that
sometimes the meaning even does not seem to be akin? And,
forsooth, when we notice such things, we are forthwith to reject as
spurious the copies in use in our Churches, and enjoin the brotherhood
to put away the sacred books current among them, and to coax the Jews,
and persuade them to give us copies which shall be untampered with, and
free from forgery! Are we to suppose that that Providence which
in the sacred Scriptures has ministered to the edification of all the
Churches of Christ, had no thought for those bought with a price, for
whom Christ died;3031
whom, although His
Son, God who is love spared not, but gave Him up for us all, that with
Him He might freely give us all things?3032
5. In all these cases consider whether it
would not be well to remember the words, “Thou shalt not remove
the ancient landmarks which thy fathers have set.”3033
Nor do I say this because I shun the
labour of investigating the Jewish Scriptures, and comparing them with
ours, and noticing their various readings. This, if it be not
arrogant to say it, I have already to a great extent done to the best
of my ability, labouring hard to get at the meaning in all the editions
and various readings;3034
| 3034 Origen’s most
important contribution to biblical literature was his elaborate attempt
to rectify the text of the Septuagint by collating it with the Hebrew
original and other Greek versions. On this he spent twenty-eight
years, during which he travelled through the East collecting
materials. The form in which he first issued the result of his
labours was that of the Tetrapla, which presented in four
columns the texts of the LXX., Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion.
He next issued the Hexapla, in which the Hebrew text was given,
first in Hebrew and then in Greek letters. Of some books he gave
two additional Greek versions, whence the title Octapla; and
there was even a seventh Greek version added for some books.
Unhappily this great work, which extended to nearly fifty volumes, was
never transcribed, and so perished (Kitto, Cycl.). | while I paid
particular attention to the interpretation of the Seventy, lest I might
to be found to accredit any forgery to the Churches which are under
heaven, and give an occasion to those who seek such a starting-point
for gratifying their desire to slander the common brethren, and to
bring some accusation against those who shine forth in our
community. And I make it my endeavour not to be ignorant of their
various readings, lest in my controversies with the Jews I should quote
to them what is not found in their copies, and that I may make some use
of what is found there, even although it should not be in our
Scriptures. For if we are so prepared for them in our
discussions, they will not, as is their manner, scornfully laugh at
Gentile believers for their ignorance of the true reading as they have
them. So far as to the History of Susanna not being found in the
Hebrew.
6. Let us now look at the things you find fault
with in the story itself. And here let us begin with what would
probably make any one averse to receiving the history: I mean the
play of words between
prinos and prisis, schinos and
schisis. You say that you can see
how this can be in Greek, but that in Hebrew the words are altogether
distinct. On this point, however, I am still in doubt; because,
when I was considering this passage (for I myself saw this difficulty),
I consulted not a few Jews about it, asking them the Hebrew words for
prinos and prisein, and how they would translate schinos the tree, and how schisis. And they said that they did not know
these Greek words prinos and
schinos, and asked me to show them the
trees, that they might see what they called them. And I at once
(for the truth’s dear sake) put before them pieces of the
different trees. One of them then said, that he could not with
any certainty give the Hebrew name of anything not mentioned in
Scripture, since, if one was at a loss, he was prone to use the Syriac
word instead of the Hebrew one; and he went on to say, that some words
the very wisest could not translate. “If, then,” said
he, “you can adduce a passage in any Scripture where the
schinos is mentioned, or the
prinos, you will find there the words
you seek, together with the words which have the same sound; but if it
is nowhere mentioned, we also do not know it.” This, then,
being what the Hebrews said to whom I had recourse, and who were
acquainted with the history, I am cautious of affirming whether or not
there is any correspondence to this play of words in the Hebrew.
Your reason for affirming that there is not, you yourself probably
know.
7. Moreover, I remember hearing from a
learned Hebrew, said among themselves to be the son of a wise man, and
to have been specially trained to succeed his father, with whom I had
intercourse on many subjects, the names of these elders, just as if he
did not reject the History of Susanna, as they occur in Jeremias as
follows: “The Lord make thee like
Zedekias and Achiab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire, for
the iniquity they did in Israel.”3035
How, then, could the one be sawn
asunder by an angel, and the other rent in pieces? The answer is,
that these things were prophesied not of this world, but of the
judgment of God, after the departure from this world. For as the
lord of that wicked servant who says, “My lord delayeth his
coming,” and so gives himself up to drunkenness, eating and
drinking with drunkards, and smiting his fellow-servants, shall at his
coming “cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the
unbelievers,”3036
even so the angels
appointed to punish will accomplish these things (just as they will cut
asunder the wicked steward of that passage) on these men, who were
called indeed elders, but who administered their stewardship
wickedly. One will saw asunder him who was waxen old in wicked
days, who had pronounced false judgment, condemning the innocent, and
letting the guilty go free;3037
and another will
rend in pieces him of the seed of Chanaan, and not of Judah, whom
beauty had deceived, and whose heart lust had perverted.3038
8. And I knew another Hebrew, who told about
these elders such traditions as the following: that they
pretended to the Jews in captivity, who were hoping by the coming of
Christ to be freed from the yoke of their enemies, that they could
explain clearly the things concerning Christ,…and that they so
deceived the wives of their countrymen.3039
| 3039 Et utrumque sigillatim
in quamcunque mulierem incidebat, et cui vitium afferre cupiebat, ei
secreto affirmasse sibi a Deo datum e suo semine progignere
Christum. Hinc spe gignendi Christum decepta mulier, sui copiam
decipienti faciebat, et sic civium uxores stuprabant seniores Achiab et
Sedekias. | Wherefore it is that the prophet
Daniel calls the one “waxen old in wicked days,” and says
to the other, “Thus have ye dealt with the children of Israel;
but the daughters of Juda would not abide your
wickedness.”
9. But probably to this you will say, Why
then is the “History” not in their Daniel, if, as you say,
their wise men hand down by tradition such stories? The answer
is, that they hid from the knowledge of the people as many of the
passages which contained any scandal against the elders, rulers, and
judges, as they could, some of which have been preserved in uncanonical
writings (Apocrypha). As an example, take the story told about
Esaias; and guaranteed by the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is found in
none of their public books. For the author of the Epistle to the
Hebrews, in speaking of the prophets, and what they suffered, says,
“They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were slain with
the sword.”3040
To whom, I
ask, does the “sawn asunder” refer (for by an old idiom,
not peculiar to Hebrew, but found also in Greek, this is said in the
plural, although it refers to but one person)? Now we know very
well that tradition says that Esaias the prophet was sawn asunder; and
this is found in some apocryphal work, which probably the Jews have
purposely tampered with, introducing some phrases manifestly incorrect,
that discredit might be thrown on the whole.
However, some one hard pressed by this argument
may have recourse to the opinion of those who reject this Epistle as
not being Paul’s; against whom I must at some other time use
other arguments to prove that it is Paul’s.3041
| 3041 [See note
supra, p. 239. S.] | At present I shall adduce from the
Gospel what Jesus Christ testifies concerning the prophets, together
with a story which He refers to, but which is not found in the Old Testament,
since in it also there is a scandal against unjust judges in
Israel. The words of our Saviour run thus: “Woe unto
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites because ye build the tombs of
the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If
we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partaken
with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore be ye witnesses
unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the
prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye
serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of
Gehenna? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise
men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some
of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from
city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed
upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of
Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the
altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon
this generation.” And what follows is of the same
tenor: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the
prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I
have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is
left unto you desolate.”3042
Let us see now if in these cases we are not forced
to the conclusion, that while the Saviour gives a true account of them,
none of the Scriptures which could prove what He tells are to be
found. For they who build the tombs of the prophets and garnish
the sepulchres of the righteous, condemning the crimes their fathers
committed against the righteous and the prophets, say, “If we had
been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with
them in the blood of the prophets.”3043
In the blood of what prophets, can any
one tell me? For where do we find anything like this written of
Esaias, or Jeremias, or any of the twelve, or Daniel? Then about
Zacharias the son of Barachias, who was slain between the temple and
the altar, we learn from Jesus only, not knowing it otherwise from any
Scripture. Wherefore I think no other supposition is possible,
than that they who had the reputation of wisdom, and the rulers and
elders, took away from the people every passage which might bring them
into discredit among the people. We need not wonder, then, if
this history of the evil device of the licentious elders against
Susanna is true, but was concealed and removed from the Scriptures by
men themselves not very far removed from the counsel of these
elders.
In the Acts of the Apostles also, Stephen, in his
other testimony, says, “Which of the prophets have not your
fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before
of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers
and murderers.”3044
That Stephen
speaks the truth, every one will admit who receives the Acts of the
Apostles; but it is impossible to show from the extant books of the Old
Testament how with any justice he throws the blame of having persecuted
and slain the prophets on the fathers of those who believed not in
Christ. And Paul, in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians,
testifies this concerning the Jews: “For ye, brethren,
became followers of the Churches of God which in Judea are in Christ
Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own
countrymen, even as they have of the Jews; who both killed the Lord
Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please
not God, and are contrary to all men.”3045
What I have said is, I think,
sufficient to prove that it would be nothing wonderful if this history
were true, and the licentious and cruel attack was actually made on
Susanna by those who were at that time elders, and written down by the
wisdom of the Spirit, but removed by these rulers of Sodom,3046
as the Spirit would call them.
10. Your next objection is, that in this
writing Daniel is said to have been seized by the Spirit, and to have
cried out that the sentence was unjust; while in that writing of his
which is universally received he is represented as prophesying in quite
another manner, by visions and dreams, and an angel appearing to him,
but never by prophetic inspiration. You seem to me to pay too
little heed to the words, “At sundry times, and in divers
manners, God spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets.”3047
This is true
not only in the general, but also of individuals. For if you
notice, you will find that the same saints have been favoured with
divine dreams and angelic appearances and (direct) inspirations.
For the present it will suffice to instance what is testified
concerning Jacob. Of dreams from God he speaks thus:
“And it came to pass, at the time that the cattle conceived, that
I saw them before my eyes in a dream, and, behold, the rams and
he-goats which leaped upon the sheep and the goats, white-spotted, and
speckled, and grisled. And the angel of God spake unto me in a
dream, saying, Jacob. And I said, What is it? And he said,
Lift up thine eyes and see, the goats and rams leaping
on the goats and sheep,
white-spotted, and speckled, and grisled: for I have seen all
that Laban doeth unto thee. I am God, who appeared unto thee in
the place of God, where thou anointedst to Me there a pillar, and
vowedst a vow there to Me: now arise, get thee out from this
land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.”3048
And as to an appearance (which is better than a
dream), he speaks as follows about himself: “And Jacob was
left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the
day. And he saw that he prevailed not against him, and he touched
the breadth of his thigh; and the breadth of Jacob’s thigh grew
stiff while he was wrestling with him. And he said to him, Let me
go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go,
except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy
name? And he said, Jacob. And he said to him, Thy name
shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: for
thou hast prevailed with God, and art powerful with men. And
Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me thy name. And he said,
Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed
him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Vision of
God: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is
preserved. And the sun rose, when the vision of God passed
by.”3049
And that he
also prophesied by inspiration, is evident from this passage:
“And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves
together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last
days. Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and
hearken unto Israel your father. Reuben, my first-born, my might,
and the beginning of my children, hard to be born, hard and
stubborn. Thou wert wanton, boil not over like water; because
thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst thou the
couch to which thou wentest up.”3050
And so with the rest: it was by
inspiration that the prophetic blessings were pronounced. We need
not wonder, then, that Daniel sometimes prophesied by inspiration, as
when he rebuked the elders sometimes, as you say, by dreams and
visions, and at other times by an angel appearing unto him.
11. Your other objections are stated, as it
appears to me, somewhat irreverently, and without the becoming spirit
of piety. I cannot do better than quote your very words:
“Then, after crying out in this extraordinary fashion, he detects
them in a way no less incredible, which not even Philistion the
play-writer would have resorted to. For, not satisfied with
rebuking them through the Spirit, he placed them apart, and asked them
severally where they saw her committing adultery; and when the one
said, ‘Under a holm-tree’ (prinos) he answered that the angel would saw him
asunder (prisein); and in a similar
fashion threatened the other, who said, ‘Under a
mastich-tree’ (schinos), with
being rent asunder.”
You might as reasonably compare to Philistion the
play-writer, a story somewhat like this one, which is found in the
third book of Kings, which you yourself will admit to be well
written. Here is what we read in Kings:—
“Then there appeared two women that were
harlots before the king, and stood before him. And the one woman
said, To me, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and we were
delivered in the house. And it came to pass, the third day after
that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we
were together; there is no one in our house except us two. And
this woman’s child died in the night; because she overlaid
it. And she arose at midnight, and took my son from my
arms. And thine handmaid slept. And she laid it in her
bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And I arose in the
morning to give my child suck, and he was dead; but when I had
considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son which I did
bear. And the other woman said, Nay; the dead is thy son, but the
living is my son. And the other said, No; the living is my son,
but the dead is thy son. Thus they spake before the king.
Then said the king, Thou sayest, This is my son that liveth, and thy
son is the dead: and thou sayest, Nay; but thy son is the dead,
and my son is the living. And the king said, Bring me a
sword. And they brought a sword before the king. And the
king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one,
and half to the other. Then spake the woman whose the living
child was unto the king (for her bowels yearned after her son), and she
said, To me, my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay
it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but
divide it. Then the king answered and said, Give the child to her
which said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it:
for she is the mother of it. And all Israel heard of the judgment
which the king had judged; and they feared the face of the king:
for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do
judgment.”3051
For if we were at liberty to speak in this scoffing way
of the Scriptures in use in the Churches, we should rather compare this
story of the two harlots to the play of Philistion than that of the
chaste Susanna. And just as the people would not have been persuaded if Solomon had
merely said, “Give this one the living child, for she is the
mother of it;” so Daniel’s attack on the elders would not
have been sufficient had there not been added the condemnation from
their own mouth, when both said that they had seen her lying with the
young man under a tree, but did not agree as to what kind of tree it
was. And since you have asserted, as if you knew for certain,
that Daniel in this matter judged by inspiration (which may or may not
have been the case), I would have you notice that there seem to me to
be some analogies in the story of Daniel to the judgment of Solomon,
concerning whom the Scripture testifies that the people saw that the
wisdom of God was in him to do judgment.3052
This might be said also of Daniel, for
it was because wisdom was in him to do judgment that the elders were
judged in the manner described.
12. I had nearly forgotten an additional remark I
have to make about the prino-prisein
and schino-schisein difficulty; that
is, that in our Scriptures there are many etymological fancies, so to
call them, which in the Hebrew are perfectly suitable, but not in the
Greek. It need not surprise us, then, if the translators of the
History of Susanna contrived it so that they found out some Greek
words, derived from the same root, which either corresponded exactly to
the Hebrew form (though this I hardly think possible), or presented
some analogy to it. Here is an instance of this in our
Scripture. When the woman was made by God from the rib of the
man, Adam says, “She shall be called woman, because she was taken
out of her husband.” Now the Jews say that the woman was
called “Essa,” and that “taken” is a
translation of this word as is evident from “chos isouoth
essa,” which means, “I have taken the cup of
salvation;”3053
and that
“is” means “man,” as we see from
“Hesre aïs,” which is,
“Blessed is the man.”3054
According to the Jews, then, “is” is
“man,” and “essa,”
“woman,” because she was taken out of her husband
(is). It need not then surprise us if some interpreters of
the Hebrew “Susanna,” which had been concealed among them
at a very remote date, and had been preserved only by the more learned
and honest, should have either given the Hebrew word for word, or hit
upon some analogy to the Hebrew forms, that the Greeks might be able to
follow them. For in many other passages we can find traces of
this kind of contrivance on the part of the translators, which I
noticed when I was collating the various editions.
13. You raise another objection, which I give in
your own words: “Moreover, how is it that they, who were
captives among the Chaldeans, lost and won at play, thrown out unburied
on the streets, as was prophesied of the former captivity, their sons
torn from them to be eunuchs, and their daughters to be concubines, as
had been prophesied; how is it that such could pass sentence of death,
and that on the wife of their king Joakim, whom the king of the
Babylonians had made partner of his throne? Then, if it was not
this Joakim, but some other from the common people, whence had a
captive such a mansion and spacious garden?”
Where you get your “lost and won at play,
and thrown out unburied on the streets,” I know not, unless it is
from Tobias; and Tobias (as also Judith), we ought to notice, the Jews
do not use. They are not even found in the Hebrew Apocrypha, as I
learned from the Jews themselves. However, since the Churches use
Tobias, you must know that even in the captivity some of the captives
were rich and well to do. Tobias himself says, “Because I
remembered God with all my heart; and the Most High gave me grace and
beauty in the eyes of Nemessarus, and I was his purveyor; and I went
into Media, and left in trust with Gabael, the brother of Gabrias, at
Ragi, a city of Media, ten talents of silver.”3055
And he adds, as if he were a rich man,
“In the days of Nemessarus I gave many alms to my brethren.
I gave my bread to the hungry, and my clothes to the naked: and
if I saw any of my nation dead, and cast outside the walls of Nineve, I
buried him; and if king Senachereim had slain any when he came fleeing
from Judea, I buried them privily (for in his wrath he killed
many).” Think whether this great catalogue of
Tobias’s good deeds does not betoken great wealth and much
property, especially when he adds, “Understanding that I was
sought for to be put to death, I withdrew myself for fear, and all my
goods were forcibly taken away.”3056
And another captive, Dachiacharus, the son of
Ananiel, the brother of Tobias, was set over all the exchequer of the
kingdom of king Acherdon; and we read, “Now Achiacharus was
cup-bearer and keeper of the signet, and steward and overseer of the
accounts.”3057
Mardochaios, too, frequented the court of the king, and
had such boldness before him, that he was inscribed among the
benefactors of Artaxerxes.
Again we read in Esdras, that Neemias, a cup-bearer and
eunuch of the king, of Hebrew race, made a request about the rebuilding
of the temple, and obtained it; so that it was granted to him, with many more, to return and build the
temple again. Why then should we wonder that one Joakim had
garden, and house, and property, whether these were very expensive or
only moderate, for this is not clearly told us in the writing?
14. But you say, “How could they who were in
captivity pass sentence of death?” asserting, I know not on what
grounds, that Susanna was the wife of a king, because of the name
Joakim. The answer is, that it is no uncommon thing, when great
nations become subject, that the king should allow the captives to use
their own laws and courts of justice. Now, for instance, that the
Romans rule, and the Jews pay the half-shekel to them, how great power
by the concession of Cæsar the ethnarch has; so that we, who have
had experience of it, know that he differs in little from a true
king! Private trials are held according to the law, and some are
condemned to death. And though there is not full licence for
this, still it is not done without the knowledge of the ruler, as we
learned and were convinced of when we spent much time in the country of
that people. And yet the Romans only take account of two tribes,
while at that time besides Judah there were the ten tribes of
Israel. Probably the Assyrians contented themselves with holding
them in subjection, and conceded to them their own judicial
processes.
15. I find in your letter yet another
objection in these words: “And add, that among all the many
prophets who had been before, there is no one who has quoted from
another word for word. For they had no need to go a-begging for
words, since their own were true. But this one, in rebuking one
of these men, quotes the words of the Lord, ‘The innocent and
righteous shalt thou not slay.’” I cannot understand
how, with all your exercise in investigating and meditating on the
Scriptures, you have not noticed that the prophets continually quote
each other almost word for word. For who of all believers does
not know the words in Esaias? “And in the last days the
mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, and the
house of the Lord on the top of the mountains,
and it shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall come
unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go
up to the mountain of the Lord, unto the house
of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us His way, and we will walk in
it: for out of Zion shall go forth a law, and a word of the
Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge
among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat
their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into
pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation;
neither shall they learn war any more.”3058
But in Micah we find a parallel passage, which is
almost word for word: “And in the last days the mountain of
the Lord shall be manifest, established on the
top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and
people shall hasten unto it. And many nations shall come, and
say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and they will teach
us His way, and we will walk in His paths: for a law shall go
forth from Zion, and a word of the Lord from
Jerusalem. And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke
strong nations; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and
their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword
against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”3059
Again, in First Chronicles, the psalm which is put
in the hands of Asaph and his brethren to praise the Lord, beginning,
“Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His
name,”3060
is in the beginning
almost identical with Psalm cv., down to “and do my prophets no
harm;” and after that it is the same as Psalm xcvi., from the beginning of that
psalm, which is something like this, “Praise the Lord all the
earth,” down to “For He cometh to judge the
earth.” (It would have taken up too much time to quote more
fully; so I have given these short references, which are sufficient for
the matter before us.) And you will find the law about not
bearing a burden on the Sabbath-day in Jeremias, as well as in
Moses.3061
| 3061 Ex. xxxv. 2; Num. xv. 32; Jer. xvii.
21–24. | And the rules
about the passover, and the rules for the priests, are not only in
Moses, but also at the end of Ezekiel.3062
| 3062 In Levit.
passim; Ezek. xliii.;
xliv.; xlv.; xlvi. | I would have quoted these, and many
more, had I not found that from the shortness of my stay in Nicomedia
my time for writing you was already too much restricted.
Your last objection is, that the style is
different. This I cannot see.
This, then, is my defence. I might, especially
after all these accusations, speak in praise of this history of
Susanna, dwelling on it word by word, and expounding the exquisite
nature of the thoughts. Such an encomium, perhaps, some of the
learned and able students of divine things may at some other time
compose. This, however, is my answer to your strokes, as you call
them. Would that I could instruct you! But I do not now
arrogate that to myself. My lord and dear brother Ambrosius, who
has written this at my dictation, and has, in looking over it,
corrected as he pleased, salutes you. His faithful spouse,
Marcella, and her children, also salute you. Also Anicetus.
Do you salute our dear father Apollinarius, and all our
friends. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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