————————————

Acts of Sharbil,³¹⁴⁷

3147 There are twomss. from which this piece is taken.  The first is Cod. Add. 14,644, fol. 72 vers.  This, which is referred to as A., has been copied exactly, except that a few manifest errors have been corrected and some deficiencies supplied from the other.  This latter, quoted as B., is Cod. Add. 14,645.  It is some three or four centuries later than the first.  They were first taken down by shorthand-writers, called notarii (notaries), or exceptores, by which name they are mentioned towards the end of this extract; the Greeks called them ταχυγράφοι.  They were then arranged in proper order by persons called by the Greeks ὑπομνηματογράφοι, and by the Romans Ab Actis.—The use of ὑπομνήματα and other Greek words seems to show that these Acts were originally written in that language. Notaries, i.e., actuarii, or at a later day exceptores.—Tr.

3148 The Latin Acta, to which the Greek ὑπομνήματα here employed corresponds, was used to denote the authorized records of judicial proceedings.—Tr.

In the fifteenth year of the Sovereign Ruler³¹⁴⁹

3149 Αὐτοκράτωρ .—Tr.

3150 That is, a.d. 112.  But the Greek era commences 311 or 312 b.c., and therefore a.g. 416 would answer to a.d. 105.  There appears to be some error in the date.

3151 The king reigning in the fifteenth year of Trajan was Maanu Bar Ajazath, the seventh king of Edessa after Abgar the Black.

3152 It would thus appear that Paganism and Christianity were tolerated together in Edessa at this time, equal honour being attributed to the head of each religious party.  Cf. Teaching of Addæus, p. 661:  “Neither did King Abgar compel any man by force to believe in Christ.”

Now, when the command arrived at the town of Edessa of the Parthians, there was a great festival, on the eighth of Nisan, on the third day of the week:  the whole city was gathered together by the great altar³¹⁵³

3153 A little before the passage quoted in the last note it is said that this altar was left standing when the altars to Bel and Nebu were thrown down.

3154 Perhaps this is the same as the “Archives” mentioned p. 007, note 14.

3155 B. adds, “before the god Zeus.”

And, while these things were being done by the command of the king, Barsamya, the bishop of the Christians, went up to Sharbil, he and Tiridath the elder and Shalula the deacon; and he said to Sharbil, the high priest:  The King Christ, to whom belong heaven and earth, will demand an account at thy hands of all these souls against whom thou art sinning, and whom thou art misleading, and turning away from the God of verity and of truth to idols that are made and deceitful, which are not able to do anything with their hands—moreover also thou hast no pity on thine own soul, which is destitute of the true life of God; and thou declarest to this people that the dumb idols talk with thee; and, as if thou wert listening to something from them, thou puttest thine ear near to one and another of them, and sayest to this people:  The god Nebu bade me say to you, “On account of your sacrifices and oblations I cause peace in this your country;” and:  Bel saith, “I cause great plenty in your land;” and those who hear this from thee do not discern that thou art greatly deceiving them—because “they have a mouth and speak not, and they have eyes and see not with them;” it is ye who bear up them, and not they who bear up³¹⁵⁶

3156 B. adds here:  “And in all these things thou hast forgotten God, the Maker of all men, and because of His long-suffering hast exalted thyself against His mercy, and hast not been willing to turn to Him, so that He might turn to thee and deliver thee from this error, in which thou standest.”

3157 Lit. “thy old age.”—Tr.

3158 The Peshito, for Ζεύς in Acts xiv. 12, has “Lord of the gods.”

3159 B. has “the work of men’s hands.”  [Jer. xvi. 20.]

3160 B. makes a considerable addition here, which it is hardly necessary to quote, the words being in all probability only an interpolation.  Cureton elsewhere remarks:  “I have almost invariably found in these Syriac mss. that the older are the shorter, and that subsequent editors or transcribers felt themselves at liberty to add occasionally, or paraphrase the earlier application in regard to early Christian literature.—Tr.  [But Cureton is speaking for his pet idea.]

Sharbil said to him:  Very acceptable to me are these thy words which thou hast spoken before me; yea, exceedingly acceptable are they to me.  But, as for me, I know that I am outcast from³¹⁶¹

3161 Or “destitute of.”—Tr.

3162 Lit. “a hidden dead man.”—Tr.

And, when Barsamya the bishop heard these things,³¹⁶³

3163 B. adds, “from Sharbil, his tears flowed and he wept.”

Sharbil said to him:  Thou, like a skilful physician, who suffers pain from the pain of the afflicted, hast done well in that thou hast been concerned about me.  But at present, because it is the festival to-day of this people, of every one of them, I cannot go down with thee to-day to the church.  Depart thou, and go down with honour; and to-morrow at night I will come down to thee:  I too have henceforth renounced for myself the gods made with hands, and I will confess the Lord Christ, the Maker of all men.

And the next day Sharbil arose and went down to Barsamya by night, he and Babai his sister; and he was received by the whole church.  And he said to them:  Offer for me prayer and supplication, that Christ may forgive me all the sins that I have committed against Him in all this long course of years.  And, because they were in dread of the persecutors, they arose and gave him the seal of salvation,³¹⁶⁴

3164 B. adds, “of baptism, baptizing him.” The “seal” (σφραγίς) is probably explained by such passages as Eph. iv. 30, that which bore the seal being regarded as the property of him whose seal it was.  Thus Gregory Naz. (Orat. 40) speaks of baptism.  See Riddle’s Christian Antiqq., p. 484.—Tr.

3165 [This identifies the “seal” with baptism.]

And, when all the city had heard that he was gone down to the church, there began to be a consternation among the multitude; and they arose and went down to him, and saw him clad in the fashion of the Christians.³¹⁶⁶

3166 B. adds, “and he sat and listened to the Scriptures of the Church, and the testimonies which are spoken in them, touching the birth and the passion and the resurrection and the ascension of Christ; and, when he saw those that came down to him—”

But Lysanias,³¹⁶⁷

3167 In B., in a passage added further on, he is styled “Lysinas,” and in the Martyrdom of Barsamya, infra, “Lysinus” or “Lucinus.”  In the Martyrologium Romanum he is called “Lysias præses.”  Tillemont supposes him to be Lusius Quietus.  But the time does not agree.  The capture of Edessa under this man was in the nineteenth year of Trajan, four years later than the martyrdom.

3168 B. adds, “from the Sharirs of the city.”

3169 B. has added several lines here.

3170 B. adds, “the Sharirs of the city.”

3171 Lit. “in which they stand.”—Tr.

Sharbil said:  When I was blinded in my mind, I worshipped that which I knew not; but to-day, inasmuch as I have obtained the clear eyes of the mind, it is henceforth impossible that I should stumble at carved stones, or that I should any longer be the cause of stumbling to others.  For it is a great disgrace to him whose eyes are open, if he goes and falls into the pit of destruction.

The judge said:  Because thou hast been priest of the venerable gods, and hast been partaker of the mystery of those whom the mighty emperors³¹⁷²

3172 Lit. “kings:”  and so throughout.—Tr.

Sharbil said:  I too, on my part, am not content that thou shouldest look upon me as formerly, when I worshipped gods made with hands; but look thou upon me to-day and question me as a Christian man renouncing idols and confessing the King Christ.

The judge said:  How is it that thou art not afraid of the emperors, nor moved to shame by those who are listening to thy trial, that thou sayest, “I am a Christian”?  But promise that thou wilt sacrifice to the gods, according to thy former custom, so that thy honour may be great, as formerly—lest I make to tremble at thee all those who have believed like thyself.

Sharbil said:  Of the King of kings I am afraid, but at any king of earth I tremble not, nor yet at thy threats towards me, which lo! thou utterest against the worshippers of Christ:  whom I confessed yesterday, and lo! I am brought to trial for His sake to-day, like as He Himself was brought to trial for the sake of sinners like me.

The judge said:  Although thou have no pity on thyself, still I will have pity on thee, and refrain from cutting off those hands of thine with which thou hast placed incense before the gods, and from stopping with thy blood those ears of thine which have heard their mysteries, and thy tongue which has interpreted and explained to us their secret things.  Of those gods lo! I am afraid, and I have pity on thee.  But, if thou continue thus, those gods be my witnesses that I will have no pity on thee!

Sharbil said:  As a man who art afraid of the emperors and tremblest at idols, have thou no pity on me.  For, as for me, I know not what thou sayest:  therefore also is my mind not shaken or terrified by those things which thou sayest.  For by thy judgments shall all they escape from the judgment to come who do not worship that which is not God in its own nature.

The judge said:  Let him be scourged with thongs,³¹⁷³

3173 The Syriac is *** (toris), and is a foreign word, probably the Latin loris, which the Syriac translator, not understanding it or not having an equivalent, may have written loris, and a subsequent transcriber have written toris.  It is plain that the latter copyist to whom the text B. is due did not know what is meant:  for he has omitted the word, and substituted “Sharbil.”

And he was scourged by ten men, who laid hold on him, according to the command of the judge.

Sharbil said:  Thou art not aware of the scourging of justice in that world which is to come.  For thou wilt cease, and thy judgments also will pass away; but justice will not pass away, nor will its retributions come to an end.

The judge³¹⁷⁴

3174 B. reads “governor” (ἡγεμών), and so generally in the corresponding places below.

3175 B. reads “discern.”

Sharbil said:  As thou takest heed not to depart from the laws of the emperors, and if moreover thou depart from them thou knowest what command they will give concerning thee, so do I also take heed not to decline from the law of Him who said,  “Thou shalt not worship any image, nor any likeness;” and therefore will I not sacrifice to idols made with hands:  for long enough was the time in which I sacrificed to them, when I was in ignorance.

The judge said:  Bring not upon thee punishment³¹⁷⁶

3176 Or “judgment.”—Tr.

Sharbil said:  But, if on behalf of the emperors, who are far away and not near at hand and not conscious of those who treat their commands with contempt, thou biddest me sacrifice, how is it that on behalf of idols, who lo! are present and are seen, but see not, thou biddest me sacrifice?  Why, hereby thou hast declared before all thy attendants³¹⁷⁷

3177 The word used is the Latin “officium” (= officiales, or corpus offialium—Tr.), which denoted the officers that attended upon presidents and chief magistrates.  The equivalent Gk. τάξίς is used below [in the Martyrdom of Habib, “attendants”].

The judge said:  It was not for this that thou wast called before me—that, instead of paying the honour which is due, thou shouldst despise the emperors.  But draw near to the gods and sacrifice, and have pity on thyself, thou self-despiser!

Sharbil said:  Why should it be requisite for thee to ask me many questions, after that which I have said to thee:  “I will not sacrifice”?  Thou hast called me a self-despiser?  But would that from my childhood I had had this mind and had thus despised myself,³¹⁷⁸

3178 Or “soul.”—Tr.

The judge said:  Hang him up, and tear him with combs on his sides.—And while he was thus torn he cried aloud and said:  It is for the sake of Christ, who has secretly caused His light to arise upon the darkness of my mind.  And, when he had thus spoken, the judge commanded again that he should be torn with combs on his face.

Sharbil said:  It is better that thou shouldest inflict tortures upon me for not sacrificing, than that I should be judged there for having sacrificed to the work of men’s hands.

The judge said:  Let his body be bent backwards, and let straps be tied to his hands and his feet; and, when he has been bent backwards, let him be scourged on his belly.

And they scourged him in this manner, according to the command of the judge.

Then he commanded that he should go up to the prison, and that he should be cast into a dark dungeon.  And the executioners,³¹⁷⁹

3179 Those who officiated at a “quæstio,” or examination by torture.—Tr.  The Latin “quæstionarii.”

But on the second of Ilul,³¹⁸⁰

3180 i.e., Heb. לּוּלאֱ, from the new moon of September to that of October.  [See p. 666, supra.]

Sharbil said:  This has been my determination in the prison, that that with which I began before thee, I will finish even to the last; nor will I play false with my word.  For I will not again confess idols, which I have renounced; nor will I renounce the King Christ, whom I have confessed.

The judge said:  Hang him up by his right hand, because he has withdrawn it from the gods that he may not again offer incense with it, until his hand with which he ministered to the gods be dislocated, because he persists in this saying of his.

And, while he was suspended by his hand, they asked him and said to him:  Dost thou consent to sacrifice to the gods?  But he was not able to return them an answer, on account of the dislocation of his arm.  And the judge commanded, and they loosed him and took him down.  But he was not able to bring his arm up to his side, until the executioners pressed it and brought it up to his side.

The judge said:  Put on incense, and go whithersoever thou wilt, and no one shall compel thee to be a priest again.  But, if thou wilt not, I will show thee tortures bitterer than these.

Sharbil said:  As for gods that made not the heavens and the earth, may they perish from under these heavens!  But thou, menace me not with words of threatening; but, instead of words, show upon me the deeds of threatening, that I hear thee not again making mention of the detestable name of gods!

The judge said:  Let him be branded with the brand of bitter fire between his eyes and upon his cheeks.

And the executioners did so, until the smell of the branding reeked forth in the midst of the judgment-hall:  but he refused to sacrifice.

Sharbil said:  Thou hast heard for thyself from me, when I said to thee “Thou art not aware of the smoke of the roasting of the fire which is prepared for those who, like thee, confess idols made by hands, and deny the living God, after thy fashion.”

The judge said:  Who taught thee all these things, that thou shouldest speak before me thus—a man who was a friend of the gods and an enemy of Christ, whereas, lo! thou art become his advocate.

Sharbil said:  Christ whom I have confessed, He it is that hath taught me to speak thus.  But there needeth not that I should be His advocate, for His own mercies are eloquent advocates for guilty ones like me, and these will avail to plead³¹⁸¹

3181 Lit. “to be a plea.”—Tr.

The judge said:  Let him be hanged up, and let him be torn with combs upon his former wounds; also let salt and vinegar be rubbed into the wounds upon his sides.  Then he said to him:  Renounce not the gods whom thou didst formerly confess.

Sharbil said:  Have pity on me and spare me again from saying that there be gods, and powers, and fates, and nativities.  On the contrary, I confess one God, who made the heavens, and the earth, and the seas, and all that is therein; and the Son who is from Him, the King Christ.

The judge said:  It is not about this that thou art questioned before me—viz.:  what is the belief of the Christians which thou hast confessed; but this is what I said to thee, “Renounce not those gods to whom thou wast made priest.”

Sharbil said:  Where is that wisdom of thine and of the emperors of whom thou makest thy boast, that ye worship the work of the hands of the artificers and confess them, whilst the artificers themselves, who made the idols, ye insult by the burdens and imposts which ye lay upon them?  The artificer standeth up at thy presence, to do honour to thee; and thou standest up in the presence of the work of the artificer, and dost honour it and worship it.

The judge said:  Thou art not the man to call others to account for³¹⁸²

3182 Or “thou art not the avenger of.”—Tr.

Sharbil said:  Death on account of this is true life:  those who confess the King Christ, He also will confess before His glorious Father.

The judge said:  Let lighted candles³¹⁸³

3183 Lit. “candles of fire.”—Tr.

Sharbil said:  It is well that thou burnest me with this fire, that so I may be delivered from “that fire which is not quenched, and the worm that dieth not,” which is threatened to those³¹⁸⁴

3184 The passage from this place to “in the eyes,” below, is lost in A., and supplied from B.

The governor said:  It is not this for which the emperors have ordered me to demand an account at thy hands, whether there be judgment and the rendering of an account after the death of men; nor yet about this do I care, whether that which is made is to be honoured or not to be honoured.  What the emperors have commanded me is this:  that, whosoever will not sacrifice to the gods and offer incense to them, I should employ against him stripes, and combs, and sharp swords.

Sharbil said:  The kings of this world are conscious of this world only; but the King of all kings, He hath revealed and shown to us that there is another world, and a judgment in reserve, in which a recompense will be made, on the one hand to those who have served God, and on the other to those who have not served Him nor confessed Him.  Therefore do I cry aloud, that I will not again sacrifice to idols, nor will I offer oblations to devils, nor will I do honour to demons!

The judge said:  Let nails of iron be driven in between the eyes of the insolent fellow, and let him go to that world which he is looking forward to, like a fanatic.³¹⁸⁵

3185 Or “dealer in fables,” if the word employed here, which is a foreign one, be the Latin “fabularius,” which is not certain.

And the executioners did so, the sound of the driving in of the nails being heard as they were being driven in sharply.

Sharbil said:  Thou hast driven in nails between my eyes, even as nails were driven into the hands of the glorious Architect of the creation, and by reason of this did all orders of the creation tremble and quake at that season.  For these tortures which lo! thou art inflicting on me are nothing in view of that judgment which is to come.  For those “whose ways are always firm,” because “they have not the judgment of God before their eyes,”³¹⁸⁶

3186 Ps. x. 5.—Tr.

The judge said:  Thou sayest in words that there is a judgment; but I will show thee in deeds:  so that, instead of that judgment which is to come, thou mayest tremble and be afraid of this one which is before thine eyes, in which lo! thou art involved, and not multiply thy speech before me.

Sharbil said:  Whosoever is resolved to set God before his eyes in secret, God will also be at his right hand; and I too am not afraid of thy threats of tortures, with which thou dost menace me and seek to make me afraid.

The judge said:  Let Christ, whom thou hast confessed, deliver thee from all the tortures which I have inflicted on thee, and am about further to inflict on thee; and let Him show His deliverance towards thee openly, and save thee out of my hands.

Sharbil said:  This is the true deliverance of Christ imparted to me—this secret power which He has given me to endure all the tortures thou art inflicting on me, and whatsoever it is settled in thy mind still further to inflict upon me; and, although thou hast plainly seen it to be so, thou hast refused to credit my word.

The judge said:  Take him away from before me, and let him be hanged upon a beam the contrary way, head downwards; and let him be beaten with whips while he is hanging.

And the executioners did so to him, at the door of the judgment-hall.

Then the governor commanded, and they brought him in before him.  And he said to him:  Sacrifice to the gods, and do the will of the emperors, thou priest that hatest honour and lovest ignominy instead!

Sharbil said:  Why dost thou again repeat thy words, and command me to sacrifice, after the many times that thou hast heard from me that I will not sacrifice again?  For it is not any compulsion on the part of the Christians that has kept me back from sacrifices, but the truth they hold:  this it is that has delivered me from the error of paganism.

The judge said:  Let him be put into a chest³¹⁸⁷

3187 So Cureton.  Dr. Payne Smith remarks:  “Cureton’s ‘chest’ is a guess from ***.  The only sense of *** with which I am acquainted is cadus, a cask.”  The word occurs again in the Martyrdom of Habib.  In both places it seems to refer to some contrivance for holding fast the person to be scourged.  The root appears to be ***, custodivit, retinuit (Castel).—Tr.

And the executioners did so, until there remained not a sound place on him.

Sharbil said:  As for these tortures, which thou supposest to be bitter, out of the midst of their bitterness will spring up for me fountains of deliverance and mercy in the day of the eternal sentences.

The governor said:  Let small round pieces of wood be placed between the fingers of his hands,³¹⁸⁸

3188 The martyr Minias, about a.d. 240, had the same torture inflicted on him:  “ligneis verubus præcutis sub ungues ejus infixis, omnes digitos ejus præcepit pertundi.”  See Surius, Sanctt. Vit. Not “the same,” perhaps.—Tr.

3189 Or “bitterly.”—Tr.

And they did so to him, until the blood came out from under the nails of his fingers.

Sharbil said:  If thine eye be not satisfied with the tortures of the body, add still further to its tortures whatsoever thou wilt.

The judge said:  Let the fingers of his hands be loosed, and make him sit upon the ground; and bind his hands upon his knees, and thrust a piece of wood under his knees, and let it pass over the bands of his hands, and hang him up by his feet, thus bent, head downwards; and let him be scourged with thongs.

And they did so to him.

Sharbil said:  They cannot conquer who fight against God, nor may they be overcome whose confidence is God; and therefore do I say, that “neither fire nor sword, nor death nor life, nor height nor depth, can separate my heart from the love of God, which is in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The judge said:  Make hot a ball of lead and of brass, and place it under his armpits.

And they did so, until his ribs began to be seen.

Sharbil said:  The tortures thou dost inflict upon me are too little for thy rage against me—unless thy rage were little and thy tortures were great.

The judge said:  Thou wilt not hurry me on by these things which thou sayest; for I have room in my mind³¹⁹⁰

3190 Here a few lines have been torn out of A., and are supplied from B.

3191 “Which” is not in the printed text.—Tr.

Sharbil said:  Those things which I have said and repeated before thee, thou in thine unbelief knowest not how to hear:  now, supposest thou that thou knowest those things which are in my mind?

The judge said:  The answers which thou givest will not help thee, but will multiply upon thee inflictions manifold.

Sharbil said:  If the several stories of thy several gods are by thee accepted as true, yet is it matter of shame to us to tell of what sort they are.  For one had intercourse with boys, which is not right; and another fell in love with a maiden, who fled for refuge into a tree, as your shameful stories tell.

The judge said:  This fellow, who was formerly a respecter of the gods, but has now turned to insult them and has not been afraid, and has also despised the command of the emperors and has not trembled—set him to stand upon a gridiron³¹⁹²

3192 The word used looks like a corruption of the Latin craticula.  Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. v. 1, uses the Gk. word for this (τήγανον) in describing the martyrdom of Attalus, who “was set in the τήγανον, and scorched all over, till the savour of his burnt flesh ascended from his body.”

And the executioners did so, until the under part of his feet was burnt off.

Sharbil said:  If thy rage is excited at my mention of the abominable and obscene tales of thy gods, how much more does it become thee to be ashamed of their acts!  For lo! if a person were to do what one of thy gods did, and they were to bring him before thee, thou wouldest pass sentence of death upon him.

The judge said:  This day will I bring thee to account for thy blasphemy against the gods, and thine audacity in insulting also the emperors; nor will I leave thee alone until thou offer incense to them, according to thy former custom.

Sharbil said:  Stand by thy threats, then, and speak not falsely; and show towards me in deeds the authority of the emperors which they have given thee; and do not thyself bring reproach on the emperors with thy falsehood, and be thyself also despised in the eyes of thine attendants!

The judge said:  Thy blasphemy against the gods and thine audacity towards the emperors have brought upon thee these tortures which thou art undergoing; and, if thou add further to thine audacity, there shall be further added to thee inflictions bitterer than these.

Sharbil said:  Thou hast authority, as judge:  do whatsoever thou wilt, and show no pity.

The judge said:  How can he that hath had no pity on his own body, so as to avoid suffering in it these tortures, be afraid or ashamed of not obeying the command of the emperors?

Sharbil said:  Thou hast well said that I am not ashamed:  because near at hand is He that justifieth me, and my soul is caught up in rapture towards him.  For, whereas I once provoked Him to anger by the sacrifices of idols, I am this day pacifying Him by the inflictions I endure in my person:  for my soul is a captive to God who became man.

The judge said:  It is a captive, then, that I am questioning, and a madman without sense; and with a dead man who is burnt, lo! am I talking.

Sharbil said:  If thou art assured that I am mad, question me no further:  for it is a madman that is being questioned; nay, rather, I am a dead man who is burnt, as thou hast said.

The judge said:  How shall I count thee a dead man, When lo! thou hast cried aloud, “I will not sacrifice?”

Sharbil said:  I myself, too, know not how to return thee an answer, since thou hast called me a dead man and yet turnest to question me again as if alive.

The judge said:  Well have I called thee a dead man, because thy feet are burnt and thou carest not, and thy face is scorched and thou holdest thy peace, and nails are driven in between thine eyes and thou takest no account of it, and thy ribs are seen between the furrows of the combs and thou insultest the emperors, and thy whole body is mangled and maimed with stripes and thou blasphemest against the gods; and, because thou hatest thy body, lo! thou sayest whatsoever pleaseth thee.

Sharbil said:  If thou callest me audacious because I have endured these things, it is fit that thou, who hast inflicted them upon me, shouldest be called a murderer in thy acts and a blasphemer in thy words.

The judge said:  Lo! thou hast insulted the emperors, and likewise the gods; and lo! thou insultest me also, in order that I may pronounce sentence of death upon thee quickly.  But instead of this, which thou lookest for, I am prepared yet further to inflict upon thee bitter and severe tortures.

Sharbil said:  Thou knowest what I have said to thee many times:  instead of denunciations of threatening, proceed to show upon me the performance of the threat, that thou mayest be known to do the will of the emperors.

The judge said:  Let him be torn with combs upon his legs and upon the sides of his thighs.

And the executioners did so, until his blood flowed and ran down upon the ground.

Sharbil said:  Thou hast well done in treating me thus:  because I have heard that one of the teachers of the Church hath said,³¹⁹³

3193 [St. Paul’s Stigmata.  Gal. vi. 17; Phil. iii. 11.]

The judge said:  Let him be torn with combs on his face, since he is not ashamed of the nails which are driven in between his eyes.

And they tore him with combs upon his cheeks, and between the nails which were driven into them.

Sharbil said:  I will not obey the emperors, who command that to be worshipped and honoured which is not of the nature of God, and is not God in its nature, but is the work of him that made it.

The judge said:  Like as the emperors worship, so also worship thou; and that honour which the judges render, do thou render also.

Sharbil said:  Even though I insult that which is the work of men and has no perception and no feeling of anything, yet do not thou insult God, the Maker of all, nor worship along with Him that which is not of Him, and is foreign to His nature.

The judge said:  Does this your doctrine so teach you, that you should insult the very luminaries which give light to all the regions of the earth?

Sharbil said:  Although it is not enjoined upon us to insult them, yet it is enjoined upon us not to worship them nor honour them, seeing that they are things made:  for this were an insufferable³¹⁹⁴

3194 Or “bitter.”—Tr.

The judge said:  Christ whom thou confessest was hanged on a tree; and on a tree will I hang thee, like thy Master.

And they hanged him on a tree³¹⁹⁵

3195 Or “beam.”—Tr.

Sharbil said:  As for Christ, whom lo! thou mockest—see how thy many gods were unable to stand before Him:  for lo! they are despised and rejected, and are made a laughing-stock and a jest by those who used formerly to worship them.

The judge said:  How is it that thou renouncest the gods, and confessest Christ, who was hanged on a tree?

Sharbil said:  This cross of Christ is the great boast of the Christians, since it is by this that the deliverance of salvation has come to all His worshippers, and by this that they have had their eyes enlightened, so as not to worship creatures along with the Creator.

The governor said:  Let thy boasting of the cross be kept within thy own mind, and let incense be offered by thy hands to the gods.

Sharbil said:  Those who have been delivered by the cross cannot any longer worship and serve the idols of error made with hands:  for creature cannot worship creature, because it is itself also designed to be a worshipper of Him who made it; and that it should be worshipped along with its Maker is an insult to its Maker, as I have said before.

The governor said:  Leave alone thy books which have taught thee to speak thus, and perform the command of the emperors, that thou idle not by the emperors’ law.

But Sharbil said:  Is this, then, the justice of the emperors, in whom thou takest such pride, that we should leave alone the law of God and keep their laws?

The governor said:  The citation of the books in which thou believest, and from which thou hast quoted—it is this which has brought upon thee these afflictions:  for, if thou hadst offered incense to the gods, great would have been thine honour, like as it was formerly, as priest of the gods.

Sharbil said:  To thine unbelieving heart these things seem as if they were afflictions; but to the true heart “affliction imparts patience, and from it comes also experience, and from experience likewise the hope”³¹⁹⁶

3196 Rom. v. 4.—Tr.

3197 Lit. “of confessorship.”—Tr.

The governor said:  Hang him up and tear him with combs upon his former wounds.

And, from the fury with which the judge urged on the executioners, his very bowels were almost seen.  And, lest he should die under the combs and escape from still further tortures, he gave orders and they took him down.

And, when the judge saw that he was become silent and was not able to return him any further answer, he refrained from him a little while, until he began to revive.

Sharbil said:  Why hast thou had pity upon me for even this little time, and kept me back from the gain of a confessor’s death?³¹⁹⁸

3198 Lit. “of confessorship.”—Tr.

The governor said:  I have not had pity on thee at all in refraining for a little while:  thy silence it was that made me pause a little; and, if I had power beyond the law of the emperors, I should like to lay other tortures upon thee, so as to be more fully avenged on thee for thine insult toward the gods:  for in despising me thou hast despised the gods; and I, on my part, have borne with thee and tortured thee thus, as a man who so deserves.

And the judge gave orders, and suddenly the curtain³¹⁹⁹

3199 The Latin “velum,” or rather its plur. “vela.”

3200 The Gk. ἀπόφασις.

And suddenly the curtain was drawn back again; and the judge cried aloud and said:  As regards this Sharbil, who was formerly priest of the gods, but has turned this day and renounced the gods, and has cried aloud “I am a Christian,” and has not trembled at the gods, but has insulted them; and, further, has not been afraid of the emperors and their command; and, though I have bidden him sacrifice to the gods according to his former custom, has not sacrificed, but has treated them with the greatest insult:  I have looked into the matter, and decided, that towards a man who doeth these things, even though he were now to sacrifice, it is not fit that any mercy should be shown; and that it is not fit that he should any longer behold the sun of his lords, because he has scorned their laws.  I give sentence that, according to the law of the emperors, a strap³²⁰¹

3201 This expression χαλινὸν ἐμβαλεῖν is used similarly in the life of Euthymus in Eccl. Græc. Monumenta, vol. ii. p. 240.

And forthwith a strap was thrust into his mouth with all speed, and the executioners hurried him off, and made him run quickly upon his burnt feet, and took him away outside of the city, a crowd of people running after him.  For they had been standing looking on at his trial all day, and wondering that he did not suffer under his afflictions:  for his countenance, which was cheerful, testified to the joy of his heart.  And, when the executioners arrived at the place where he was to receive the punishment of death, the people of the city were with them, that they might see whether they did according as the judge had commanded, and hear what Sharbil might say at that season, so that they might inform the judge of the country.

And they offered him some wine to drink, according to the custom of murderers to drink.  But he said to them:  I will not drink, because I wish to feel the saw with which ye saw me, and the sword which ye pass over my neck; but instead of this wine, which will not be of any use to me, give me a little time to pray, while ye stand.  And he stood up, and looked toward the east,³²⁰²

3202 See Teaching of the Apostles, Ord. 1, p. 668, note 1.—Tr.

3203 Lit. “have pity on my salvation.”—Tr.

And, when the Sharirs of the city heard these things, they were very angry with the executioners for having given him leave to pray.

And, while the nails were remaining which had been driven in between his eyes, and his ribs were seen between the wounds of the combs, and while from the burning on his sides and the soles of his feet, which were scorched and burnt, and from the gashes of the combs on his face, and on his sides, and on his thighs, and on his legs, the blood was flowing and running down, they brought carpenters’ instruments, and thrust him into a wooden vice, and tightened it upon him until the bones of his joints creaked with the pressure; then they put upon him a saw of iron, and began sawing him asunder; and, when he was just about to die, because the saw had reached to his mouth, they smote him with the sword and took off his head, while he was still squeezed down in the vice.

And Babai his sister drew near and spread out her skirt and caught his blood; and she said to him:  May my spirit be united with thy spirit in the presence of Christ, whom thou hast known and believed.

And the Sharirs of the city ran and came and informed the judge of the things which Sharbil had uttered in his prayer, and how his sister had caught his blood.  And the judge commanded them to return and give orders to the executioners that, on the spot where she had caught the blood of her brother, she also should receive the punishment of death.  And the executioners laid hold on her, and each one of them severally put her to torture; and, with her brother’s blood upon her, her soul took its flight from her, and they mingled her blood with his.  And, when the executioners were entered into the city, the brethren and young men³²⁰⁴

3204 By a transposition of letters, B. reads “laics.”

I wrote these Acts on paper—I, Marinus, and Anatolus, the notaries; and we placed them in the archives of the city, where the papers of the kings are placed.³²⁰⁵

3205 B. has several lines here in addition.

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This Barsamya,³²⁰⁶

3206 The passage hence to the end is evidently a later addition by a person unacquainted with chronology:  for it is stated at the beginning of these Acts that the transactions took place in the fifteenth year of Trajan, a.d. 112; but Fabianus (see next note) was not made bishop of Rome till the reign of Maximinus Thrax, about the year 236.  [An index of the history of this postscript.]

3207 B. reads “Fabianus:”  in A. the first syllable, or rather letter, has been dropped.—The mention of Fabianus probably arose from the fact of his having instituted notaries for the express purpose of searching for and collecting the Acts of Martyrs.

3208 The Greek ἔπαρχος.— Tr.

Here end the Acts of Sharbil the confessor.

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