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Martyrdom of Habib the Deacon.³²³⁵

3235 This is found in the same ms. as the preceding:  Cod. Add. 14,645, fol. 238, vers.

In the month Ab,³²³⁶

3236 August.—Tr.

3237 They were consuls together in a.d. 312, 313, 315.

3238 It does not appear who is meant.—Tr.

3239 The Greek στρατηγία, with a Syriac termination.  Στρατηγοί was used for the Latin Magistratus or Duumviri.

3240 He laid the foundation of the church at Edessa a.d. 313:  see Assem., Bibl. Orient., vol. i. p. 394.

And, when many were persecuted, they cried out of their own accord:  We are Christians; and they were not afraid of the persecution, because these who were persecuted were more numerous than those who persecuted them.

Now Habib, who was of the village of Telzeha³²⁴¹

3241 Called “Thelsæa” by Metaphrastes, p. 700, infra.

And, when many were strengthened by his words, and received his addresses affectionately, being careful not to renounce the covenant they had made, and when the Sharirs of the city, the men who had been appointed with reference to this particular matter, heard of it, they went in and informed Lysanias, the governor who was in the town of Edessa, and said to him:  Habib, who is a deacon in the village of Telzeha, goes about and ministers secretly in every place, and resists the command of the emperors, and is not afraid.

And, when the governor heard these things, he was filled with rage against Habib; and he made a report, and sent and informed Licinius the emperor of all those things which Habib was doing; he wished also to ascertain³²⁴²

3242 Lit. “learn and see.”—Tr.

3243 The word used is probably ἐντολικός = præfectus:  see Dr. Payne Smith, Thes. Syr.—Tr.

3244 Dr. Wright’s reading, by the change of a letter, for “shall perish.”—Tr.

Now, when this command came to the town of Edessa, Habib, in reference to whom the report had been made, was gone across the river to the country of the people of Zeugma,³²⁴⁵

3245 This place was on the right bank of the Euphrates, and derived its name from a bridge of boats laid across the river there.  It was about forty miles from Edessa.—Tr.

And, when Habib heard what had taken place, he considered in his mind and pondered anxiously in his thoughts:  It is expedient for me, said he, that I should go and appear before the judge of the country, rather than that I should remain in secret and others should be brought in to him and be crowned with martyrdom because of me, and that I should find myself in great shame.  For in what respect will the name of Christianity help him who flees from the confession of Christianity?  Lo! if he flee from this, the death of nature is before him whithersoever he goes, and escape from it he cannot, because this is decreed against all the children of Adam.

And Habib arose and went to Edessa secretly, having prepared his back for the stripes and his sides for the combs, and his person for the burning of fire.  And he went immediately³²⁴⁶

3246 Cureton has ***, which he renders “alone.”  Dr. Payne Smith considers this a mistake for ***.—Tr.

3247 In Latin, “Theotecnus.”

3248 Or “an old man.”—Tr.

3249 The Gk. τάξις here used corresponds to the Latin officium.  See note 4 on p. 679.

Habib said to Theotecna:  It is not about my family and the inhabitants of my village that I am concerned, but for my own salvation, lest it should be forfeited.  About this too I am much distressed, that I did not happen to be in my village on the day that the governor inquired for me, and that on my account lo! many are put in irons, and I have been looked upon by him as a fugitive.  Therefore, if so be that thou wilt not consent to my request and take me in before the governor, I will go alone and appear before him.

And, when Theotecna heard him speak thus to him, he laid hold of him firmly, and handed him over to his assistants,³²⁵⁰

3250 Or “domestics.”—Tr.

And when the governor heard this, he was greatly exasperated against him; and thus he spoke:  This fellow, who has so acted, has shown great contempt towards me and has despised me, and has accounted me as no judge; and, because he has so acted, it is not meet that any mercy should be shown towards him; nor yet either that I should hasten to pass sentence of death against him, according to the command of the emperors concerning him; but it is meet for me to have patience with him, so that the bitter torments and punishments inflicted on him may be the more abundant, and that through him I may terrify many others from daring again to flee.

And, many persons being collected together and standing by him at the door of the judgment-hall, some of whom were members of the body of attendants, and some people of the city, there were some of them that said to him:  Thou hast done badly in coming and showing thyself to those who were inquiring for thee, without the compulsion of the judge; and there were others, again, who said to him:  Thou hast done well in coming and showing thyself of thine own accord, rather than that the compulsion of the judge should bring thee:  for now is thy confession of Christ known to be of thine own will, and not from the compulsion of men.

And those things which the Sharirs of the city had heard from those who were speaking to him as they stood at the door of the judgment-hall—and this circumstance also in particular, that he had gone secretly to Theotecna and that he had not been willing to denounce him, had been heard by the Sharirs of the city—everything that they had heard they made known to the judge.

And the judge was enraged against those who had been saying to Habib:  Wherefore didst thou come and show thyself to the judge, without the compulsion of the judge himself?  And to Theotecna he said:  It is not seemly for a man who has been made chief over his fellows to act deceitfully in this manner towards his superior, and to set at nought the command of the emperors, which they issued against Habib the rebel, that he should be burned with fire.

Theotecna said:  I have not acted deceitfully against my fellows, neither was it my purpose to set at naught the command which the emperors have issued:  for what am I before thine Excellency, that I should have dared to do this?  But I strictly questioned him as to that for which thine Excellency also has demanded an account at my hands, that I might know and see whether it was of his own free will that he came hither or whether the compulsion of thine Excellency brought him by the hand of others; and, when I heard from him that he came of his own accord, I carefully brought him to the honourable door of the judgment-hall of thy Worship.³²⁵¹

3251 Lit. “rectitude.”—Tr.

And the governor hastily commanded, and they brought in Habib before him.  The officers said:  Lo! he standeth before thine Excellency,

And he began to question him thus, and said to him:  What is thy name?  And whence art thou?  And what art thou?

He said to him:  My name is Habib, and I am from the village of Telzeha, and I have been made a deacon.

The governor said:  Wherefore hast thou transgressed the command of the emperors, and dost minister in thine office of deacon, which thou art forbidden by the emperors to do, and refusest to sacrifice to Zeus, whom the emperors worship?

Habib said:  We are Christians; we do not worship the works of men, who are nothing, whose works also are nothing; but we worship God, who made the men.

The governor said:  Persist not in that daring mind with which thou art come into my presence, and insult not Zeus, the great boast of the emperors.

Habib said:  But this Zeus is an idol, the work of men.  It is very well for thee to say that I insult him.  But, if the carving of him out of wood and the fixing of him with nails proclaim aloud concerning him that he is made, how sayest thou to me that I insult him? since lo! his insult is from himself, and against himself.

The governor said:  By this very thing, that thou refusest to worship him, thou insultest him.

Habib said:  But, if because I do not worship him I insult him, how great an insult, then, did the carpenter inflict on him, who carved him with an axe of iron; and the smith, who smote him and fixed him with nails!

And, when the governor heard him speak thus he commanded him to be scourged without pity.  And, when he had been scourged by five men, he said to him:  Wilt thou now obey the emperors?  For, if thou wilt not obey them, I will tear thee severely with combs, and I will torture thee with all kinds of tortures, and then at last I will give command concerning thee that thou be burned with fire.

Habib said:  These threats with which lo! thou art seeking to terrify me, are much meaner and paltrier than those which I had already settled it in my mind to endure:  therefore³²⁵²

3252 Lit. “then.”—Tr.

The governor said:  Put him into the iron cask³²⁵³

3253 See note 3 on p. 681.—Tr.

And the governor commanded, and they took him up to the prison; but they refused him permission to speak with his family, or with the inhabitants of his village, according to the command of the judge.  On that day was the festival of the emperors.

And on the second of Ilul the governor commanded, and they brought him from the prison.  And he said to him:  Wilt thou renounce the profession thou hast made³²⁵⁴

3254 Lit. “Wilt thou renounce that in which thou standest?”—Tr.

Habib said:  I have not obeyed them, and moreover it is settled in my mind that I will not obey them—no, not even if thou lay upon me punishments still worse than those which the emperors have commanded.

The governor said:  By the gods I swear, that, if thou do not sacrifice, I will leave no harsh and bitter sufferings untried with which I will not torture thee:  and we shall see whether Christ, whom thou worshippest, will deliver thee.

Habib said:  All those who worship Christ are delivered through Christ, because they worship not creatures along with the Creator of creatures.

The governor said:  Let him be stretched out and be scourged with whips, until there remain not a place in his body on which he has not been scourged.

Habib said:  As for these inflictions, which thou supposest to be so bitter with their lacerations,³²⁵⁵

3255 Lit. “scourgings.”—Tr.

The governor said:  How call ye afflictions ease, and account the torments of your bodies a crown of victory?

Habib said:  It is not for thee to ask me concerning these things, because thine unbelief is not worthy to hear the reasons of them.  That I will not sacrifice I have said already, and I say so still.

The governor said:  Thou art subjected to these punishments because thou deservest them:  I will put out thine eyes, which look upon this Zeus and are not afraid of him; and I will stop thine ears, which hear the laws of the emperors and tremble not.

Habib said:  To the God whom thou deniest here belongs that other world; and there wilt thou be made to confess Him with scourgings, though thou hast again denied Him.

The governor said:  Leave alone that world of which thou hast spoken, and consider anxiously now, that from this punishment to which lo! thou art being subjected there is no one that can deliver thee; unless indeed the gods deliver thee, on thy sacrificing to them.

Habib said:  Those who die for the sake of the name of Christ, and worship not those objects that are made and created, will find their life in the presence of God;³²⁵⁶

3256 [Seems to be a reference to Rev. xx. 4.]

And the governor commanded, and they hanged him up and tore him with combs; and, while they were tearing him with the combs, they knocked him about.  And he was hanging a long while, until the shoulder blades of his arms creaked.

The governor said to him:  Wilt thou comply even now, and put on incense before Zeus there?³²⁵⁷

3257 Pointing to the image.—Tr.

Habib said:  Previously to these sufferings I did not comply with thy demands:  and now that lo! I have undergone them, how thinkest thou that I shall comply, and thereby lose that which I have gained by them?

The governor said:  By punishments fiercer and bitterer than these I am prepared to make thee obey, according to the command of the emperors, until thou do their will.

Habib said:  Thou art punishing me for not obeying the command of the emperors, when lo! thou thyself also, whom the emperors have raised to greatness and made a judge, hast transgressed their command, in that thou hast not done to me that which the emperors have commanded thee.

The governor said:  Because I have had patience with thee, therefore hast thou spoken thus, like a man that brings an accusation.

Habib said:  Hadst thou not scourged me, and bound me, and torn me with combs, and put my feet in fetters,³²⁵⁸

3258 Or “the stocks.”  The word is of the most indefinite kind, answering to ξύλον and lignum.—Tr.

The governor said:  These things which thou hast said will not help thee, because they all go against thee, and they will bring upon thee inflictions bitterer even than those which the emperors have commanded.

Habib said:  Had I not been sensible that they would help me, I should not have spoken a single word about them before thee.

The governor said:  I will silence thy speeches, and at the same time as regards thee pacify the gods, whom thou hast not worshipped; and I will satisfy the emperors in respect to thee, as regards thy rebellion against their commands.

Habib said:  I am not afraid of the death with which thou seekest to terrify me; for, had I been afraid of it, I should not have gone about from house to house and ministered:  on which account I did so minister.³²⁵⁹

3259 For this sense, which appears to be the one intended, it is necessary to change *** into ***.—Tr.

The governor said:  How is it that thou worshippest and honourest a man, but refusest to worship and honour Zeus there?

Habib said:  I worship not a man, because the Scripture³²⁶⁰

3260 [Jer. xvii. 5.]

3261 Lit. “it is written for me.”—Tr.

The governor said:  Do thou that which the emperors have commanded; and, as for that which is in thy own mind, if thou art willing to give it up, well; but, if thou art not willing, then do not abandon it.

Habib said:  To do both these things is impossible:  because falsehood is contrary to truth, and it is impossible that that should be banished from my thoughts which is firmly fixed in my mind.

The governor said:  By inflictions bitter and severe will I make thee dismiss from thy thoughts that of which thou hast said, It is firmly fixed in my mind.

Habib said:  As for these inflictions by which thou thinkest that it will be rooted out of my thoughts, by means of these it is that it grows within my thoughts, like a tree which bears fruit.

The governor said:  What help will stripes and combs give to that tree of thine? and more especially at the time when I shall command fire against it, to burn it up without pity.

Habib said:  It is not on those things at which thou lookest that I look, because I contemplate the things which are out of sight; and therefore I do the will of God, the Maker of all things, and not that of an idol made with hands, which is not sensible of anything whatever.

The governor said:  Because he thus denies the gods whom the emperors worship, let him be torn with combs in addition to his former tearings:  for, amidst the many questions which I have had the patience to ask him, he has forgotten his former tearings.

And, while they were tearing him, he cried aloud and said:  “The sufferings of this time are not equal to that glory which shall be revealed in”³²⁶²

3262 Rom. viii. 18.—Tr.

And, when the governor saw that even under these inflictions he refused to sacrifice, he said to him:  Does your doctrine so teach you, that you should hate your own bodies?

Habib said:  Nay, we do not hate our bodies:  the Scripture distinctly teaches us, “Whosoever shall lose his life shall find it.”³²⁶³

3263 Matt. x. 39.—Tr.

3264 Matt. vii. 6.—Tr.

The governor said:  I know that in speaking thus thy sole object is that my rage and the wrath of my mind may be excited, and that I may pronounce sentence of death against thee speedily.  I am not going, then, to be hurried on to that which thou desirest; but I will have patience:  not; indeed, for thy relief, but so that the tortures inflicted on thee may be increased, and that thou mayest see thy flesh falling off before thy face by means of the combs that are passing over thy sides.

Habib said:  I myself also am looking for this, that thou shouldst multiply thy tortures upon me, even as thou hast said.

The governor said:  Submit to the emperors, who have power to do whatsoever they choose.

Habib said:  It is not of men to do whatsoever they choose, but of God, whose power is in the heavens, and over all the dwellers upon earth; “nor is there any that may rebuke His hands³²⁶⁵

3265 Chaldee, “restrain (literally, smite) His hand.”  See Dan. iv. 35.—Tr.

The governor said:  For this insolence of thine, death by the sword is too small.  I, however, am prepared to command the infliction upon thee of a death more bitter than that of the sword.

Habib said:  And I, too, am looking for a death which is more lingering than that of the sword, which thou mayest pronounce upon me at any time thou choosest.

And thereupon the governor proceeded to pass sentence of death upon him.  And he called out aloud before his attendants, and said, whilst they were listening to him, as were also the nobles of the city:  This Habib, who has denied the gods, as ye have also heard from him, and furthermore has reviled the emperors, deserves that his life should be blotted out from beneath this glorious Sun, and that he should not any longer behold this luminary, associate of gods; and, had it not been commanded by former emperors that the corpses of murderers should be buried, it would not be right that the corpse of this fellow either should be buried, because he has been so insolent.  I command, that a strap be put into his mouth, as into the mouth of a murderer, and that he be burned by a slow lingering fire, so that the torment of his death may be increased.

And he went out from the presence of the governor, with the strap thrust into his mouth; and a multitude of the people of the city ran after him.  And the Christians were rejoicing, forasmuch as he had not turned aside nor quitted his post;³²⁶⁶

3266 Or “departed from his covenant.”—Tr.

3267 The Gk. κοιμητήριον .—Tr.

3268 Cureton’s “for” seems not so good, the reference not being to a single tomb.—Tr.

3269 Probably that in which Sharbil and Babai were buried:  see p. 684, above.

And, when he was arrived at the place where they were going to burn him, he stood up and prayed, as did all those who came out with him; and he said:  “O King Christ, since Thine is this world, and Thine the world to come, behold and see, that, while I might have fled from these afflictions, I did not flee, in order that I might not fall into the hands of Thy justice:  may this fire, in which I am to be burned, serve me for a recompense before Thee, so that I may be delivered from that fire which is not quenched; and receive Thou my spirit into Thy presence, through Thy Divine Spirit, O glorious Son of the adorable Father!”  And, when he had prayed, he turned and blessed them; and they weeping gave him the salutation, both men and women; and they said to him:  Pray for us in the presence of thy Lord, that He would cause peace among His people, and restoration to His churches which are overthrown.

And, while Habib was standing, they dug a place, and brought him and set him within it; and they fixed up by him a stake.  And they came to bind him to the stake; but he said to them:  I will not stir from this place in which ye are going to burn me.  And they brought fagots, and set them in order, and placed them on all sides of him.  And, when the fire blazed up and the flame of it rose fiercely, they called out to him:  Open thy mouth.  And the moment he opened his mouth his soul mounted up.  And they cried aloud, both men and women, with the voice of weeping.

And they pulled and drew him out of the fire, throwing over him fine linen cloths and choice ointments and spices.  And they snatched away some of the pieces of wood which had been put for his burning, and the brethren and some persons of the laity³²⁷⁰

3270 Lit. “secular persons,” or “men of the world.”—Tr.

3271 In Simeon Metaphrastes, whose copy would seem to have had a slightly different reading, it is written Bethelabicla, and is said to lie on the north side of the city.

The day on which he was burned was the eve of the Sabbath,³²⁷²

3272 i.e., the sixth day of the week.  See note 9 on p. 668.—Tr.

And the notaries wrote down everything which they had heard from the judge; and the Sharirs of the city wrote down all the other things which were spoken outside the door of the judgment-hall, and, according to the custom that existed, they reported to the judge all that they had seen and all that they had heard, and the decisions of the judge were written down in their Acts.

I, Theophilus, who have renounced the evil inheritance of my fathers, and confessed Christ, carefully wrote out a copy of these Acts of Habib, even as I had formerly written out those of Guria and Shamuna,³²⁷³

3273 As Simeon Metaphrastes, infra, evidently made use of these Acts of Habib in his account of that martyr, it is probable that his narrative of the martyrdom of Guria and Shamuna also was founded on the copy of their Acts to which Theophilus here refers.

Moreover, the afflictions of these martyrs, and of those of whom I had heard, opened the eyes of me, Theophilus, and enlightened my mind, and I confessed Christ, that He is the Son of God, and is God.  And may the dust of the feet of these martyrs, which I received as I was running after them at the time when they were departing to be crowned, procure me pardon for having denied Him, and may He confess me before His worshippers, seeing that I have confessed Him now!

And at the twenty-seventh question which the judge put to Habib, he gave sentence against him of death by the burning of fire.

Here endeth the martyrdom of Habib the deacon.

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