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| The Writer, Judas.
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Chapter
VII.—The Writer, Judas.1807
| 1807 The mention of the writer Judas at this point seems, at first
sight, as illogical as the reference to Clement in the preceding
chapter. But it does not violate chronology as that did; and hence, if
the account of Origen’s life was to be broken anywhere for such
an insertion, there was perhaps no better place. We cannot conclude,
therefore, that Eusebius, had he revised his work, would have changed
the position of this chapter, as Valesius suggests (see the previous
chapter, note 1).
Jerome (de vir.
ill. c. 52) repeats Eusebius’ notice of Judas, but adds
nothing to it, and we know no more about him. Since he believed that
the appearance of Antichrist was at hand, he must have written before
the persecutions had given place again to peace, and hence not long
after 202, the date to which he extended his chronology. Whether the
work mentioned by Eusebius was a commentary or a work on chronology is
not clear. It was possibly an historical demonstration of the truth of
Daniel’s prophecies, and an interpretation of those yet
unfulfilled, in which case it combined history and exegesis. |
At this
time another writer, Judas, discoursing about the seventy weeks in
Daniel, brings down the chronology to the tenth year of the reign of
Severus. He thought that the coming of Antichrist, which was much
talked about, was then near.1808
| 1808 It was the common belief in the Church, from the time of the
apostles until the time of Constantine, that the second coming of
Christ would very speedily take place. This belief was especially
pronounced among the Montanists, Montanus having proclaimed that the
parousia would occur before his death, and even having gone so
far as to attempt to collect all the faithful (Montanists) in one place
in Phrygia, where they were to await that event and where the new
Jerusalem was to be set up (see above, Bk. V. chap. 18, note 6). There
is nothing surprising in Judas’ idea that this severe persecution
must be the beginning of the end, for all through the earlier centuries
of the Church (and even to some extent in later centuries) there were
never wanting those who interpreted similar catastrophes in the same
way; although after the third century the belief that the end was at
hand grew constantly weaker. | So greatly did
the agitation caused by the persecution of our people at this time
disturb the minds of many.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
