Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| The Statue which the Woman with an Issue of Blood erected.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter
XVIII.—The Statue which the Woman with
an Issue of Blood erected.2296
| 2296 This account of the statue erected by the woman with the issue of
blood is repeated by many later writers, and Sozomen (H. E. V.
21) and Philostorgius (H. E. VII. 3) inform us that it was
destroyed by the Emperor Julian. Gieseler remarks (Eccles.
Hist., Harper’s ed. I. p. 70), “Judging by the analogy
of many coins, the memorial had been erected in honor of an emperor
(probably Hadrian), and falsely interpreted by the Christians, perhaps
on account of a σωτῆρι or θεῷ
appearing in the inscription.” There can be no
doubt of Eusebius’ honesty in the matter, but no less doubt that
the statue commemorated something quite different from that which
Christian tradition claimed. Upon this whole chapter, see
Heinichen’s Excursus, in Vol. III. p. 698 sq. |
1. Since I have mentioned this city I do not think it proper
to omit an account which is worthy of record for posterity. For they
say that the woman with an issue of blood, who, as we learn from the
sacred Gospel,2297
received from
our Saviour deliverance from her affliction, came from this place, and
that her house is shown in the city, and that remarkable memorials of
the kindness of the Saviour to her remain there.
2. For there stands upon an
elevated stone, by the gates of her house, a brazen image of a woman
kneeling, with her hands stretched out, as if she were praying.
Opposite this is another upright image of a man, made of the same
material, clothed decently in a double cloak, and extending his hand
toward the woman. At his feet, beside the statue itself,2298
| 2298 οὗ παρὰ
τοῖς ποσὶν
ἐπὶ τῆς
στήλης
αὐτῆς. This is
commonly translated “at his feet, upon the
pedestal”; but, as Heinichen remarks, in the excursus
referred to just above, the plant can hardly have grown upon the
pedestal, and what is more, we have no warrant for translating
στήλη “pedestal.” Paulus, in his commentary on Matthew
in loco, maintains that Eusebius is speaking only of a
representation upon the base of the statue, not of an actual plant. But
this interpretation, as Heinichen shows, is quite unwarranted. For the
use of ἐπὶ in the sense of
“near” or “beside,” we have numerous examples
(see the instances given by Heinichen, and also Liddell and
Scott’s Greek Lexicon, s.v.). | is a certain strange plant, which
climbs up to the hem of the brazen cloak, and is a remedy for all kinds
of diseases.
3. They say that this statue is
an image of Jesus. It has remained to our day, so that we ourselves
also saw it when we were staying in the city.
4. Nor is it strange that those
of the Gentiles who, of old, were benefited by our Saviour, should have
done such things, since we have learned also that the likenesses of his
apostles Paul and Peter, and of Christ himself, are preserved in
paintings,2299
| 2299 Eusebius himself, as we learn from his letter to the Empress
Constantia Augusta (see above, p. 44), did not approve of the use of
images or representations of Christ, on the ground that it tended to
idolatry. In consequence of this disapproval he fell into great
disrepute in the later image-worshiping Church, his epistle being cited
by the iconoclasts at the second Council of Nicæa, in 787, and his
orthodoxy being in consequence fiercely attacked by the defenders of
image-worship, who dominated the council, and won the day. | the ancients being accustomed, as
it is likely, according to a habit of the Gentiles, to pay this kind of
honor indiscriminately to those regarded by them as
deliverers.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
