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| Of the Jews; of their attempt at building, and of the heaven-sent plagues that befel them.
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Chapter XV.—Of the Jews; of their attempt at building, and of the
heaven-sent plagues that befel them.
Julian, who had made his soul a home of destroying demons, went his
corybantic way, ever raging against true religion. He accordingly now
armed the Jews too against the believers in Christ. He began by
enquiring of some whom he got together why, though their law imposed on
them the duty of sacrifices, they offered none. On their reply that
their worship was limited to one particular spot, this enemy of God
immediately gave directions for the re-erection of the destroyed
temple,645
| 645 Bp.
Wordsworth (Dict. Chris. Biog. iii, 500) is in favour of the letter
(Ep. 24, Ed. Didot 350) in which Julian desires the prayers of the
Creator and professes a wish to rebuild and inhabit Jerusalem with them
after his return from the Persian war and there give glory to the
Supreme Being. It is addressed to his “brother Julus, the very
venerable patriarch.” | supposing in his vanity that he could
falsify the prediction of the Lord, of which, in reality, he exhibited
the truth.646
| 646 This
is the motive ascribed by the Arian Philostorgius (vii. 9). | The Jews heard his words with
delight and made known his orders to their countrymen throughout the
world. They came with haste from all directions, contributing alike
money and enthusiasm for the work; and the emperor made all the
provisions he could, less from the pride of munificence than from
hostility to the truth. He despatched also as governor a fit man to
carry out his impious orders. It is said that they made mattocks,
shovels, and baskets of silver. When they had begun to dig and to carry
out the earth a vast multitude of them went on with the work all day,
but by night the earth which had been carried away shifted back from
the ravine of its own accord. They destroyed moreover the remains of
the former construction, with the intention of building everything up
afresh; but when they had got together thousands of bushels of chalk
and lime, of a sudden a violent gale blew, and storms, tempests and
whirlwinds scattered everything far and wide. They still went on in
their madness, nor were they brought to their senses by the divine
longsuffering. Then first came a great earthquake, fit to strike terror
into the hearts of men quite ignorant of God’s dealings; and,
when still they were not awed, fire running from the excavated
foundations burnt up most of the diggers, and put the rest to flight.
Moreover when a large number of men were sleeping at night in an
adjacent building it suddenly fell down, roof and all, and crushed the
whole of them. On that night and also on the following night the sign
of the cross of salvation was seen brightly shining in the sky, and the
very garments of the Jews were filled with crosses, not bright but
black.647
| 647 “The curious statement that crosses were imprinted on the
bodies and clothes of persons present, is illustrated in the original
edition of Newman’s Essay (clxxxii.)” (i.e. on
ecclesiastical miracles) “by some parallel instances quoted by
Warburton from Casaubon and from Boyle. Such crosses, or cross-like
impressions, are said to have followed not only a thunderstorm, but
also an eruption of Vesuvius; these crosses were seen on linen
garments, as shirt sleeves, women’s aprons, that had lain open to
the air, and upon the exposed parts of sheets.” “Chrysostom
(Ed. Montfaucon, vol. v. 271, etc.) mentions ‘crosses imprinted
upon garments,’ as a sign that had occurred in his generation,
close to the mention of the Temple of Apollo that was overthrown by a
thunderbolt, and separated from the wonders in Palestine that he
mentions subsequently.” Dr. E. A. Abbott. Philomythus,
189. | When God’s enemies saw these
things, in terror at the heaven-sent plagues they fled, and made their
way home, confessing the Godhead of Him who had been crucified by their
fathers. Julian heard of these events, for they were repeated by every
one. But like Pharaoh he hardened his heart.648
| 648 This event “came like the vision of Constantine, at a
critical epoch in the world’s history. It was as the heathen poet
has it, a ‘dignus vindice nodus.’ All who were present or
heard of the event at the time, thought, we may be sure, that it was a
sign from God. As a miracle then it ranges beside those biblical
miracles in which, at some critical moment, the forces of nature are
seen to work strikingly for God’s people or against their
enemies. In the O.T. we have for example, the instances of the plagues
of Egypt, the passage of the Red Sea and the drowning of
Pharaoh’s host, the crossing of the Jordan, the prolongation of
sunlight” (?darkness. Vide “A misunderstood miracle”
by the Rev. A. Smythe Palmer) “the destruction of
Sennacherib’s army; in the N.T. the stilling of the storm, and
the earthquake and the darkness at the crucifixion.” Bp.
Wordsworth. Dict. Ch. Biog. ii. 513. To biblical instances may be added
the defeat of Sisera and the fall of Aphek. But, too, for “the
forces of nature,” when the Armada was scattered, or when the
siege of Leyden was raised the course of modern history would have been
changed. Cressy may also be cited.
On the evidence for this
event as contrasted with the so-called ecclesiastical miracles,
accepted and defended by the late Cardinal Newman, vide Dr. E. A.
Abbott’s Philomythus pp. 1 and 5 et seq. “There is better
evidence for this than for any of the preceding miracles.”
“The real solid testimony is that of Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii.
1). An impartial historian, who served under Julian in the Persian
campaign, and who, twenty years afterwards, recorded the interruption
of the building of the Temple by terrible balls of fire.”
“If Ammianus had lived nearer the time of the alleged incident,
or had added a statement of the evidence on which he based his stories,
the details might have been defended. As it is, the circumstances,
while favouring belief in his veracity do not justify us in accepting
anything more than the fact that the rebuilding of the Temple was
generally believed to have been stopped by some supernatural fiery
manifestation.” “The rebuilding was probably stopped by a
violent thunderstorm or thunderstorms.” | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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