Eusebius of Caesarea · a new plain-English translation from the Greek
arg| Book One of the Ecclesiastical History has these contents: 1. What our undertaking promises. 2. A summary account, by chapters, of the pre-existence and the theology of our Savior and Lord, the Christ of God. 3. That both the name of Jesus and the very name of Christ were known from the beginning and honored by the inspired prophets. 4. That the manner of godliness he proclaimed to all the nations was neither new nor foreign. 5. On the time of his appearing among human beings. 6. That in his day, in keeping with the prophecies, the rulers who had formerly governed the Jewish nation by ancestral succession came to an end, and Herod became the first foreigner to reign over them. 7. On the supposed discrepancy in the gospels concerning the genealogy of Christ. 8. On Herod's plot against the children, and the kind of end to his life that overtook him. 9. Concerning the times of Pilate. 10. Concerning the high priests among the Jews, under whom Christ carried out his teaching. 11. The testimonies about John the Baptist and about Christ. 12. On the disciples of our Savior. 13. An account concerning the ruler of the Edessenes.
1.1| The successions of the holy apostles, along with the times that have run their course from our Savior down to ourselves; how many and how great are the events said to have been carried out in the history of the church; those who in the most distinguished dioceses led and presided over it with distinction; those who in each generation, by unwritten word or through writings as well, served as envoys of the divine Word; who they were, how many, and at what time, who out of a craving for innovation drove error to its furthest extreme and proclaimed themselves the introducers of knowledge falsely so called, mercilessly ravaging the flock of Christ like savage wolves;
1.2| and besides these, the fate that overtook the whole Jewish nation immediately after its plot against our Savior; and again, how many and what kind of attacks the divine Word suffered from the nations, and at what times; and how great were those who, at various periods, went through the contest of blood and torture on its behalf; and beyond these, the martyrdoms of our own day, and the gracious and kindly help of our Savior over them all: having resolved to hand these things down in writing, I shall begin from nowhere else than the very first stage of the dispensation of our Savior and Lord Jesus, the Christ of God.
1.3| But at this point my work asks the indulgence of the fair-minded, since it confesses that to fulfill its promise completely and without omission is beyond our power. For we are the first to set foot on this subject, and we are attempting to travel, as it were, a deserted and untrodden road. We pray that God may be our guide and the Lord's power our helper, but we are nowhere able to find even the bare footprints of human beings who have gone this same way before us, unless it be only small hints, through which, each in his own fashion, they have left us partial accounts of the times through which they lived. From far off they hold up their voices like beacon fires, and from somewhere on high, as from a distant height and a watchtower, they call out and direct us where we must walk and how to steer the course of our work without straying and without danger.
1.4| Whatever, then, of the things those writers mention here and there we judge useful for the subject before us, we have gathered up; and plucking, as from meadows of literature, the fitting passages of those ancient authors themselves, we shall try to give them a body through a historical narrative. We shall be content if we can rescue the successions of our Savior's apostles, if not of all of them, then at least of the most illustrious, in those churches that were distinguished and are still remembered even now.
1.5| I consider it most necessary to labor at this subject because I know of no church writer up to now who has taken pains over this kind of writing; and I hope that it will also prove most useful to those who are eager for the instruction that history affords.
1.6| I have in fact already drawn up an epitome of these matters earlier, in the chronological tables I composed; but in the present work I have set out to give the fullest possible narrative of them.
1.7| And, as I said, my account will start with the dispensation and the theology concerning Christ, which are conceived to be loftier and greater than anything human.
1.8| For anyone who is going to hand down in writing the history of the church's record would have to begin from the very beginning, from Christ's own dispensation, which is more divine than most people suppose, since it is from him that we have been deemed worthy of our very name.
2.1| Since his nature is twofold, the one aspect being like the head, in which he is conceived as God, and the other being compared to the feet, in which he put on a man of like passions with us for the sake of our own salvation, our account of what follows will be complete from this point if we begin our exposition of his whole history from the most essential and authoritative points of the subject. In this way the antiquity of the Christians, at once ancient and worthy of God, will also be shown to those who suppose it new and out of place, a thing that appeared only yesterday and no earlier.
2.2| Of his lineage, his dignity, and the very essence and nature of Christ, no account could ever be adequate to express them, which is why the divine Spirit also says in the prophecies, "Who will describe his generation?" For no one has known the Father except the Son, and no one has ever known the Son as he deserves,
2.3| except the Father alone who begot him. Who but the Father could purely comprehend the light that existed before the world, the intelligent and substantial Wisdom that existed before the ages, the living God the Word who was in the beginning with the Father? He is the first and only offspring of God before all creation and every created thing, visible and invisible; the supreme commander of the rational and immortal host in the heavens; the messenger of the great counsel; the minister of the Father's unspeakable purpose; the Maker of all things in partnership with the Father; the universe's second cause, next after the Father; the genuine Son of God, the only-begotten; the Lord, God, and King of all created beings, who received from the Father authority and power together with divinity itself, with might and honor. For according to the mystical theologies of the Scriptures concerning him: "In the beginning the Word was; and the Word was in God's presence; and the Word was God. All things came to be through him, and without him not one thing came to be."
2.4| This is also what the great Moses, the most ancient of all the prophets, teaches when, by the divine Spirit, he describes the constitution and ordering of the universe. He shows the world-maker and Maker of all things yielding the making of lesser things to Christ himself, and to no other than his own divine and firstborn Word, and conversing with him about the creation of man. For God said, he says, "Let us make a human being in accordance with our image and likeness."
2.5| Another of the prophets vouches for this saying, speaking of God in hymns somewhat as follows: "He spoke, and they came to be; he commanded, and they were created." He presents the Father and Creator as the ruler of all, giving orders with a royal nod, and the divine Word, second to him and no different from the one whom we proclaim, as serving the Father's commands.
2.6| From the very first creation of man, all who are said to have been outstanding for righteousness and the virtue of godliness, those around the great servant Moses, and before him first of all Abraham, and his children, and all the righteous men and prophets who appeared afterward, saw him with the mind's pure eyes, recognized him, and paid him the reverence due to the Son of God.
2.7| And he, never neglecting reverence for the Father, was established as a teacher of the knowledge of the Father to all. At any rate, it is recorded that the Lord God appeared to Abraham as he was sitting beside the oak of Mamre, like an ordinary man. Abraham immediately fell down before him, though with his eyes he saw a man, and worshiped him as God, and as Lord entreated him, confessing that he was not unaware of who he was, saying in these very words: "Lord, who judge all the earth, will you not do justice?"
2.8| For if no reasoning permits the unbegotten and unchangeable essence of almighty God to be transformed into the form of a man, nor again to deceive the eyes of onlookers with the appearance of some created thing, nor Scripture to invent such things falsely, then who else could be proclaimed as the God and Lord, judge of all the earth, who does justice, seen in the shape of a man, if it is not permitted to say the first cause of the universe, other than his preexistent Word alone? Of him it is also said in the Psalms: "He sent out his Word and healed them, and rescued them from their destructions."
2.9| Moses most clearly proclaims this one as the second Lord, after the Father, in saying: "The Lord rained brimstone and fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord." When he again appeared to Jacob in the shape of a man, holy scripture calls him God, as he says to Jacob: "Your name shall be called Jacob no longer, but Israel shall be your name, for you have prevailed with God." Then Jacob named that place "Vision of God," and said: "For I have beheld God face to face, and my life has been saved."
2.10| Nor is it right to suppose that the recorded appearances of God were those of lesser angels and servants of God. When one of these appears to human beings, scripture does not conceal it, but says that they were named not God, nor indeed Lord, but angels; this is easy to confirm from countless witnesses.
2.11| Joshua, the successor of Moses, likewise calls him "commander-in-chief of the power of the Lord," as one who leads the heavenly angels and archangels and the powers beyond the world, as being, so to speak, the Father's own power and wisdom, and who has been entrusted with the second place in kingship and rule over all things. He had seen him in no other way than, once more, in the form and shape of a man.
2.12| For it is written: "And it happened, when Joshua was in Jericho, that he looked up and saw a man standing opposite him, holding a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and said, 'Are you on our side, or on that of our adversaries?' He replied, 'I am commander-in-chief of the power of the Lord; I have come just now.' Then Joshua fell to the ground on his face and said to him, 'Master, what is your command for your servant?' And the commander-in-chief of the Lord said to Joshua, 'Loosen the sandal from your feet, for the place where you stand is a holy place.'"
2.13| Here you will observe from the very words that this was no different from the one who spoke to Moses, since scripture says in the same words about him: "When the Lord saw that he was coming near to look, the Lord called him out of the bush, saying, 'Moses, Moses.' He answered, 'What is it?' Then he said, 'Do not draw near here. Loosen the sandal from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.' And he told him, 'I am the God of your father: God of Abraham, and God of Isaac, and God of Jacob.'"
2.14| That there is a certain essence, existing before the world, living and subsisting, which served the God and Father of the universe in the creation of all created things, and bears the names Word of God and Wisdom, can in addition to the proofs already set out be heard from Wisdom herself, speaking in her own person. Through Solomon she plainly initiates us into the matter concerning herself in some such words as these: "I, Wisdom, have made counsel my dwelling, and I have called upon knowledge and understanding. Through me kings reign, and rulers write down justice; through me the great are made great, and tyrants rule the earth through me."
2.15| She adds to these words: "The Lord created me, the beginning of his ways, for the sake of his works; before the age he founded me. At the start, before he made the earth, before the springs of the waters came forth, before the mountains were set firm, and ahead of all the hills, he begets me. When he prepared the heaven, I was there with him, and when he made secure the springs beneath heaven, I was with him, fitting things together. I was she in whom he delighted day by day, and I rejoiced before him at every moment, when he rejoiced, having completed the inhabited world."
2.16| Let this, then, suffice for us, put briefly: that the divine Word existed beforehand and showed himself to some, though not to all.
2.17| Why, then, was it not proclaimed in former times, as it is now, to all people and to every nation? This will become clear as follows. The life of people long ago was not yet capable of receiving the wholly wise and wholly virtuous teaching of Christ.
2.18| Right at the beginning, after his first life among the blessed, the first man cared too little for the divine commandment and fell into this mortal and perishable life, taking this accursed earth in exchange for the divinely inspired delight he once enjoyed. Those descended from him, who filled our whole world, proved far worse, with the exception of perhaps one or two, and embraced a beastlike manner and an unlivable life.
2.19| They gave no thought to city or constitution, to crafts or sciences. Laws and rights, and even the name of virtue and philosophy, were nothing to them. They lived as nomads in the wilderness like fierce and savage beasts, and through the extremity of a wickedness of their own choosing they destroyed the reasoning that nature had given them and the rational, gentle seeds of the human soul. They handed themselves over entirely to every kind of impiety, so that at one time they corrupted one another, at another murdered one another, at another ate human flesh. They even dared to wage wars against God, those battles of the giants that are proclaimed by everyone, and they planned to wall off the earth against heaven; in the madness of their monstrous pride they were preparing to make war on the Overseer of all himself.
2.20| For these crimes God, who watches over all things, pursued them with floods and fires, like a wild forest poured out over all the earth. From above he cut them down with continual famines and plagues, with wars again, and with the strokes of thunderbolts, restraining the grim and most grievous sickness of their souls with harsher punishments.
2.21| At that time, then, when the stupor of wickedness had been poured out over nearly everyone, like some terrible drunkenness overshadowing and darkening the souls of almost all people, God's firstborn and first-created Wisdom, the pre-existent Word himself, in the excess of his love for humanity, appeared to them. Sometimes he did so through visions of angels to those of lower standing; sometimes, as God's saving power, he did so in person to one or two of the men of old who were dear to God, and then in no other way than in the form of a man, since in no other way was it possible for them.
2.22| But when, through these men, the seeds of true worship had already been sown among a multitude of people, and a whole nation devoted to the worship of God had come into being on earth, descended from the Hebrews of old, he gave them, since they were still for the most part steeped in their ancient ways of life, through the prophet Moses images and symbols of a mystical sabbath and of circumcision, and introductions to other spiritual contemplations, but he did not hand over the mysteries themselves in plain view.
2.23| Then the legislation among this people became famous and, like a fragrant breath, spread to all humanity. From them the minds of most of the nations had by then been tamed, through lawgivers and philosophers everywhere; their wild and savage brutality had changed into gentleness, so that they had deep peace with one another, along with friendship and intercourse. At that time, therefore, when all people and the nations throughout the inhabited world had been prepared in advance and were now fit to accept the Father's knowledge, that same teacher of the virtues, the Father's minister in every good thing, the divine and heavenly Word of God, appeared at the beginning of the Roman empire in a man who differed from our nature in no respect of the essence of the body. He did and suffered such things as accorded with the prophecies, which had foretold that one who was at once man and God would come to live among us, work miraculous deeds, and be shown forth as teacher of the Father's true worship to every nation. They foretold the marvel of his birth, his new teaching, the wonders of his works, and in addition the way he would die, his resurrection from the dead, and last of all his divine restoration to the heavens.
2.24| The prophet Daniel, for instance, foreseeing by the divine Spirit his kingdom at the end, was inspired in some such way as this, describing the vision of God in rather human terms: "I was watching," he says, "until thrones were set, and the Ancient of Days was seated. His garment was as white as snow, while the hair on his head was like clean wool; his throne was a blaze of fire, its wheels a burning flame. A river of fire streamed out in front of him. A thousand thousands ministered to him, and myriads upon myriads attended him in his presence. The court sat, and books were opened."
2.25| And next, he says: "I was watching, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a son of man was coming, and he reached the Ancient of Days, and was brought forward in his presence. And to him were given dominion, honor and kingship, and every people, tribe and tongue shall be his servants. His power is an eternal power that will never go by, and his kingship will never be corrupted."
2.26| These words could clearly refer to no one else but our Savior, God the Word, who in the beginning was with God, and who is called Son of Man because of his final becoming human.
2.27| But since we have collected the prophetic extracts concerning our Savior Jesus Christ in treatises of their own, and have set out what concerns him more demonstratively elsewhere, we shall be content, for the present, with what has been said.
3.1| Now it is time to show that even the very name of Jesus, and indeed of Christ, was held in honor among the God-beloved prophets of old themselves.
3.2| Moses was the first to recognize the name of Christ as venerable and glorious in the highest degree. When he handed down types of heavenly things, symbols and mysterious images, in keeping with the oracle that said to him, "See that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain," he named a high priest of God, as far as a human being could be, and proclaimed him Christ; and to the dignity that goes with the high priesthood, which in his view surpassed every pre-eminence among human beings, he attached the name of Christ for honor and glory. So he understood Christ to be something divine.
3.3| The same man, foreseeing by the divine Spirit the appellation of Jesus as well, judged this too worthy of a special privilege. The name of Jesus had never before been uttered among human beings until it was disclosed to Moses; and Moses gave this title first and only to the man whom, again by way of type and symbol, he knew would succeed him in rule over all after his death.
3.4| Previously, then, his successor was called by another name, Auses, which his parents had given him; Moses did not proclaim him Jesus until then, bestowing the name on him like a precious prize, far greater than any royal diadem, because Jesus the son of Nave bore in himself the image of our Savior, who alone after Moses, and at the conclusion of the symbolic worship handed down through him, succeeded to the leadership of true and utterly pure piety.
3.5| And so Moses, in this way, attached the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, as the greatest honor, to the two men of his time who excelled the whole people in virtue and glory: the high priest, and the one who would lead after him.
3.6| Clearly the prophets after them also proclaimed Christ by name beforehand, testifying in advance both to the conspiracy that the people of the Jews would mount against him and to the call of the nations that comes by means of him. At one time Jeremiah says something like this: "The breath of our face, Christ the Lord, was caught in their destructions; of him we said, we shall live under his shadow among the nations." At another time David, perplexed, says: "Why did the nations rage? Why did the peoples devise vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers assembled in unison against the Lord and against his Christ." Immediately after this he adds, with Christ himself as the speaker: "The Lord told me, You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Make your request of me, and I will give the nations to you as your inheritance, with the ends of the earth as your possession."
3.7| Nor was it only those honored with the high priesthood, anointed with oil prepared as a symbol, whom the name of Christ adorned among the Hebrews, and not only these but also the kings, whom the prophets likewise anointed by divine direction and so made into figurative christs, because they too bore in themselves the types of the royal and ruling authority of the one true Christ, the divine Word who reigns over all.
3.8| We have also received the tradition that some of the prophets themselves became christs in type through anointing, so that all of these point to the true Christ, who is the divine and heavenly Word, and who alone is high priest of all, alone king of all creation, and alone among prophets the arch-prophet of the Father.
3.9| The proof of this is that none of those anointed of old by means of the symbol, whether priests or kings or even prophets, gained so great a power of divine virtue as our Savior and Lord Jesus, the one true Christ, has displayed.
3.10| Yet none of those men, though they shone among their own people for very many generations in rank and honor, ever gave their subjects the name of Christians, derived from the title "Christ" that they bore as an image. Nor did their subjects pay any of them reverent honor; nor, after their death, was there such devotion that people stood ready to die on behalf of the one they honored; nor did all the nations of the inhabited world stir themselves for any one of them in those days, since the power of the symbol could not accomplish in them as much as the manifestation of the truth that was displayed through our Savior.
3.11| He received from no one the symbols and emblems of the high priesthood, nor did he trace his bodily descent from priestly stock, nor was he raised to kingship by bodyguards of armed men, nor again did he become a prophet in the manner of the ancients, nor did he obtain any rank at all or place of precedence among the Jews. Yet the Father had adorned him with all these things, if not in symbols, then in the truth itself.
3.12| And having obtained honors unlike those we have mentioned, he was proclaimed Christ more than all of them. As the one true Christ of God, he filled the whole world with Christians, who bear his truly solemn and sacred name. He no longer handed down to his company of followers types and images, but bare virtues themselves, a heavenly way of life, and the doctrines of truth.
3.13| The anointing, too, that he received was not one prepared from material substances, but, befitting God, was given by the divine Spirit itself, through a share in the unbegotten divinity of the Father. Isaiah teaches this as well, crying out in the person of Christ himself somewhat as follows: "The Spirit of the Lord rests upon me, on account of which he anointed me; he has sent me forth to proclaim good news to the poor, to preach release to captives, and a recovery of sight for the blind."
3.14| And not Isaiah alone, but David also speaks aloud in his person, saying: "Your throne, O God, is to the age of the age; a rod of uprightness is the rod of your kingdom. You loved justice and hated lawlessness; therefore God, your God, anointed you with the oil of exultation beyond your partners." In these words the passage, in the first verse, calls him God, and in the second honors him with the royal scepter.
3.15| Then, going on a step further, after the divine and royal power, he shows him in third place to have become Christ, anointed not with oil derived from the matter of bodies, but with the divine oil of gladness. By this he also hints at his distinction, and at how far he surpasses and differs from those of old, who were anointed in a more bodily way through images.
3.16| And elsewhere the same writer makes clear what concerns him, declaring: "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit on my right until I set your enemies as a footstool for your feet. From the womb, before the morning star, I begot you." "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: You are a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchizedek."
3.17| This Melchizedek is introduced in the sacred writings as priest of the most high God. He was not designated by any prepared anointing, nor did he belong to the Hebrew priesthood by succession of descent. On this account our Savior has been proclaimed Christ and priest, with the confirmation of an oath, after his order, and not after that of the others who received symbols and emblems.
3.18| Hence the narrative does not report that he was anointed bodily among the Jews, or that he came from the tribe of the priests. Rather, he had his essence from God himself, ahead of the morning star, that is, before the establishment of the world, and he holds an immortal and ageless priesthood into unending time.
3.19| A great and clear proof of the incorporeal and divine anointing bestowed on him is this: of all who have ever lived, he alone, even to this day, is called Christ among all people throughout the whole world, is acknowledged and attested by all under this title, is remembered among Greeks and barbarians, and even now is honored by his followers throughout the inhabited world as a king, wondered at beyond any prophet, and extolled as God's true and only high priest. Further, beyond all this, as the Word of God who existed before and had his essence before all ages, he has received reverent honor from the Father, and is worshiped as God.
3.20| Most astonishing of all, those of us who are consecrated to him honor him not merely with our voices and the sound of words, but with every disposition of the soul, so that we value bearing witness to him even above our own lives.
4.1| Let these points, then, stand here as a necessary preliminary to the history, so that no one may suppose our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ to be a recent figure because of the time of his life in the flesh. And so that no one may suspect that his teaching, too, is new and foreign, as though it were founded by a man who was recent and no different from other people, let us briefly address this matter as well.
4.2| For when the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ had newly shone upon all people, a new nation appeared, by common admission: not small or weak, nor settled in a corner of the earth, but both the most populous and the most God-fearing of all nations, and for that reason indestructible and unconquerable, because it always receives help from God. It appeared all at once, at a time fixed by an ineffable appointment, this nation honored among all with the name of Christ.
4.3| One of the prophets was struck with amazement at this, having foreseen with the divine Spirit's eye what was to come, so that he uttered these words: "Who has heard such things, and who has spoken like this? Did the earth travail in one day, or was a nation born at one time?" The same prophet also hints at the coming name, saying: "But those who serve me will be called by a new name, which will be blessed on the earth."
4.4| But even if we are plainly new, and this name of Christians is truly a new one, only now known among all nations, nevertheless the manner of life and the conduct that goes with these doctrines of piety has not been newly fashioned by us. From the very beginning of human existence, so to speak, it was set right by the natural understanding of the God-loving men of old. We shall show this as follows.
4.5| It is no new nation, but one honored among all people for its antiquity and known to everyone, that of the Hebrews. Its words and writings contain ancient men, few and small in number, yet outstanding in piety, righteousness and every other virtue: some before the flood, others after it, among the sons and descendants of Noah, and also Abraham, whom the children of the Hebrews boast of as their founder and forefather.
4.6| If one were to call all these men, who are attested for righteousness, going back from Abraham himself to the first human being, Christians in deed, even if not in name, one would not stray from the truth.
4.7| For what the name is meant to signify is that a Christian man, through the knowledge and teaching of Christ, is distinguished by self-control and righteousness, by endurance in life and courageous virtue, and by the confession of piety toward the sole God over all. All of this they pursued no less eagerly than we do.
4.8| So they cared nothing for circumcision of the body, since we do not either; nor for sabbath observance, since we do not either; nor for the keeping of certain foods or the distinction of others, which Moses, first of all, began to hand down to later generations to be carried out in symbols, since such things are not the concern of Christians even now. But they also knew the Christ of God clearly, if indeed it has been demonstrated already that he appeared to Abraham, gave oracles to Isaac, spoke to Israel, and conversed with Moses and the prophets after them.
4.9| Hence you would find those God-loving men themselves deemed worthy of the title of Christ, according to the voice that says of them: "Do not touch my Christs, and do no harm to my prophets."
4.10| The conclusion is plain: we must regard the discovery of true piety announced to all nations in our own time through the teaching of Christ as the first, the oldest and the most ancient of all, the very religion of those God-loving men around Abraham.
4.11| And if they say that Abraham received the commandment of circumcision long afterward, still before it he is attested as righteous through faith, as the divine word says: "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness."
4.12| And so, to a man of this kind, before his circumcision, an oracle was given by God who revealed himself to him (and this was Christ himself, God's Word), foretelling in these very words those who in later times would be justified in the same manner as he: "And in you will all the tribes of the earth receive blessing," and, "He will grow into a great and populous nation, and in him every nation on earth will receive blessing."
4.13| One can see this fulfilled even down to us. For Abraham had been justified through faith in Christ, God's Word, who appeared to him, having abandoned the superstition of his fathers and the error of his earlier life, and having acknowledged the one God over all and served him by works of virtue, not by the worship of the law of Moses that came later. And it was said of such a man that all the tribes of the earth and all the nations would be blessed in him.
4.14| And now, by deeds more evident than words, that very way of Abraham's piety toward God has shown itself, practiced at the present time among Christians alone throughout the whole inhabited world.
4.15| What, then, remains to prevent us from agreeing that the life and manner of piety are one and the same for us who come from Christ and for those beloved of God in ancient times? It follows that the right practice of piety handed down to us through the teaching of Christ is not new or foreign but, if one may speak truthfully, the first, the only, and the true one. So much for this subject.
5.1| Now then, after the necessary preparation for the ecclesiastical history we have set before us, let us at last take up, as if setting out on a journey, the story from the appearance of our Savior in the flesh, calling on God, the Father of the Word, and on Jesus Christ himself, our Savior and Lord, God's Word from heaven, to be our helper and fellow worker in the truth of the narrative.
5.2| This was the forty-second year of Augustus's reign and the twenty-eighth since the subjection of Egypt and the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, in whom the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt reached its final end, when our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, at the time of the first census, while Quirinius was governing Syria, was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in accordance with the prophecies about him.
5.3| Flavius Josephus, the most distinguished of the historians among the Hebrews, also mentions this census under Quirinius, and adds another account concerning the sect of the Galileans that arose at the same time. Luke too, among our own writers, mentions it in the Acts, saying something like this: "After this man arose Judas the Galilean in the days of the census, and drew away a people after him; and he too perished, and all who were persuaded by him were scattered."
5.4| In agreement with this, the author just mentioned sets down, in book eighteen of the Antiquities, the following in these very words: "Quirinius, one of the men chosen for the senate, who had completed the other offices and risen through all of them to become consul, and who was great in other respects of rank, arrived in Syria with a few attendants, sent by Caesar to judge the nation and to assess its property." And a little later he says:
5.5| "But Judas, a Gaulanite from a city named Gamala, taking Sadduk the Pharisee as his associate, pressed for revolt, saying that the assessment brought nothing other than outright slavery, and urging the nation to defend its freedom."
5.6| In his second book on the Jewish war he writes this about the same man: "In his time a certain Galilean man named Judas incited the people of the country to revolt, reproaching them if they would endure paying tribute to the Romans and would bear mortal masters after God." So says Josephus.
6.1| At that time, when Herod, the first ruler of foreign stock, had taken over the kingdom of the Jewish nation, the prophecy given through Moses received its fixed limit, when it said that a ruler from Judah would not fail, nor a leader out of his loins, until he comes for whom it is reserved, and whom it declares to be the expectation of the nations.
6.2| Yet the prophecy was still incomplete for as long as they were permitted to pass their time under rulers belonging to their own nation, a period that began with Moses himself and lasted down to the reign of Augustus. In his time Herod, the first foreigner, was entrusted by the Romans with authority over the Jews. According to Josephus, he was an Idumaean on his father's side and an Arab on his mother's; but according to Africanus (himself no ordinary writer), those who investigate his family closely say that his father Antipater was descended from one Herod of Ascalon, who was among the so-called temple slaves attached to the shrine of Apollo.
6.3| This Antipater, captured as a boy by Idumaean bandits, remained with them because his father, being poor, could not pay a ransom for him. Brought up in their ways, he later became a friend of Hyrcanus, the high priest of the Jews. From him came the Herod of the time of our Savior.
6.4| Now that the Jewish kingdom had come into the hands of such a man, the nations' expectation, in keeping with the prophecy, was already at the door, since from that time the line of rulers and leaders who had governed among them in succession from Moses himself had come to an end.
6.5| Before their captivity and their removal to Babylon they were ruled by kings, starting with Saul, who was first, and David. Before the kings, rulers governed them who were called judges, who likewise held power after Moses and his successor Joshua.
6.6| After the return from Babylon they continued without interruption under an aristocratic constitution mixed with oligarchy, for the priests presided over public affairs. This lasted until Pompey, the Roman general, arrived, besieged Jerusalem and took it by assault, and defiled the holy places by advancing as far as the innermost sanctuaries of the temple. The man who until then had held office, by succession from his ancestors, as king and high priest together, whose name was Aristobulus, he sent off in chains to Rome with his children. The high priesthood he handed over to Hyrcanus, the brother of Aristobulus, and from then on he made the whole Jewish nation tributary to the Romans.
6.7| Soon afterward Hyrcanus, in whom the succession of the high priests finally came to an end, was taken captive by the Parthians. Then, as I said, Herod, the first foreigner, was entrusted with the Jewish people by the senate of Rome and by Augustus, its emperor.
6.8| In his time the coming of Christ became plainly manifest, and the salvation and calling of the nations that had been expected followed, in accordance with the prophecy. From this time, since the rulers and leaders descended from Judah, I mean those from the Jewish nation, had ceased, it is only to be expected that the high priesthood too, which had passed securely from generation to generation to the nearest successors by descent from their ancestors, was immediately thrown into confusion.
6.9| Of this too you have in Josephus a trustworthy witness. He shows that Herod, once the kingdom had been entrusted to him by the Romans, no longer appointed high priests from the ancient lineage but bestowed the honor on obscure persons; and that Archelaus, his son, did the same in appointing the priests, as afterward did the Romans, when they took over the government of the Jews.
6.10| The same writer shows that Herod was also the first to lock away the sacred vestment of the high priest and place it under his own seal, no longer permitting the high priests to keep it in their own custody. Archelaus after him did the same, and the Romans after him.
6.11| Let these things be mentioned by us as proof of another prophecy, one that was fulfilled at the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ. In Daniel, at any rate, the prophecy very clearly includes a number of weeks, stated by name, extending until Christ the leader. I have dealt with these in other writings. After the completion of these weeks it prophesies that the anointing among the Jews will be destroyed; and this too is clearly shown to have been fulfilled at the very time of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Let these things be set down by us as necessary to establish the truth about the dates.
7.1| Matthew and Luke, in proclaiming the good news, have handed down to us different genealogies of Christ, and most people think that they disagree. Each of the faithful, being ignorant of the truth, has been eager to devise explanations for these passages. So come, let us set out also the account of these matters that has reached us. Africanus, whom we mentioned a little earlier, recorded it in his letter to Aristides about how the genealogies in the gospels agree. He refuted the opinions of the others as forced and mistaken, and set out the account that he had himself received, in these words:
7.2| Now the names of the families in Israel were reckoned in one of two ways, by nature or by law: by nature, through the succession of legitimate offspring; by law, when one man fathered children for a brother who had died childless, in that brother's name. (For since no clear hope of resurrection had yet been given, they imitated the promise of the future by a resurrection that was mortal, so that the departed man's name might remain undying.)
7.3| Since, then, of those recorded in this genealogy some succeeded their fathers as true sons, while others were born to one man but were added to another by name, mention is made of both kinds, of those who begot and of those who were counted as having begotten. In this way neither of the Gospels is false, whether it reckons by nature or by law.
7.4| For the two lines, the one from Solomon and the one from Nathan, were interwoven with each other through the raising up of children for the childless, through second marriages, and through the raising up of offspring, so that the same persons are rightly regarded now as belonging to one set of fathers and now to another, some being their reputed fathers and others their actual ones. Thus both accounts are in the proper sense true, and both come down to Joseph, intricately, yet exactly.
7.5| But to make what I am saying clear, I shall set out the interchange of the lines. If one counts the generations from David by way of Solomon, Matthan is found third from the end; he begot Jacob, the father of Joseph. And counting from Nathan, David's son, as Luke has it, Melchi likewise stands third from the end; for Joseph was the son of Heli, son of Melchi.
7.6| Since Joseph is our aim, then, we must demonstrate how each man is recorded as his father: Jacob, who traces his descent from Solomon, and Heli, who traces his from Nathan. We must also show how these two, Jacob and Heli, were brothers, and, before that, how their fathers, Matthan and Melchi, who belonged to different families, appear as grandfathers of Joseph.
7.7| Well then, Matthan and Melchi, each taking the same woman in turn, fathered children, brothers who shared the same mother, since the law did not forbid a widowed woman, whether divorced or after her husband's death, to be married to another.
7.8| By Estha (for this is the name tradition gives the woman), Matthan, who traced his descent from Solomon, was the first to beget Jacob; and when Matthan had died, Melchi, who was referred back in his lineage to Nathan, belonging to the same tribe but to a different family, as I said before, took her as a widow and had by her a son, Heli.
7.9| Thus we shall find that Jacob and Heli, of two different families, were brothers by the same mother. When Heli, one of the two, died childless, Jacob, the other, took his brother's wife and begot by her a third son, Joseph, who was his own by nature (and by the account given, which is why it is written, "Jacob begot Joseph"), but by law was the son of Heli; for it was for him that Jacob, being his brother, raised up offspring. For this reason the genealogy running through Joseph will not be invalidated.
7.10| The evangelist Matthew, in reckoning it, says, "Jacob begot Joseph," while Luke, working in the opposite direction, says, "who was, as was supposed" (for he adds this too), "the son of Joseph, of Heli, of Melchi." It was not possible to state descent according to the law more distinctively, and to the end he kept silent about the word "begot" in the case of this kind of child-raising, tracing the line back by ascent as far as Adam, who was of God.
7.11| Nor is this unproved or improvised. At any rate the Savior's relatives according to the flesh, whether out of eagerness for display or simply to instruct, but in any case speaking the truth, handed down these further details as well: that Idumaean bandits, attacking the city of Ascalon in Palestine, carried off from the temple of Apollo built beside its walls, along with other plunder, a captive, Antipater, son of one Herod, a temple slave; and as the priest could not furnish ransom for his son, Antipater was reared in the customs of the Idumaeans, and later won the friendship of Hyrcanus, the high priest of Judea.
7.12| Sent as an envoy to Pompey on behalf of Hyrcanus, he freed the kingdom, which was being cut away from him by his brother Aristobulus, and he himself prospered, being appointed overseer of Palestine. When Antipater was murdered by treachery through envy of his great prosperity, his son Herod took his place; Herod was later judged fit to reign over the Jews by Antony and Augustus, by decree of the senate; his children were Herod and the other tetrarchs. Such matters, indeed, are common also to the histories of the Greeks.
7.13| Although the Hebrew genealogies had until then been recorded in the archives, including those traced back to proselytes, for instance Achior the Ammonite and Ruth the Moabite, and to the mixed multitude who had left Egypt along with the Israelites, Herod, who gained nothing from the Israelite descent and was stung by the knowledge of his own low birth, burned the registers of their lineages. He supposed he would appear well-born if no one else could trace his ancestry from a public record back to the patriarchs or to proselytes, or to those called geiorai, the mixed settlers.
7.14| A few of the careful, however, having either remembered the names or otherwise obtained them from copies, made private records for themselves, and they take pride in having preserved the memory of their noble descent. Among these were the men mentioned above, called the Lord's kinsmen because of their connection with the Savior's family. They spread from Nazara and Kochaba, Jewish villages, over the rest of the country, and they explained the genealogy set out above from the Book of Days, as far as it went.
7.15| Whether this is how it was or otherwise, nobody could find a clearer explanation, as I at least believe, and so does everyone of good judgment. Let this account be our concern, even though it lacks testimony, since we cannot offer a better or truer one. In any case the gospel is entirely true.
7.16| At the end of the same letter he adds the following: Matthan, descended from Solomon, fathered Jacob. When Matthan died, Melchi, descended from Nathan, fathered Eli by the same woman. Therefore Eli and Jacob were brothers sharing one mother. When Eli died childless, Jacob raised up offspring for him by fathering Joseph, who was his own son by nature but Eli's by law. Thus Joseph was the son of both.
7.17| That is what Africanus says. And since Joseph's genealogy is traced in this way, Mary too is shown, at least potentially, to be from the same tribe along with him, since under the law of Moses it was not permitted to marry into other tribes. The law commands a person to be joined in marriage to someone from the same people and the same family, in order that the inheritance of the lineage should not be transferred from one tribe to another. Let this, then, stand as it is.
8.1| But when Christ had been born in Bethlehem of Judea, in keeping with the prophecies and at the times indicated, Herod was greatly disturbed. The magi from the east had asked where the newborn king of the Jews was, saying they had seen his star and that this was the reason for their long journey, since they were eager to worship the child as God. Because, as he thought, his rule was in danger, he inquired of the nation's teachers of the law where the Christ was expected to be born. When he learned of Micah's prophecy proclaiming Bethlehem, he gave a single order that the infants at the breast in Bethlehem and all its districts, from two years old and under, in line with the time he had carefully learned from the magi, be put to death. He supposed that Jesus, as was likely, would certainly share the same disaster as those of his own age.
8.2| The child, however, got ahead of the plot by being carried off to Egypt, his parents having learned beforehand of what was coming through the appearance of an angel. This much the sacred scripture of the gospel also teaches.
8.3| It is worth considering next the wages of Herod's daring against Christ and the children of his age: how immediately, without even a brief delay, divine justice overtook him while he was still alive, displaying a prelude of what would succeed it for him after his departure from here.
8.4| As for how the successes he reckoned he had in his kingdom were dimmed by successive misfortunes in his household, through the murders of his wife, his children and the rest of his nearest and dearest relatives, it is not even possible to list them now, since the subject eclipses every tragic drama. Josephus has gone through it at length in his histories of Herod.
8.5| But how a scourge sent by God came upon him at the same time as the plot against our Savior and the other infants, and drove him to death, it is just as well to hear in the writer's own words. In book seventeen of the Jewish Antiquities he describes the end of Herod's life in this way, quoting word for word: The disease grew more bitter for Herod, as God exacted the penalty for his lawless acts.
8.6| The fire was a gentle one, not showing outwardly to those who touched him the burning that it inflicted on his insides. He had a terrible craving to take food, and it was impossible not to satisfy it. His intestines were ulcerated, and in the colon especially he suffered dreadful pains, and a moist, transparent humor gathered about his feet.
8.7| A similar affliction affected his abdomen. His genitals, moreover, were rotting and breeding worms. His breathing could be done only upright, and this was itself most unpleasant because of the oppressive stench and the rapid panting; and he was convulsed in every part, with a strength that could not be withstood.
8.8| It was said, at any rate, by those who spoke by divine inspiration, and whose wisdom it is to foretell such things, that God was exacting this punishment from the king for his great impiety. These are the things the aforementioned author records in the writing mentioned.
8.9| In the second book of his Histories he gives of the same man a similar account, writing somewhat as follows: From there the disease took hold of his whole body and shared it out among varied sufferings. He had a slow fever, an unbearable itching over his entire skin, and continual pains in the colon; there were swellings about his feet as in one with dropsy, an inflammation of the abdomen, and a rotting of the genitals that bred a worm. Besides these came upright breathing, difficulty in breathing, and convulsions in every limb, so that those who spoke of divine causes said the diseases were a punishment.
8.10| But though he wrestled with so many afflictions, he still clung to life, hoped for recovery, and devised treatments. He crossed the Jordan, therefore, and used the hot springs at Callirhoe; these flow out into the Asphaltite Lake, yet are sweet and drinkable.
8.11| There the physicians determined to warm his entire body in hot oil, and he was lowered into a tub full of oil; he went limp, and his eyes rolled back as though he had fainted. When an uproar arose among his attendants, he came to himself at the noise; but from then on, despairing of recovery, he ordered fifty drachmas to be distributed to each of the soldiers, and large sums to the commanders and his friends.
8.12| He himself turned back and arrived at Jericho, already melancholy and all but threatening death itself. He went on to plot an unlawful deed. For he gathered the notable men from every village of all Judea and ordered them shut up in the so-called hippodrome,
8.13| and he summoned his sister Salome and her husband Alexas and said: I am aware that the Jews will celebrate my death, but I can be lamented through others and receive a magnificent funeral, if you consent to carry out my orders. As soon as I breathe my last, surround these men under guard with the soldiers and kill them at once, so that all Judea and every household, even against its will, will weep for me.
8.14| And after a few lines he says, again in the fifth book: For he was racked by lack of food and by a convulsive cough, and, welcoming the pains, he undertook to forestall his fate. He took an apple and asked also for a small knife, for he was accustomed to cut his fruit before eating it. Then, looking round in case anyone might stop him, he raised his right hand as though to strike himself.
8.15| In addition to these things, the same historian records that another of his legitimate sons, the third after two already put to death, was killed by his order shortly before the final end of his life, and that Herod himself immediately breathed his last in no small agony.
8.16| Such was the end of Herod's death, as he paid a just penalty for the children he had killed around Bethlehem on account of the plot against our Savior. After this, in a dream, an angel appeared to Joseph, who was staying in Egypt, and commanded him to depart with the child and its mother for Judea, showing that those seeking the child's life were dead. The evangelist adds to this: But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling as king in place of his father Herod, he feared to go there; and, being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the region of Galilee.
9.1| The aforementioned historian also agrees with the installation of Archelaus in the rule after Herod, recording the manner in which he succeeded to the kingship over the Jews, by the testament of his father Herod and the judgment of Caesar Augustus, and how, when he lost his rule after a period of ten years, his brothers Philip and the younger Herod, together with Lysanias, administered their own tetrarchies.
9.2| In the eighteenth book of the Antiquities the same writer shows that Pontius Pilate was entrusted with Judea in the twelfth year of Tiberius's reign (for Tiberius succeeded to supreme rule after Augustus had held power for fifty-seven years), and that he remained there for ten full years, very nearly until the death of Tiberius.
9.3| So the fabrication of those who have lately circulated memoirs directed against our Saviour stands plainly refuted, since in them the very date the forgers attached to them is the first thing to expose their lie.
9.4| For the outrages they dared to describe concerning the Saviour's passion they place in the fourth consulship of Tiberius, which fell in the seventh year of his reign; and at that date, it is shown, Pilate had not yet even taken charge of Judea, if we are to use Josephus as a witness, who indicates clearly, in the passage of his work already cited, that it was in the twelfth year of Tiberius's reign that Pilate was appointed procurator of Judea by Tiberius.
10.1| It was in their time, then, according to the evangelist, in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar and the fourth of Pontius Pilate's governorship, while Herod, Lysanias and Philip were tetrarchs over the rest of Judea, that Jesus the Christ of God, our Saviour and Lord, who was about thirty years old at his beginning, came to the baptism of John, and at that point made a start on proclaiming the gospel.
10.2| Divine scripture says that he carried through the whole period of his teaching under the high priests Annas and Caiaphas, thereby showing that the entire period of his teaching was completed within the years between their two ministries. Since, then, he began during the high priesthood of Annas and continued until the tenure of Caiaphas, the interval between them does not amount even to a full four years.
10.3| For as the institutions of the law were by then already being dismantled in one way or another, the rule had been abolished under which the offices of God's worship belonged to a man for life and by hereditary succession; instead, the Roman governors entrusted the high priesthood to one man after another,
10.4| and none continued in it for more than a single year. Josephus, at any rate, records that four high priests followed one another in succession after Annas down to Caiaphas, saying roughly the following in that same book of the Antiquities: "Valerius Gratus, having removed Ananus from the priesthood, declares Ishmael son of Phabi high priest; and having replaced him too not long afterward, he appoints Eleazar, son of Ananus the high priest, as high priest. When a year had passed, he removed this man as well
10.5| and handed the high priesthood to Simon son of Camithus. Nor did he hold the honour for longer than a year, and Joseph, also called Caiaphas, became his successor."
10.6| So the whole period of our Saviour's teaching is shown to have been not even a full four years, since four high priests, one in each year, held office in succession from Annas down to the installation of Caiaphas, each fulfilling a ministry of a single year. The gospel writing, naturally, noted Caiaphas as high priest of the year in which the events of the saving passion were accomplished, and from that writing too the period of Christ's teaching is shown to agree with the observation just set out.
10.7| Not long after the beginning of his proclamation, our Saviour and Lord calls the twelve apostles, the only ones among his disciples to whom he gave the name of apostles, as a special mark of honour; and later he appoints seventy others, and these too he sent out two by two ahead of him into every place and city where he himself was about to come.
11.1| Not long afterward the younger Herod had John the Baptist beheaded. The divine writing of the gospels records this, and Josephus also gives an account of it, mentioning Herodias by name and how Herod took her in marriage, though she was his brother's wife. He had set aside the woman lawfully married to him before (she was the daughter of Aretas, king of the Petraeans), and had parted Herodias from her husband when he was still living. On her account, after killing John, he also took up war against Aretas, whose daughter had been dishonoured by him;
11.2| and in that war, when battle was joined, Josephus says that the whole of Herod's army was wiped out, and that this was his punishment for the plot carried out against John.
11.3| The same Josephus also acknowledges that John was a man of the highest righteousness and a baptizer, and so he bears witness alongside what is recorded about him in the text of the gospels. He reports, too, that it was because of that same Herodias that Herod lost his kingdom; he was driven along with her beyond the borders, and sentenced to dwell in Vienne, a city of Gaul.
11.4| This is made plain in Book Eighteen of the Antiquities, where he writes these very words about John: "Some of the Jews held that the army of Herod had perished at the hands of God, who was exacting a fully just penalty for John, the one called the Baptist.
11.5| For Herod put him to death, though he was a good man who urged the Jews to cultivate virtue, to practice justice toward one another and piety toward God, and so to come together for baptism. Baptism, he taught, would be acceptable to God only on these terms: if they used it not to beg off certain sins, but for the purity of the body, the soul having already been cleansed beforehand by righteousness.
11.6| When others too began gathering around him, for they were stirred to the utmost by hearing his words, Herod grew afraid that his great power to persuade people might lead to some kind of revolt, since they seemed ready to do anything on his advice. He judged it far better to strike first and do away with him before any uprising arose from him, than to be plunged into trouble once things had turned and then regret it. And so, because of Herod's suspicion, John was sent in chains to Machaerus, the fortress mentioned earlier, and there he was put to death."
11.7| Having related this about John, he mentions our Savior as well, in the same part of the work, in roughly these words: "Around this time there appeared Jesus, a wise man, if one must indeed call him a man; he was a doer of astonishing deeds, a teacher of people who welcome the truth gladly, and he drew to himself many Jews and many from the Greek world as well.
11.8| This man was the Christ. And when Pilate, on the accusation of the leading men among us, had sentenced him to be crucified, those who had first loved him did not cease; for on the third day he appeared to them alive once more, the divine prophets having foretold these things and countless other marvels concerning him. And to this day the tribe of Christians, who take their name from him, has not died out."
11.9| Since a writer who was himself one of the Hebrews has handed down in his own work, from long ago, these accounts of John the Baptist and of our Savior, what escape could still remain for those who forged the memoirs against them from being exposed as shameless? But let this matter rest there.
12.1| The names of the Savior's apostles are plain to anyone from the gospels. Of the seventy disciples, however, no list is preserved anywhere. It is reported, however, that Barnabas was one of them; the Acts of the Apostles mentions him in various places, and so, not least, does Paul when writing to the Galatians. They say that Sosthenes, who wrote to the Corinthians jointly with Paul, was also one of them.
12.2| This account comes from Clement, in the fifth book of his Outlines. There he also says that Cephas, about whom Paul says, "But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face," was one of the seventy disciples, and happened to share his name with Peter the apostle.
12.3| Tradition also holds that Matthias, who was counted among the apostles in place of Judas, and the man honored along with him in the same vote, had been deemed worthy of the same calling as the seventy. They say that Thaddaeus too was one of them; concerning him I shall shortly set out an account that has come down to us.
12.4| And if you look closely you will find that the Savior had more disciples than the seventy, taking Paul as your witness. He says that after the resurrection from the dead Jesus was seen first by Cephas, then by the twelve, and after them by more than five hundred brothers at once, some of whom, he said, had fallen asleep, while most were still alive at the time he was composing these words.
12.5| Then, he says, Jesus was seen by James; this man too was one of those spoken of as the Savior's brothers. Then, since besides these there had been a great many apostles modeled on the twelve, of whom Paul himself was one, he adds, "Then he was seen by all the apostles." So much, then, for these matters.
13.1| The account concerning Thaddaeus runs as follows. The divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, proclaimed among all people because of his wonder-working power, drew countless multitudes, even of those living in foreign lands far from Judea, in hope of healing from diseases and sufferings of every kind.
13.2| Accordingly King Abgar, who ruled with great distinction over the nations beyond the Euphrates, was being wasted in body by a terrible disease, one beyond any human power to cure. When he learned how widely the name of Jesus was spoken of, and of the powers that everyone attested in agreement, he sent a messenger with a letter and approached him as a suppliant, asking to be released from his illness.
13.3| Jesus did not answer the summons at that time, but he did think him worthy of a letter of his own, and promising that one of his disciples would be sent to cure the disease and, at the same time, to bring salvation to him and to all his household.
13.4| The promise was not long in being fulfilled. Once he had risen from the dead and gone up into heaven, Thomas, who was one of the twelve apostles, sent, by a more divine prompting, Thaddaeus to Edessa as herald and evangelist of the teaching about Christ. Thaddaeus was himself numbered among the seventy disciples of Christ. Through him everything in our Savior's promise was brought to completion.
13.5| You have the written testimony to this as well, taken from the archives of Edessa, the city then ruled by its own king. In the public records there, which contain the ancient history and what was done in Abgar's time, these things have been preserved from that day to this. But nothing is better than listening to the very letters, taken up for us from the archives and translated word for word out of the Syriac language, in this manner.
13.6| COPY OF A LETTER WRITTEN TO JESUS BY ABGAR THE TOPARCH, AND DESPATCHED TO HIM AT JERUSALEM THROUGH THE COURIER ANANIAS. Abgar Ouchama, toparch, to Jesus the good Savior who has made his appearance in the district of Jerusalem: greetings. I have heard about you and about your cures, which are performed by you without drugs or herbs. For the report is that you make the blind see again and the lame walk, that you cleanse lepers, cast out unclean spirits and demons, heal those tormented by long illness, and raise the dead.
13.7| When I heard all this about you, I settled on one of two conclusions: either you are God and have come down from heaven to do these things, or you are a son of God who does them.
13.8| For this reason, then, I am writing to beg you to put yourself to the trouble of coming to me and curing the affliction that I have.
13.9| For I have also heard that the Jews are grumbling against you and want to do you harm. I have a very small city, but a respectable one, which is enough for both of us.
13.10| THE REPLY WRITTEN BY JESUS TO ABGAR THE RULER, THROUGH THE COURIER ANANIAS. Blessed are you, who have believed in me though you have not seen me. For about me it has been written that those who have seen me will fail to put their faith in me, while those who have not seen me will themselves believe and live. As for what you wrote, asking me to come to you, I must fulfill everything for which I was sent here, and after fulfilling it, be taken up in this way to the one who sent me. And once I am taken up, I shall send you one of my disciples, to heal your affliction and to give life to you and to those with you.
13.11| To these letters the following was also attached in the Syriac language: After Jesus was taken up, Judas, who is also Thomas, sent Thaddaeus to him, an apostle, one of the seventy. He arrived and stayed with Tobias, son of Tobias. When word of him spread, it was reported to Abgar that an apostle of Jesus had come here, just as he had written to you.
13.12| So, by the power of God, Thaddaeus started healing every disease and sickness, so that everyone was amazed. When Abgar heard of the great and wonderful things he was doing and how he healed, he came to suspect that this was the man about whom Jesus had written: 'When I am taken up, I shall send one of my disciples to you; he will heal your suffering.'
13.13| He therefore summoned Tobias, with whom Thaddaeus was staying, and said: 'I have heard that a certain powerful man has come and is staying in your house. Bring him up to me.' Tobias went to Thaddaeus and said to him: 'The ruler Abgar sent for me and told me to bring you up to him, so that you may heal him.' And Thaddaeus said: 'I will go up, since with power I have been sent to him.'
13.14| So Tobias rose early the next day, took Thaddaeus with him, and went to Abgar. As he went up, with Abgar's nobles present and standing by, at the very moment he entered a great vision was seen by Abgar on the face of the apostle Thaddaeus. When Abgar saw it, he bowed down before Thaddaeus, and everyone standing around was astonished, for they had not seen the vision; it had appeared to Abgar alone.
13.15| He asked Thaddaeus, "Are you truly a disciple of Jesus, God's Son, the one who said to me, 'One of my disciples I will send you, who will heal you and give you life'?" Thaddaeus answered, "Because you have believed greatly in the one who sent me, I have been sent to you for that reason. And further: if you believe in him, the requests of your heart will be granted to you as you believe."
13.16| Abgar said to him, "I believed in him so firmly that I wanted to take an army and cut down the Jews who crucified him, if the Roman Empire had not held me back from it." Thaddaeus said, "Our Lord has carried out his Father's will, and having carried it out he was taken up to the Father."
13.17| Abgar said to him, "I also have put my trust in him and in his Father." "For that reason," said Thaddaeus, "I put my hand on you in his name." And once he had done this, Abgar was at once healed of the disease and the affliction he had.
13.18| Abgar was amazed that what he had heard about Jesus he now received in actual deeds through his disciple Thaddaeus, who had healed him without drugs or herbs. And he was not the only one: Abdus son of Abdus, who suffered from gout, he too came and fell at his feet, received prayers with the laying on of a hand, and was healed. The same man cured many others of their fellow citizens as well, doing great and wonderful things and preaching the word of God.
13.19| After this Abgar said, "You, Thaddaeus, do these things through the power of God, and we ourselves have marveled at them. But beyond this I beg you: tell me about the coming of Jesus, how it happened, and about his might, and by what power he did the things I have heard of."
13.20| Thaddaeus said, "For now I will keep silent. But because I was sent to proclaim the word, tomorrow assemble all your citizens for me, and before them I will preach and sow the word of life in them: about the coming of Jesus, how it happened; about his mission, and the reason the Father sent him; about his power and his works, and the mysteries he spoke in the world, and the power by which he did these things; about his new preaching; about his lowliness and his humiliation, and how he humbled himself and laid aside and made small his divinity, and was crucified, and went down to Hades, and broke through the barrier that had never been broken since the beginning of the age, and raised the dead; how he went down alone, but went up with a great multitude to his Father."
13.21| So Abgar ordered his citizens to gather at dawn and hear the preaching of Thaddaeus, and afterward he commanded that gold and uncoined silver be given to him. But Thaddaeus refused to accept it, saying, "If we have left behind what was ours, how shall we take the property of others?"
13.22| These events occurred in the three hundred and fortieth year. Let them stand here at their proper point, translated word for word from the Syriac language, and not to no purpose.
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