1. Hebrew Bible, Psalms, 96.5 (9th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 112| 96.5. "כִּי כָּל־אֱלֹהֵי הָעַמִּים אֱלִילִים וַיהוָה שָׁמַיִם עָשָׂה׃", | 96.5. "For all the gods of the peoples are things of nought; But the LORD made the heavens.", |
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2. Hebrew Bible, Jeremiah, 36.20-36.26 (8th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 112| 36.21. "וַיִּשְׁלַח הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶת־יְהוּדִי לָקַחַת אֶת־הַמְּגִלָּה וַיִּקָּחֶהָ מִלִּשְׁכַּת אֱלִישָׁמָע הַסֹּפֵר וַיִּקְרָאֶהָ יְהוּדִי בְּאָזְנֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ וּבְאָזְנֵי כָּל־הַשָּׂרִים הָעֹמְדִים מֵעַל הַמֶּלֶךְ׃", 36.22. "וְהַמֶּלֶךְ יוֹשֵׁב בֵּית הַחֹרֶף בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַתְּשִׁיעִי וְאֶת־הָאָח לְפָנָיו מְבֹעָרֶת׃", 36.23. "וַיְהִי כִּקְרוֹא יְהוּדִי שָׁלֹשׁ דְּלָתוֹת וְאַרְבָּעָה יִקְרָעֶהָ בְּתַעַר הַסֹּפֵר וְהַשְׁלֵךְ אֶל־הָאֵשׁ אֲשֶׁר אֶל־הָאָח עַד־תֹּם כָּל־הַמְּגִלָּה עַל־הָאֵשׁ אֲשֶׁר עַל־הָאָח׃", 36.24. "וְלֹא פָחֲדוּ וְלֹא קָרְעוּ אֶת־בִּגְדֵיהֶם הַמֶּלֶךְ וְכָל־עֲבָדָיו הַשֹּׁמְעִים אֵת כָּל־הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה׃", 36.25. "וְגַם אֶלְנָתָן וּדְלָיָהוּ וּגְמַרְיָהוּ הִפְגִּעוּ בַמֶּלֶךְ לְבִלְתִּי שְׂרֹף אֶת־הַמְּגִלָּה וְלֹא שָׁמַע אֲלֵיהֶם׃", 36.26. "וַיְצַוֶּה הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶת־יְרַחְמְאֵל בֶּן־הַמֶּלֶךְ וְאֶת־שְׂרָיָהוּ בֶן־עַזְרִיאֵל וְאֶת־שֶׁלֶמְיָהוּ בֶּן־עַבְדְּאֵל לָקַחַת אֶת־בָּרוּךְ הַסֹּפֵר וְאֵת יִרְמְיָהוּ הַנָּבִיא וַיַּסְתִּרֵם יְהוָה׃", | 36.20. "And they went in to the king into the court; but they had deposited the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe; and they told all the words in the ears of the king.", 36.21. "So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll; and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes that stood beside the king.", 36.22. "Now the king was sitting in the winter-house in the ninth month; and the brazier was burning before him.", 36.23. "And it came to pass, when Jehudi had read three or four columns, that he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.", 36.24. "Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words.", 36.25. "Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had entreated the king not to burn the roll; but he would not hear them.", 36.26. "And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet; but the LORD hid them.", |
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| 3. Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, 4.3.6 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 80 |
4. New Testament, 1 Corinthians, 10.14-10.21 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 112| 10.14. Διόπερ, ἀγαπητοί μου, φεύγετε ἀπὸ τῆς εἰδωλολατρίας. 10.15. ὡς φρονίμοις λέγω· κρίνατε ὑμεῖς ὅ φημι. 10.16. Τὸ ποτήριον τῆς εὐλογίας ὃ εὐλογοῦμεν, οὐχὶ κοινωνία ἐστὶν τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ χριστοῦ; τὸν ἄρτον ὃν κλῶμεν, οὐχὶ κοινωνία τοῦ σώματος τοῦ χριστοῦ ἐστίν; 10.17. ὅτι εἷς ἄρτος, ἓν σῶμα οἱ πολλοί ἐσμεν, οἱ γὰρ πάντες ἐκ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἄρτου μετέχομεν. βλέπετε τὸν Ἰσραὴλ κατὰ σάρκα· 10.18. οὐχ οἱ ἐσθίοντες τὰς θυσίας κοινωνοὶ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου εἰσίν; 10.19. τί οὖν φημί; ὅτι εἰδωλόθυτόν τί ἐστιν, ἢ ὅτι εἴδωλόν τί ἐστιν; 10.20. ἀλλʼ ὅτι ἃ θύουσιν [τὰ ἔθνη],δαιμονίοις καὶ οὐ θεῷ θύουσιν,οὐ θέλω δὲ ὑμᾶς κοινωνοὺς τῶν δαιμονίων γίνεσθαι. 10.21. οὐ δύνασθε ποτήριον Κυρίου πίνειν καὶ ποτήριον δαιμονίων· οὐ δύνασθετραπέζης Κυρίουμετέχειν καὶ τραπέζης δαιμονίων. | 10.14. Therefore, my beloved, flee fromidolatry. 10.15. I speak as to wise men. Judge what I say. 10.16. Thecup of blessing which we bless, isn't it a communion of the blood ofChrist? The bread which we break, isn't it a communion of the body ofChrist? 10.17. Because we, who are many, are one bread, one body; forwe all partake of the one bread. 10.18. Consider Israel after theflesh. Don't those who eat the sacrifices have communion with the altar? 10.19. What am I saying then? That a thing sacrificed to idols isanything, or that an idol is anything? 10.20. But I say that thethings which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and notto God, and I don't desire that you would have communion with demons. 10.21. You can't both drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.You can't both partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table ofdemons. |
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| 5. Anon., Didache, 11.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 113 |
6. New Testament, 1 Timothy, 1.3-1.4, 5.13 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 87, 112| 1.3. Καθὼς παρεκάλεσά σε προσμεῖναι ἐν Ἐφέσῳ, πορευόμενος εἰς Μακεδονίαν, ἵνα παραγγείλῃς τισὶν μὴ ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖν 1.4. μηδὲ προσέχειν μύθοις καὶ γενεαλογίαις ἀπεράντοις,αἵτινες ἐκζητήσεις παρέχουσι μᾶλλον ἢ οἰκονομίαν θεοῦ τὴν ἐν πίστει, 5.13. ἅμα δὲ καὶ ἀργαὶ μανθάνουσιν, περιερχόμεναι τὰς οἰκίας, οὐ μόνον δὲ ἀργαὶ ἀλλὰ καὶ φλύαροι καὶ περίεργοι, λαλοῦσαι τὰ μὴ δέοντα. | 1.3. As I exhorted you to stay at Ephesus when I was going into Macedonia, that you might charge certain men not to teach a different doctrine, 1.4. neither to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which cause disputes, rather than God's stewardship, which is in faith -- 5.13. Besides, they also learn to be idle, going about from house to house. Not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not. |
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7. New Testament, 2 Thessalonians, 3.11 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 112| 3.11. ἀκούομεν γάρ τινας περιπατοῦντας ἐν ὑμῖν ἀτάκτως, μηδὲν ἐργαζομένους ἀλλὰ περιεργαζομένους· | 3.11. For we hear of some who walk among you in rebellion, who don't work at all, but are busybodies. |
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8. New Testament, Acts, 8.9, 8.11, 13.6, 19.18-19.19 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 112, 113| 8.9. Ἀνὴρ δέ τις ὀνόματι Σίμων προυπῆρχεν ἐν τῇ πόλει μαγεύων καὶ ἐξιστάνων τὸ ἔθνος τῆς Σαμαρίας, λέγων εἶναί τινα ἑαυτὸν μέγαν, 8.11. προσεῖχον δὲ αὐτῷ διὰ τὸ ἱκανῷ χρόνῳ ταῖς μαγίαις ἐξεστακέναι αὐτούς. 13.6. Διελθόντες δὲ ὅλην τὴν νῆσον ἄχρι Πάφου εὗρον ἄνδρα τινὰ μάγον ψευδοπροφήτην Ἰουδαῖον ᾧ ὄνομα Βαριησοῦς, 19.18. πολλοί τε τῶν πεπιστευκότων ἤρχοντο ἐξομολογούμενοι καὶ ἀναγγέλλοντες τὰς πράξεις αὐτῶν, 19.19. ἱκανοὶ δὲ τῶν τὰ περίεργα πραξάντων συνενέγκαντες τὰς βίβλους κατέκαιον ἐνώπιον πάντων· καὶ συνεψήφισαν τὰς τιμὰς αὐτῶν καὶ εὗρον ἀργυρίου μυριάδας πέντε. | 8.9. But there was a certain man, Simon by name, who had used sorcery in the city before, and amazed the people of Samaria, making himself out to be some great one, 8.11. They listened to him, because for a long time he had amazed them with his sorceries. 13.6. When they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar Jesus, 19.18. Many also of those who had believed came, confessing, and declaring their deeds. 19.19. Many of those who practiced magical arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. They counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. |
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9. New Testament, Apocalypse, 9.20-9.21, 14.18-14.20, 18.23, 21.8, 22.15 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 50, 112, 113| 9.20. καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, οἳ οὐκ ἀπε κτάνθησαν ἐν ταῖς πληγαῖς ταύταις, οὐ μετενόησαν ἐκτῶν ἔργων τῶν χειρῶν αὐτῶν,ἵνα μὴ προσκυνήσουσιντὰ δαιμόνιακαὶ τὰ εἴδωλα τὰ χρυσᾶ καὶ τὰ ἀργυρᾶ καὶ τὰ χαλκᾶ καὶ τὰ λίθινα καὶ τὰ ξύλινα, ἃ οὔτε βλέπειν δύνανταιοὔτε ἀκούειν οὔτε περιπατεῖν, 9.21. καὶ οὐ μετενόησαν ἐκ τῶν φόνων αὐτῶν οὔτε ἐκτῶν φαρμάκωναὐτῶν οὔτε ἐκτῆς πορνείαςαὐτῶν οὔτε ἐκ τῶν κλεμμάτων αὐτῶν. 14.18. Καὶ ἄλλος ἄγγελος [ἐξῆλθεν] ἐκ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου, [ὁ] ἔχων ἐξουσίαν ἐπὶ τοῦ πυρός, καὶ ἐφώνησεν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ τῷ ἔχοντι τὸ δρέπανον τὸ ὀξὺ λέγωνΠέμψονσουτὸ δρέπανοντὸ ὀξὺ καὶ τρύγησον τοὺς βότρυας τῆς ἀμπέλου τῆς γῆς, ὅτι ἤκμασαν αἱ σταφυλαὶ αὐτῆς. 14.19. καὶ ἔβαλεν ὁ ἄγγελος τὸ δρέπανον́ αὐτοῦ εἰς τὴν γῆν, καὶ ἐτρύγησεν τὴν ἄμπελον τῆς γῆς, καὶ ἔβαλεν εἰς τὴν ληνὸν τοῦ θυμοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ τὸν μέγαν. 14.20. καὶἐπατήθη ἡ ληνὸςἔξωθεν τῆς πόλεως, καὶ ἐξῆλθεν αἷμα ἐκ τῆς ληνοῦ ἄχρι τῶν χαλινῶν τῶν ἵππων ἀπὸ σταδίων χιλίων ἑξακοσίων. 18.23. καὶ φῶς λύχνουοὐ μὴ φάνῃ ἐν σοὶ ἔτι,καὶ φωνὴ νυμφίου καὶ νύμφηςοὐ μὴ ἀκουσθῇ ἐν σοὶ ἔτι· ὅτι [οἱ]ἔμποροίσου ἦσανοἱ μεγιστᾶνες τῆς γῆς,ὅτιἐν τῇ φαρμακίᾳ σουἐπλανήθησαν πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, 21.8. τοῖς δὲ δειλοῖς καὶ ἀπίστοις καὶ ἐβδελυγμένοις καὶ φονεῦσι καὶ πόρνοις καὶ φαρμακοῖς καὶ εἰδωλολάτραις καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ψευδέσιν τὸ μέρος αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ λίμνῃ τῆκαιομένῃ πυρὶ καὶ θείῳ,ὅ ἐστιν ὁ θάνατος ὁ δεύτερος. 22.15. ἔξω οἱ κύνες καὶ οἱ φαρμακοὶ καὶ οἱ πόρνοι καὶ οἱ φονεῖς καὶ οἱ εἰδωλολάτραι καὶ πᾶς φιλῶν καὶ ποιῶν ψεῦδος. | 9.20. The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn't repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn't worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk. 9.21. They didn't repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their sexual immorality, nor of their thefts. 14.18. Another angel came out from the altar, he who has power over fire, and he called with a great voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Send forth your sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for the earth's grapes are fully ripe!" 14.19. The angel thrust his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vintage of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 14.20. The winepress was trodden outside of the city, and blood came out from the winepress, even to the bridles of the horses, as far as one thousand six hundred stadia. 18.23. The light of a lamp will shine no more at all in you. The voice of the bridegroom and of the bride will be heard no more at all in you; for your merchants were the princes of the earth; for with your sorcery all the nations were deceived. 21.8. But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death." 22.15. Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. |
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| 10. Plutarch, Alexander The Great, 2.8 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 112 |
11. New Testament, John, 15.1 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 50| 15.1. Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ ἀληθινή, καὶ ὁ πατήρ μου ὁ γεωργός ἐστιν· | 15.1. "I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer. |
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12. New Testament, Romans, 1.18 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 52| 1.18. Ἀποκαλύπτεται γὰρ ὀργὴ θεοῦ ἀπʼ οὐρανοῦ ἐπὶ πᾶσαν ἀσέβειαν καὶ ἀδικίαν ἀνθρώπων τῶν τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐν ἀδικίᾳ κατεχόντων, | 1.18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, |
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13. New Testament, Mark, 16.15-16.18 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 112| 16.15. καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς Πορευθέντες εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἅπαντα κηρύξατε τὸ εὐαγγέλιον πάσῃ τῇ κτίσει. 16.16. ὁ πιστεύσας καὶ βαπτισθεὶς σωθήσεται, ὁ δὲ ἀπιστήσας κατακριθήσεται. 16.17. σημεῖα δὲ τοῖς πιστεύσασιν ἀκολουθήσει ταῦτα, ἐν τῶ ὀνόματί μου δαιμόνια ἐκβαλοῦσιν, γλώσσαις λαλήσουσιν, 16.18. [καὶ ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν] ὄφεις ἀροῦσιν κἂν θανάσιμόν τι πίωσιν οὐ μὴ αὐτοὺς βλάψῃ, ἐπὶ ἀρρώστους χεῖρας ἐπιθήσουσιν καὶ καλῶς ἕξουσιν. | 16.15. He said to them, "Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. 16.16. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who disbelieves will be condemned. 16.17. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new languages; 16.18. they will take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will in no way hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." |
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14. Justin, First Apology, 2, 4-5 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 113 | 5. Why, then, should this be? In our case, who pledge ourselves to do no wickedness, nor to hold these atheistic opinions, you do not examine the charges made against us; but, yielding to unreasoning passion, and to the instigation of evil demons, you punish us without consideration or judgment. For the truth shall be spoken; since of old these evil demons, effecting apparitions of themselves, both defiled women and corrupted boys, and showed such fearful sights to men, that those who did not use their reason in judging of the actions that were done, were struck with terror; and being carried away by fear, and not knowing that these were demons, they called them gods, and gave to each the name which each of the demons chose for himself. And when Socrates endeavoured, by true reason and examination, to bring these things to light, and deliver men from the demons, then the demons themselves, by means of men who rejoiced in iniquity, compassed his death, as an atheist and a profane person, on the charge that he was introducing new divinities; and in our case they display a similar activity. For not only among the Greeks did reason (Logos) prevail to condemn these things through Socrates, but also among the Barbarians were they condemned by Reason (or the Word, the Logos) Himself, who took shape, and became man, and was called Jesus Christ; and in obedience to Him, we not only deny that they who did such things as these are gods, but assert that they are wicked and impious demons, whose actions will not bear comparison with those even of men desirous of virtue. |
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15. Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, 6.29 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 283 | 6.29. The quaternion, then, advocated by Valentinus, is a source of the everlasting nature having roots; and Sophia (is the power) from whom the animal and material creation has derived its present condition. But Sophia is called Spirit, and the Demiurge Soul, and the Devil the ruler of this world, and Beelzebub the (ruler) of demons. These are the statements which they put forward. But further, in addition to these, rendering, as I have previously mentioned, their entire system of doctrine (akin to the) arithmetical (art), (they determine) that the thirty Aeons within the Pleroma have again, in addition to these, projected other Aeons, according to the (numerical) proportion (adopted by the Pythagoreans), in order that the Pleroma might be formed into an aggregate, according to a perfect number. For how the Pythagoreans divided (the celestial sphere) into twelve and thirty and sixty parts, and how they have minute parts of diminutive portions, has been made evident. In this manner these (followers of Valentinus) subdivide the parts within the Pleroma. Now likewise the parts in the Ogdoad have been subdivided, and there has been projected Sophia, which is, according to them, mother of all living creatures, and the Joint Fruit of the Pleroma, (who is) the Logos, (and other Aeons,) who are celestial angels that have their citizenship in Jerusalem which is above, which is in heaven. For this Jerusalem is Sophia, she (that is) outside (the Pleroma), and her spouse is the Joint Fruit of the Pleroma. And the Demiurge projected souls; for this (Sophia) is the essence of souls. This (Demiurge), according to them, is Abraham, and these (souls) the children of Abraham. From the material and divilish essence the Demiurge fashioned bodies for the souls. This is what has been declared: And God formed man, taking clay from the earth, and breathed upon his face the breath of life, and man was made into a living soul. Genesis 2:7 This, according to them, is the inner man, the natural (man), residing in the material body: Now a material (man) is perishable, incomplete, (and) formed out of the devilish essence. And this is the material man, as it were, according to them an inn, or domicile, at one time of soul only, at another time of soul and demons, at another time of soul and Logoi. And these are the Logoi that have been dispersed from above, from the Joint Fruit of the Pleroma and (from) Sophia, into this world. And they dwell in an earthly body, with a soul, when demons do not take up their abode with that soul. This, he says, is what has been written in Scripture: On this account I bend my knees to the God and Father and Lord of our Lord Jesus Christ, that God would grant you to have Christ dwelling in the inner man, Ephesians 3:14-18 - that is, the natural (man), not the corporeal (one), - that you may be able to understand what is the depth, which is the Father of the universe, and what is the breadth, which is Staurus, the limit of the Pleroma, or what is the length, that is, the Pleroma of the Aeons. Wherefore, he says, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; 1 Corinthians 2:14 but folly, he says, is the power of the Demiurge, for he was foolish and devoid of understanding, and imagined himself to be fabricating the world. He was, however, ignorant that Sophia, the Mother, the Ogdoad, was really the cause of all the operations performed by him who had no consciousness in reference to the creation of the world. |
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| 16. Anon., Acts of Philip, 8 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 233 |
| 17. Censorinus, De Die Natali, 18.11 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 82 |
| 18. Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies, 1.9.43.1-45.2 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 233 |
| 19. Tatian, Oration To The Greeks, 27.1 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 113, 233 |
| 20. Tertullian, On The Soul, 20 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 153 |
| 21. Tertullian, Prescription Against Heretics, 6-7 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 283 |
| 22. Minucius Felix, Octavius, 27-28, 8, 38 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 113 |
| 23. Sextus, Against The Mathematicians, 5.1 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 80 |
| 24. Origen, Against Celsus, 6.13.10-6.13.12 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 233 |
| 25. Papyri, Papyri Graecae Magicae, 12.404 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 112 |
| 26. Athanasius, Against The Pagans, 1.1.3, 1.15.2 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 112 |
| 27. John Chrysostom, Ad Populum Antiochenum (Homiliae 121), 19.1 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 203 |
| 28. Lucifer of Cagliari, Moriendum Esse Pro Dei Filio, 11 (4th cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 233 |
| 29. John Chrysostom, In Isaiam, 4.2 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 146 |
| 30. Prudentius, On The Crown of Martyrdom, 5.40, 5.181-5.184, 5.186-5.192, 10.814-10.815, 10.845, 13.1-13.4, 13.7-13.8, 13.10-13.11, 13.21-13.23, 13.31 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 50, 52, 140 |
| 31. Basil of Caesarea, Letters, 11 (4th cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 153 |
| 32. Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, 2.30.48, 3.16 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 115, 221 |
| 33. Cyril of Alexandria, De Adoratione Et Cultu In Spiritu Et Veritate, 5, 1 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 221 |
| 34. Theodoret of Cyrus, Letters, 116, 133, 145 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 119 |
| 35. Theodoret of Cyrus, Letters, 116, 133, 145 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 119 |
| 36. Theodoret of Cyrus, Letters, 133, 145, 116 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 119 |
37. Augustine, The City of God, 5.9, 8.10, 10.16, 18.49-18.50, 21.8, 22.5 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 82, 158 | 5.9. The manner in which Cicero addresses himself to the task of refuting the Stoics, shows that he did not think he could effect anything against them in argument unless he had first demolished divination. And this he attempts to accomplish by denying that there is any knowledge of future things, and maintains with all his might that there is no such knowledge either in God or man, and that there is no prediction of events. Thus he both denies the foreknowledge of God, and attempts by vain arguments, and by opposing to himself certain oracles very easy to be refuted, to overthrow all prophecy, even such as is clearer than the light (though even these oracles are not refuted by him). But, in refuting these conjectures of the mathematicians, his argument is triumphant, because truly these are such as destroy and refute themselves. Nevertheless, they are far more tolerable who assert the fatal influence of the stars than they who deny the foreknowledge of future events. For, to confess that God exists, and at the same time to deny that He has foreknowledge of future things, is the most manifest folly. This Cicero himself saw, and therefore attempted to assert the doctrine embodied in the words of Scripture, The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. That, however, he did not do in his own person, for he saw how odious and offensive such an opinion would be; and therefore, in his book on the nature of the gods, he makes Cotta dispute concerning this against the Stoics, and preferred to give his own opinion in favor of Lucilius Balbus, to whom he assigned the defense of the Stoical position, rather than in favor of Cotta, who maintained that no divinity exists. However, in his book on divination, he in his own person most openly opposes the doctrine of the prescience of future things. But all this he seems to do in order that he may not grant the doctrine of fate, and by so doing destroy free will. For he thinks that, the knowledge of future things being once conceded, fate follows as so necessary a consequence that it cannot be denied. But, let these perplexing debatings and disputations of the philosophers go on as they may, we, in order that we may confess the most high and true God Himself, do confess His will, supreme power, and prescience. Neither let us be afraid lest, after all, we do not do by will that which we do by will, because He, whose foreknowledge is infallible, foreknew that we would do it. It was this which Cicero was afraid of, and therefore opposed foreknowledge. The Stoics also maintained that all things do not come to pass by necessity, although they contended that all things happen according to destiny. What is it, then, that Cicero feared in the prescience of future things? Doubtless it was this - that if all future things have been foreknown, they will happen in the order in which they have been foreknown; and if they come to pass in this order, there is a certain order of things foreknown by God; and if a certain order of things, then a certain order of causes, for nothing can happen which is not preceded by some efficient cause. But if there is a certain order of causes according to which everything happens which does happen, then by fate, says he, all things happen which do happen. But if this be so, then is there nothing in our own power, and there is no such thing as freedom of will; and if we grant that, says he, the whole economy of human life is subverted. In vain are laws enacted. In vain are reproaches, praises, chidings, exhortations had recourse to; and there is no justice whatever in the appointment of rewards for the good, and punishments for the wicked. And that consequences so disgraceful, and absurd, and pernicious to humanity may not follow, Cicero chooses to reject the foreknowledge of future things, and shuts up the religious mind to this alternative, to make choice between two things, either that something is in our own power, or that there is foreknowledge - both of which cannot be true; but if the one is affirmed, the other is thereby denied. He therefore, like a truly great and wise man, and one who consulted very much and very skillfully for the good of humanity, of those two chose the freedom of the will, to confirm which he denied the foreknowledge of future things; and thus, wishing to make men free he makes them sacrilegious. But the religious mind chooses both, confesses both, and maintains both by the faith of piety. But how so? Says Cicero; for the knowledge of future things being granted, there follows a chain of consequences which ends in this, that there can be nothing depending on our own free wills. And further, if there is anything depending on our wills, we must go backwards by the same steps of reasoning till we arrive at the conclusion that there is no foreknowledge of future things. For we go backwards through all the steps in the following order:- If there is free will, all things do not happen according to fate; if all things do not happen according to fate, there is not a certain order of causes; and if there is not a certain order of causes, neither is there a certain order of things foreknown by God - for things cannot come to pass except they are preceded by efficient causes, - but, if there is no fixed and certain order of causes foreknown by God, all things cannot be said to happen according as He foreknew that they would happen. And further, if it is not true that all things happen just as they have been foreknown by Him, there is not, says he, in God any foreknowledge of future events. Now, against the sacrilegious and impious darings of reason, we assert both that God knows all things before they come to pass, and that we do by our free will whatsoever we know and feel to be done by us only because we will it. But that all things come to pass by fate, we do not say; nay we affirm that nothing comes to pass by fate; for we demonstrate that the name of fate, as it is wont to be used by those who speak of fate, meaning thereby the position of the stars at the time of each one's conception or birth, is an unmeaning word, for astrology itself is a delusion. But an order of causes in which the highest efficiency is attributed to the will of God, we neither deny nor do we designate it by the name of fate, unless, perhaps, we may understand fate to mean that which is spoken, deriving it from fari, to speak; for we cannot deny that it is written in the sacred Scriptures, God has spoken once; these two things have I heard, that power belongs unto God. Also unto You, O God, belongs mercy: for You will render unto every man according to his works. Now the expression, Once has He spoken, is to be understood as meaning immovably, that is, unchangeably has He spoken, inasmuch as He knows unchangeably all things which shall be, and all things which He will do. We might, then, use the word fate in the sense it bears when derived from fari, to speak, had it not already come to be understood in another sense, into which I am unwilling that the hearts of men should unconsciously slide. But it does not follow that, though there is for God a certain order of all causes, there must therefore be nothing depending on the free exercise of our own wills, for our wills themselves are included in that order of causes which is certain to God, and is embraced by His foreknowledge, for human wills are also causes of human actions; and He who foreknew all the causes of things would certainly among those causes not have been ignorant of our wills. For even that very concession which Cicero himself makes is enough to refute him in this argument. For what does it help him to say that nothing takes place without a cause, but that every cause is not fatal, there being a fortuitous cause, a natural cause, and a voluntary cause? It is sufficient that he confesses that whatever happens must be preceded by a cause. For we say that those causes which are called fortuitous are not a mere name for the absence of causes, but are only latent, and we attribute them either to the will of the true God, or to that of spirits of some kind or other. And as to natural causes, we by no means separate them from the will of Him who is the author and framer of all nature. But now as to voluntary causes. They are referable either to God, or to angels, or to men, or to animals of whatever description, if indeed those instinctive movements of animals devoid of reason, by which, in accordance with their own nature, they seek or shun various things, are to be called wills. And when I speak of the wills of angels, I mean either the wills of good angels, whom we call the angels of God, or of the wicked angels, whom we call the angels of the devil, or demons. Also by the wills of men I mean the wills either of the good or of the wicked. And from this we conclude that there are no efficient causes of all things which come to pass unless voluntary causes, that is, such as belong to that nature which is the spirit of life. For the air or wind is called spirit, but, inasmuch as it is a body, it is not the spirit of life. The spirit of life, therefore, which quickens all things, and is the creator of every body, and of every created spirit, is God Himself, the uncreated spirit. In His supreme will resides the power which acts on the wills of all created spirits, helping the good, judging the evil, controlling all, granting power to some, not granting it to others. For, as He is the creator of all natures, so also is He the bestower of all powers, not of all wills; for wicked wills are not from Him, being contrary to nature, which is from Him. As to bodies, they are more subject to wills: some to our wills, by which I mean the wills of all living mortal creatures, but more to the wills of men than of beasts. But all of them are most of all subject to the will of God, to whom all wills also are subject, since they have no power except what He has bestowed upon them. The cause of things, therefore, which makes but is made, is God; but all other causes both make and are made. Such are all created spirits, and especially the rational. Material causes, therefore, which may rather be said to be made than to make, are not to be reckoned among efficient causes, because they can only do what the wills of spirits do by them. How, then, does an order of causes which is certain to the foreknowledge of God necessitate that there should be nothing which is dependent on our wills, when our wills themselves have a very important place in the order of causes? Cicero, then, contends with those who call this order of causes fatal, or rather designate this order itself by the name of fate; to which we have an abhorrence, especially on account of the word, which men have become accustomed to understand as meaning what is not true. But, whereas he denies that the order of all causes is most certain, and perfectly clear to the prescience of God, we detest his opinion more than the Stoics do. For he either denies that God exists, - which, indeed, in an assumed personage, he has labored to do, in his book De Natura Deorum, - or if he confesses that He exists, but denies that He is prescient of future things, what is that but just the fool saying in his heart there is no God? For one who is not prescient of all future things is not God. Wherefore our wills also have just so much power as God willed and foreknew that they should have; and therefore whatever power they have, they have it within most certain limits; and whatever they are to do, they are most assuredly to do, for He whose foreknowledge is infallible foreknew that they would have the power to do it, and would do it. Wherefore, if I should choose to apply the name of fate to anything at all, I should rather say that fate belongs to the weaker of two parties, will to the stronger, who has the other in his power, than that the freedom of our will is excluded by that order of causes, which, by an unusual application of the word peculiar to themselves, the Stoics call Fate. 8.10. For although a Christian man instructed only in ecclesiastical literature may perhaps be ignorant of the very name of Platonists, and may not even know that there have existed two schools of philosophers speaking the Greek tongue, to wit, the Ionic and Italic, he is nevertheless not so deaf with respect to human affairs, as not to know that philosophers profess the study, and even the possession, of wisdom. He is on his guard, however, with respect to those who philosophize according to the elements of this world, not according to God, by whom the world itself was made; for he is warned by the precept of the apostle, and faithfully hears what has been said, Beware that no one deceive you through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the elements of the world. Colossians 2:8 Then, that he may not suppose that all philosophers are such as do this, he hears the same apostle say concerning certain of them, Because that which is known of God is manifest among them, for God has manifested it to them. For His invisible things from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made, also His eternal power and Godhead. Romans 1:19-20 And, when speaking to the Athenians, after having spoken a mighty thing concerning God, which few are able to understand, In Him we live, and move, and have our being, Acts 17:28 he goes on to say, As certain also of your own have said. He knows well, too, to be on his guard against even these philosophers in their errors. For where it has been said by him, that God has manifested to them by those things which are made His invisible things, that they might be seen by the understanding, there it has also been said that they did not rightly worship God Himself, because they paid divine honors, which are due to Him alone, to other things also to which they ought not to have paid them -because, knowing God, they glorified Him not as God: neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things; Romans 1:21-23 - where the apostle would have us understand him as meaning the Romans, and Greeks, and Egyptians, who gloried in the name of wisdom; but concerning this we will dispute with them afterwards. With respect, however, to that wherein they agree with us we prefer them to all others namely, concerning the one God, the author of this universe, who is not only above every body, being incorporeal, but also above all souls, being incorruptible - our principle, our light, our good. And though the Christian man, being ignorant of their writings, does not use in disputation words which he has not learned - not calling that part of philosophy natural (which is the Latin term), or physical (which is the Greek one), which treats of the investigation of nature; or that part rational, or logical, which deals with the question how truth may be discovered; or that part moral, or ethical, which concerns morals, and shows how good is to be sought, and evil to be shunned - he is not, therefore, ignorant that it is from the one true and supremely good God that we have that nature in which we are made in the image of God, and that doctrine by which we know Him and ourselves, and that grace through which, by cleaving to Him, we are blessed. This, therefore, is the cause why we prefer these to all the others, because, while other philosophers have worn out their minds and powers in seeking the causes of things, and endeavoring to discover the right mode of learning and of living, these, by knowing God, have found where resides the cause by which the universe has been constituted, and the light by which truth is to be discovered, and the fountain at which felicity is to be drunk. All philosophers, then, who have had these thoughts concerning God, whether Platonists or others, agree with us. But we have thought it better to plead our cause with the Platonists, because their writings are better known. For the Greeks, whose tongue holds the highest place among the languages of the Gentiles, are loud in their praises of these writings; and the Latins, taken with their excellence, or their renown, have studied them more heartily than other writings, and, by translating them into our tongue, have given them greater celebrity and notoriety. 10.16. What angels, then, are we to believe in this matter of blessed and eternal life?- those who wish to be worshipped with religious rites and observances, and require that men sacrifice to them; or those who say that all this worship is due to one God, the Creator, and teach us to render it with true piety to Him, by the vision of whom they are themselves already blessed, and in whom they promise that we shall be so? For that vision of God is the beauty of a vision so great, and is so infinitely desirable, that Plotinus does not hesitate to say that he who enjoys all other blessings in abundance, and has not this, is supremely miserable. Since, therefore, miracles are wrought by some angels to induce us to worship this God, by others, to induce us to worship themselves; and since the former forbid us to worship these, while the latter dare not forbid us to worship God, which are we to listen to? Let the Platonists reply, or any philosophers, or the theurgists, or rather, periurgists, - for this name is good enough for those who practise such arts. In short, let all men answer - if, at least, there survives in them any spark of that natural perception which, as rational beings, they possess when created, - let them, I say, tell us whether we should sacrifice to the gods or angels who order us to sacrifice to them, or to that One to whom we are ordered to sacrifice by those who forbid us to worship either themselves or these others. If neither the one party nor the other had wrought miracles, but had merely uttered commands, the one to sacrifice to themselves, the other forbidding that, and ordering us to sacrifice to God, a godly mind would have been at no loss to discern which command proceeded from proud arrogance, and which from true religion. I will say more. If miracles had been wrought only by those who demand sacrifice for themselves, while those who forbade this, and enjoined sacrificing to the one God only, thought fit entirely to forego the use of visible miracles, the authority of the latter was to be preferred by all who would use, not their eyes only, but their reason. But since God, for the sake of commending to us the oracles of His truth, has, by means of these immortal messengers, who proclaim His majesty and not their own pride, wrought miracles of surpassing grandeur, certainty, and distinctness, in order that the weak among the godly might not be drawn away to false religion by those who require us to sacrifice to them and endeavor to convince us by stupendous appeals to our senses, who is so utterly unreasonable as not to choose and follow the truth, when he finds that it is heralded by even more striking evidences than falsehood? As for those miracles which history ascribes to the gods of the heathen - I do not refer to those prodigies which at intervals happen from some unknown physical causes, and which are arranged and appointed by Divine Providence, such as monstrous births, and unusual meteorological phenomena, whether startling only, or also injurious, and which are said to be brought about and removed by communication with demons, and by their most deceitful craft - but I refer to these prodigies which manifestly enough are wrought by their power and force, as, that the household gods which Æneas carried from Troy in his flight moved from place to place; that Tarquin cut a whetstone with a razor; that the Epidaurian serpent attached himself as a companion to Æsculapius on his voyage to Rome; that the ship in which the image of the Phrygian mother stood, and which could not be moved by a host of men and oxen, was moved by one weak woman, who attached her girdle to the vessel and drew it, as proof of her chastity; that a vestal, whose virginity was questioned, removed the suspicion by carrying from the Tiber a sieve full of water without any of it dropping: these, then, and the like, are by no means to be compared for greatness and virtue to those which, we read, were wrought among God's people. How much less can we compare those marvels, which even the laws of heathen nations prohibit and punish - I mean the magical and theurgic marvels, of which the great part are merely illusions practised upon the senses, as the drawing down of the moon, that, as Lucan says, it may shed a stronger influence on the plants? And if some of these do seem to equal those which are wrought by the godly, the end for which they are wrought distinguishes the two, and shows that ours are incomparably the more excellent. For those miracles commend the worship of a plurality of gods, who deserve worship the less the more they demand it; but these of ours commend the worship of the one God, who, both by the testimony of His own Scriptures, and by the eventual abolition of sacrifices, proves that He needs no such offerings. If, therefore, any angels demand sacrifice for themselves, we must prefer those who demand it, not for themselves, but for God, the Creator of all, whom they serve. For thus they prove how sincerely they love us, since they wish by sacrifice to subject us, not to themselves, but to Him by the contemplation of whom they themselves are blessed, and to bring us to Him from whom they themselves have never strayed. If, on the other hand, any angels wish us to sacrifice, not to one, but to many, not, indeed, to themselves, but to the gods whose angels they are, we must in this case also prefer those who are the angels of the one God of gods, and who so bid us to worship Him as to preclude our worshipping any other. But, further, if it be the case, as their pride and deceitfulness rather indicate, that they are neither good angels nor the angels of good gods, but wicked demons, who wish sacrifice to be paid, not to the one only and supreme God, but to themselves, what better protection against them can we choose than that of the one God whom the good angels serve, the angels who bid us sacrifice, not to themselves, but to Him whose sacrifice we ourselves ought to be? 18.49. In this wicked world, in these evil days, when the Church measures her future loftiness by her present humility, and is exercised by goading fears, tormenting sorrows, disquieting labors, and dangerous temptations, when she soberly rejoices, rejoicing only in hope, there are many reprobate mingled with the good, and both are gathered together by the gospel as in a drag net; Matthew 13:47-50 and in this world, as in a sea, both swim enclosed without distinction in the net, until it is brought ashore, when the wicked must be separated from the good, that in the good, as in His temple, God may be all in all. We acknowledge, indeed, that His word is now fulfilled who spoke in the psalm, and said, I have announced and spoken; they are multiplied above number. This takes place now, since He has spoken, first by the mouth of his forerunner John, and afterward by His own mouth, saying, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He chose disciples, whom He also called apostles, Luke 6:13 of lowly birth, unhonored, and illiterate, so that whatever great thing they might be or do, He might be and do it in them. He had one among them whose wickedness He could use well in order to accomplish His appointed passion, and furnish His Church an example of bearing with the wicked. Having sown the holy gospel as much as that behooved to be done by His bodily presence, He suffered, died, and rose again, showing by His passion what we ought to suffer for the truth, and by His resurrection what we ought to hope for in adversity; saving always the mystery of the sacrament, by which His blood was shed for the remission of sins. He held converse on the earth forty days with His disciples, and in their sight ascended into heaven, and after ten days sent the promised Holy Spirit. It was given as the chief and most necessary sign of His coming on those who had believed, that every one of them spoke in the tongues of all nations; thus signifying that the unity of the Catholic Church would embrace all nations, and would in like manner speak in all tongues. 18.50. Then was fulfilled that prophecy, Out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem; Isaiah 2:3 and the prediction of the Lord Christ Himself, when, after the resurrection, He opened the understanding of His amazed disciples that they might understand the Scriptures, and said to them, that thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Luke 24:45-47 And again, when, in reply to their questioning about the day of His last coming, He said, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in His own power; but you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even unto the ends of the earth. Acts 1:7-8 First of all, the Church spread herself abroad from Jerusalem; and when very many in Judea and Samaria had believed, she also went into other nations by those who announced the gospel, whom, as lights, He Himself had both prepared by His word and kindled by His Holy Spirit. For He had said to them, Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Matthew 10:28 And that they might not be frozen with fear, they burned with the fire of charity. Finally, the gospel of Christ was preached in the whole world, not only by those who had seen and heard Him both before His passion and after His resurrection, but also after their death by their successors, amid the horrible persecutions, diverse torments and deaths of the martyrs, God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, Hebrews 2:4 that the people of the nations, believing in Him who was crucified for their redemption, might venerate with Christian love the blood of the martyrs which they had poured forth with devilish fury, and the very kings by whose laws the Church had been laid waste might become profitably subject to that name they had cruelly striven to take away from the earth, and might begin to persecute the false gods for whose sake the worshippers of the true God had formerly been persecuted. 21.8. But if they reply that their reason for not believing us when we say that human bodies will always burn and yet never die, is that the nature of human bodies is known to be quite otherwise constituted; if they say that for this miracle we cannot give the reason which was valid in the case of those natural miracles, viz., that this is the natural property, the nature of the thing - for we know that this is not the nature of human flesh - we find our answer in the sacred writings, that even this human flesh was constituted in one fashion before there was sin - was constituted, in fact, so that it could not die - and in another fashion after sin, being made such as we see it in this miserable state of mortality, unable to retain enduring life. And so in the resurrection of the dead shall it be constituted differently from its present well-known condition. But as they do not believe these writings of ours, in which we read what nature man had in paradise, and how remote he was from the necessity of death - and indeed, if they did believe them, we should of course have little trouble in debating with them the future punishment of the damned, - we must produce from the writings of their own most learned authorities some instances to show that it is possible for a thing to become different from what it was formerly known characteristically to be. From the book of Marcus Varro, entitled, of the Race of the Roman People, I cite word for word the following instance: There occurred a remarkable celestial portent; for Castor records that, in the brilliant star Venus, called Vesperugo by Plautus, and the lovely Hesperus by Homer, there occurred so strange a prodigy, that it changed its color, size, form, course, which never happened before nor since. Adrastus of Cyzicus, and Dion of Naples, famous mathematicians, said that this occurred in the reign of Ogyges. So great an author as Varro would certainly not have called this a portent had it not seemed to be contrary to nature. For we say that all portents are contrary to nature; but they are not so. For how is that contrary to nature which happens by the will of God, since the will of so mighty a Creator is certainly the nature of each created thing? A portent, therefore, happens not contrary to nature, but contrary to what we know as nature. But who can number the multitude of portents recorded in profane histories? Let us then at present fix our attention on this one only which concerns the matter in hand. What is there so arranged by the Author of the nature of heaven and earth as the exactly ordered course of the stars? What is there established by laws so sure and inflexible? And yet, when it pleased Him who with sovereignty and supreme power regulates all He has created, a star conspicuous among the rest by its size and splendor changed its color, size, form, and, most wonderful of all, the order and law of its course! Certainly that phenomenon disturbed the canons of the astronomers, if there were any then, by which they tabulate, as by unerring computation, the past and future movements of the stars, so as to take upon them to affirm that this which happened to the morning star (Venus) never happened before nor since. But we read in the divine books that even the sun itself stood still when a holy man, Joshua the Son of Nun, had begged this from God until victory should finish the battle he had begun; and that it even went back, that the promise of fifteen years added to the life of king Hezekiah might be sealed by this additional prodigy. But these miracles, which were vouchsafed to the merits of holy men, even when our adversaries believe them, they attribute to magical arts; so Virgil, in the lines I quoted above, ascribes to magic the power to Turn rivers backward to their source, And make the stars forget their course. For in our sacred books we read that this also happened, that a river turned backward, was stayed above while the lower part flowed on, when the people passed over under the above-mentioned leader, Joshua the Son of Nun; and also when Elias the prophet crossed; and afterwards, when his disciple Elisha passed through it: and we have just mentioned how, in the case of king Hezekiah the greatest of the stars forgot its course. But what happened to Venus, according to Varro, was not said by him to have happened in answer to any man's prayer. Let not the sceptics then benight themselves in this knowledge of the nature of things, as if divine power cannot bring to pass in an object anything else than what their own experience has shown them to be in its nature. Even the very things which are most commonly known as natural would not be less wonderful nor less effectual to excite surprise in all who beheld them, if men were not accustomed to admire nothing but what is rare. For who that thoughtfully observes the countless multitude of men, and their similarity of nature, can fail to remark with surprise and admiration the individuality of each man's appearance, suggesting to us, as it does, that unless men were like one another, they would not be distinguished from the rest of the animals; while unless, on the other hand, they were unlike, they could not be distinguished from one another, so that those whom we declare to be like, we also find to be unlike? And the unlikeness is the more wonderful consideration of the two; for a common nature seems rather to require similarity. And yet, because the very rarity of things is that which makes them wonderful, we are filled with much greater wonder when we are introduced to two men so like, that we either always or frequently mistake in endeavoring to distinguish between them. But possibly, though Varro is a heathen historian, and a very learned one, they may disbelieve that what I have cited from him truly occurred; or they may say the example is invalid, because the star did not for any length of time continue to follow its new course, but returned to its ordinary orbit. There is, then, another phenomenon at present open to their observation, and which, in my opinion, ought to be sufficient to convince them that, though they have observed and ascertained some natural law, they ought not on that account to prescribe to God, as if He could not change and turn it into something very different from what they have observed. The land of Sodom was not always as it now is; but once it had the appearance of other lands, and enjoyed equal if not richer fertility; for, in the divine narrative, it was compared to the paradise of God. But after it was touched [by fire] from heaven, as even pagan history testifies, and as is now witnessed by those who visit the spot, it became unnaturally and horribly sooty in appearance; and its apples, under a deceitful appearance of ripeness, contain ashes within. Here is a thing which was of one kind, and is of another. You see how its nature was converted by the wonderful transmutation wrought by the Creator of all natures into so very disgusting a diversity - an alteration which after so long a time took place, and after so long a time still continues. As therefore it was not impossible to God to create such natures as He pleased, so it is not impossible to Him to change these natures of His own creation into whatever He pleases, and thus spread abroad a multitude of those marvels which are called monsters, portents, prodigies, phenomena, and which if I were minded to cite and record, what end would there be to this work? They say that they are called monsters, because they demonstrate or signify something; portents, because they portend something; and so forth. But let their diviners see how they are either deceived, or even when they do predict true things, it is because they are inspired by spirits, who are intent upon entangling the minds of men (worthy, indeed, of such a fate) in the meshes of a hurtful curiosity, or how they light now and then upon some truth, because they make so many predictions. Yet, for our part, these things which happen contrary to nature, and are said to be contrary to nature (as the apostle, speaking after the manner of men, says, that to graft the wild olive into the good olive, and to partake of its fatness, is contrary to nature), and are called monsters, phenomena, portents, prodigies, ought to demonstrate, portend, predict that God will bring to pass what He has foretold regarding the bodies of men, no difficulty preventing Him, no law of nature prescribing to Him His limit. How He has foretold what He is to do, I think I have sufficiently shown in the preceding book, culling from the sacred Scriptures, both of the New and Old Testaments, not, indeed, all the passages that relate to this, but as many as I judged to suffice for this work. 22.5. But granting that this was once incredible, behold, now, the world has come to the belief that the earthly body of Christ was received up into heaven. Already both the learned and unlearned have believed in the resurrection of the flesh and its ascension to the heavenly places, while only a very few either of the educated or uneducated are still staggered by it. If this is a credible thing which is believed, then let those who do not believe see how stolid they are; and if it is incredible, then this also is an incredible thing, that what is incredible should have received such credit. Here then we have two incredibles - to wit, the resurrection of our body to eternity, and that the world should believe so incredible a thing; and both these incredibles the same God predicted should come to pass before either had as yet occurred. We see that already one of the two has come to pass, for the world has believed what was incredible; why should we despair that the remaining one shall also come to pass, and that this which the world believed, though it was incredible, shall itself occur? For already that which was equally incredible has come to pass, in the world's believing an incredible thing. Both were incredible: the one we see accomplished, the other we believe shall be; for both were predicted in those same Scriptures by means of which the world believed. And the very manner in which the world's faith was won is found to be even more incredible if we consider it. Men uninstructed in any branch of a liberal education, without any of the refinement of heathen learning, unskilled in grammar, not armed with dialectic, not adorned with rhetoric, but plain fishermen, and very few in number - these were the men whom Christ sent with the nets of faith to the sea of this world, and thus took out of every race so many fishes, and even the philosophers themselves, wonderful as they are rare. Let us add, if you please, or because you ought to be pleased, this third incredible thing to the two former. And now we have three incredibles, all of which have yet come to pass. It is incredible that Jesus Christ should have risen in the flesh and ascended with flesh into heaven; it is incredible that the world should have believed so incredible a thing; it is incredible that a very few men, of mean birth and the lowest rank, and no education, should have been able so effectually to persuade the world, and even its learned men, of so incredible a thing. of these three incredibles, the parties with whom we are debating refuse to believe the first; they cannot refuse to see the second, which they are unable to account for if they do not believe the third. It is indubitable that the resurrection of Christ, and His ascension into heaven with the flesh in which He rose, is already preached and believed in the whole world. If it is not credible, how is it that it has already received credence in the whole world? If a number of noble, exalted, and learned men had said that they had witnessed it, and had been at pains to publish what they had witnessed, it were not wonderful that the world should have believed it, but it were very stubborn to refuse credence; but if, as is true, the world has believed a few obscure, inconsiderable, uneducated persons, who state and write that they witnessed it, is it not unreasonable that a handful of wrong-headed men should oppose themselves to the creed of the whole world, and refuse their belief? And if the world has put faith in a small number of men, of mean birth and the lowest rank, and no education, it is because the divinity of the thing itself appeared all the more manifestly in such contemptible witnesses. The eloquence, indeed, which lent persuasion to their message, consisted of wonderful works, not words. For they who had not seen Christ risen in the flesh, nor ascending into heaven with His risen body, believed those who related how they had seen these things, and who testified not only with words but wonderful signs. For men whom they knew to be acquainted with only one, or at most two languages, they marvelled to hear speaking in the tongues of all nations. They saw a man, lame from his mother's womb, after forty years stand up sound at their word in the name of Christ; that handkerchiefs taken from their bodies had virtue to heal the sick; that countless persons, sick of various diseases, were laid in a row in the road where they were to pass, that their shadow might fall on them as they walked, and that they immediately received health; that many other stupendous miracles were wrought by them in the name of Christ; and, finally, that they even raised the dead. If it be admitted that these things occurred as they are related, then we have a multitude of incredible things to add to those three incredibles. That the one incredibility of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ may be believed, we accumulate the testimonies of countless incredible miracles, but even so we do not bend the frightful obstinacy of these sceptics. But if they do not believe that these miracles were wrought by Christ's apostles to gain credence to their preaching of His resurrection and ascension, this one grand miracle suffices for us, that the whole world has believed without any miracles. |
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| 38. Augustine, Enarrationes In Psalmos, 61.23 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 81 |
| 39. Augustine, Confessions, 4.3.4, 5.7.12 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 72, 81 |
| 40. Justinian, Codex Justinianus, 1.5.6 (5th cent. CE - 6th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 97, 115 |
| 41. Aristaenetus, Letters, 2.18 (5th cent. CE - 6th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 112 |
| 42. Theodosius Ii Emperor of Rome, Theodosian Code, 16.5.46, 16.5.66 (5th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 72, 115 |
| 43. Jerome, Commentaria In Abacuc, 1.30 (5th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 221 |
| 44. Jerome, Letters, 70 (5th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 221 |
| 45. Isidore of Seville, Etymologies, 8.1.1, 8.3.1, 8.3.3, 8.3.6, 8.6.2-8.6.4, 8.6.7-8.6.16, 8.6.18, 8.6.22-8.6.23, 13.2 (6th cent. CE - 7th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 283 |
| 46. Eucherius, De Contemptu Mundi, 408-409 Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 233 |
| 50. Anon., Gesta Abbatum Monasterii S. Albani, 24, 26, 28, 27 Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 277 |
| 52. Cyril of Alexandria, In Zachariam, 3.9.53, 6.14.108 Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 221 |
| 53. Suidas Thessalius, Fragments, None Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 153 |
54. Sozomenus, Ecclesiastical History, 1.1, 4.6 Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 115 | 4.6. About this time, Photinus, who administered the church of Sirmium, laid before the emperor, who was then staying at that city, a heresy which he had originated some time previously. His natural ease of utterance and powers of persuasion enabled him to lead many into his own way of thinking. He acknowledged that there was one God Almighty, by whose own word all things were created, but would not admit that the generation and existence of the Son was before all ages; on the contrary, he alleged that Christ derived His existence from Mary. As soon as this opinion was divulged, it excited the indignation of the Western and of the Eastern bishops, and they considered it in common as an innovation of each one's particular belief, for it was equally opposed by those who maintained the doctrines of the Nic an council, and by those who favored the tenets of Arius. The emperor also regarded the heresy with aversion, and convened a council at Sirmium, where he was then residing. of the Eastern bishops, George, who governed the church of Alexandria, Basil, bishop of Ancyra, and Mark, bishop of Arethusa, were present at this council; and among the Western bishops were Valens, bishop of Mursa, and Hosius the Confessor. This latter, who had attended the council of Nic a, was unwillingly a participant of this; he had not long previously been condemned to banishment through the machinations of the Arians; he was summoned to the council of Sirmium by the command of the emperor extorted by the Arians, who believed that their party would be strengthened, if they could gain over, either by persuasion or force, a man held in universal admiration and esteem, as was Hosius. The period at which the council was convened at Sirmium, was the year after the expiration of the consulate of Sergius and Nigrinian; and during this year there were no consuls either in the East or the West, owing to the insurrections excited by the tyrants. Photinus was deposed by this council, because he was accused of countecing the errors of Sabellius and Paul of Samosata. The council then proceeded to draw up three formularies of faith in addition to the previous confessions, of which one was written in Greek, and the others in Latin. But they did not agree with one another, nor with any other of the former expositions of doctrine, either in word or import. It is not said in the Greek formulary, that the Son is consubstantial, or of like substance, with the Father, but it is there declared, that those who maintain that the Son had no commencement, or that He proceeded from an expansion of the substance of the Father, or that He is united to the Father without being subject to Him, are excommunicated. In one of the Roman formularies, it is forbidden to say, of the essence of the Godhead which the Romans call substance, that the Son is either consubstantial, or of like substance with the Father, as such statements do not occur in the Holy Scriptures, and are beyond the reach of the understanding and knowledge of men. It is said, that the Father must be recognized as superior to the Son in honor, in dignity, in divinity, and in the relationship suggested by His name of Father; and that it must be confessed that the Son, like all created beings, is subject to the Father, that the Father had no commencement, and that the generation of the Son is unknown to all save the Father. It is related, that when this formulary was completed, the bishops became aware of the errors it contained, and endeavored to withdraw it from the public, and to correct it; and that the emperor threatened to punish those who should retain or conceal any of the copies that had been made of it. But having been once published, no efforts were adequate to suppress it altogether. The third formulary is of the same import as the others. It prohibits the use of the term substance on account of the terms used in Latin, while the Greek term having been used with too much simplicity by the Fathers, and having been a cause of offense to many of the unlearned multitude, because it was not to be found in the Scriptures, we have deemed it right totally to reject the use of it: and we would enjoin the omission of all mention of the term in allusion to the Godhead, for it is nowhere said in the Holy Scriptures, that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are of the same substance, where the word person is written. But we say, in conformity with the Holy Scriptures, that the Son is like the Father. Such was the decision arrived at in the presence of the emperor concerning the faith. Hosius at first refused to assent to it. Compulsion, however, was resorted to; and being extremely old, he sunk, as it is reported, beneath the blows that were inflicted on him, and yielded his consent and signature. After the deposition of Photinus, the Synod thought it expedient to try whether it were not somehow possible to persuade him to change his views. But when the bishop urged him, and promised to restore his bishopric if he would renounce his own dogma, and vote for their formulary, he would not acquiesce, but challenged them to a discussion. On the day appointed for this purpose, the bishops, therefore, assembled with the judges who had been appointed by the emperor to preside at their meetings, and who, in point of eloquence and dignity, held the first rank in the palace. Basil, bishop of Ancyra, was selected to commence the disputation against Photinus. The conflict lasted a long time, on account of the numerous questions started and the answers given by each party, and which were immediately taken down in short-hand; but finally the victory declared itself in favor of Basil. Photinus was condemned and banished, but did not cease on that account from enlarging his own dogma. He wrote and published many works in Greek and Latin, in which he endeavored to show that all opinions, except his own, were erroneous. I have now concluded all that I had to say concerning Photinus and the heresy to which his name was affixed. |
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| 56. Cyril of Alexandria, In Joelem, 2.3.39 Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 221 |
| 58. Anon., Conversio Iustinae Et Cypriani, 1, 10 Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 140 |
| 59. Manuscripts, Codex Vaticanus Graecus, None Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 203 |
| 63. Theodoret of Cyrus, Pr., None Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 119 |
| 67. Gregorius of Nazianzus, Orationes, 4.3, 4.31, 4.43, 4.55, 4.70, 4.72, 4.100-4.109, 4.116-4.124, 5.5, 5.31-5.32, 5.38, 5.41, 24.12 Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 58, 140 |
| 68. Anon., Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum, 1.3.181 Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 115 |
| 71. Manuscripts, Codices Latini Antiquiores, 1660 Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 50 |
| 74. John Chrysostom, Homiliae In 1 Tim., 1.2-1.3 Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 87, 144 |
| 76. Beda, Super Acta Apostolorum Expositio, 19 Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 112 |
| 78. Anon., Rules of Rabbula, 49-50, 52-53 Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 115 |
| 79. Anon., Acta Luciani Et Marciani, 1, 3, 9 Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 138 |
| 80. Pseudo Clementines, Confessio Seu Paenitentia, 9 Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 138 |
| 81. Anon., Narratio Helladii, 146 Tagged with subjects: •apostles, apostolic Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 138 |
| 82. Anon., Narratio Theophili, 216-217, 176 Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rohmann (2016), Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, 138 |
