1. Josephus Flavius, Jewish Antiquities, 1.75, 1.187, 2.78, 2.179, 2.181, 2.202-2.203, 2.205, 2.216, 2.225, 3.88, 3.191-3.192, 3.313, 4.14, 4.19, 4.122, 4.127, 4.201, 5.56, 5.298, 7.380, 8.76, 9.211, 10.80, 10.122, 10.183, 10.237, 11.207, 11.209, 11.211, 11.277, 12.403, 13.131, 14.78, 15.253, 15.257, 15.384, 17.324, 17.330, 18.103, 18.167, 18.196, 18.314, 19.17, 20.81, 20.100, 20.123, 20.142, 20.147, 20.163, 20.173, 20.214, 20.252 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 1.75. 2. Now God loved this man for his righteousness: yet he not only condemned those other men for their wickedness, but determined to destroy the whole race of mankind, and to make another race that should be pure from wickedness; and cutting short their lives, and making their years not so many as they formerly lived, but one hundred and twenty only, he turned the dry land into sea; 1.187. and God required of him to be of good courage, and said that he would add to all the rest of the benefits that he had bestowed upon him, ever since he led him out of Mesopotamia, the gift of children. Accordingly Sarai, at God’s command, brought to his bed one of her handmaidens, a woman of Egyptian descent, in order to obtain children by her; 2.78. That Joseph himself was laid in bonds by Potiphar, who was his head cook, as a slave; but, he said, he was one of the noblest of the stock of the Hebrews; and said further, his father lived in great splendor. “If, therefore, thou wilt send for him, and not despise him on the score of his misfortunes, thou wilt learn what thy dreams signify.” 2.179. Zabulon had with him three sons—Sarad, Helon, Jalel. So far is the posterity of Lea; with whom went her daughter Dinah. These are thirty-three. 2.181. And this was the legitimate posterity of Jacob. He had besides by Bilhah, the handmaid of Rachel, Dan and Nephtliali; which last had four sons that followed him—Jesel, Guni, Issari, and Sellim. Dan had an only begotten son, Usi. 2.202. for when they saw how the nation of the Israelites flourished, and were become eminent already in plenty of wealth, which they had acquired by their virtue and natural love of labor, they thought their increase was to their own detriment. And having, in length of time, forgotten the benefits they had received from Joseph, particularly the crown being now come into another family, they became very abusive to the Israelites, and contrived many ways of afflicting them; 2.203. for they enjoined them to cut a great number of channels for the river, and to build walls for their cities and ramparts, that they might restrain the river, and hinder its waters from stagnating, upon its running over its own banks: they set them also to build pyramids, and by all this wore them out; and forced them to learn all sorts of mechanical arts, and to accustom themselves to hard labor. 2.205. 2. While the affairs of the Hebrews were in this condition, there was this occasion offered itself to the Egyptians, which made them more solicitous for the extinction of our nation. One of those sacred scribes, who are very sagacious in foretelling future events truly, told the king, that about this time there would a child be born to the Israelites, who, if he were reared, would bring the Egyptian dominion low, and would raise the Israelites; that he would excel all men in virtue, and obtain a glory that would be remembered through all ages. 2.216. and when he is brought up in a surprising way, he shall deliver the Hebrew nation from the distress they are under from the Egyptians. His memory shall be famous while the world lasts; and this not only among the Hebrews, but foreigners also:—all which shall be the effect of my favor to thee, and to thy posterity. He shall also have such a brother, that he shall himself obtain my priesthood, and his posterity shall have it after him to the end of the world. 2.225. for God had taken such great care in the formation of Moses, that he caused him to be thought worthy of bringing up, and providing for, by all those that had taken the most fatal resolutions, on account of the dread of his nativity, for the destruction of the rest of the Hebrew nation. Thermuthis bid them bring her a woman that might afford her breast to the child; 3.88. And let them be to you venerable, and contended for more earnestly by you than your own children and your own wives; for if you will follow them, you will lead a happy life you will enjoy the land fruitful, the sea calm, and the fruit of the womb born complete, as nature requires; you will be also terrible to your enemies for I have been admitted into the presence of God and been made a hearer of his incorruptible voice so great is his concern for your nation, and its duration.” 3.191. So that he is to put on the vestments which are consecrated to God; he is to have the care of the altars, and to make provision for the sacrifices; and he it is that must put up prayers for you to God, who will readily hear them, not only because he is himself solicitous for your nation, but also because he will receive them as offered by one that he hath himself chosen to this office.” 3.192. The Hebrews were pleased with what was said, and they gave their approbation to him whom God had ordained; for Aaron was of them all the most deserving of this honor, on account of his own stock and gift of prophecy, and his brother’s virtue. He had at that time four sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. 3.313. and that on this account, though he would not indeed destroy them all, nor utterly exterminate their nation, which he had honored more than any other part of mankind, yet he would not permit them to take possession of the land of Canaan, nor enjoy its happiness; 4.14. o far indeed that this transgression was already gone through the whole army of the young men, and they fell into a sedition that was much worse than the former, and into danger of the entire abolition of their own institutions; for when once the youth had tasted of these strange customs, they went with insatiable inclinations into them; and even where some of the principal men were illustrious on account of the virtues of their fathers, they also were corrupted together with the rest. 4.14. 2. Corah, a Hebrew of principal account both by his family and by his wealth, one that was also able to speak well, and one that could easily persuade the people by his speeches, saw that Moses was in an exceeding great dignity, and was uneasy at it, and envied him on that account (he was of the same tribe with Moses, and of kin to him), was particularly grieved, because he thought he better deserved that honorable post on account of his great riches, and not inferior to him in his birth. 4.19. for if God had determined to bestow that honor on one of the tribe of Levi, I am more worthy of it than he is; I myself being equal to Moses by my family, and superior to him both in riches and in age: but if God had determined to bestow it on the eldest tribe, that of Reuben might have it most justly; and then Dathan, and Abiram, and [On, the son of] Peleth, would have it; for these are the oldest men of that tribe, and potent on account of their great wealth also.” 4.19. Since, when you shall have once proceeded so far by your wealth, as to a contempt and disregard of virtue, you will also forfeit the favor of God; and when you have made him your enemy, you will be beaten in war, and will have the land which you possess taken away again from you by your enemies, and this with great reproaches upon your conduct. You will be scattered over the whole world, and will, as slaves, entirely fill both sea and land; 4.122. I then did not intend to praise this army, nor to go over the several good things which God intended to do to their race; but since he was so favorable to them, and so ready to bestow upon them a happy life and eternal glory, he suggested the declaration of those things to me: 4.127. and spake thus to them:—“O Balak, and you Midianites that are here present, (for I am obliged even without the will of God to gratify you,) it is true no entire destruction can seize upon the nation of the Hebrews, neither by war, nor by plague, nor by scarcity of the fruits of the earth, nor can any other unexpected accident be their entire ruin; 4.201. Let the ascent to it be not by steps but by an acclivity of raised earth. And let there be neither an altar nor a temple in any other city; for God is but one, and the nation of the Hebrews is but one. 5.56. So these men, having obtained what they desired, by deceiving the Israelites, went home: but when Joshua led his army to the country at the bottom of the mountains of this part of Canaan, he understood that the Gibeonites dwelt not far from Jerusalem, and that they were of the stock of the Canaanites; so he sent for their governors, and reproached them with the cheat they had put upon him; 5.298. So they being desirous not to be blamed themselves, came to the rock with three thousand armed men, and complained to Samson of the bold insults he had made upon the Philistines, who were men able to bring calamity upon the whole nation of the Hebrews; and they told him they were come to take him, and to deliver him up to them, and put him into their power; so they desired him to bear this willingly. 8.76. 4. Now Solomon sent for an artificer out of Tyre, whose name was Hiram; he was by birth of the tribe of Naphtali, on the mother’s side, (for she was of that tribe,) but his father was Ur, of the stock of the Israelites. This man was skillful in all sorts of work; but his chief skill lay in working in gold, and silver, and brass; by whom were made all the mechanical works about the temple, according to the will of Solomon. 9.211. When they had cast lots, the lot fell upon the prophet; and when they asked him whence he came, and what he had done? he replied, that he was a Hebrew by nation, and a prophet of Almighty God; and he persuaded them to cast him into the sea, if they would escape the danger they were in, for that he was the occasion of the storm which was upon them. 10.122. but there was one of the king’s servants, who was in esteem with him, an Ethiopian by descent, who told the king what a state the prophet was in, and said that his friends and his rulers had done evil in putting the prophet into the mire, and by that means contriving against him that he should suffer a death more bitter than that by his bonds only. 10.183. And such was the end of the nation of the Hebrews, as it hath been delivered down to us, it having twice gone beyond Euphrates; for the people of the ten tribes were carried out of Samaria by the Assyrians, in the days of king Hoshea; after which the people of the two tribes that remained after Jerusalem was taken [were carried away] by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon and Chaldea. 10.237. Now when the king’s grandmother saw him cast down at this accident, she began to encourage him, and to say, that there was a certain captive who came from Judea, a Jew by birth, but brought away thence by Nebuchadnezzar when he had destroyed Jerusalem, whose name was Daniel, a wise man, and one of great sagacity in finding out what was impossible for others to discover, and what was known to God alone, who brought to light and answered such questions to Nebuchadnezzar as no one else was able to answer when they were consulted. 11.207. 4. Some time after this [two eunuchs], Bigthan and Teresh, plotted against the king; and Barnabazus, the servant of one of the eunuchs, being by birth a Jew, was acquainted with their conspiracy, and discovered it to the queen’s uncle; and Mordecai, by the means of Esther, made the conspirators known to the king. 11.209. 5. Now there was one Haman, the son of Amedatha, by birth an Amalekite, that used to go in to the king; and the foreigners and Persians worshipped him, as Artaxerxes had commanded that such honor should be paid to him; 11.211. And when he desired to punish Mordecai, he thought it too small a thing to request of the king that he alone might be punished; he rather determined to abolish the whole nation, for he was naturally an enemy to the Jews, because the nation of the Amalekites, of which he was; had been destroyed by them. 11.277. This hath been the case of Haman, the son of Ammedatha, by birth an Amalekite, and alien from the blood of the Persians, who, when he was hospitably entertained by us, and partook of that kindness which we bear to all men to so great a degree, as to be called my father, and to be all along worshipped, and to have honor paid him by all in the second rank after the royal honor due to ourselves, he could not bear his good fortune, nor govern the magnitude of his prosperity with sound reason; 12.403. When Nicanor was come to Jerusalem, he did not resolve to fight Judas immediately, but judged it better to get him into his power by treachery; so he sent him a message of peace, and said there was no manner of necessity for them to fight and hazard themselves; and that he would give him his oath that he would do him no harm, for that he only came with some friends, in order to let him know what king Demetrius’s intentions were, and what opinion he had of their nation. 13.131. 1. Now there was a certain commander of Alexander’s forces, an Apanemian by birth, whose name was Diodotus, and was also called Trypho, took notice of the ill-will of the soldiers bare to Demetrius, and went to Malchus the Arabian, who brought up Antiochus, the son of Alexander, and told him what ill-will the army bare Demetrius, and persuaded him to give him Antiochus, because he would make him king, and recover to him the kingdom of his father. 14.78. Moreover, the Romans exacted of us, in a little time, above ten thousand talents; and the royal authority, which was a dignity formerly bestowed on those that were high priests, by the right of their family, became the property of private men. But of these matters we shall treat in their proper places. 15.253. 9. Costobarus was an Idumean by birth, and one of principal dignity among them, and one whose ancestors had been priests to the Koze, whom the Idumeans had [formerly] esteemed as a god; 15.257. and this he did, not because he was better pleased to be under Cleopatra’s government, but because he thought that, upon the diminution of Herod’s power, it would not be difficult for him to obtain himself the entire government over the Idumeans, and somewhat more also; for he raised his hopes still higher, as having no small pretenses, both by his birth and by these riches which he had gotten by his constant attention to filthy lucre; and accordingly it was not a small matter that he aimed at. 15.384. and for the particular edifices belonging to your own country, and your own cities, as also to those cities that we have lately acquired, which we have erected and greatly adorned, and thereby augmented the dignity of your nation, it seems to me a needless task to enumerate them to you, since you well know them yourselves; but as to that undertaking which I have a mind to set about at present, and which will be a work of the greatest piety and excellence that can possibly be undertaken by us, I will now declare it to you. 17.324. 1. When these affairs had been thus settled by Caesar, a certain young man, by birth a Jew, but brought up by a Roman freed-man in the city Sidon, ingrafted himself into the kindred of Herod, by the resemblance of his countece, which those that saw him attested to be that of Alexander, the son of Herod, whom he had slain; 18.103. Artabanus also, not long afterward, sent his son Darius as an hostage, with many presents, among which there was a man seven cubits tall, a Jew he was by birth, and his name was Eleazar, who, for his tallness, was called a giant. 18.167. Now there was one Thallus, a freed-man of Caesar, of whom he borrowed a million of drachmae, and thence repaid Antonia the debt he owed her; and by sending the overplus in paying his court to Caius, became a person of great authority with him. 18.196. and when he was informed that his name was Agrippa, and that he was by nation a Jew, and one of the principal men of that nation, he asked leave of the soldier to whom he was bound, to let him come nearer to him, to speak with him; for that he had a mind to inquire of him about some things relating to his country; 18.314. Now there were two men, Asineus and Anileus, of the city Neerda by birth, and brethren to one another. They were destitute of a father, and their mother put them to learn the art of weaving curtains, it not being esteemed a disgrace among them for men to be weavers of cloth. Now he that taught them that art, and was set over them, complained that they came too late to their work, and punished them with stripes; 19.17. 3. Now there were three several conspiracies made in order to take off Caius, and each of these three were conducted by excellent persons. Emilius Regulus, born at Corduba in Spain, got some men together, and was desirous to take Caius off, either by them or by himself. 19.17. and I heartily wish that this quiet enjoyment of it, which we have at present, might continue to all ages. However, this single day may suffice for our youth, as well as for us that are in years. It will seem an age to our old men, if they might die during its happy duration: it may also be for the instruction of the younger sort 20.81. 2. But although the grandees of Adiabene had failed in their first attempt, as being delivered up by God into their king’s hands, yet would they not even then be quiet, but wrote again to Vologases, who was then king of Parthia, and desired that he would kill Izates, and set over them some other potentate, who should be of a Parthian family; for they said that they hated their own king for abrogating the laws of their forefathers, and embracing foreign customs. 20.123. whereupon those that were the most eminent persons at Jerusalem, and that both in regard to the respect that was paid them, and the families they were of, as soon as they saw to what a height things were gone, put on sackcloth, and heaped ashes upon their heads, and by all possible means besought the seditious, and persuaded them that they would set before their eyes the utter subversion of their country, the conflagration of their temple, and the slavery of themselves, their wives, and children, which would be the consequences of what they were doing; and would alter their minds, would cast away their weapons, and for the future be quiet, and return to their own homes. These persuasions of theirs prevailed upon them. 20.142. While Felix was procurator of Judea, he saw this Drusilla, and fell in love with her; for she did indeed exceed all other women in beauty; and he sent to her a person whose name was Simon one of his friends; a Jew he was, and by birth a Cypriot, and one who pretended to be a magician, and endeavored to persuade her to forsake her present husband, and marry him; and promised, that if she would not refuse him, he would make her a happy woman. 20.147. and, at the same time, Mariamne put away Archelaus, and was married to Demetrius, the principal man among the Alexandrian Jews, both for his family and his wealth; and indeed he was then their alabarch. So she named her son whom she had by him Agrippinus. But of all these particulars we shall hereafter treat more exactly. 20.163. Wherefore Felix persuaded one of Jonathan’s most faithful friends, a citizen of Jerusalem, whose name was Doras, to bring the robbers upon Jonathan, in order to kill him; and this he did by promising to give him a great deal of money for so doing. Doras complied with the proposal, and contrived matters so, that the robbers might murder him after the following manner: 20.173. 7. And now it was that a great sedition arose between the Jews that inhabited Caesarea, and the Syrians who dwelt there also, concerning their equal right to the privileges belonging to citizens; for the Jews claimed the pre-eminence, because Herod their king was the builder of Caesarea, and because he was by birth a Jew. Now the Syrians did not deny what was alleged about Herod; but they said that Caesarea was formerly called Strato’s Tower, and that then there was not one Jewish inhabitant. 20.214. Costobarus also, and Saulus, did themselves get together a multitude of wicked wretches, and this because they were of the royal family; and so they obtained favor among them, because of their kindred to Agrippa; but still they used violence with the people, and were very ready to plunder those that were weaker than themselves. And from that time it principally came to pass that our city was greatly disordered, and that all things grew worse and worse among us. 20.252. 1. Now Gessius Florus, who was sent as successor to Albinus by Nero, filled Judea with abundance of miseries. He was by birth of the city of Clazomenae, and brought along with him his wife Cleopatra, (by whose friendship with Poppea, Nero’s wife, he obtained this government,) who was no way different from him in wickedness. |
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2. Josephus Flavius, Jewish War, 1.432, 1.477, 1.513, 1.576, 2.119, 2.308, 2.482, 2.566, 4.416, 4.503, 5.443, 5.532, 6.54, 7.199, 7.329, 7.375 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 1.432. For when he came to the government, he sent away her whom he had before married when he was a private person, and who was born at Jerusalem, whose name was Doris, and married Mariamne, the daughter of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus; on whose account disturbances arose in his family, and that in part very soon, but chiefly after his return from Rome. 1.477. She also frequently reproached Herod’s sister and wives with the ignobility of their descent; and that they were every one chosen by him for their beauty, but not for their family. Now those wives of his were not a few; it being of old permitted to the Jews to marry many wives,—and this king delighting in many; all which hated Alexander, on account of Glaphyra’s boasting and reproaches. 1.513. 1. Now a little afterward there came into Judea a man that was much superior to Archelaus’s stratagems, who did not only overturn that reconciliation that had been so wisely made with Alexander, but proved the occasion of his ruin. He was a Lacedemonian, and his name was Eurycles. He was so corrupt a man, that out of the desire of getting money, he chose to live under a king, for Greece could not suffice his luxury. 1.576. Phabatus was angry at him on that account, but was still in very great esteem with Herod, and discovered Sylleus’s grand secrets, and told the king that Sylleus had corrupted Corinthus, one of the guards of his body, by bribing him, and of whom he must therefore have a care. Accordingly, the king complied; for this Corinthus, though he was brought up in Herod’s kingdom, yet was by birth an Arabian; 2.119. 2. For there are three philosophical sects among the Jews. The followers of the first of which are the Pharisees; of the second, the Sadducees; and the third sect, which pretends to a severer discipline, are called Essenes. These last are Jews by birth, and seem to have a greater affection for one another than the other sects have. 2.308. And what made this calamity the heavier was this new method of Roman barbarity; for Florus ventured then to do what no one had done before, that is, to have men of the equestrian order whipped and nailed to the cross before his tribunal; who, although they were by birth Jews, yet were they of Roman dignity notwithstanding. 2.482. Now there came certain men seventy in number, out of Batanea, who were the most considerable for their families and prudence of the rest of the people; these desired to have an army put into their hands, that if any tumult should happen, they might have about them a guard sufficient to restrain such as might rise up against them. 2.566. 4. They also chose other generals for Idumea; Jesus, the son of Sapphias, one of the high priests; and Eleazar, the son of Aias, the high priest; they also enjoined Niger, the then governor of Idumea, who was of a family that belonged to Perea, beyond Jordan, and was thence called the Peraite, that he should be obedient to those forenamed commanders. 4.416. o they seized upon Dolesus (a person not only the first in rank and family in that city, but one that seemed the occasion of sending such an embassy) and slew him, and treated his dead body after a barbarous manner, so very violent was their anger at him, and then ran out of the city. 4.503. 3. And now there arose another war at Jerusalem. There was a son of Giora, one Simon, by birth of Gerasa, a young man, not so cunning indeed as John [of Gischala], who had already seized upon the city 5.443. Finally, they brought the Hebrew nation into contempt, that they might themselves appear comparatively less impious with regard to strangers. They confessed what was true, that they were the slaves, the scum, and the spurious and abortive offspring of our nation 5.532. After the slaughter of these, a certain priest, Aias, the son of Masambulus, a person of eminency, as also Aristeus, the scribe of the sanhedrin, and born at Emmaus, and with them fifteen men of figure among the people, were slain. 6.54. 6. Upon this speech of Titus, the rest of the multitude were affrighted at so great a danger. But there was one, whose name was Sabinus, a soldier that served among the cohorts, and a Syrian by birth, who appeared to be of very great fortitude, both in the actions he had done, and the courage of his soul he had shown; 7.199. Now a certain person belonging to the Roman camp, whose name was Rufus, by birth an Egyptian, ran upon him suddenly, when nobody expected such a thing, and carried him off, with his armor itself; while in the meantime, those that saw it from the wall were under such an amazement, that Rufus prevented their assistance, and carried Eleazar to the Roman camp. 7.329. To be sure we weakly hoped to have preserved ourselves, and ourselves alone, still in a state of freedom, as if we had been guilty of no sins ourselves against God, nor been partners with those of others; we also taught other men to preserve their liberty. 7.375. And where is now that great city, the metropolis of the Jewish nation, which was fortified by so many walls round about, which had so many fortresses and large towers to defend it, which could hardly contain the instruments prepared for the war, and which had so many ten thousands of men to fight for it? |
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3. Josephus Flavius, Against Apion, 1.59, 1.106, 1.129, 1.160, 1.164, 1.173, 1.250, 1.252, 1.265, 2.8, 2.28, 2.138, 2.202, 2.296 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 1.59. after which I shall produce testimonies for our antiquity out of the writings of foreigners: I shall also demonstrate that such as cast reproaches upon our nation do it very unjustly. /p 1.106. 17. I will now, therefore, pass from these records, and come to those who belong to the Phoenicians, and concern our nation, and shall produce attestations to what I have said out of them. 1.129. Berosus shall be witness to what I say: he was by birth a Chaldean, well known by the learned, on account of his publication of the Chaldean books of astronomy and philosophy among the Greeks. 1.164. Now this Hermippus, in his first book concerning Pythagoras, speaks thus:—“That Pythagoras, upon the death of one of his associates, whose name was Calliphon, a Crotoniate by birth, affirmed that this man’s soul conversed with him both night and day, and enjoined him not to pass over a place where an ass had fallen down; as also not to drink of such waters as caused thirst again; and to abstain from all sorts of reproaches.” 1.173. “At the last there passed over a people, wonderful to be beheld; for they spake the Phoenician tongue with their mouths: they dwelt in the Solymean mountains, near a broad lake: their heads were sooty; they had round rasures on them; their heads and faces were like nasty horseheads also, that had been hardened in the smoke.” 1.252. These and the like accounts are written by Manetho. But I will demonstrate that he trifles, and tells arrant lies, after I have made a distinction which will relate to what I am going to say about him; for this Manetho had granted and confessed that this nation was not originally Egyptian, but that they had come from another country, and subdued Egypt, and then went away again out of it. 1.265. and for that priest who settled their polity and their laws,” he says “he was by birth of Heliopolis; and his name was Osarsiph, from Osiris, the god of Heliopolis, but that he changed his name, and called himself Moses.” 2.8. 2. Now, although I cannot but think that I have already demonstrated, and that abundantly, more than was necessary, that our fathers were not originally Egyptians, nor were thence expelled, either on account of bodily diseases, or any other calamities of that sort 2.8. for Apion hath the impudence to pretend, that “the Jews placed an ass’s head in their holy place;” and he affirms that this was discovered when Antiochus Epiphanes spoiled our temple, and found that ass’s head there made of gold, and worth a great deal of money. 2.28. 3. This is that novel account which the Egyptian Apion gives us concerning the Jews’ departure out of Egypt, and is no better than a contrivance of his own. But why should we wonder at the lies he tells us about our forefathers, when he affirms them to be of Egyptian original, when he lies also about himself? 2.28. 40. We have already demonstrated that our laws have been such as have always inspired admiration and imitation into all other men; 2.138. Now, as for our slaughter of tame animals for sacrifices, it is common to us and to all other men; but this Apion, by making it a crime to sacrifice them, demonstrates himself to be an Egyptian; for had he been either a Grecian or a Macedonian [as he pretends to be], he had not shown any uneasiness at it; for those people glory in sacrificing whole hecatombs to the gods, and make use of those sacrifices for feasting; and yet is not the world thereby rendered destitute of cattle, as Apion was afraid would come to pass. 2.202. The law, moreover enjoins us to bring up all our offspring, and forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to destroy it afterward; and if any woman appears to have so done, she will be a murderer of her child, by destroying a living creature, and diminishing human kind: if any one, therefore, proceeds to such fornication or murder, he cannot be clean. 2.296. but let this and the foregoing book be dedicated to thee, Epaphroditus, who art so great a lover of truth, and by thy means to those that have been in like manner desirous to be acquainted with the affairs of our nation. /p p class="bottomselect artificial"« a href="/j ap/1/wst"J. Ap. 1 /a | a href="/j ap/2/wst"J. Ap. 2 /a (end) | a href="/j ap/0/wst"About This Work /a » /p |
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4. Josephus Flavius, Life, 16, 382, 427, 126 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
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5. Juvenal, Satires, 6.542-6.547 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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6. Mishnah, Avot, 2.7 (1st cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
| 2.7. He used to say: The more flesh, the more worms; The more property, the more anxiety; The more wives, the more witchcraft; The more female slaves, the more lewdness; The more slaves, the more robbery; [But] the more Torah, the more life; The more sitting [in the company of scholars], the more wisdom; The more counsel, the more understanding; The more charity, the more peace. If one acquires a good name, he has acquired something for himself; If one acquires for himself knowledge of torah, he has acquired life in the world to come." |
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7. Mishnah, Ketuvot, 4.4 (1st cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
| 4.4. A father has authority over his daughter in her betrothal [whether it was effected] by money, document or intercourse. He is entitled to anything she finds, to her handiwork and to annul her vows. He receives her get but he has no usufruct [from her property] during her lifetime. When she marries, the husband surpasses him [in his rights] in that he has usufruct during her lifetime. And he is obligated to feed her, to pay a ransom for her and to provide for her burial. Rabbi Judah says: even the poorest man in Israel must provide no less than two flutes and one lamenting woman." |
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8. Palestinian Talmud, Sotah, 1.4 (2nd cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)
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9. Babylonian Talmud, Avodah Zarah, 18b, 18a (3rd cent. CE - 6th cent. CE)
| 18a. הוגה את השם באותיותיו והיכי עביד הכי והתנן אלו שאין להם חלק לעולם הבא האומר אין תורה מן השמים ואין תחיית המתים מן התורה אבא שאול אומר אף ההוגה את השם באותיותיו,להתלמד עבד כדתניא (דברים יח, ט) לא תלמד לעשות אבל אתה למד להבין ולהורות,אלא מאי טעמא אענש משום הוגה את השם בפרהסיא דהוי ועל אשתו להריגה דלא מיחה ביה מכאן אמרו כל מי שיש בידו למחות ואינו מוחה נענש עליו,ועל בתו לישב בקובה של זונות דאמר ר' יוחנן פעם אחת היתה בתו מהלכת לפני גדולי רומי אמרו כמה נאות פסיעותיה של ריבה זו מיד דקדקה בפסיעותיה והיינו דאמר ר' שמעון בן לקיש מאי דכתיב (תהלים מט, ו) עון עקבי יסבני עונות שאדם דש בעקביו בעולם הזה מסובין לו ליום הדין,בשעה שיצאו שלשתן צדקו עליהם את הדין הוא אמר (דברים לב, ד) הצור תמים פעלו [וגו'] ואשתו אמרה (דברים לב, ד) אל אמונה ואין עול בתו אמרה (ירמיהו לב, יט) גדול העצה ורב העליליה אשר עיניך פקוחות על כל דרכי וגו' אמר רבי [כמה] גדולים צדיקים הללו שנזדמנו להן שלש מקראות של צדוק הדין בשעת צדוק הדין,תנו רבנן כשחלה רבי יוסי בן קיסמא הלך רבי חנינא בן תרדיון לבקרו אמר לו חנינא אחי (אחי) אי אתה יודע שאומה זו מן השמים המליכוה שהחריבה את ביתו ושרפה את היכלו והרגה את חסידיו ואבדה את טוביו ועדיין היא קיימת ואני שמעתי עליך שאתה יושב ועוסק בתורה [ומקהיל קהלות ברבים] וספר מונח לך בחיקך,אמר לו מן השמים ירחמו אמר לו אני אומר לך דברים של טעם ואתה אומר לי מן השמים ירחמו תמה אני אם לא ישרפו אותך ואת ספר תורה באש אמר לו רבי מה אני לחיי העולם הבא,אמר לו כלום מעשה בא לידך אמר לו מעות של פורים נתחלפו לי במעות של צדקה וחלקתים לעניים אמר לו אם כן מחלקך יהי חלקי ומגורלך יהי גורלי,אמרו לא היו ימים מועטים עד שנפטר רבי יוסי בן קיסמא והלכו כל גדולי רומי לקברו והספידוהו הספד גדול ובחזרתן מצאוהו לרבי חנינא בן תרדיון שהיה יושב ועוסק בתורה ומקהיל קהלות ברבים וס"ת מונח לו בחיקו,הביאוהו וכרכוהו בס"ת והקיפוהו בחבילי זמורות והציתו בהן את האור והביאו ספוגין של צמר ושראום במים והניחום על לבו כדי שלא תצא נשמתו מהרה אמרה לו בתו אבא אראך בכך אמר לה אילמלי אני נשרפתי לבדי היה הדבר קשה לי עכשיו שאני נשרף וס"ת עמי מי שמבקש עלבונה של ס"ת הוא יבקש עלבוני,אמרו לו תלמידיו רבי מה אתה רואה אמר להן גליון נשרפין ואותיות פורחות אף אתה פתח פיך ותכנס בך האש אמר להן מוטב שיטלנה מי שנתנה ואל יחבל הוא בעצמו,אמר לו קלצטונירי רבי אם אני מרבה בשלהבת ונוטל ספוגין של צמר מעל לבך אתה מביאני לחיי העולם הבא אמר לו הן השבע לי נשבע לו מיד הרבה בשלהבת ונטל ספוגין של צמר מעל לבו יצאה נשמתו במהרה אף הוא קפץ ונפל לתוך האור,יצאה בת קול ואמרה רבי חנינא בן תרדיון וקלצטונירי מזומנין הן לחיי העולם הבא בכה רבי ואמר יש קונה עולמו בשעה אחת ויש קונה עולמו בכמה שנים,ברוריא דביתהו דר' מאיר ברתיה דר' חנינא בן תרדיון הואי אמרה לו זילא בי מלתא דיתבא אחתאי בקובה של זונות שקל תרקבא דדינרי ואזל אמר אי לא איתעביד בה איסורא מיתעביד ניסא אי עבדה איסורא לא איתעביד לה ניסא,אזל נקט נפשיה כחד פרשא אמר לה השמיעני לי אמרה ליה דשתנא אנא אמר לה מתרחנא מרתח אמרה לו נפישין טובא (ואיכא טובא הכא) דשפירן מינאי אמר ש"מ לא עבדה איסורא כל דאתי אמרה ליה הכי,אזל לגבי שומר דידה א"ל הבה ניהלה אמר ליה מיסתפינא ממלכותא אמר ליה שקול תרקבא דדינרא פלגא פלח ופלגא להוי לך א"ל וכי שלמי מאי איעביד א"ל אימא אלהא דמאיר ענני ומתצלת א"ל | 18a. bpronounce theineffable bnameof God bwithall of bits letters,i.e., as it is spelled. The Gemara asks: bAnd how could he do that? But didn’t we learnin the mishna ( iSanhedrin90a): bTheseare the people bwho have no share in the World-to-Come: One who saysthat bthe Torah is not from Heaven orthat bthere is nosource bfrom the Torahfor bthe resurrection of the dead. Abba Shaul says: Also one who pronounces theineffable bnameas it is written, bwithall of bits letters,has no share in the World-to-Come.,The Gemara answers: Rabbi Ḥanina ben Teradyon bdid it to teach himself, as it is taughtin a ibaraitawith regard to the prohibition against sorcery: b“You shall not learn to do”(Deuteronomy 18:9); this indicates: bBut you may learn to understand and to teach.In other words, certain prohibitions do not apply when one is acting only in order to acquire knowledge of the subject.,The Gemara asks: bRather, what is the reasonthat bhe was punished?The Gemara answers: He was punished bbecause he would pronounce theineffable bnameof God bin public,instead of privately. bAnd his wifewas condemned bto executionby decapitation bbecause she did not protest hisdoing so. bFrom herethe Sages bstated: Anyone who has the capability to protesteffectively the sinful conduct of another band does not protest is punished forthat person’s sin.,The Gemara asks: bAndwhy was bhis daughtercondemned bto sit in a brothel? As Rabbi Yoḥa says: Once, the daughter ofRabbi Ḥanina ben Teradyon bwas walking before the nobles of Rome,and they bsaidto each other: bHow pleasant are the steps of this young woman.Upon hearing this, bshe immediately took careto keep walking in such a fashion that bher stepswould continue to be pleasing to them. bAnd this isthe same as that bwhich Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish says: Whatis the meaning of that bwhich is written: “The iniquity of my heel encircles me”(Psalms 49:6)? It means that bthe sins that a person tramples with one’s heel in this world,i.e., dismisses and pays no attention to them as they seem to lack importance, e.g., the way that one walks, come and bencircle him on the Day of Judgment. /b,The Gemara relates: bWhen the three of them went outafter being sentenced, bthey accepted thejustice of God’s bjudgment.Rabbi Ḥanina ben Teradyon bsaid: “The Rock, His work is perfect;for all His ways are justice” (Deuteronomy 32:4). bAnd his wife saidthe continuation of the verse: b“A God of faithfulness and without iniquity.” His daughter said: “Great in counsel, and mighty in work; whose eyes are open upon all the waysof the sons of men, to give every one according to his ways” (Jeremiah 32:19). bRabbiYehuda HaNasi bsaid: How great are these righteous people, thatthese bthree verses,which speak bofthe bacceptance ofGod’s bjudgment, occurred to them at the time of accepting therighteousness of His bjudgment. /b,§ bThe Sages taught: When Rabbi Yosei ben Kisma fell ill, Rabbi Ḥanina ben Teradyon went to visit him.Rabbi Yosei ben Kisma bsaid to him: Ḥanina my brother, do you not know that this nation has been given reign bya decree from bHeaven?The proof is bthatRome has bdestroyedGod’s bTemple, and burned His Sanctuary, and killed His pious ones, and destroyed His best ones, and it still exists.Evidently, all of this is by Divine decree. bAndyet bI heard about you that you sit and engage in Torahstudy, band convene assemblies in public, and havea Torah bscroll placed in your lap,thereby demonstrating complete disregard for the decrees issued by the Romans.,Rabbi Ḥanina ben Teradyon bsaid to him: Heaven will have mercyand protect me. Rabbi Yosei ben Kisma bsaid to him: I am saying reasonable matters to you, and you say to me: Heaven will have mercy? I wonder ifthe Romans bwill not burnboth byou andyour bTorah scroll by fire.Rabbi Ḥanina ben Teradyon bsaid to him: My teacher, whatwill become of bme?Am I destined bfor life in the World-to-Come? /b,Rabbi Yosei ben Kisma bsaid to him: Did anyspecial bincident occur to youwhich might serve as an indication? Rabbi Ḥanina ben Teradyon bsaid to him: I confusedmy own bcoinsthat I needed bforthe festivities of bPurim with coins of charity, and I distributed themall bto the poorat my own expense. Rabbi Yosei ben Kisma bsaid to him: Ifthat is bso, may my portion be of your portion, and may my lot be of your lot. /b,The Sages bsaid: Noteven ba few dayspassed bbefore Rabbi Yosei ben Kisma diedof his illness, band all of the Roman notables went to bury him, andthey beulogized himwith ba great eulogy. And upon their return, they found Rabbi Ḥanina ben Teradyon, who was sitting and engaging in Torahstudy band convening assemblies in public, with a Torah scroll placed in his lap. /b, bThey brought himto be sentenced, band wrapped him in the Torah scroll, and encircled him with bundles of branches, and they set fire to it. And they brought tufts of wool and soaked them in water, and placed them on his heart, so that his soul should not leavehis body bquickly,but he would die slowly and painfully. bHis daughter said to him: Father, must I see you like this?Rabbi Ḥanina ben Teradyon bsaid to her: If I alone were being burned, it would be difficult for me,but bnow that I am burning along with a Torah scroll, He who will seekretribution for bthe insultaccorded bto the Torah scroll will also seekretribution for bthe insultaccorded bto me. /b, bHis students said to him:Our bteacher, what do you see?Rabbi Ḥanina ben Teradyon bsaid to them:I see the bparchment burning, butits bletters are flyingto the heavens. They said to him: bYou too should open your mouth and the fire will enter you,and you will die quickly. Rabbi Ḥanina ben Teradyon bsaid to them: It is preferable that He who gaveme my soul bshould take it away, and one should not harm oneselfto speed his death., bThe executioner [ ikaltzatoniri /i] said to him: My teacher, if I increase the flame and take off the tufts of wool from your heart,so that you will die sooner and suffer less, bwill you bring me to the life of the World-to-Come?Rabbi Ḥanina ben Teradyon bsaid tothe executioner: bYes.The executioner said: bTake an oath for me,that what you say is true. Rabbi Ḥanina ben Teradyon btookthe boath for him,and the executioner bimmediately increased the flame and took off the tufts of wool from his heart,causing bhis soulto bleavehis body bquickly.The executioner btoo leaped and fell into the fireand died., bA Divine Voice emerged and said: Rabbi Ḥanina ben Teradyon and the executioner are destined for the life of the World-to-Come.Upon hearing this, bRabbiYehuda HaNasi bwept and said: There isone who bacquires hisshare in the bWorld /b-to-Come bin one moment,such as the executioner, band there isone who bacquires hisshare in the bWorld /b-to-Come only bafter many yearsof toil, such as Rabbi Ḥanina ben Teradyon.,§ The Gemara relates: bBerurya, the wife of Rabbi Meir, was a daughter of Rabbi Ḥanina ben Teradyon. She said toRabbi Meir: bIt is a disrespectful matter for me that my sister is sitting in a brothel;you must do something to save her. Rabbi Meir btook a vessel [ itarkeva /i]full bof dinars and went. He saidto himself: bIf no transgression was committed with her, a miracle will be performedfor her; bif she committed a transgression, no miracle will be performed for her. /b,Rabbi Meir bwent and dressed asa Roman bknight,and bsaid to her: Accede to mywishes, i.e., engage in intercourse with me. bShe said to him: I am menstruating [ idashtana /i]and cannot. bHe said to her: I will wait. She said to him: There are manywomen in the brothel, band there are manywomen bhere who are more beautiful than I. He saidto himself: I can bconclude fromher responses that bshe did not commit a transgression,as bshepresumably bsaid this to all who come. /b, bRabbi Meir went over to her guard,and bsaid to him: Give herto me. The guard bsaid to him: I fearthat if I do so, I will be punished bby the government.Rabbi Meir bsaid to him: Takethis bvesselfull bof dinars; give half to the government as a bribe, band half will be for you.The guard bsaid to him: But whenthe money bis finished, what shall I do?Rabbi Meir bsaid to him: Say: God of Meir answer me! And you will be saved.The guard bsaid to him: /b |
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10. Babylonian Talmud, Eruvin, 64b (3rd cent. CE - 6th cent. CE)
| 64b. בעל בנכסי אשתו,רבא אמר אפילו עבד עיסקא ורווח רב פפא אמר אפי' מצא מציאה אמר רב נחמן בר יצחק אפילו כתב בהו תפילין,ואמר רב חנין ואיתימא ר' חנינא מאי קראה דכתיב (במדבר כא, ב) וידר ישראל נדר וגו',אמר רמי בר אבא דרך מיל ושינה כל שהוא מפיגין את היין אמר רב נחמן אמר רבה בר אבוה לא שנו אלא ששתה כדי רביעית אבל שתה יותר מרביעית כל שכן שדרך טורדתו ושינה משכרתו,ודרך מיל מפיגה היין והתניא מעשה בר"ג שהיה רוכב על החמור והיה מהלך מעכו לכזיב והיה רבי אילעאי מהלך אחריו מצא גלוסקין בדרך אמר לו אילעאי טול גלוסקין מן הדרך מצא נכרי אחד אמר לו מבגאי טול גלוסקין הללו מאילעאי,ניטפל לו ר' אילעאי אמר לו מהיכן אתה אמר לו מעיירות של בורגנין ומה שמך מבגאי שמני כלום היכירך רבן גמליאל מעולם אמר לו לאו,באותה שעה למדנו שכוון רבן גמליאל ברוח הקודש ושלשה דברים למדנו באותה שעה למדנו שאין מעבירין על האוכלין,ולמדנו שהולכין אחרי רוב עוברי דרכים ולמדנו שחמצו של נכרי אחר הפסח מותר בהנאה,כיון שהגיע לכזיב בא אחד לישאל על נדרו אמר לזה שעמו כלום שתינו רביעית יין האיטלקי אמר לו הן אם כן יטייל אחרינו עד שיפיג יינינו,וטייל אחריהן ג' מילין עד שהגיע לסולמא של צור כיון שהגיע לסולמא דצור ירד ר"ג מן החמור ונתעטף וישב והתיר לו נדרו,והרבה דברים למדנו באותה שעה למדנו שרביעית יין האיטלקי משכר ולמדנו שיכור אל יורה ולמדנו שדרך מפיגה את היין ולמדנו שאין מפירין נדרים לא רכוב ולא מהלך ולא עומד אלא יושב,קתני מיהת שלשה מילין שאני יין האיטלקי דמשכר טפי,והאמר רב נחמן אמר רבה בר אבוה לא שנו אלא ששתה רביעית אבל שתה יותר מרביעית כל שכן דרך טורדתו ושינה משכרתו,רכוב שאני השתא דאתית להכי לרמי בר אבא נמי לא קשיא רכוב שאני,איני והאמר רב נחמן מפירין נדרים בין מהלך בין עומד ובין רכוב,תנאי היא דאיכא למאן דאמר פותחין בחרטה,ואיכא למאן דאמר אין פותחין בחרטה,דאמר רבה בר בר חנה אמר רבי יוחנן מאי פתח ליה רבן גמליאל לההוא גברא (משלי יב, יח) יש בוטה כמדקרות חרב ולשון חכמים מרפא כל הבוטה ראוי לדוקרו בחרב אלא שלשון חכמים מרפא,אמר מר ואין מעבירין על האוכלין אמר רבי יוחנן משום רבי שמעון בן יוחאי לא שנו אלא בדורות הראשונים שאין בנות ישראל פרוצות בכשפים אבל בדורות האחרונים שבנות ישראל פרוצות בכשפים מעבירין,תנא שלימין מעבירין פתיתין אין מעבירין אמר ליה רב אסי לרב אשי ואפתיתין לא עבדן והכתיב (יחזקאל יג, יט) ותחללנה אותי אל עמי בשעלי שעורים ובפתותי לחם דשקלי באגרייהו,אמר רב ששת משום רבי אלעזר בן עזריה | 64b. ba husbandwho acquired rights bto his wife’s propertythat she had brought into the marriage as her dowry should use part of the profits for the acquisition of a Torah scroll., bRava said: Even if he entered into a business venture and made alarge bprofit,he should act in a similar manner. bRav Pappa said: Even if he found a lost article,he should do the same. bRav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said:He need not use the money to commission the writing of a Torah scroll, as beven ifhe bwrotea set of bphylacteries with it,this, too, is a mitzva whose merit will enable him to retain the rest of the money., bRav Ḥanin said, and some sayit was bRabbi Ḥaninawho said: bWhat is the versethat alludes to this? bAs it is written: “And Israel vowed a vowto the Lord and said: If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will consecrate their cities” (Numbers 21:2), which shows that one who wishes to succeed should sanctify a portion of his earnings for Heaven.,The Gemara now cites additional teachings relating to the drinking of wine. bRami bar Abba said:Walking a bpath of a imil /i, andsimilarly, bsleepingeven ba minimal amount,will bdispel theeffect of bwinethat one has drunk. bRav Naḥman saidthat bRabba bar Avuh said: They only taughtthis with regard to one bwho has drunk a quarter-ilogof wine, bbutwith regard to bone who has drunk more than a quarter-ilog /i, this advice is not useful. In that case, walking a bpathof such a distance bwill preoccupyand exhaust bhim all the more, anda small amount bof sleep willfurther bintoxicate him. /b,The Gemara poses a question: bDoeswalking ba path ofonly ba imildispel theeffects of bwine? Wasn’tit btaughtin a ibaraita /i: bThere was an incident involving Rabban Gamliel, who was riding a donkey and traveling from Akko to Keziv, andhis student bRabbi Elai was walking behind him.Rabban Gamliel bfoundsome bfine loavesof bread bon the road, and he said tohis student: bElai, take the loaves from the road.Further along the way, Rabban Gamliel bencountered a certain gentileand bsaid to him: Mavgai, take these loaves from Elai. /b, bElai joinedthe gentile band said to him: Where are you from?He bsaid to him: From thenearby btowns of guardsmen.He asked: bAnd what is your name?The gentile replied: bMy name is Mavgai.He then inquired: bHas Rabban Gamliel ever met you before,seeing as he knows your name? He bsaid to him: No. /b,The Gemara interrupts the story in order to comment: bAt that time we learned that Rabban Gamliel divinedthe gentile’s name bby way of divine inspirationthat rested upon him. bAnd at that time wealso blearned three mattersof ihalakhafrom Rabban Gamliel’s behavior: bWe learned that one may not pass by food,i.e., if a person sees food lying on the ground, he must stop and pick it up., bWealso blearned that we follow the majority of travelers.Since the area was populated mostly by gentiles, Rabban Gamliel assumed that the loaf belonged to a gentile, and was consequently prohibited to be eaten by a Jew. Therefore, he ordered that it be given to a gentile. And bwefurther blearned thatwith regard to bleavened bread belonging to a gentile, it is permittedto bbenefitfrom this food bafter Passover.The incident recounted above occurred not long after the festival of Passover. By giving the loaf to the gentile instead of burning it in accordance with the ihalakhotof leavened bread that remains after Passover, Rabban Gamliel gained a certain benefit from it in the form of the gentile’s gratitude. This benefit is regarded as having monetary value.,The Gemara resumes the narrative: bWhenRabban Gamliel barrived in Keziv, aperson bcamebefore him bto requestthat he dissolve bhis vow.Rabban Gamliel bsaid to the one who was with him,i.e., Rabbi Elai: bDid we drink a quarter-ilog bof Italian wineearlier? He bsaid to him: Yes.Rabban Gamliel replied: bIf so, let him journey after us untilthe effect of bour wine is dispelled,after which we may consider his issue., bAndthat person bjourneyed after themfor bthree imil /i, untilRabban Gamliel barrived at the Ladder of Tyre. When he arrived at the Ladder of Tyre, Rabban Gamliel alighted from his donkey and wrapped himselfin his shawl in the customary manner of a judge, who wraps himself in a shawl in order to sit in awe at the time of judgment, band he sat and dissolved his vow. /b,The Gemara continues: bAt that time we learned many mattersof ihalakhafrom Rabban Gamliel’s conduct. bWe learned that a quarter-ilog bof Italian wine intoxicates, and we learnedthat bone who is intoxicated may not issue ahalakhic bruling, and we learned thatwalking on ba path dispelsthe effect bof wine, andlastly bwe learned that one may not annul vowswhen he is beither mountedon an animal, bor walking, oreven bstanding, butonly when he is bsitting. /b, bIn any event,the ibaraita bis teachingthat Rabban Gamliel found it necessary to walk bthree imil /iin order to become sober after drinking wine. The Gemara resolves the contradiction. bItalian wine is differentin that bit is more intoxicating,therefore more extended activity is required in order to dispel its effects.,The Gemara poses a question: bBut didn’t Rav Naḥman saythat bRabba bar Avuh said: They taughtthis bonlywith regard to one bwho has drunk a quarter-ilogof wine, bbutwith regard to bone who has drunk more than a quarter-ilog /i, bwalkingthat distance bwill preoccupyand exhaust bhim all the more, anda small amount of bsleep willfurther bintoxicate him?If Italian wine is more intoxicating than other wine, shouldn’t a quarter- ilogbe considered like a larger quantity of other wine?,The Gemara answers: Being bmountedon an animal bis differentfrom walking; since he is not on foot it is not such a tiring activity. Accordingly, riding three imilwill not exhaust him; rather, it will dispel the effect of the wine. The Gemara adds: bNow that you have arrived at thisconclusion, baccording to Rami bar Abba,who says that walking one imilis sufficient, bit is also not difficult,as he too can say that briding is differentfrom walking. Since one is not on foot, the effects of the wine are not dispelled as quickly. Therefore, three imilis necessary.,The Gemara poses a question with regard to one of the details of the story: bIs that so,that Rabban Gamliel was required to alight from his donkey in order to annul the vow? bBut didn’t Rav Naḥman say: One may annul vows walking, standing, or mounted?Why, then, did Rabban Gamliel dismount his donkey?,The Gemara answers: bThis isa dispute between itanna’im /i, as there isan authority bwho saysthat bonemay bopenthe possibility for dissolution of a vow bby means of regretalone. In other words, there is no need to search for a special reason in order to dissolve a person’s vow; it is enough to ascertain that he regrets making it. This can be done easily, even while walking, standing, or riding., bAnd there isanother authority bwho saysthat bonemay bnot openthe possibility for dissolution of a vow bby means of regretalone. Rather, one must find an opening, i.e., a particular reason to dissolve the vow in question, which requires a thorough analysis of the circumstances of the vow. This task must be performed free of distractions, which means one must be seated ( iTosafot /i)., bAs Rabba bar bar Ḥana saidthat bRabbi Yoḥa said:With bwhat did Rabban Gamliel openthe possibility for dissolving his vow bfor that man,i.e., what opening did he find for him? Rabban Gamliel cited the verse: b“There is one who utters like the piercings of a sword; but the tongue of the wise is health”(Proverbs 12:18) and explained it as follows: bWhoever uttersa vow bdeserves to be pierced by a sword,as he might fail to fulfill it. Therefore, one should not vow at all. Had you known that whoever vows is liable to be executed, would you have vowed? bRather, it is the tongue of the wise that heals,as when a Sage dissolves a vow, he dissolves it retroactively, and it is as though one had never taken the vow.,The Gemara continues with its analysis of the ibaraita /i. bThe Master saidpreviously: One of the ihalakhotlearned from the incident involving Rabban Gamliel was that bone may not pass by food;rather, one must treat the food with respect and pick it up. bRabbi Yoḥa said in the name of Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai: They taughtthis ruling bonly in the early generations, when Jewish women were not accustomed to using witchcraft. However, in the later generations, when Jewish women are accustomed to using witchcraft, one may pass byfood, as a spell might have been cast on the bread, and one must not put himself in unnecessary danger.,A Sage btaught:If the loaves are bwhole, onemay bpassthem bby,as they might have been placed there for the purposes of witchcraft; however, if they are in bpieces, onemay bnot passthem bby,because bread in pieces is not used for witchcraft. bRav Asi said to Rav Ashi:Do bthey not performmagic with bpiecesof bread? bIsn’t it writtenin the verse that deals with witchcraft: b“And you have profaned Me among My people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread”(Ezekiel 13:19)? The Gemara answers: The verse does not mean that they used pieces of bread in their witchcraft, but rather that bthey tooksuch pieces bas their wages. /b, bRav Sheshet said in the name of Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya: /b |
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11. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin, 67a (3rd cent. CE - 6th cent. CE)
| 67a. סימנא בעלמא:, big strongמתני׳ /strong /big המסית זה הדיוט והמסית את ההדיוט אמר יש יראה במקום פלוני כך אוכלת כך שותה כך מטיבה כך מריעה,כל חייבי מיתות שבתורה אין מכמינין עליהם חוץ מזו,אמר לשנים הן עדיו ומביאין אותו לב"ד וסוקלין אותו אמר לאחד הוא אומר יש לי חבירים רוצים בכך,אם היה ערום ואינו יכול לדבר בפניהם מכמינין לו עדים אחורי הגדר והוא אומר לו אמור מה שאמרת ביחוד והלה אומר לו והוא אומר לו היאך נניח את אלהינו שבשמים ונלך ונעבוד עצים ואבנים אם חוזר בו הרי זה מוטב ואם אמר כך היא חובתנו כך יפה לנו העומדין מאחורי הגדר מביאין אותו לבית דין וסוקלין אותו,האומר אעבוד אלך ואעבוד נלך ונעבוד אזבח אלך ואזבח נלך ונזבח אקטיר אלך ואקטיר נלך ונקטיר אנסך אלך ואנסך נלך וננסך אשתחוה אלך ואשתחוה נלך ונשתחוה:, big strongגמ׳ /strong /big המסית זה הדיוט טעמא דהדיוט הא נביא בחנק והמסית את ההדיוט טעמא דיחיד הא רבים בחנק,מתני׳ מני ר"ש היא דתניא נביא שהדיח בסקילה ר' שמעון אומר בחנק מדיחי עיר הנדחת בסקילה ר"ש אומר בחנק,אימא סיפא המדיח זה האומר נלך ונעבוד עבודת כוכבים ואמר רב יהודה אמר רב מדיחי עיר הנדחת שנו אתאן לרבנן רישא ר"ש וסיפא רבנן,רבינא אמר כולה רבנן היא ולא זו אף זו קתני,רב פפא אמר כי קתני מסית זה הדיוט להכמנה,דתניא ושאר כל חייבי מיתות שבתורה אין מכמינין עליהן חוץ מזו,כיצד עושין לו מדליקין לו את הנר בבית הפנימי ומושיבין לו עדים בבית החיצון כדי שיהו הן רואין אותו ושומעין את קולו והוא אינו רואה אותן והלה אומר לו אמור מה שאמרת לי ביחוד והוא אומר לו והלה אומר לו היאך נניח את אלהינו שבשמים ונעבוד עבודת כוכבים אם חוזר בו מוטב ואם אמר כך היא חובתנו וכך יפה לנו העדים ששומעין מבחוץ מביאין אותו לבית דין וסוקלין אותו:,[הוספה מחסרונות הש"ס: וכן עשו לבן סטדא בלוד ותלאוהו בערב הפסח,בן סטדא בן פנדירא הוא אמר רב חסדא בעל — סטדא בועל — פנדירא בעל פפוס בן יהודה הוא אלא אֵימא אמו סטדא אמו מרים מגדלא נשיא הואי כדאמרי בפומדיתא סטת דא מבעלה:], big strongמתני׳ /strong /big המדיח זה האומר נלך ונעבוד עבודת כוכבים,המכשף העושה מעשה חייב ולא האוחז את העינים ר"ע אומר משום ר' יהושע שנים לוקטין קשואין אחד לוקט פטור ואחד לוקט חייב העושה מעשה חייב האוחז את העינים פטור:, big strongגמ׳ /strong /big אמר רב יהודה אמר רב מדיחי עיר הנדחת שנו כאן:,המכשף זה העושה מעשה וכו': תנו רבנן מכשפה אחד האיש ואחד האשה א"כ מה ת"ל מכשפה מפני שרוב נשים מצויות בכשפים,מיתתן במה רבי יוסי הגלילי אומר נאמר כאן (שמות כב, יז) מכשפה לא תחיה ונאמר להלן (דברים כ, טז) לא תחיה כל נשמה מה להלן בסייף אף כאן בסייף,ר' עקיבא אומר נאמר כאן מכשפה לא תחיה ונאמר להלן (שמות יט, יג) אם בהמה אם איש לא יחיה מה להלן בסקילה אף כאן בסקילה,אמר לו ר' יוסי אני דנתי לא תחיה מלא תחיה ואתה דנת לא תחיה מלא יחיה,אמר לו רבי עקיבא אני דנתי ישראל מישראל שריבה בהן הכתוב מיתות הרבה ואתה דנת ישראל מעובדי כוכבים שלא ריבה בהן הכתוב אלא | 67a. It is bmerely a mnemonic.The verse is not relevant to this ihalakha /i, and it is cited merely as a sign indicating that just as the ihalakhaof a betrothed young woman pertains to her first act of sexual intercourse, so too, the ihalakhaof the daughter of a priest who committed adultery pertains to a case where it is her first disqualification from the priesthood., strongMISHNA: /strong With regard to the case of ban inciter,listed among those liable to be executed by stoning, bthis is an ordinary person,not a prophet. bAndit is referring to bone who incites an ordinary personand not a multitude of people. What does the inciter do? bHe says: There is an idol in such and such a place,which beats like this, drinks like this, does goodfor its worshippers blike this,and bharmsthose who do not worship it blike this. /b,The mishna states a principle with regard to the ihalakhaof an inciter: With regard to ball of thosementioned bin the Torahwho bare liable toreceive bthe deathpenalty, if there are no witnesses to their transgressions, the court bdoes not hidewitnesses in order btoensnare and punish bthem, except for thiscase of an inciter.,The mishna elaborates: If the inciter bsaidhis words of incitement bto twomen, bthey are his witnesses, andhe does not need to be warned before the transgression; bthey bring him to court and stone him.If bhe saidhis words of incitement bto oneman alone, that man’s testimony would not be sufficient to have the inciter executed. Therefore bhe saysto the inciter: bI have friends who are interested in this;tell them too. This way there will be more witnesses.,The mishna continues: bIfthe inciter bis cunning, andhe knows that bhe cannot speak in front oftwo men, the court bhides witnesses for him behind the fenceso that he will not see them, bandthe man whom the inciter had previously tried to incite bsays to him: Say what you saidto me when we were bin seclusion. And the otherperson, the inciter, bsays to himagain that he should worship the idol. bAnd he says tothe inciter: bHow can we forsake our God in Heaven and go and worship wood and stones? Ifthe inciter bretractshis suggestion, bthat is good. But if he says: Thisidol worship bis our duty; thisis what bsuits us,then bthose standing behind the fence bring him to court and have him stoned. /b,The ihalakhaof an inciter includes bone who says: I shall worshipidols, or one of the following statements: bI shall go and worshipidols, or: blet us go and worshipidols, or: bI shall sacrificean idolatrous offering, or: bI shall go and sacrificean idolatrous offering, or: bLet us go and sacrificean idolatrous offering, or: bI shall burnincense as an idolatrous offering, or: bI shall go and burnincense, or: bLet us go and burnincense, or: bI shall pouran idolatrous libation, or: bI shall go and poura libation, or: bLet us go and poura libation, or: bI shall bowto an idol, or: bI shall go and bow,or: bLet us go and bow. /b, strongGEMARA: /strong The mishna teaches: With regard to the case of ban inciter, this is an ordinary person.The Gemara infers: bThe reasonhe is executed by stoning is bthat he is an ordinary person, butif he is ba prophethe is executed bby strangulation,not by stoning. The mishna states further: bAndit is referring to bone who incites an ordinary person.The Gemara infers: bThe reasonhe is executed by stoning is bthathe incited ban individual, butif he subverted ba multitudeof people, he is executed bby strangulation. /b,Consequently, bwhoseopinion is expressed in bthe mishna? It isthe opinion of bRabbi Shimon, as it is taughtin a ibaraita /i: bA prophet who subvertedothers to participate in idol worship is executed bby stoning. Rabbi Shimon says:He is executed bby strangulation.Likewise, bthe subverters of an idolatrous cityare executed bby stoning. Rabbi Shimon says: By strangulation. /b,The Gemara challenges: bSay the last clauseof the mishna, i.e., say the following mishna: With regard to the case of bthe subverterlisted among those liable to be executed by stoning, bthis is one who says: Let us go and worship idols. And Rav Yehuda saysthat bRav says:In this mishna the Sages btaughtthe case of bthe subverters of an idolatrous city.Here bwe arrive atthe opinion of bthe Rabbis,who hold that those who incite a multitude of people are also executed by stoning. Is it possible that bthe first clauseof the mishna expresses the opinion of bRabbi Shimon, and the last clauseexpresses that of bthe Rabbis? /b, bRavina says: The entiremishna bisin accordance with the opinion of bthe Rabbis, andthe itanna bteachesthe mishna employing the style of: bNotonly bthisbut balso that.In other words, the mishna should be explained as follows: Not only is one who incites an individual executed by stoning, but even one who subverts an entire city is executed by stoning., bRav Pappa says: Whenthe mishna bteacheswith regard to one who bincitesthat bthis isreferring to ban ordinary person,it is not indicating that a prophet is not included in this ihalakha /i. Rather, it is referring btothe bhidingof witnesses behind a fence in order to ensnare the inciter, as his life is treated with contempt and derision, as though he were an ordinary person, i.e., a simpleton., bAs it is taughtin a ibaraita /i: bAndwith regard to ball the rest of those liable toreceive the bdeathpenalty bby Torahlaw, the court bdoes not hidewitnesses in order btoensnare bthemand punish them bexcept for thiscase of an inciter., bHowdoes the court bdothis bto him?The agents of the court blight a candle for him in an inner room, andthey bplace witnesses for him in an outer roomin the dark, bso that they can see him and hear his voice but he cannot see them. And the otherperson, whom the inciter had previously tried to incite, bsays to him: Say what you said to mewhen we were bin seclusion. And he says to himagain that he should worship the idol. bAnd the otherperson bsays to him: How can we forsake our God in Heaven and worship idols? Ifthe inciter bretractshis suggestion, bthat is good. But if he says: Thisidol worship bis our duty, and thisis what bsuits us, the witnesses, who are listening from outside, bring him to court, andthey bhave him stoned. /b, bAndthe court bdid the same toan inciter named bben Setada, fromthe city of bLod, and they hanged him on Passover eve. /b,The Gemara asks: Why did they call him bben Setada,when bhe was the son of Pandeira? Rav Ḥisda says:Perhaps his mother’s bhusband,who acted as his father, was named bSetada,but his mother’s bparamour,who fathered this imamzer /i, was named bPandeira.The Gemara challenges: But his mother’s bhusband was Pappos ben Yehuda,not Setada. bRather,perhaps bhis motherwas named bSetada,and he was named ben Setada after her. The Gemara challenges: But bhis mother was Miriam, who braided women’s hair.The Gemara explains: That is not a contradiction; Setada was merely a nickname, bas they say in Pumbedita: This one strayed [ isetat da /i] from her husband. /b, strongMISHNA: /strong With regard to the case of bthe subverterlisted among those liable to be executed by stoning, bthis is one who saysto a multitude of people: bLet us go and worship idols. /b, bThe warlockis also liable to be executed by stoning. bOne who performsa real bactof sorcery bis liable, but not one who deceives the eyes,making it appear as though he is performing sorcery, as that is not considered sorcery. bRabbi Akiva says in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua:For example, btwopeople can each bgather cucumbersby sorcery. bOneof them bgatherscucumbers and he is bexempt, andthe other bone gatherscucumbers and he is bliable.How so? bThe one who performsa real bactof sorcery is bliable,and bthe one who deceives the eyes is exempt. /b, strongGEMARA: /strong With regard to the case of subverters mentioned in the mishna, bRav Yehuda saysthat bRav says:The Sages btaught herethe case of bthe subverters of an idolatrous city.Accordingly, there is no halakhic difference between one who incites individuals to idolatry and one who subverts an entire city; both are liable to be executed by stoning.,The mishna teaches that the case of bthe warlock isreferring to bone who performsa real bactof sorcery. bThe Sages taughtin a ibaraita /i: The verse: b“You shall not allow a witch to live”(Exodus 22:17), does not refer only to a female who practices sorcery; bboth a man and a womanare included. bIf so, whydoes bverse state “a witch”?This is bbecause most women are familiar with witchcraft. /b, bIn whatmanner is btheir deathsentence administered? bRabbi Yosei HaGelili says: It is stated here: “You shall not allow a witch to live,” and it is stated there,with regard to the conquest of the Canaanites: b“You shall allow nothing that breathes to live”(Deuteronomy 20:16). bJust as there,the Canaanites were to be killed bbythe bsword(see Numbers 21:24), bso too here,the execution of a witch is administered bbythe bsword. /b, bRabbi Akiva says: It is stated here: “You shall not allow a witch to live,” and it is stated there,with regard to Mount Sinai: “No hand shall touch it, for he shall be stoned, or thrown down; bwhether it be animal or man, it shall not live”(Exodus 19:13). bJust as there,the verse speaks bof stoning, so too here,a witch is executed bby stoning. /b, bRabbi YoseiHaGelili bsaid to him: I derivedthe meaning of the verse b“You shall not allowa witch bto live” fromthe verse b“You shall allow nothingthat breathes bto live”via a verbal analogy between two similar phrases, bbut you derivedthe meaning of the verse b“You shall not allowa witch bto live” fromthe verse b“It shall not live,”which is a less similar phrase., bRabbi Akiva said to him: I deriveda ihalakhaconcerning bJews froma ihalakhaconcerning bJews, with regard to whom the verse included manytypes of bdeathpenalties. Therefore, the fact that the expression “It shall not live” refers to stoning when stated with regard to Jews is especially significant. bBut you deriveda ihalakhaconcerning bJews froma ihalakhaconcerning bgentiles, with regard to whom the verse included only /b |
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12. Augustine, The City of God, 22.8 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)
| 22.8. Why, they say, are those miracles, which you affirm were wrought formerly, wrought no longer? I might, indeed, reply that miracles were necessary before the world believed, in order that it might believe. And whoever now-a-days demands to see prodigies that he may believe, is himself a great prodigy, because he does not believe, though the whole world does. But they make these objections for the sole purpose of insinuating that even those former miracles were never wrought. How, then, is it that everywhere Christ is celebrated with such firm belief in His resurrection and ascension? How is it that in enlightened times, in which every impossibility is rejected, the world has, without any miracles, believed things marvellously incredible? Or will they say that these things were credible, and therefore were credited? Why then do they themselves not believe? Our argument, therefore, is a summary one - either incredible things which were not witnessed have caused the world to believe other incredible things which both occurred and were witnessed, or this matter was so credible that it needed no miracles in proof of it, and therefore convicts these unbelievers of unpardonable scepticism. This I might say for the sake of refuting these most frivolous objectors. But we cannot deny that many miracles were wrought to confirm that one grand and health-giving miracle of Christ's ascension to heaven with the flesh in which He rose. For these most trustworthy books of ours contain in one narrative both the miracles that were wrought and the creed which they were wrought to confirm. The miracles were published that they might produce faith, and the faith which they produced brought them into greater prominence. For they are read in congregations that they may be believed, and yet they would not be so read unless they were believed. For even now miracles are wrought in the name of Christ, whether by His sacraments or by the prayers or relics of His saints; but they are not so brilliant and conspicuous as to cause them to be published with such glory as accompanied the former miracles. For the canon of the sacred writings, which behooved to be closed, causes those to be everywhere recited, and to sink into the memory of all the congregations; but these modern miracles are scarcely known even to the whole population in the midst of which they are wrought, and at the best are confined to one spot. For frequently they are known only to a very few persons, while all the rest are ignorant of them, especially if the state is a large one; and when they are reported to other persons in other localities, there is no sufficient authority to give them prompt and unwavering credence, although they are reported to the faithful by the faithful. The miracle which was wrought at Milan when I was there, and by which a blind man was restored to sight, could come to the knowledge of many; for not only is the city a large one, but also the emperor was there at the time, and the occurrence was witnessed by an immense concourse of people that had gathered to the bodies of the martyrs Protasius and Gervasius, which had long lain concealed and unknown, but were now made known to the bishop Ambrose in a dream, and discovered by him. By virtue of these remains the darkness of that blind man was scattered, and he saw the light of day. But who but a very small number are aware of the cure which was wrought upon Innocentius, ex-advocate of the deputy prefecture, a cure wrought at Carthage, in my presence, and under my own eyes? For when I and my brother Alypius, who were not yet clergymen, though already servants of God, came from abroad, this man received us, and made us live with him, for he and all his household were devotedly pious. He was being treated by medical men for fistul, of which he had a large number intricately seated in the rectum. He had already undergone an operation, and the surgeons were using every means at their command for his relief. In that operation he had suffered long-continued and acute pain; yet, among the many folds of the gut, one had escaped the operators so entirely, that, though they ought to have laid it open with the knife, they never touched it. And thus, though all those that had been opened were cured, this one remained as it was, and frustrated all their labor. The patient, having his suspicions awakened by the delay thus occasioned, and fearing greatly a second operation, which another medical man - one of his own domestics - had told him he must undergo, though this man had not even been allowed to witness the first operation, and had been banished from the house, and with difficulty allowed to come back to his enraged master's presence - the patient, I say, broke out to the surgeons, saying, Are you going to cut me again? Are you, after all, to fulfill the prediction of that man whom you would not allow even to be present? The surgeons laughed at the unskillful doctor, and soothed their patient's fears with fair words and promises. So several days passed, and yet nothing they tried did him good. Still they persisted in promising that they would cure that fistula by drugs, without the knife. They called in also another old practitioner of great repute in that department, Ammonius (for he was still alive at that time); and he, after examining the part, promised the same result as themselves from their care and skill. On this great authority, the patient became confident, and, as if already well, vented his good spirits in facetious remarks at the expense of his domestic physician, who had predicted a second operation. To make a long story short, after a number of days had thus uselessly elapsed, the surgeons, wearied and confused, had at last to confess that he could only be cured by the knife. Agitated with excessive fear, he was terrified, and grew pale with dread; and when he collected himself and was able to speak, he ordered them to go away and never to return. Worn out with weeping, and driven by necessity, it occurred to him to call in an Alexandrian, who was at that time esteemed a wonderfully skillful operator, that he might perform the operation his rage would not suffer them to do. But when he had come, and examined with a professional eye the traces of their careful work, he acted the part of a good man, and persuaded his patient to allow those same hands the satisfaction of finishing his cure which had begun it with a skill that excited his admiration, adding that there was no doubt his only hope of a cure was by an operation, but that it was thoroughly inconsistent with his nature to win the credit of the cure by doing the little that remained to be done, and rob of their reward men whose consummate skill, care, and diligence he could not but admire when be saw the traces of their work. They were therefore again received to favor; and it was agreed that, in the presence of the Alexandrian, they should operate on the fistula, which, by the consent of all, could now only be cured by the knife. The operation was deferred till the following day. But when they had left, there arose in the house such a wailing, in sympathy with the excessive despondency of the master, that it seemed to us like the mourning at a funeral, and we could scarcely repress it. Holy men were in the habit of visiting him daily; Saturninus of blessed memory, at that time bishop of Uzali, and the presbyter Gelosus, and the deacons of the church of Carthage; and among these was the bishop Aurelius, who alone of them all survives - a man to be named by us with due reverence - and with him I have often spoken of this affair, as we conversed together about the wonderful works of God, and I have found that he distinctly remembers what I am now relating. When these persons visited him that evening according to their custom, he besought them, with pitiable tears, that they would do him the honor of being present next day at what he judged his funeral rather than his suffering. For such was the terror his former pains had produced, that he made no doubt he would die in the hands of the surgeons. They comforted him, and exhorted him to put his trust in God, and nerve his will like a man. Then we went to prayer; but while we, in the usual way, were kneeling and bending to the ground, he cast himself down, as if some one were hurling him violently to the earth, and began to pray; but in what a manner, with what earnestness and emotion, with what a flood of tears, with what groans and sobs, that shook his whole body, and almost prevented him speaking, who can describe! Whether the others prayed, and had not their attention wholly diverted by this conduct, I do not know. For myself, I could not pray at all. This only I briefly said in my heart: O Lord, what prayers of Your people do You hear if You hear not these? For it seemed to me that nothing could be added to this prayer, unless he expired in praying. We rose from our knees, and, receiving the blessing of the bishop, departed, the patient beseeching his visitors to be present next morning, they exhorting him to keep up his heart. The dreaded day dawned. The servants of God were present, as they had promised to be; the surgeons arrived; all that the circumstances required was ready; the frightful instruments are produced; all look on in wonder and suspense. While those who have most influence with the patient are cheering his fainting spirit, his limbs are arranged on the couch so as to suit the hand of the operator; the knots of the bandages are untied; the part is bared; the surgeon examines it, and, with knife in hand, eagerly looks for the sinus that is to be cut. He searches for it with his eyes; he feels for it with his finger; he applies every kind of scrutiny: he finds a perfectly firm cicatrix! No words of mine can describe the joy, and praise, and thanksgiving to the merciful and almighty God which was poured from the lips of all, with tears of gladness. Let the scene be imagined rather than described! In the same city of Carthage lived Innocentia, a very devout woman of the highest rank in the state. She had cancer in one of her breasts, a disease which, as physicians say, is incurable. Ordinarily, therefore, they either amputate, and so separate from the body the member on which the disease has seized, or, that the patient's life may be prolonged a little, though death is inevitable even if somewhat delayed, they abandon all remedies, following, as they say, the advice of Hippocrates. This the lady we speak of had been advised to by a skillful physician, who was intimate with her family; and she betook herself to God alone by prayer. On the approach of Easter, she was instructed in a dream to wait for the first woman that came out from the baptistery after being baptized, and to ask her to make the sign of Christ upon her sore. She did so, and was immediately cured. The physician who had advised her to apply no remedy if she wished to live a little longer, when he had examined her after this, and found that she who, on his former examination, was afflicted with that disease was now perfectly cured, eagerly asked her what remedy she had used, anxious, as we may well believe, to discover the drug which should defeat the decision of Hippocrates. But when she told him what had happened, he is said to have replied, with religious politeness, though with a contemptuous tone, and an expression which made her fear he would utter some blasphemy against Christ, I thought you would make some great discovery to me. She, shuddering at his indifference, quickly replied, What great thing was it for Christ to heal a cancer, who raised one who had been four days dead? When, therefore, I had heard this, I was extremely indigt that so great a miracle wrought in that well-known city, and on a person who was certainly not obscure, should not be divulged, and I considered that she should be spoken to, if not reprimanded on this score. And when she replied to me that she had not kept silence on the subject, I asked the women with whom she was best acquainted whether they had ever heard of this before. They told me they knew nothing of it. See, I said, what your not keeping silence amounts to, since not even those who are so familiar with you know of it. And as I had only briefly heard the story, I made her tell how the whole thing happened, from beginning to end, while the other women listened in great astonishment, and glorified God. A gouty doctor of the same city, when he had given in his name for baptism, and had been prohibited the day before his baptism from being baptized that year, by black woolly-haired boys who appeared to him in his dreams, and whom he understood to be devils, and when, though they trod on his feet, and inflicted the acutest pain he had ever yet experienced, he refused to obey them, but overcame them, and would not defer being washed in the laver of regeneration, was relieved in the very act of baptism, not only of the extraordinary pain he was tortured with, but also of the disease itself, so that, though he lived a long time afterwards, he never suffered from gout; and yet who knows of this miracle? We, however, do know it, and so, too, do the small number of brethren who were in the neighborhood, and to whose ears it might come. An old comedian of Curubis was cured at baptism not only of paralysis, but also of hernia, and, being delivered from both afflictions, came up out of the font of regeneration as if he had had nothing wrong with his body. Who outside of Curubis knows of this, or who but a very few who might hear it elsewhere? But we, when we heard of it, made the man come to Carthage, by order of the holy bishop Aurelius, although we had already ascertained the fact on the information of persons whose word we could not doubt. Hesperius, of a tribunitian family, and a neighbor of our own, has a farm called Zubedi in the Fussalian district; and, finding that his family, his cattle, and his servants were suffering from the malice of evil spirits, he asked our presbyters, during my absence, that one of them would go with him and banish the spirits by his prayers. One went, offered there the sacrifice of the body of Christ, praying with all his might that that vexation might cease. It did cease immediately, through God's mercy. Now he had received from a friend of his own some holy earth brought from Jerusalem, where Christ, having been buried, rose again the third day. This earth he had hung up in his bedroom to preserve himself from harm. But when his house was purged of that demoniacal invasion, he began to consider what should be done with the earth; for his reverence for it made him unwilling to have it any longer in his bedroom. It so happened that I and Maximinus bishop of Synita, and then my colleague, were in the neighborhood. Hesperius asked us to visit him, and we did so. When he had related all the circumstances, he begged that the earth might be buried somewhere, and that the spot should be made a place of prayer where Christians might assemble for the worship of God. We made no objection: it was done as he desired. There was in that neighborhood a young countryman who was paralytic, who, when he heard of this, begged his parents to take him without delay to that holy place. When he had been brought there, he prayed, and immediately went away on his own feet perfectly cured. There is a country-seat called Victoriana, less than thirty miles from Hippo-regius. At it there is a monument to the Milanese martyrs, Protasius and Gervasius. Thither a young man was carried, who, when he was watering his horse one summer day at noon in a pool of a river, had been taken possession of by a devil. As he lay at the monument, near death, or even quite like a dead person, the lady of the manor, with her maids and religious attendants, entered the place for evening prayer and praise, as her custom was, and they began to sing hymns. At this sound the young man, as if electrified, was thoroughly aroused, and with frightful screaming seized the altar, and held it as if he did not dare or were not able to let it go, and as if he were fixed or tied to it; and the devil in him, with loud lamentation, besought that he might be spared, and confessed where and when and how he took possession of the youth. At last, declaring that he would go out of him, he named one by one the parts of his body which he threatened to mutilate as he went out and with these words he departed from the man. But his eye, falling out on his cheek, hung by a slender vein as by a root, and the whole of the pupil which had been black became white. When this was witnessed by those present (others too had now gathered to his cries, and had all joined in prayer for him), although they were delighted that he had recovered his sanity of mind, yet, on the other hand, they were grieved about his eye, and said he should seek medical advice. But his sister's husband, who had brought him there, said, God, who has banished the devil, is able to restore his eye at the prayers of His saints. Therewith he replaced the eye that was fallen out and hanging, and bound it in its place with his handkerchief as well as he could, and advised him not to loose the bandage for seven days. When he did so, he found it quite healthy. Others also were cured there, but of them it were tedious to speak. I know that a young woman of Hippo was immediately dispossessed of a devil, on anointing herself with oil, mixed with the tears of the prebsyter who had been praying for her. I know also that a bishop once prayed for a demoniac young man whom he never saw, and that he was cured on the spot. There was a fellow-townsman of ours at Hippo, Florentius, an old man, religious and poor, who supported himself as a tailor. Having lost his coat, and not having means to buy another, he prayed to the Twenty Martyrs, who have a very celebrated memorial shrine in our town, begging in a distinct voice that he might be clothed. Some scoffing young men, who happened to be present, heard him, and followed him with their sarcasm as he went away, as if he had asked the martyrs for fifty pence to buy a coat. But he, walking on in silence, saw on the shore a great fish, gasping as if just cast up, and having secured it with the good-natured assistance of the youths, he sold it for curing to a cook of the name of Catosus, a good Christian man, telling him how he had come by it, and receiving for it three hundred pence, which he laid out in wool, that his wife might exercise her skill upon, and make into a coat for him. But, on cutting up the fish, the cook found a gold ring in its belly; and immediately, moved with compassion, and influenced, too, by religious fear, gave it up to the man, saying, See how the Twenty Martyrs have clothed you. When the bishop Projectus was bringing the relics of the most glorious martyr Stephen to the waters of Tibilis, a great concourse of people came to meet him at the shrine. There a blind woman entreated that she might be led to the bishop who was carrying the relics. He gave her the flowers he was carrying. She took them, applied them to her eyes, and immediately saw. Those who were present were astounded, while she, with every expression of joy, preceded them, pursuing her way without further need of a guide. Lucillus bishop of Sinita, in the neighborhood of the colonial town of Hippo, was carrying in procession some relics of the same martyr, which had been deposited in the castle of Sinita. A fistula under which he had long labored, and which his private physician was watching an opportunity to cut, was suddenly cured by the mere carrying of that sacred fardel, - at least, afterwards there was no trace of it in his body. Eucharius, a Spanish priest, residing at Calama, was for a long time a sufferer from stone. By the relics of the same martyr, which the bishop Possidius brought him, he was cured. Afterwards the same priest, sinking under another disease, was lying dead, and already they were binding his hands. By the succor of the same martyr he was raised to life, the priest's cloak having been brought from the oratory and laid upon the corpse. There was there an old nobleman named Martial, who had a great aversion to the Christian religion, but whose daughter was a Christian, while her husband had been baptized that same year. When he was ill, they besought him with tears and prayers to become a Christian, but he positively refused, and dismissed them from his presence in a storm of indignation. It occurred to the son-in-law to go to the oratory of St. Stephen, and there pray for him with all earnestness that God might give him a right mind, so that he should not delay believing in Christ. This he did with great groaning and tears, and the burning fervor of sincere piety; then, as he left the place, he took some of the flowers that were lying there, and, as it was already night, laid them by his father's head, who so slept. And lo! Before dawn, he cries out for some one to run for the bishop; but he happened at that time to be with me at Hippo. So when he had heard that he was from home, he asked the presbyters to come. They came. To the joy and amazement of all, he declared that he believed, and he was baptized. As long as he remained in life, these words were ever on his lips: Christ, receive my spirit, though he was not aware that these were the last words of the most blessed Stephen when he was stoned by the Jews. They were his last words also, for not long after he himself also gave up the ghost. There, too, by the same martyr, two men, one a citizen, the other a stranger, were cured of gout; but while the citizen was absolutely cured, the stranger was only informed what he should apply when the pain returned; and when he followed this advice, the pain was at once relieved. Audurus is the name of an estate, where there is a church that contains a memorial shrine of the martyr Stephen. It happened that, as a little boy was playing in the court, the oxen drawing a wagon went out of the track and crushed him with the wheel, so that immediately he seemed at his last gasp. His mother snatched him up, and laid him at the shrine, and not only did he revive, but also appeared uninjured. A religious female, who lived at Caspalium, a neighboring estate, when she was so ill as to be despaired of, had her dress brought to this shrine, but before it was brought back she had gone. However, her parents wrapped her corpse in the dress, and, her breath returning, she became quite well. At Hippo a Syrian called Bassus was praying at the relics of the same martyr for his daughter, who was dangerously ill. He too had brought her dress with him to the shrine. But as he prayed, behold, his servants ran from the house to tell him she was dead. His friends, however, intercepted them, and forbade them to tell him, lest he should bewail her in public. And when he had returned to his house, which was already ringing with the lamentations of his family, and had thrown on his daughter's body the dress he was carrying, she was restored to life. There, too, the son of a man, Iren us, one of our tax-gatherers, took ill and died. And while his body was lying lifeless, and the last rites were being prepared, amidst the weeping and mourning of all, one of the friends who were consoling the father suggested that the body should be anointed with the oil of the same martyr. It was done, and he revived. Likewise Eleusinus, a man of tribunitian rank among us, laid his infant son, who had died, on the shrine of the martyr, which is in the suburb where he lived, and, after prayer, which he poured out there with many tears, he took up his child alive. What am I to do? I am so pressed by the promise of finishing this work, that I cannot record all the miracles I know; and doubtless several of our adherents, when they read what I have narrated, will regret that I have omitted so many which they, as well as I, certainly know. Even now I beg these persons to excuse me, and to consider how long it would take me to relate all those miracles, which the necessity of finishing the work I have undertaken forces me to omit. For were I to be silent of all others, and to record exclusively the miracles of healing which were wrought in the district of Calama and of Hippo by means of this martyr- I mean the most glorious Stephen - they would fill many volumes; and yet all even of these could not be collected, but only those of which narratives have been written for public recital. For when I saw, in our own times, frequent signs of the presence of divine powers similar to those which had been given of old, I desired that narratives might be written, judging that the multitude should not remain ignorant of these things. It is not yet two years since these relics were first brought to Hippo-regius, and though many of the miracles which have been wrought by it have not, as I have the most certain means of knowing, been recorded, those which have been published amount to almost seventy at the hour at which I write. But at Calama, where these relics have been for a longer time, and where more of the miracles were narrated for public information, there are incomparably more. At Uzali, too, a colony near Utica, many signal miracles were, to my knowledge, wrought by the same martyr, whose relics had found a place there by direction of the bishop Evodius, long before we had them at Hippo. But there the custom of publishing narratives does not obtain, or, I should say, did not obtain, for possibly it may now have been begun. For, when I was there recently, a woman of rank, Petronia, had been miraculously cured of a serious illness of long standing, in which all medical appliances had failed, and, with the consent of the above-named bishop of the place, I exhorted her to publish an account of it that might be read to the people. She most promptly obeyed, and inserted in her narrative a circumstance which I cannot omit to mention, though I am compelled to hasten on to the subjects which this work requires me to treat. She said that she had been persuaded by a Jew to wear next her skin, under all her clothes, a hair girdle, and on this girdle a ring, which, instead of a gem, had a stone which had been found in the kidneys of an ox. Girt with this charm, she was making her way to the threshold of the holy martyr. But, after leaving Carthage, and when she had been lodging in her own demesne on the river Bagrada, and was now rising to continue her journey, she saw her ring lying before her feet. In great surprise she examined the hair girdle, and when she found it bound, as it had been, quite firmly with knots, she conjectured that the ring had been worn through and dropped off; but when she found that the ring was itself also perfectly whole, she presumed that by this great miracle she had received somehow a pledge of her cure, whereupon she untied the girdle, and cast it into the river, and the ring along with it. This is not credited by those who do not believe either that the Lord Jesus Christ came forth from His mother's womb without destroying her virginity, and entered among His disciples when the doors were shut; but let them make strict inquiry into this miracle, and if they find it true, let them believe those others. The lady is of distinction, nobly born, married to a nobleman. She resides at Carthage. The city is distinguished, the person is distinguished, so that they who make inquiries cannot fail to find satisfaction. Certainly the martyr himself, by whose prayers she was healed, believed on the Son of her who remained a virgin; on Him who came in among the disciples when the doors were shut; in fine - and to this tends all that we have been retailing - on Him who ascended into heaven with the flesh in which He had risen; and it is because he laid down his life for this faith that such miracles were done by his means. Even now, therefore, many miracles are wrought, the same God who wrought those we read of still performing them, by whom He will and as He will; but they are not as well known, nor are they beaten into the memory, like gravel, by frequent reading, so that they cannot fall out of mind. For even where, as is now done among ourselves, care is taken that the pamphlets of those who receive benefit be read publicly, yet those who are present hear the narrative but once, and many are absent; and so it comes to pass that even those who are present forget in a few days what they heard, and scarcely one of them can be found who will tell what he heard to one who he knows was not present. One miracle was wrought among ourselves, which, though no greater than those I have mentioned, was yet so signal and conspicuous, that I suppose there is no inhabitant of Hippo who did not either see or hear of it, none who could possibly forget it. There were seven brothers and three sisters of a noble family of the Cappadocian C sarea, who were cursed by their mother, a new-made widow, on account of some wrong they had done her, and which she bitterly resented, and who were visited with so severe a punishment from Heaven, that all of them were seized with a hideous shaking in all their limbs. Unable, while presenting this loathsome appearance, to endure the eyes of their fellow citizens, they wandered over almost the whole Roman world, each following his own direction. Two of them came to Hippo, a brother and a sister, Paulus and Palladia, already known in many other places by the fame of their wretched lot. Now it was about fifteen days before Easter when they came, and they came daily to church, and specially to the relics of the most glorious Stephen, praying that God might now be appeased, and restore their former health. There, and wherever they went, they attracted the attention of every one. Some who had seen them elsewhere, and knew the cause of their trembling, told others as occasion offered. Easter arrived, and on the Lord's day, in the morning, when there was now a large crowd present, and the young man was holding the bars of the holy place where the relics were, and praying, suddenly he fell down, and lay precisely as if asleep, but not trembling as he was wont to do even in sleep. All present were astonished. Some were alarmed, some were moved with pity; and while some were for lifting him up, others prevented them, and said they should rather wait and see what would result. And behold! He rose up, and trembled no more, for he was healed, and stood quite well, scanning those who were scanning him. Who then refrained himself from praising God? The whole church was filled with the voices of those who were shouting and congratulating him. Then they came running to me, where I was sitting ready to come into the church. One after another they throng in, the last comer telling me as news what the first had told me already; and while I rejoiced and inwardly gave God thanks, the young man himself also enters, with a number of others, falls at my knees, is raised up to receive my kiss. We go in to the congregation: the church was full, and ringing with the shouts of joy, Thanks to God! Praised be God! every one joining and shouting on all sides, I have healed the people, and then with still louder voice shouting again. Silence being at last obtained, the customary lessons of the divine Scriptures were read. And when I came to my sermon, I made a few remarks suitable to the occasion and the happy and joyful feeling, not desiring them to listen to me, but rather to consider the eloquence of God in this divine work. The man dined with us, and gave us a careful ac count of his own, his mother's, and his family's calamity. Accordingly, on the following day, after delivering my sermon, I promised that next day I would read his narrative to the people. And when I did so, the third day after Easter Sunday, I made the brother and sister both stand on the steps of the raised place from which I used to speak; and while they stood there their pamphlet was read. The whole congregation, men and women alike, saw the one standing without any unnatural movement, the other trembling in all her limbs; so that those who had not before seen the man himself saw in his sister what the divine compassion had removed from him. In him they saw matter of congratulation, in her subject for prayer. Meanwhile, their pamphlet being finished, I instructed them to withdraw from the gaze of the people; and I had begun to discuss the whole matter somewhat more carefully, when lo! As I was proceeding, other voices are heard from the tomb of the martyr, shouting new congratulations. My audience turned round, and began to run to the tomb. The young woman, when she had come down from the steps where she had been standing, went to pray at the holy relics, and no sooner had she touched the bars than she, in the same way as her brother, collapsed, as if falling asleep, and rose up cured. While, then, we were asking what had happened, and what occasioned this noise of joy, they came into the basilica where we were, leading her from the martyr's tomb in perfect health. Then, indeed, such a shout of wonder rose from men and women together, that the exclamations and the tears seemed like never to come to an end. She was led to the place where she had a little before stood trembling. They now rejoiced that she was like her brother, as before they had mourned that she remained unlike him; and as they had not yet uttered their prayers in her behalf, they perceived that their intention of doing so had been speedily heard. They shouted God's praises without words, but with such a noise that our ears could scarcely bear it. What was there in the hearts of these exultant people but the faith of Christ, for which Stephen had shed his blood? |
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