Letter H

H.

THE GOSPEL OF THE HEBREWS, which is inscribed ACCORDING TO THE HEBREWS, or [according to] the SYRIANS, was — as appears from the monuments of the ancients — not one, but several: of which three chiefly are those which are called [the Gospels] of the Nazarenes, of the Ebionites, and of the Encratites.

Now the Gospel of the Ebionites, According to the Hebrews, ¹ is the same as the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, but changed by the heretics of Ebion — followers of adulterous [doctrines] — and in many places mutilated and cut short. Out of which Epiphanius, in the first book against the heresies, disputing against the heresy of the Ebionites, inserts a long fragment, writing thus: THE BEGINNING OF THE GOSPEL which is called Hebrew, among them has thus: It came to pass in the days of Herod, king of Judaea, and of Caiaphas the pontiff, there came a certain one, John by name, baptizing a baptism of penance in the river Jordan; who was said to be of the race of Aaron the priest, son of Zechariah and Elizabeth; and all went out to him. And there came a certain man, named JESUS, about thirty years old; and he was baptized by John. And as he came up from the water, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God in the likeness of a dove descending and entering into him. And a voice was made from heaven, saying, THOU ART MY BELOVED SON, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED; THIS DAY HAVE I BEGOTTEN THEE. And straightway a great light shone round about him. And when John had seen it, he says to him: Who art thou, Lord? And again a voice from heaven [came] to him, THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED. And then John, falling down before him, said: I beseech thee, Lord, baptize thou me. But he forbade him, saying: Suffer it, for so it is fitting that all things be fulfilled. And Jesus, coming — who chose us — into Capernaum, entered into the house of Simon, called Peter; and opening his mouth, as he passed by the lake of Tiberias, he said: I chose John and James, sons of Zebedee, and Simon, and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Judas, and Thaddaeus, and Thomas, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot; and thee, Matthew, sitting at the toll-booth, I called, and thou followedst me. You, therefore, I will to be twelve Apostles for a testimony of Israel, &c. These things concerning the gospel of the Ebionites.

The OTHER, the GOSPEL OF THE ENCRATITES, ² once used by the Encratites themselves, the same Epiphanius, in the first book, heresy 46, hands down to have been collected by Tatian the Syrian, author of the Encratite sect, out of the four evangelists, and digested into one consonance of a continuous narration, which he called the Diatessaron, that is, One out of four. Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus [Cyrenensis], in the first book of the Heretical fables, left thus written concerning this Gospel: TATIAN also composed a Gospel, which is called the Diatessaron, that is, One out of four — the genealogies being cut off, and the other [things] whatsoever show the Lord to have been born of David according to the flesh. And this was used not only by those who are of his sect, but also by those who follow the apostolic dogmas, not perceiving the fraud of the composition, but using it more simply, as a compendious book. I myself also found more than two hundred books of this kind, which were held in honor in our churches; all of which, when I had gathered them together, I put away, and in their place I put back the gospels of the four Evangelists. Thus Theodoret concerning Tatian’s gospel; which now is extant, together with the genealogy of Christ itself, translated of old by Victor, bishop of Capua; and the beginning of it is, FORASMUCH AS INDEED MANY HAVE TAKEN IN HAND.

THE GOSPEL OF THE NAZARENES ³ was so called because it was in use among the Nazarenes, who, together with the evangelical doctrine of Christ, believed the Mosaic ceremonies also were to be kept. From this [source] certain places and opinions in the sacred four gospels which we now have are thought by the most ancient fathers to have been transfused: such as that opinion in Matthew, THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF, which Origen thinks taken out of this gospel. And in the eighth tractate on Matthew, adducing a certain place of this gospel whence this testimony was received, he writes thus: *AS TO THAT which he says, THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF, [margin: Matt 19:19] I can suspect [that it was] not placed by the Lord in this place, but added by some I-know-not-whom, not understanding [it]. And that this was added he proves by this, that when Mark and Luke expound this same place, neither of them added [it]. [margin: Mark 10; Luke 18] Never would Mark and Luke have passed over this capital and greatest precept. But this is written in the Gospel which is called ACCORDING TO THE HEBREWS — if it please anyone to receive it. Another of the rich men said to him: Master, what good thing shall I do that I may live? He said to him, Man, do the laws and the prophets. He answered him, I have done [them]. He said to him, Go, sell all that thou possessest, and divide it among the poor; and come, follow me. But the rich man began to scratch his head, and it pleased him not. And the Lord said to him, How sayest thou, I have done the law and the prophets? — since it is written in the law, THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF; and behold, thy brethren, the sons of Abraham, are clad with dung, dying of hunger; and thy house is full of goods, and nothing at all goeth out of it to them. And turning, he said to Simon his disciple, sitting by him, SIMON, SON OF JOHN, IT IS EASIER FOR A CAMEL TO ENTER THROUGH THE EYE OF A NEEDLE THAN A RICH MAN INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. Eusebius, in the third book of the Ecclesiastical History, indicates that from this Gospel was taken that history which is now had in the Gospel of John, chapter eight, concerning the woman taken in adultery; which Euthymius Zigabenus denies to have been in the ancient copies. This very gospel was, among the ancient fathers, received among other venerable writings, for the edification of the Church. And although Eusebius writes that it was at some time contradicted in the church, Bede nevertheless, at the beginning of the commentaries on Luke, ⁴ speaks thus of it: IT IS TO BE NOTED that he called the Gospel According to the Hebrews (which the Nazarenes use) to be numbered not among the Apocrypha, but among the Ecclesiastical histories. For it seemed good to Jerome himself, the interpreter of sacred scripture, to take from it very many testimonies, and to translate it into the Latin and Greek tongue. That these words of Bede are true, divers places in the works of Jerome show; who, in the Catalog of illustrious men, ⁵ taking a testimony for James, the brother of the Lord, out of this gospel, says thus: THE GOSPEL which is called ACCORDING TO THE HEBREWS, lately translated by me into the Greek and Latin tongue (which Origen often uses), relates thus concerning James, after the resurrection of the Savior: BUT THE LORD, when he had given the linen cloth to the servant of the priest, went to James, and appeared to him. For James had sworn that he would not eat bread from that hour in which he had drunk the cup of the Lord, until he should see him rising from the dead. And again, a little after: BRING, said the Lord, a table and bread. And straightway it is added: He took bread, and blessed, and broke, and gave to James the Just, and said to him, My brother, eat thy bread, for the Son of man is risen from among them that sleep. Thus Jerome; who, in the same book, speaking of Ignatius, says: IGNATIUS wrote one epistle to the Smyrnaeans, in which, concerning the Gospel lately translated by me, he places a testimony upon the person of Christ, saying, But I, even after the resurrection, saw him in the flesh; and I believe that he is [so]. And when he came to Peter, and to those who were with Peter, he said to them, BEHOLD, handle [me], for I am not a bodiless demon. And straightway they touched him, and believed. Again, in the third book against the Pelagians, ⁶ he says: IN THE GOSPEL according to the Hebrews — which is written in the Chaldee and Syriac tongue, but with Hebrew letters (which the Nazarenes use even to this day, [the Gospel] according to the Apostles, or, as most suppose, According to Matthew), and which is had in the library of Caesarea — the history relates: AND BEHOLD, the mother of the Lord and his brethren said to him, John the Baptist baptizeth unto the remission of sins; let us go, and be baptized by him. But he said to them, What have I sinned, that I should go and be baptized by him? The authority of this scripture is received also by Origen’s teacher, Clement of Alexandria; who, when in the second book of the Stromata he wished to establish that wonder is the first step toward the perfect knowledge of God, ⁷ took thence the confirmation of his saying, saying: FOR THIS REASON it is written in the Gospel according to the Hebrews, HE WHO SHALL HAVE WONDERED SHALL REIGN, and he who shall reign shall rest. There is cited also out of this Gospel by Origen, in the second Tome on John, another opinion, in these words: CHRIST SAID, Just now my mother, the Holy Spirit, took me by one of my hairs, and carried me to the great mountain Tabor. Which opinion, unless it be candidly considered, seems to contain the heresy of the Gnostics and Valentinians, asserting the Holy Spirit to be the mother of Christ. ⁸ Wherefore Origen, in the place already cited, says that this is to be so interpreted that we say the Holy Spirit is called the mother of Christ not by nature and generation, but by imitation of maternal piety ⁹ — that is, because the Holy Spirit always does the will of the Father; AND EVERYONE, says Christ, WHO DOETH THE WILL OF MY FATHER, WHO IS IN HEAVEN, HE IS MY FATHER AND MY MOTHER. That Hegesippus, who was near to the times of the Apostles, related many things out of this Gospel, Eusebius, in the fourth [book] of the Ecclesiastical History, is witness.

ELDAD AND MEDAD, prophets (upon whom, as is read in the fifth chapter of Numbers [so printed; = Num. 11:26], the Spirit of the Lord rested), when they prophesied in the solitude of Arabia, in the camp of Israel — Joshua, fearing lest the estimation of them among the people should in any way diminish the authority of Moses, admonished Moses to inhibit their office of prophesying. To whom Moses, in no way offended at the honors of others, ¹⁰ placidly answered: WHY art thou jealous for me? Who shall grant that all the people may prophesy, and the Lord give them his spirit? ¹¹ The vaticinations, therefore, of these were comprehended, by an uncertain author, in a single book; out of which Hermas, the disciple of Paul, in the first book of the Pastor, chapter two, took a testimony in these words: THE LORD is near to those who convert themselves to him, as it is written in Eldad and Medad, who prophesied to the people in the solitude. The author of the Hebraic Traditions, which are prefixed with the title of Jerome, ¹² writes that Eldad and Medad are the same whom the former book of the annals, chapter 4, calls Epher and Jalon, of the tribe of Levi, sons of Ezra ¹³ — who is also called Amram, and was the father of Moses. For Moses, after receiving the law in the desert, enjoined his mother to put away his father Amram, because she was his [Amram’s] aunt; for she was a daughter of Levi. After which separation, Amram took another wife, of whom he begat these two sons, Eldad and Medad. Athanasius, in the Synopsis, numbers this book among the Apocrypha.

ELIJAH the Prophet was of Thisbe, a town of the Arabians, a Levite of the tribe of Aaron [so], ¹⁴ dweller of the region of Gilead, a man of God, burning with zeal; who thrice brought down fire from heaven fire; he brought rain by his tongue [i.e., his prayer]; he raised the dead; and at last he was taken up into heaven in a whirlwind of fire. He, when Joram, king of Jerusalem, compelled the people to ascend the groves set on high mountains, and there to worship strange deities, wrote to him a letter, ¹⁵ in which he threatened him the inevitable vengeance of God for this cause — that, the example of his fathers being despised, he had betaken himself to following the impiety of the Israelite kings; and, not content with this, had also impelled the tribe of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem, the native religion being forsaken, to revolt to foreign rites; and besides, that he had killed his brothers and other good and just men — for which crimes the punishment that hung over him. In the same letter he signified this also: that enemies should lay waste his people and his domestic family, sparing neither children nor wives; and that he himself, vexed by a slow flux of the belly, his intestines gradually flowing out, would late, out of these torments, recognize his fault, and, imploring the help of God in vain, would breathe out his miserable soul. The argument of this letter one may see in the second [book] of Paralipomenon, chapter 21. ¹⁶

THERE IS CARRIED [ABOUT] also a certain book under the name of Elijah, which is inscribed The Ascension, or Assumption, or Apocalypse, or Secrets of Elijah; concerning which Origen thinks that Paul, in the first epistle to the Corinthians, received that testimony, ¹⁷ WHICH THE EYE HATH NOT SEEN, &c. For he writes thus, in the thirty-fifth tractate on Matthew: THE APOSTLE brings forth certain secret scriptures; as when he says somewhere, WHICH THE EYE HATH NOT SEEN, NOR EAR HEARD. For in no canonical book is this found placed, except in the Secrets of Elijah the prophet. Thus Origen. Jerome, on the 64th chapter of Isaiah, expounding those words out of the same chapter, FROM THE AGE THEY HAVE NOT HEARD, NEITHER HAVE THEY RECEIVED, &c., says: THE APOCALYPSE of Elijah has this testimony; and by this occasion silly little women were deceived. [The Apocalypse of Elijah] is cited in the Synopsis of Athanasius among the books rejected as of Apocryphal authorship, [namely] of Elijah the prophet.

STRATONICUS, bishop of Cumae, in his Collections, cites out of the Book of the Traditions of Elijah the Prophet a certain prediction concerning the consummation of the world — that it shall be future in the six-thousandth year from its creation. ¹⁸ I judge this to be that tradition which is read in the Talmudic volumes of the Hebrews, in the tractate Sanhedrin, chapter Ḥelech [Ḥeleq], in these plain words: שית אלפי שני להוי עלמא, וחד חרב, תרי אלפי תהו, תרי אלפי תורה, תרי אלפי ימות המשיח [the Hebrew is set confusingly in the primary scan; the reading follows the edition’s own transliteration and Latin] — scitta alphe sene le heue alma, vechad thareb, be alaphim tohu, be alaphim tora, be alaphim iemot hamasciach — which we may interpret in this manner: The world shall be six thousand years, and again shall be destroyed; two thousand of emptiness [tohu], two thousand of the law, two thousand of the days of the Messiah. Nor is this to be passed over in this place: I judge that Elijah is called by the Hebrews the continuator of the seventh age of human [life]. ¹⁹ For they assert that seven men continued the whole human life, unbroken, from the beginning of the world even to its end. ²⁰ The first man [was] Adam; him Methuselah saw, and stretched his life from the first man even to Methuselah; Methuselah saw Shem, son of Noah; Shem reached even to Jacob; Jacob even to Amram, father of Moses; Amram reached even to Ahijah the Shilonite; and Ahijah even to Elijah; but Elijah even to the end of the world.

ENOCH, or חנוך Chenoc, the seventh from Adam, son of Jared, grandson of Malaleel, great-grandson of Kenan, great-great-grandson of Enos, [who was] grandson of Adam — a man from that very age most just, and worshipping God with the highest religion — ²¹ wrote (as Origen testifies in the last homily on Numbers) several prophetic booklets; out of which Jude the Apostle, in his Catholic epistle against the impious seducers, received a formidable testimony concerning the last judgment, saying thus: ²² AND ENOCH ALSO, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh in his holy thousands, to do judgment against all, and to reprove all the impious of all the works of their impiety, wherewith they have wickedly done, and of all the hard [things] which impious sinners have spoken against God. Augustine, concerning this volume, in the 18th [book] Of the City of God, thus says: ²³ ENOCH, the seventh from Adam, is declared to have prophesied in the canonical [epistle] of the Apostle Jude; whose writings — that they should not be in authority, whether among the Jews or among us — their too-great antiquity brought about, on account of which they seemed suspect, lest false [things] be brought forth for true. For there are brought forth certain [writings] said to be his by those who, according to their own sense, believe promiscuously what they will; but the chastity of the canon has not received [them] — not that the authority of those men who pleased God is reproved, but that these are not believed to be theirs. Thus Augustine. Jerome, in the catalog of Ecclesiastical writers, ²⁴ teaches that the epistle of Jude was, on account of the testimony taken out of this Apocryphal book, of old rejected by very many of the ecclesiastical fathers. And in the commentaries on the epistle to Titus he adds that the Apostle Jude did not approve this whole book, but only this testimony concerning the judgment against the impious, whose authority he received into his epistle. But of what kind the argument of this book was, is unknown; ²⁵ it appears, however, from the monuments of the Fathers, that there were in it certain chapters: Of the number and names of the stars, and their secret virtues; Of the descent of the sons of God to the daughters of men; Of the giants begotten of the coition of angels; Of the last judgment of God against the impious — concerning which the present testimony of Jude is brought forth. Origen indeed, making words of these chapters, in the 28th homily of the book of Numbers ²⁶ writes thus: HE WHO made the multitude of the stars — as the prophet says — calls them all by names; of which names, indeed, very many are contained, as secret and arcane [things], in the booklets which are called ENOCH. But because these booklets themselves do not seem to be held in authority among the Hebrews, we shall defer for the present to bring forward as an example the [things] which are named in them. Likewise, in the commentaries on John, tome six, speaking of the descent of souls into bodies, he says: IN ENOCH it is written (if only anyone should be willing to approve it as a holy book), IN the days of the descent of the sons of God to the daughters of men. Which descent some have thought to signify obscurely the descent of souls into bodies — that the daughters of men is obscurely and tropically said [to be] the earthly tabernacle. But Augustine, in the 15th book Of the City of God, chapter 23, speaking of the giants, says thus: THAT indeed some divine [writings] were written by that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, we cannot deny, since the Apostle Jude says this in the canonical epistle; but they are not in the canon of the scriptures; whence those things which are put forth under his name forth, and contain those fables about the giants ²⁷ — that [certain] men had no [human] fathers — [and] are rightly judged by the prudent not to be believed his. Thus Augustine. But in a most ancient volume, whose title is THE TESTAMENT OF THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS (which Origen and Procopius often cite), many vaticinations are inserted out of the book of Enoch — namely, Of the things which were to befall the sons and grandsons of the twelve Patriarchs; [margin: Num. 11] Of the future crimes and punishments of the Hebrews; Of the Savior of the world to be slain by the Hebrews; Of the overthrow, captivity, and perpetual dispersion of the Hebrews among the nations. John Annius, in the commentaries on Berosus, writes that in the same volume of Enoch there was a celebrated vaticination concerning the twin destructions of the whole earth ²⁸ — the one to be by inundation, the other by burning; and he adds that this same vaticination was engraved by Enoch on two columns, the one of stone, the other of brick, for a perennial admonition of posterity: so that, if it should chance that the brick one were destroyed by the flood, the stone one, surviving, might preserve the writing committed to it. Josephus makes mention of both columns in the first [book] of the Antiquities, affirming also that the stone one existed in Syria in his own times. Tertullian, in the book On the dress of women, ²⁹ meeting those who say that this book — if it had been written by Enoch before the flood — could not have come safe to posterity after the flood, shows that this is not incredible, either because Noah himself preserved it in the ark, or because — [it] having been abolished by the inundation of the flood — someone, illumined by the Holy Spirit, restored it, as by Esdras the sacred volumes were restored after the captivity. ³⁰ Wherefore he reckons that the authority of this writing is not to be rejected.

ENOCH LIVED, ³¹ engaged in this exile of our mortality, three hundred and sixty-five years — that is, unto the one thousand and fifteenth year of the founded world. Which years being completed, he walked (as Moses says) with God, ³² and was not, because God took him. ³³ But how, and into what place, God took him, is not equally certain among all the expositors of the sacred letters. ³⁴ Aben Ezra [Ibn Ezra] and some of the Jews interpret that word, GOD TOOK HIM, [as] He died — and indeed before [his] time, lest malice should change his heart; because it is a custom of scriptural speech to say that he is taken who is taken from life, according to that [saying] of Elijah, Take my soul; ³⁵ and of Job, After a little he shall take me. ³⁶ Philo the Jew, in the book Of the life of the wise man, following the translation of the Seventy (who rendered this place ὅτι μετέθηκεν αὐτὸν ὁ θεός, that is, Because God translated him), says that God translated Enoch not through death, but through a separation from the fellowship and frequency of wicked men, to a retreat of virtue unknown to the vulgar, and scarcely known to a few — and those the most excellent men. Procopius the Sophist, on Genesis, seems to hint that the translation of Enoch was not death, but a certain change from a mortal to an immortal body. Augustine, in the ninth book on Genesis, and in the book On the merits of sinners, denies that Enoch was changed into that spiritual quality of body which is promised in the resurrection; and thinks that he will again return to this life, and die, that the animal body may be changed into a spiritual [one]; but that meanwhile he is either sustained by God without food (as Elijah lived forty days without food), or, if he needs food, is perhaps fed in paradise, as Adam [was] of the tree of life, and thence receives, against the oldness [of age], a stability of life. Irenaeus, in the fifth book against the heresy of Valentinus, asserts that he lives, together with Elijah, in the same paradise in which the first man was placed by God. Jerome, in the first book against Jovinian — perhaps by a slip of memory — attributes this translation not to Enoch, but to Enos, of whom Enoch was the great-great-grandson, saying: IF, HOWEVER, Enos is translated, I do not think Enos was translated on that account because he had a wife, but because he first invoked God. Chrysostom and Theodoret say that it is not to be too curiously investigated whither he was translated, and whether he lives even to the present, and how he now fares; but that it is enough that we believe both that God translated him, and that he translated him living, and that he did not experience death — as Paul also testifies to the Hebrews, saying: ³⁷ BY FAITH Enoch was translated, that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God translated him. Gregory the Theologian [Nazianzen], in the second book Of Theology, says: ENOCH, although he was translated hence, yet it is not yet established whether he comprehended the nature of God, or is still to comprehend it.

HERMAS, disciple of the Apostle Paul (of whom [Paul] himself, writing to the Romans, makes mention, saying: ³⁸ SALUTE Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren that are with them), put forth a work in the Greek tongue, distinguished into three books: ³⁹ whereof the first is inscribed THE CHURCH, because in it four visions of the Church are narrated; the second is entitled THE PASTOR [Shepherd], because in it an Angel — the shepherd, protector, and guardian of Hermas himself, who is also called the angel-messenger of penance — proposes twelve precepts of living well; the third, because it contains ten similitudes explained by the same Shepherd, is called OF THE SIMILITUDES. Custom, however, afterward prevailed that the whole work should be called by the title OF THE PASTOR, or PASTORAL. This was of old publicly read in certain churches of Greece, for the instruction of those who were being trained in the first elements toward the institution of faith; and many of the ancients used its testimonies for the confirmation of dogmas ⁴⁰ — as Clement of Alexandria in the sixth book of the Stromata, Origen in the eighth homily on Numbers, homily 10 on Joshua, homily 35 on Luke, and books one, two, and four of the Periarchon; Athanasius in the book On the Incarnation of Christ; Irenaeus in the first book against the heresies; John Cassian in the 13th Conference, chapter twelve; and very many other most ancient authors. After whose times the authority of this book gradually failed, and at length was rejected by Gelasius among the writings of doubtful faith ⁴¹ — as I judge, for the subversion of the heretics, who thence took supports for their execrable dogmas. For (that I be silent of the rest) the Arians, Athanasius being witness, in the epistle to the bishops of Africa, maintained that the Son of God was created by the Father out of things not existing, or out of nothing; because in the first precept of the second book of the Pastoral it was written: FIRST OF ALL, believe that there is one God, who created all things, and completed [them], and made all things out of nothing. Yet it is sometimes cited by Gratian in the Collections of the decrees, and by Peter Lombard in the Collectanea of Sentences, for the confirmation of ecclesiastical sanctions [decrees]. Eusebius, in the third book of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 3, says: THE LITTLE BOOK of Hermas, which is called Ποιμήν, that is, PASTOR [Shepherd], of which Paul makes mention in his epistles, is not received by very many; but by others it is judged necessary, on account of those who are being imbued with the first instructions toward the faith. Whence also it is read in some churches, and many of the ancients used its testimonies. Rufinus, in the exposition of the Creed [Symbol], enumerates the volume of the Pastor among the ecclesiastical writings, together with the books of Tobit, Judith, and the Maccabees. From the first narration of this book it appears that Hermas lived at Rome. ⁴² But Dorotheus, bishop of Tyre, in the Synopsis, writes that he was bishop of Philippopolis. Damasus, in the Catalog of the pontiffs, hands down that this Hermas was brother of Pope Pius, the first of that name, and that he composed the work of the Pastor in the times of the Emperor Antoninus Pius, in the year of the Lord 129. But Origen, in the tenth book on the epistle to the Romans, reckons that he was contemporary with Paul, writing thus: I THINK that this Hermas is the writer of that little book which is called PASTOR, which writing seems to me very useful, and, as I think, divinely inspired. But that Paul ascribed no praise to him, this is the cause: because he seems, as that writing declares, to have been converted to penance after many sins; and therefore he wrote no reproach to him either. For he had learned from the scripture NOT to reproach a man converting himself from sin. Nor did he attribute any praise [to him], because he was placed still under the angel of penance, by whom, at an opportune time, he should again be offered to Christ.

HIRAM, king of the Tyrians (whom the third book of Kings testifies to have sent cedar wood for the building of the temple of Jerusalem), ⁴³ wrote very many letters to Solomon, king of the Hebrews; in which he partly proposed diverse questions to be solved by Solomon, and partly solved [those] proposed to himself by Solomon. ⁴⁴ Of these Dius makes mention in the Phoenician histories, and after him Josephus, in the first volume against Apion, in these words: HIRAM, king of the Tyrians, was a friend of our king Solomon. And love of wisdom had won [conciliated] this friendship; for they directed problems to each other to be solved, and in these Solomon was the better, and appeared the wiser. And even to now there are preserved among the Tyrians many letters, which they wrote to one another.

THE JERUSALEM SENATE wrote two letters — one to the dispersed Jews, the other to Aristobulus, preceptor of Ptolemy king of Egypt. Copies of both are had in 2 Maccabees, chapter 1.