Letter P

P.

THE CHOROGRAPHY OF PALESTINE, or the Description of the Holy Land on this side of the Jordan — of which the history of Joshua, chapter eighteen, makes mention — twenty-one Jewish men wrote ¹; whom Joshua, in the fourteenth year after the entry of the sons of Israel into the land of promise, sent (three out of each of the seven tribes which had remained without possession) to traverse and describe all the regions of the Canaanites which are on this side of the Jordan, from Mount Lebanon even to the borders of Egypt, which had not yet been divided. (For up to that time only five tribes had received their possessions — namely, the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh beyond the Jordan; but Judah and Ephraim, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, on this side of the Jordan). Those twenty-one men, therefore — since they were surveyors of the fields and most skilled estimators of lands — described the whole province, with its cities, towns, mountains, valleys, and the other level places, in a Geographic volume large enough; which, according to the number of the seven tribes, they divided into seven tables [maps], or portions — unequal indeed in size, but equal in the total of fruits and produce and in estimation of value. Whence also the tribe of Benjamin, which obtained the narrowest region of all ², had [it] nevertheless — in beauty, and in fertility of soil, and in the nobility of [its] cities — superior, [and] equal to the rest, as Josephus is witness. The estimators of the land, therefore, returning after the seventh month, brought the book of the description to Joshua: who, having diligently inspected it, distributed that whole province among those seven tribes by lot, in the two thousand eight hundred thirty-fourth year from the founding of the world.

THE TESTAMENT OF THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS, sons of Jacob, is a very ancient book ³; which — translated from Hebrew into Greek — Robert, bishop of Lincoln [Grosseteste], rendered into Latin. In it are narrated very many things — both prophetic oracles, and exhortations to virtue and the worship of God, which each of the Patriarchs, on the last day of [his] life, having called to himself his sons and grandsons, uttered. Many prophecies also are inserted in it out of the book of Enoch, concerning those [things] which were to befall the sons and grandsons of the twelve patriarchs; Of the future crimes and punishments of the Hebrews; Of the Saviour of the world to be slain by the Hebrews; Of the overthrow, captivity, and perpetual dispersion of the Hebrews among the nations. Origen makes mention of this work in the fifteenth homily on Joshua, and Procopius of Gaza in the commentaries on the thirty-eighth chapter of Genesis.

PAUL THE APOSTLE, besides the fourteen epistles received in the sacred canon, and enumerated by us in the volume above, is said also to have left the writings noted below ⁴, namely:

• A GOSPEL.
• To the Laodiceans, one epistle.
• To the Corinthians, a third epistle.
• To the Thessalonians, a third epistle.
• To Lucius Annaeus Seneca, six epistles.
• Of an Apocalypse, that is, of a Revelation, or Anabaseos, that is, of an Ascension, or Of his own rapture, one book.
• Of his own acts, one book.
• The Acts of Paul and Thecla, one book.

Concerning which writings, those [things] which I have found among the ancient authors are these.

THE GOSPEL OF PAUL. Concerning this, Paul himself writes in the latter epistle to Timothy: ⁵ BE MINDFUL that the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, of the seed of David, according to my Gospel, in which I labor. Which words very many of the ancients so expound as to think that Paul, as often as in his epistles he said, According to my gospel, signifies the Gospel of Luke ⁶ — because Luke learned it, Paul teaching. Others think that Paul called the Gospel his own, in order to distinguish it from the many false gospels of the pseudo-apostles, which were carried about without any certain authority: from which he not undeservedly distinguishes his own — true, undoubted, and approved by the Apostles in the Council of Jerusalem. Nor are there lacking those who say that the Apostle, by his Gospel, understood nothing else than the Evangelical doctrine preached by him with the oracle of the living voice. ⁷

THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE LAODICEANS. This the Apostle commends to the Colossians, writing thus at the end of the epistle which he gave to them: ⁸ SALUTE the brethren who are at Laodicea: and when this epistle shall have been read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that [the one] which is of the Laodiceans be read to you. ⁹ St. Thomas affirms that the author of this epistle was Paul ¹⁰, who sent it to the Laodiceans; and that it was not received by the Church into the canon of the divine scriptures — whether because its authority was not plainly established, or because it was corrupted by the heretics, or because it had perished by the injury of time, or because it contained the very same [things] which are had in the other epistles of Paul. Chrysostom ¹¹ reckons that this is not an epistle which Paul sent to the Laodiceans, but [one] which the Laodiceans sent to Paul; because the Apostle did not say, That [epistle] which [is] to the Laodiceans, let it be read to you, but καὶ τὴν ἐκ Λαοδικείας — that is, And let that which was written from Laodicea be read. Theophylact ¹² thinks that this is the former epistle of Paul to Timothy — which, as the Greek copies attest, was sent by Tychicus the Deacon, from Laodicea, the metropolis of Phrygia Pacatiana. Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis ¹³, in the first book against the heresies, asserts that this epistle is not Paul’s, and produces a testimony cited by the heretic Marcion out of the epistle to the Laodiceans, in these words: ¹⁴ ONE God, one faith, one baptism: one God and Father of all; who is above all, and through all, and in all — which testimony indeed is had among us, in the same and just so many words, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter four. Tertullian ¹⁵, in the fifth book against Marcion, indicates that Marcion himself was of this opinion — that he believed the epistle which among us is inscribed TO THE EPHESIANS to have been written and inscribed by Paul not to the Ephesians, but to the Laodiceans. Philastrius ¹⁶, in the catalog of heresies, chapter eighty-nine, hands down that the epistle was received by some as Paul’s, but that there was not the custom in the churches that it should be read publicly before the people, on account of certain ambiguous sentences rashly inserted by some. Jerome ¹⁷, in the catalog of ecclesiastical writers, says: SOME read also an epistle to the Laodiceans, but it is hissed off by all. This epistle is extant, as we have heard, at Paris, in a very ancient codex of the Sorbonne Library. ¹⁸ I myself also saw it at Padua, in the Library of St. John of Verdara [Viridarium]; from which also I have copied the appended copy:

PAUL, an Apostle not from men, neither through man, but through Jesus Christ, to the brethren who are at Laodicea: grace to you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. I GIVE thanks to Christ through all my prayer, that you are abiding and persevering in good works, awaiting the promise in the day of judgment. Nor let the empty talk of certain [persons] disturb you, who insinuate [falsehood against] the truth, to turn you away from the truth of the Gospel which is preached by me. And now God will make so that those who are from me may be serving unto the perfect [truth] of the Gospel, and doing kindness of works which are of the salvation of eternal life. And now my chains are manifest, which I suffer in Christ; in which I rejoice and am glad. And this is to me unto perpetual salvation — which is brought about by your prayers, the Holy Spirit administering, whether through life or through death. For to me to live is [life] in Christ, and to die is joy [gain]: and he himself will work in us his mercy, that you may have the same love, and be of one mind. Therefore, dearly beloved, as you have heard of the presence of the Lord, so think, and do in fear: and it shall be to you life for eternity (for it is God who works in you); and do without sin whatsoever you do: and — what is best, dearly beloved — rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ, and beware of all filthiness in all gain [lucre]. Let all your petitions be openly before God. Be firm in the mind of Christ; and whatsoever things are sound [integra], and true, and modest, and chaste, and just, and lovely, do; and what things you have heard and received, retain in [your] heart: and peace shall be to you. All the saints salute you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Cause this to be read to the Colossians, and that which is of the Colossians, [to be read] to you.

This, therefore, is the copy of the epistle to the Laodiceans: whether it be Paul’s own makes me doubt ¹⁹ — both [on account of] the aforesaid testimony, cited by Epiphanius out of the book of Marcion, which is not had in this epistle; and also because whatever is in this Laodicean epistle, the same is had in the epistle to the Colossians, and more copiously: wherefore it was not fitting for Paul to enjoin the Colossians that this too should be read among them. I suspect this copy to be that same one ²⁰ concerning which Theodoret, in the commentaries on the epistle to the Colossians, thus wrote: SOME think that Paul also wrote an epistle to the Laodiceans; and so they even produce a forged epistle. But the divine Apostle did not say, “That [epistle] which is TO the Laodiceans,” but “That [epistle] which is FROM Laodicea.” For they had written to him concerning certain matters. Now it is likely that they [the Laodiceans] either had made accusation of those [things] which were being done at Colossae, or had themselves also labored with the same disease: and therefore he said that this epistle too was to be read by them [the Colossians].

THE THIRD EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS. ²¹ There are those who think that Paul, besides the two epistles to the Corinthians which are had in the canon, wrote also another epistle to the same — not enumerated among the canonical [ones] ²² — the argument being taken from this, that Paul in the fifth chapter of the former [epistle] to the Corinthians says: ²³ I WROTE to you in an epistle, not to keep company with fornicators. Not indeed with the fornicators of this world, or the covetous, or the rapacious, or those serving idols; otherwise you must have gone out of this world. But now I have written to you not to keep company &c. Chrysostom judges that Paul here named not some other epistle different from this, but this very epistle ²⁴ — wishing by these words to correct what he had a little before written in it, when he had said: ²⁵ IT IS ABSOLUTELY heard [reported] that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as [is] not even among the Gentiles: so that one should have his father’s wife. And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. And then: ²⁶ DO YOU NOT KNOW that a little leaven corrupts the whole lump? Purge out the old leaven, &c.

It was credible, therefore, that the Corinthians suspected that all fornicators were to be shunned ²⁷ — not only those who are defiled with the foulness of bodily lust, but also those who follow spiritual fornication; which happens as often as the soul departs from God through any sin whatsoever, whether it be infidelity, or avarice, or drunkenness. Excluding therefore this vain suspicion of theirs, Paul says: I WROTE to you in an epistle, Not to keep company with fornicators, &c. — as if he should say: Lest you err in this, that I enjoined a little above that you flee the custom of those defiled with infamous lust: I do not mean this, that I demanded you shun all the fornicators of this world, both bodily and spiritual, nor that you keep no dealing at all with anyone fornicating spiritually — that is, with idolatry, or avarice, which is the worship of idols. For, if you strove [after that], all Greece — nay, the whole world — would have to be abandoned by you, since fornicators of this kind occur everywhere; however much I too might wish it, if it were lawful. Now what cannot be done, I do not exact. But this I have now written, and in this epistle write to you: that, if any Christian be openly infected with vices of this kind — which for the most part are far removed from the Christian profession, such as fornication, avarice, the worship of images, evil-speaking, drunkenness, rapacity — you deem the familiarity of such a man so [utterly] to be shunned, that you should not think it worthy even to take food with him, until he come to his senses.

THE THIRD EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE THESSALONIANS. ²⁸ Origen, in an epistle which (Rufinus being witness) he wrote to his friends at Alexandria, thus speaks: NOTHING seems wonderful to me, if my doctrine is adulterated by my enemies, and corrupted with such adultery as that with which the epistle of Paul the Apostle was corrupted. For certain [persons] wrote a false epistle under the name of Paul the Apostle, to trouble the Thessalonians, as though the day of the Lord were at hand, and to seduce them. On account of this epistle, in the second epistle which he wrote to the Thessalonians, he said this: ²⁹ NOW WE BESEECH you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that you be not quickly moved from your mind, nor be terrified, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by epistle as sent by us, as if the day of the Lord were at hand. Let no man seduce you by any means. Thus far Origen.

THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO SENECA, AND OF SENECA TO PAUL. ³⁰ Concerning these I have found it written, among various authors of approved faith, that Lucius Annaeus Seneca of Cordova — a philosopher of the Stoic sect, a disciple of Photinus the Stoic, paternal uncle of Lucan the poet, a man of most continent life, whom Jerome numbers in the catalog of the saints ³¹ — wrote eight epistles to Paul the Apostle ³², most friendly to him; before whose martyrdom, by nearly two years, he himself also was slain by Nero, his most cruel disciple. To him Paul wrote back — in the Latin tongue, as is believed ³³ — six small and familiar epistles, writing to him not as to one regenerated and plainly faithful, but as to a friend, and one who pursued the Christians not with hatred but with benevolence, and who approved their discipline. Now Seneca seems to have somewhat obscured his own style in these epistles on purpose ³⁴, and to have dissembled [it], so that, if perchance the epistles came into other hands, although they were inscribed with the name of Seneca, they could nevertheless not, [amid such] danger, appear to be Seneca’s. For there was danger — and [it was] against the Emperor’s edict then [in force] — for a Christian or a Jew to enjoy [such] familiarity. Some of the most ancient fathers bear witness to these epistles; but first of all Linus, the second Pontiff after Peter ³⁵, who at the beginning of the book On the Passion of Paul, speaking of the friendship of Paul and Seneca, thus says: CONCOURSES [of people] from the house of Caesar were made unto him [Paul]. But the emperor’s tutor also was so knit to him in friendship — seeing in him divine knowledge — that he could scarcely restrain himself from converse with him; so that, when he could not address him mouth to mouth, by frequent letters given and received he enjoyed his sweetness, and friendly converse, and counsel. And St. Jerome, in the book On Illustrious Men, numbering Seneca among the ecclesiastical writers ³⁶, says: I WOULD NOT put Seneca in the catalog of saints, did not those epistles invite me — which are read by very many — of Paul to Seneca, and of Seneca to Paul; in which, though he was Nero’s master and the most powerful [man] of that age, he says that he desires to be of that rank among his own people which Paul is among the Christians. And Augustine, in the fifty-third epistle to Macedonius, making mention of these epistles, says: DESERVEDLY does Seneca say (he who was in the times of the Apostles, some of whose epistles to Paul the Apostle are also read): HE HATES ALL, WHO HATES THE WICKED. These [things] they [say] concerning Seneca and Paul’s epistles; which, since they are exceedingly brief and known to few, I judge it will not be amiss if I set them down here in this place.

Annaeus Seneca, to Paul, greeting.

I BELIEVE it has been reported to you, Paul, [the discourse] which yesterday we held with our Lucilius concerning the apocrisis [so printed; the common text reads apocryphis, “apocrypha”] and other matters. For there were with me certain companions of your teachings; for I had withdrawn into the gardens of Sallust, in which place these [companions] of whom I have spoken, bending their course elsewhere as we chanced [to be there], joined themselves to us. Assuredly we longed for your presence. And this I wish you to know: that, your little book being read — that is, [some] out of the many letters, certain epistles which you directed to some city or capital of a province, containing with wonderful exhortation the moral life — we were thoroughly refreshed. Which thoughts I judge to have been uttered not [merely] by you, but through you; certainly at times [both] by you and through you. For so great is the majesty of those matters, and they shine with such nobility ³⁷, that I scarcely think the ages of men would suffice by which [men] might be instructed and perfected. I wish you well, brother. Farewell.

Paul, to Seneca, greeting.

YOUR letter I received yesterday with gladness; to which I could straightway have written back, had I had at hand the presence of the young man whom I was about to send to you. For you know when, and by whom, and at what time, and to whom, anything ought to be given and entrusted. I ask, therefore, that you not think yourself neglected, while I have regard to the quality of the person. But whereas you write that you are refreshed by my letters, I count myself happy in the judgment of so great a man. ³⁸ For you would not be called Censor, Sophist, and master of so great a prince — nay, of all — were it not that you speak the truth. May you long fare well.

Annaeus Seneca, to Paul, greeting.

CERTAIN volumes I have set in order, and given them their finished form by their own divisions. These, too, I am resolved to read to Caesar. And if only chance shall favorably assent, perhaps you also will be present; but if otherwise, I will appoint you a day, that we may examine this work together. I had resolved not to publish this writing to him before I had first conferred with you — if only this could be done with impunity — that you might know that you also are not passed over. Farewell, dearest Paul.

Paul, to Seneca, greeting.

AS OFTEN as I hear your letters, I think upon your presence; nor do I reckon otherwise than that at all times you are with us. As soon, therefore, as you begin to come, we shall see one another, and that at close hand. I wish you well.

Annaeus Seneca, to Paul, greeting.

WE ARE distressed by your too-long withdrawal. What is it, or what matters, that make you tarry? If [it be] the master’s [Nero’s] indignation — because you have departed from the ancient rite and sect, and are again converting others — there will be place for pleading, that he may esteem this [as done] by reason, not by levity. Farewell.

Paul, to Seneca and Lucilius, greeting.

CONCERNING those [matters], or those [things], which you have written to me, it is not permitted to speak out with reed [pen] and ink: whereof the one marks and designates something, the other plainly shows [it] — especially since I know that there are among you, as among us, and in our [company], those who understand me. Honor is to be rendered to all, and so much the more to these who catch at occasion for taking offense; to whom, if we show patience, we shall in every way overcome them on whatsoever side — provided only they be such as bear repentance for themselves. Fare you well.

Annaeus Seneca, to Paul, greeting.

I DECLARE myself well pleased in the reading of your letters, which you sent to the Galatians, the Corinthians, and the Achaeans. For the Holy Spirit, [being] in you and above you, expresses exalted, more sublime, and exceedingly venerable meanings. I could wish, therefore — since you bring forth surpassing matters — that a cultivation of speech [elegance of style] be not wanting to their majesty. And, that I may not filch anything from you, brother, or owe [it] to my own conscience, I confess that Augustus [the Emperor] was moved by your sentiments ³⁹: to whom, when the exordium of your letters had been read, this utterance was [made] — that he could marvel that one not lawfully imbued [instructed] should think in such wise. To whom I answered, that the gods are wont to speak by the mouth of the guileless — after the example of the rustic little man of Vaticanum, to whom, when two men had appeared in the Reatine field (who are named Castor and Pollux), he was divinely instructed. Farewell.

Paul, to Seneca, greeting.

THOUGH I am not ignorant that Caesar is an admirer and lover of our affairs, you will nevertheless permit that you be not harmed, but admonished. For I think you have acted gravely, in that you wished to bring to [his] notice what is contrary to his rite and discipline; since he indeed worships the gods of the nations. What has seemed [good] to you, that you would have him know this, I do not see: but I judge you do this out of your excessive love for me. I ask you, for the future, that you do it not. For heed must be taken, lest — while you love me — you cause offense to the master [lord]: whose offense indeed will neither hurt, if he persevere [in it], nor, if it be not [taken], profit. If she be a queen, she will not be indignant; if she be [merely] a woman, she will be offended. [the closing sentence is corrupt in the printed copy] Farewell.

Annaeus Seneca, to Paul, greeting.

KNOW that you have been moved by [my] letters not so much for my sake as [for] that which I made [wrote] to you concerning the publication of your epistles to Caesar — as [I am moved] by the nature of things: which so recalls the minds of men from all arts and manners, that I do not wonder [at it] today. Indeed, [I am moved] as one who by many proofs hold this now for a most certain thing. Therefore let us act anew: you, if anything in [regard to] the past has been lightly done, will grant [me] pardon. I have sent you a book On the Abundance of Words. Farewell, dearest Paul.

Paul, to Seneca, greeting.

AS OFTEN as I write to you, and set my own name before yours, I do a grave thing, and one incongruous with my sect [profession]. For I ought, as I have often professed, to be all things to all men; and to observe toward your person the same [rule] which the Roman law has granted to the honor of the senate — namely, in a letter to choose the last place [for myself]; lest, with perplexity, I should out of [regard for] decorum wish to effect what would be [a matter] of my own choosing. Farewell, most devoted Master. Given on the fifth [day] before the Kalends of July, Nero for the fourth [time] and Messala being Consuls.

Annaeus Seneca, to Paul, greeting.

HAIL, my dearest Paul. If to me and to my name a man so great and beloved in every way — I say not, be joined, but of necessity be mingled [united] — it will fitly have been done concerning your Seneca. Since, then, you are the summit and the peak of all the loftiest mountains, deem not yourself unworthy to be named at the head of the letters, lest you seem not so much to try me as to make sport [of me]; for you know that you are a Roman citizen. For what place is mine with you, [let it be] yours; what is yours, I would have [to be] mine. Farewell, dearest Paul. Given on the tenth [day] before the Kalends of April, Aprianus and Capito being Consuls.

Annaeus Seneca, to Paul, greeting.

HAIL, my dearest Paul. Do you think that I am not saddened, and not full of grief, that again and again punishment is exacted upon your innocence [upon you, [though] innocent]? And, further, that all the people judge you so liable to guilt, thinking that whatever contrary thing happens in the city is wrought by you? But let us bear it with equanimity, and make use of the [public] tribunal which chance has granted, until unconquered good fortune set an end to [these] evils. The age of the ancients bore also Philip’s son the Macedonian [Alexander], and Dionysius; our own [age bore] also Caius Caesar [Caligula]: to whom whatever pleased was lawful. Whence the city of Rome so often suffers conflagration is manifestly clear. But if human lowliness could speak out, and it were permitted to speak with impunity in this darkness, all [men] — Christians — would now see all things. And the Jews are wont to be visited with punishment as [though they were] contrivers of the fire. That cutthroat, whoever he be — whose delight is the butchery, and whose covering [cloak] is falsehood — is destined to his own time; and just as the head [life] of each best man is given [in ransom] for one head, so one head shall be given for many, and this [man], devoted [as a victim], shall be burned with fire for all. A hundred thirty-two houses [and] four blocks [insulae] burned in six days: the seventh gave a pause [respite]. I wish you well. Given on the fifth [day] before the Kalends of April, Frigius and Bassus being Consuls.

Annaeus Seneca, to Paul, greeting.

HAIL, my dearest Paul. Allegorically and enigmatically are many works everywhere composed by you; and therefore so great a force of matters and of [your] office, bestowed upon you, is to be adorned not with ornament of words, but with a certain [inner] cultivation. I very often retain [in memory] that you have said [that] many who affect such things [only] corrupt the meanings, and shun the [true] virtues of things. But this I would have you grant me: comply with [good] Latinity, put a fair appearance [upon it] with honorable words, that the bestowal of [your] noble gift may worthily be set forth by you. Farewell. Given on the fifth [day before] the Nones of July, Leo and Savinus being Consuls.

Paul, to Seneca, greeting.

TO YOU, [being] one who weighs [these things], are revealed those [things] which the Divinity has granted to few. I therefore, assured, now sow in a fertile field the strongest seed — not indeed matter, which seems [liable] to corruption, but the stable word of God, the derivative [outflow] of [Him who is] ever growing and abiding unto eternity. Which [word], since your prudence has attained it, must needs be unfailing. Reckon that the observances both of the Gentiles and of the Israelites are to be shunned. Those [truths] which you have nearly attained, you will instill into the temporal king [Nero], and into his household, and into [his] faithful friends. To whom, although your persuasion will be harsh and hard to grasp — since the most of them are by no means bent by your insinuations — yet the word of God instilled into them will bring forth in them a new man, hastening hence toward God. Farewell, O Seneca, most dear to us. Given on the Kalends of August, Leo and Savinus being Consuls.

James Faber [Lefèvre], bishop of Vienne [so identified by Sixtus], wrote brief little commentaries upon these epistles.

THE RAPTURE OF PAUL, OR APOCALYPSE. ⁴⁰ Epiphanius, in the first book of the Panarion, refuting the heresy of the Caians [Cainites], says: ⁴¹ AGAIN, the Caians forged another little book under the name of Paul, stuffed with nefarious deeds — which those also called Gnostics use — which they call the ASCENSION OF PAUL, the occasion being taken from that which the Apostle says: that he ascended even to the third heaven, and heard secret words which it is not lawful for a man to speak. And these, they say, are [those] secret words. Augustine, in the ninety-eighth tractate on John, confuting the madness of these [men], adds this: CERTAIN of the spiritual [men] attained to those [things] which it is not lawful for a man to speak. On which occasion sundry [persons], with most foolish presumption, forged an Apocalypse of Paul — which the sound Church does not receive — ⁴² full of I know not what fables, saying this to be that whence he had said he was caught up into the third heaven, and there heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. However tolerable the audacity of these [men] might be, had he said that he heard [things] WHICH IT IS NOT YET lawful for a man to speak; but since he said [things] WHICH IT IS NOT lawful for a man to speak — who then are these who dare to speak these things impudently and unhappily? Nicephorus, in the twelfth book of the Ecclesiastical History, introduced mention of this Apocalypse in this manner: AGAIN, that [book] which is called the Apocalypse of Paul the Apostle — which none of the men of old ever saw — many monks admire with veneration. A report indeed grew rife, in this very time of the reigning Theodosius, that by divine revelation a book had been found — laid up in the fatherland and paternal house of Paul at Tarsus of Cilicia, in a marble chest, and buried in the earth; which [report] that it was plainly false, a certain very aged presbyter of the church of Tarsus (for his hoary hairs bore witness to that [age]) confessed; for he affirmed that nothing of this kind had happened in his time. And when he asserted this, he wondered whether that report had not been fabricated by heretics — which thing we have said before was done in many other [cases] also.

THE ACTS OF PAUL. ⁴³ Eusebius makes mention of the Acts of Paul in the third [book] of the** Ecclesiastical History, chapter twenty-five: AFTER these, he says, is the scripture which is called the ACTS OF PAUL; and the little book which is called [THE BOOK] OF THE SHEPHERD [Pastor]: concerning which there is the very greatest doubt. Clement of Alexandria, in the sixth volume of the Stromata, out of a certain unknown scripture of Paul brings forth such a testimony: THIS Paul the Apostle declares, saying: Take also the Greek books; recognize the Sibyls, how they signify one God, and those [things] which are to come; and take Hystaspes, and read, and you shall find the Son of God written much more clearly and openly, and how against Christ many kings shall array [their] battle-line — those who hold [him] in hatred, &c.

THE ACTS OF PAUL AND THECLA. ⁴⁴ Gelasius, distinction 15, reckons the Acts of Paul and Thecla among the reprobate scriptures. I suspect this to be the writing concerning which Jerome, in the catalog of writers, under the title of LUKE, has these [words]: THEREFORE the “periods” [journeyings] of Paul and Thecla, and the whole fable of the baptized lion, we number among the apocryphal scriptures. For what likelihood is it, that Luke, the inseparable companion of the Apostle, among the other affairs of his should have been ignorant of this one alone? But Tertullian too, near to the times of the Apostles, relates that a certain presbyter in Asia — a σπουδαστήν [a zealous devotee] of the Apostle Paul — was convicted before John, because he was the author of the book; and that he confessed he had done this out of love for Paul, and on that account was deposed. The argument [content] of this book was ⁴⁵ — as is gathered from the third book of Epiphanius Against the Heresies, from the second book of Ambrose On Virgins, and from the eighth book of the Histories of Vincent, bishop of Beauvais — of this kind: While Paul was preaching at Iconium, the virgin Thecla, having heard his sermon on Virginity, suddenly loosed herself from [her intended] nuptials; and left her betrothed — a young man, a leading citizen of the city, renowned for beauty and riches — and, cleaving to Paul, gave herself to him as a companion of [his] pilgrimage: in which, when she was compelled by persecutors to undergo grave perils of death — now plunged in the waters, now cast into the fires, now exposed to wild beasts — at last, freed from all these (Paul protecting her), she came safe to Rome together with him.

THE APOSTLE PETER, besides the two Catholic epistles received into the sacred canon, is said to have written five books of Christian doctrine — [which] Sophronius, as [taken] from Jerome, reports:

• The FIRST is entitled Κήρυγμα, that is, PREACHING.
• The SECOND, Εὐαγγέλιον, GOSPEL.
• The THIRD, Πρᾶξις, that is, ACTS.
• The FOURTH, Ἀποκάλυψις, that is, REVELATION.
• The FIFTH, Κρίσις, that is, JUDGMENT.

Of these, I have found that only the first and the fifth were in authority among the ancients — since the most ancient fathers used their testimonies ⁴⁶, especially Clement of Alexandria and Origen; of whom the former, in the sixth [book] of the Stromata, cites a fragment, from which you may have some specimen of this book, in these words: PETER, IN THE PREACHING, says: Know that there is one God, who made the beginning of all things, and holds power over [their] end; and who falls not under sight [is invisible]; who sees all things; who, though he cannot be grasped, grasps all things; needing nothing, [while] all things need him, and through whom are all things; who cannot be comprehended, eternal, free from corruption, unmade — who made all things by the word of his power, that is, by [his] Son. Worship this God, not as the Greeks [do] — inasmuch as they too worship the same God whom we [worship] (those of them who are honest men among the Greeks), but not with a perfect and absolute knowledge, as [men] who have not so learned [what was] handed down by the Son; for while they are carried along in ignorance, and know not God as we [do] with perfect knowledge — with the means which he gave them for [their] use — they fashion wood, and stones, and iron, and gold, and silver, and worship gods made out of their own material; and — the [creatures] which he gave them for food, the birds of the air, and the swimming things of the sea, and the serpents of the earth, and wild beasts, with the cattle of the field and the four-footed beasts — they sacrifice [these] to [idols in the form of] men, and, offering dead things to the dead as to gods, are ungrateful toward God. Neither worship [him] as the Jews [do]: for they, thinking that they alone know God, know not that they worship Angels and Archangels, the months and the Moon; and unless the Moon appear, they keep not the sabbath which is called the first, nor the new-moon, nor the unleavened bread, nor the great day. Wherefore do you also — learning the [things] which we hand down to you — keep [them] holily and justly, worshipping God anew through Christ. For we find in the scriptures, as the Lord says: Behold, I make for you a new testament [covenant], not as I made for your fathers on Mount Horeb. For he has given us a new testament: for the [things] of the Jews and of the Greeks are old; but we, who worship him anew in a third kind, are Christians. Thus far the words of Peter: which indeed Origen, in the thirteenth tome on John, resuming [them] in an epilogue, expounds more openly. Yet he says that it must be inquired concerning this book, whether it be true, or supposititious [spurious], or mixed.

THE JUDGMENT OF PETER. But concerning the work whose title is THE JUDGMENT OF PETER, Rufinus, in the explanation of the Creed to Laurentius, thus writes: But in the New Testament, the little book which is called [THE BOOK] OF THE SHEPHERD, or OF HERMAS, and THE JUDGMENT ACCORDING TO PETER — the fathers indeed willed [these] all to be read in the churches, yet not to be brought forward for confirming authority of faith out of them. ⁴⁷

THE GOSPEL OF PETER. Concerning the Gospel of Peter, Serapion — who in the two-hundredth year of the Lord was bishop of Antioch — composed a particular book to the brethren of Rhossus in Cilicia, [who] on occasion of this scripture were declining into heresy; in which, reproving certain false [things] contained in it, he thus speaks: FOR WE receive both Peter and the other Apostles as [we receive] Christ; but the false [writings] which under their name have been composed by others, we decline [reject], as [men] aware of their [true] meaning and mind, knowing that such [things] were not handed down to us. For I, when I was among you, supposed that all were of the right faith among you; and, the little book not yet perused which was offered to me — in which a gospel written under the name of Peter was current — I said: If this is the only [thing] which seems to bring in enmity and dissension among you, let the book be read. ⁴⁸ But now, having learned that these who assert that book ought to be read demanded that this be done with a view to a certain hidden heresy (as has been told me), I will hasten to come to you again. For [I know] of whose heresy these [were]: Marcianus, who also stood contrary to his very self, not understanding what he was saying — which [things] you also will understand — [and I learned it] from those who had learned this same gospel according to his tradition, and became successors of his opinion, whom we call Δοκητάς [Docetae], that is, “Opiners.” These words of Serapion [are] gathered out of Eusebius.

THE ACTS OF PETER. ⁴⁹ Concerning the Acts of Peter, and his other books, Eusebius, in the third [book] of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter three, has thus: But that little book which is called the ACTS OF PETER, and [that] which is named a GOSPEL of his name, and also that which is called his PREACHING, and his APOCALYPSE, are not had among the canonical scriptures; nor indeed is any of the ancients found to use their testimonies. And in the third book, chapter twenty-five: AFTER these, he says, is the scripture which is called the Acts of Paul, and the little book which is called [that] of the Shepherd, and the Apocalypse of Peter: concerning which there is the greatest doubt. Nicephorus likewise, in book 12, relating that the Apocalypse of Peter was accustomed to be read in the churches of Palestine, [says]: That [book] which is called the Apocalypse of Peter — as [being] supposititious and illegitimate, judged [so] by the ancients — we find to have been accustomed to be read for a [certain] time among the Palestinians, in certain churches, once every year on the day of the Parasceve [Good Friday]; ⁵⁰ on which day the people fast, with great devotion and contrition, for the memory of Christ’s saving passion.

Moreover, Origen — by whom a testimony is cited out of the Acts of Peter in the twentieth tome on John — likewise, in the first book of the Periarchon, makes mention of another book, which is inscribed the DOCTRINE OF PETER, ⁵¹ in this manner: If anyone should wish to bring forward to us, out of that little book which is called the Doctrine of Peter, [the saying] which the Saviour seems to say to the disciples — A DEMON IS NOT INCORPOREAL: it must be answered him that that book is not had among the ecclesiastical [books]; and it must be shown that that scripture is neither Peter’s, nor of any other who was inspired by the Spirit of God.

THE ITINERARY OF PETER, published under the name of Clement, Gelasius, distinction 15, places among the books of suspect faith.

THE MARTYRDOM OF PETER AND PAUL, Pope Linus wrote in two volumes.

THE PHYLACTERIES OF THE ANGELS are numbered among the condemned scriptures by Gelasius, distinction fifteen, in these words: ALL PHYLACTERIES, which are composed not by Angels (as the heretics feign) but rather by a demon, are Apocryphal. Which words indeed can be understood of magical amulets — which, against enchantments, incursions of enemies, falls of thunderbolts, and other perils of this kind, certain superstitious [persons] wear hung about the neck. ⁵² For that the ancients sometimes called these Phylacteries, Epiphanius is witness, in the first book Against the Heresies. Concerning these there is extant a decree of Pope Gregory in Burchard, bishop of Worms, book ten, chapter 23, in these words: IF ANYONE SHALL HAVE OBSERVED [consulted] SOOTHSAYERS, DIVINERS, OR ENCHANTERS, OR SHALL HAVE USED PHYLACTERIES, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA.

THE PHYLACTERIES OF THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES — which in the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew ⁵³ are called טוטפות Totaphot, [and which] the Rabbis of the Hebrews call תפילין thephilin [tefillin], the Greeks φυλακτήρια, that is, Preservatories, so called ἀπὸ τοῦ φυλάττω [from phylattō, “I guard”], because they preserved the memory from oblivion; but Jerome names [them] Pictatiola, that is, little white tablets, fitted for inscribing very brief little sentences. Now these Phylacteries — concerning which Christ censures the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Scribes [who] enlarge [their] Phylacteries out of ambition — were little papers, or [strips of] parchment, or certain very tiny little scrolls, written with the words of the divine law, which the Pharisees and scribes wore upon the forehead. ⁵⁴ For since (as Chrysostom says) the Jews easily forgot the commandments of God, God ordered these to be written on tablets and hung upon the forehead and the hands, saying: ^{55 56} Bind these for a sign upon your hand; and let them be as frontlets before your eyes. For just as mothers, tying a thread about the finger of forgetful boys, bring them back to remembrance of the [things] which have been enjoined them, ⁵⁷ so God commanded the Jews — as [if they were] little children — to bind these upon the hands and forehead; wishing in this way to admonish [them] that they should meditate on the law of the Lord day and night, and fulfill his commandments in deed. But the Pharisees, wrongly interpreting this, ⁵⁸ thought (as they also now think) that it was enough for the assiduous observance of the law if they bound these Thephilin upon head and arms. For thus Rabbi David Kimchi writes, concerning the continual observance of the whole law, on the first Psalm, expounding that sentence — AND IN THE LAW OF THE LORD SHALL HE MEDITATE DAY AND NIGHT — saying: He shall meditate day and night, that is, he shall always be occupied in the study of the law. But if you object: How can it be that a man should be wholly [taken up] day and night in meditating on the law — which, when it is done, leaves no room [time] for when a man may attend to [his] remaining works, which are of domestic care? — the sages of the Hebrews answer in this manner: ⁵⁹ Whosoever keeps the precept concerning the putting-on of the Thephilin, to him the scripture attributes as much as if he studied day and night. Jerome, in the commentaries on Matthew, writes that this custom of wearing Thephilin flourished even in his own times among the Babylonians, Persians, and Indians. In whose place Chrysostom, in the seventy-third homily on Matthew, relates that many Christian women in his own age were accustomed to carry the Gospel, hanging from the neck, ⁶⁰ that they might the more easily recall the evangelical precepts to memory. Further, as to what was wont to be written in these phylacteries, the opinion of the Christians and of the Hebrews differs: ⁶¹ Jerome, Chrysostom, and Theophylact assert that the Decalogue of the law — that is, the ten precepts of the two tables — was wont to be written in them. Lyra [Nicholas of Lyra], according to the opinion of the Rabbis, testifies that it is by the ordinance of the Jews that in the Thephilin there be inscribed twelve Pasuch — that is, verses or sentences out of the book of Deuteronomy: namely five out of the sixth chapter, and seven out of the eleventh chapter of the same volume — which are these:

From Deuteronomy, chapter six.

1. ⁶² HEAR, O Israel: the Lord our God is one God. And you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength.
2. ⁶³ AND these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart.
3. ⁶⁴ AND you shall repeat them to your sons, and shall speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk on the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.
4. ⁶⁵ AND you shall bind them as a sign in your hand; and they shall be as frontlets before your eyes.
5. ⁶⁶ AND you shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates.

From Deuteronomy, chapter eleven.

1. ⁶⁷ AND it shall be, if obeying you shall obey my precepts which I command you, that you love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and your whole soul.
2. ⁶⁸ I WILL GIVE your rain in its season, the early and the latter [rain]: and you shall gather in your grain, and your wine, and your oil.
3. ⁶⁹ AND I will give grass in your field for your cattle: and you shall eat, and be filled.
4. ⁷⁰ TAKE HEED to yourselves, lest perhaps your heart be seduced, and you depart, and worship strange gods, and bow yourselves down to them.
5. ⁷¹ AND the fury of the Lord be angry against you, and he shut up the heavens, and there be no rain, and the earth give not its fruit, and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord gives you.
6. ⁷² AND put these my words in your heart, and bind them as a sign in your hand: and let them be as frontlets before your eyes.
7. ⁷³ AND teach them to your sons, that they may speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk on the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up: and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates.

These [things] concerning the writing of the Thephilin. But concerning the manner and rite in which these ought to be written, the Rabbis prescribe many things; ⁷⁴ of which, that nothing be wanting to the curiosity of readers, I will adduce a few — which I once read, in the order [Seder] of the Talmudic volumes, in the tractate ראש השנה Rosh haShanah; from which, if the reader draw nothing else of good, he will at least learn utterly to despise the ridiculous fooleries of the Jews. They are these: The Tutaphoth, or Thephilin — that is, Phylacteries, or Preservatories — are little parchments in which certain Biblical sentences are written; and it is necessary that they be made from a domestic beast, or a clean wild animal, as the scripture says, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. One must also write with one’s own right hand, even if one can use both hands. But if one can use only the left hand, that will be to him in place of the right. And [for] one who cannot make a straight line without a drawn line, it is permitted that he draw a line over which he may write. Now the little parchment ought to be whole, without a hole, lest the ink flow through it. And if one of the letters be effaced, and an untaught boy who is not stupid can [still] read it, it will be fit; if not, it will be unfit. Nor is it needful that a space be left above, except what suffices for the [upstroke] of the ל lamed; but below, let it be made according to the measure of the length of the ק kof [qof] and the ן nun. Further, they write the writing itself only from that side of the parchment where it touched the flesh. One must also enclose the writings with four lines around the circuit of the leaf; but it is not needful that lines be made between the written lines. And a man ought not to go through a cemetery when he has the Thephilim on his head, nor to approach it within a space of four cubits. In the place where the Thephilin — or also the book of the law — are, it is forbidden therein to give attention to Venus [conjugal intercourse], unless first he has carried them out, or laid them up within some vessel, and again laid up that vessel within another vessel; and when he has thus laid the vessel within a vessel, it will be permitted also to place them under the pillow, between the bed-covering and the bolster. These [things] the Jews, interpreting according to the dead letter, observe the commandment of the Lord with such superstition — whereas the better and truer sense of it is, that they keep the law of God with heart and mind, and fulfill it with hands and in deed. ⁷⁵ Epiphanius, in the first book of the Panarion, heresy 15, asserts that the Phylacteries of the Pharisees — concerning which Christ speaks in the Gospel — were no kind of scripture, but certain broad marks [bands] of purple, bordering the conspicuous places of [their] cloaks; ⁷⁶ which the very phrase of the Gospel also indicates, saying: ⁷⁷ FOR they broaden [their] phylacteries, and magnify the fringes of [their] cloaks — understanding by fringes the edges and margins of the cloaks, but by phylacteries their purple marks, such as are set both on the breast and on the back of the Dalmatics [dalmatic vestments].

PHILIP THE APOSTLE ⁷⁸ was allotted a Gospel by the Gnostic heretics — forged under his name — concerning which Epiphanius, in the first [book] of the Panarion, has this: NOW the Gnostics bring forth, in the name of Philip the holy Apostle, a forged Gospel, in which it is written: “Since the Lord revealed to me what the soul must say, in that [moment] when it ascends to heaven, and how it must answer to each of the powers above — [saying:] For I have known myself, and have gathered myself together from every side, and have not sown children to the prince [archon], but have rooted out his roots, and have gathered the scattered members, and I know thee, who thou art. For I am of the [powers] above,” &c. Gelasius, distinction 15, lists the Acts of Philip in the catalog of the Apocrypha. ⁷⁹

THE WRITING OF THE PEOPLES. ⁸⁰ Concerning this, according to the edition of the Seventy, in Psalm 86 [87] it is read: THE LORD shall narrate ἐν γραφῇ — that is, in the writing of the peoples, and of these princes, who were born in her. Euthymius, expounding this place, says: Out of the writings OF THE PROPHETS, Christ shall teach [the things] which pertain to himself. For Luke says: ⁸¹ And the book of Isaiah the Prophet was delivered to him; and, the book being unrolled, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, and the rest. This kind of writing of the prophets, therefore, he [the Psalmist] calls the writing of the peoples, and the writing of their princes — as [being that] which was given both to the peoples of the Jews and to their princes, and was the proper possession of those who were born in her, that is, born in Sion. Thus he. According to the Hebrew verity it is thus read: THE LORD numbered [them], writing down the peoples: this one was born in her forever. Which the Jews thus expound: So great will be the future multitude of the peoples in Jerusalem, that the Messiah alone — in whose knowledge is written the number of all the Jews — will be able to number it: inasmuch as he was born in that city to reign in it always, and without end.

THE INSCRIPTION OF THE PONTIFICAL VESTMENT ⁸² was threefold: namely, on the head, on the shoulders, and on the breast. The first was displayed on a golden plate, fixed above the forehead of the Pontiff’s mitre or diadem; on which was inscribed the name of God in four Hebrew letters — ⁸³ י Iod, ה he, ו vau, ה he — which is reckoned ineffable by the Hebrews. The second writing two huge emeralds contained, which the Pontiff wore one on each shoulder, enclosed and bound in gold: on the right of which were engraved the six names of the elder Patriarchs — that is, Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Dan; but on the left, the other six names of the later Patriarchs — namely, Simeon, Issachar, Zebulun, Manasseh, Ephraim, Benjamin. The third writing the Pontiff bore before him upon [his] breast, in a certain square jewel [breastplate], of gold and four colors interwoven, which was called the Rational [breastplate]: into which were inserted twelve stones of diverse color, of marvelous size and price, in four rows; so that in each little row three stones were set, and on each of the stones one of the twelve names of the patriarchs, according to their ages [order of birth], was written. The causes of these inscriptions, and their mystical significations, the author of the book of Wisdom — touching [them] in very few words — ⁸⁴ states thus: ⁸⁵ UPON the vesture, [namely] the poderis [long robe] which Aaron had, was the whole world; and the great deeds of the fathers were graven in the four rows of stones; and the magnificence of God was written in the diadem of his head. Philo, in the third book On the Life of Moses, and in the second book On Monarchy; Josephus, in the third book of the Antiquities; and Jerome, in the epistle to Fabiola — beginning somewhat further back, and unfolding the matter more amply — hand down the occasions of these inscriptions, and their significations, to be of this kind.

The whole vesture of the Pontiff ⁸⁶ consisted of six ornaments — that is, of two tunics, the thorax [breastpiece], the necklace, the girdle, and the diadem. Now of the two Tunics, ⁸⁷ the inner was a linen [garment] of the whitest byssus [fine linen]; the outer wholly of hyacinth [blue], with little bells and golden pomegranates hung about its lowest hem. The Thorax, ⁸⁸ or superhumeral [ephod], was interwoven of four colors — namely hyacinth, byssus, scarlet, and purple — and of gold. The Necklace, ⁸⁹ which was also called the Rational, distinguished with twelve gems, hung from the neck of the Pontiff before [his] breast. The Diadem, ⁹⁰ or Thiara, adorned with a golden plate and inscribed with the name of God, was placed upon the head of the Pontiff: whose thorax the Girdle, ⁹¹ let down about the breast even to the ankles, bound fast. This was the vesture of the Pontiff.

But what it signifies — both as a whole and by [its] parts — is this. ⁹² The whole garment carries back the likeness of the whole world: so that the Pontiff, wearing upon [his] vestments the image of the whole universe, may know himself to be the mediator of the whole world before God; and may perform the divine service not only for [his] familiar friends and fellow-citizens, but for the whole human race, and for all the parts of nature — [both] heaven and the elements — either rendering acts of thanksgiving, or offering supplications to God the creator of all. Moreover, [that he may know] that he ought to study to express, by [his] life, doctrine, and virtues, the order, adornment, and harmony of the whole world, lacking in no respect; and to become, in a manner, a microcosm — that is, a little world — thus representing the likeness of the greater world in [his] manners, even as he bears it upon [his] vestments. But the several parts of the vestment represent the several parts of the universe. The Byssine Tunic, ⁹³ because byssus is engendered from the earth, shows the earth. The Hyacinthine Tunic ⁹⁴ demonstrates the air — stretched out from the lunar orb even to the lands — on account of the likeness of [its] color. The sound of the little bells hanging from it, and their golden gleam, indicate ⁹⁵ the lightnings and thunders begotten in the air. The ornament of the Thorax, ⁹⁶ resplendent with gems, figures the beauty of the starry heaven: for the two round emeralds on each shoulder bear the type of the Sun and the Moon — the [luminary] of the one being of the day, of the other of the night. In the Rational, the twelve gems of divers color, distributed three by three into four rows, hint to us the zodiac [sign-bearing] circle, divided into four parts, each consisting of three signs. The Girdle has the pattern of the equinoctial circle, which the astronomers call the girdle of the world.

But the Diadem, ⁹⁷ which is a royal ensign, set upon the highest summit of the whole body, and containing the name of God on a golden plate, hints at the empyrean heaven and the seat of God — [a seat] loftier than the whole compass of created things — from which the King of kings, presiding over all, most wisely governs all the [things] that are below. The Diadem also signifies, ⁹⁸ overtopping every ornament of the Pontiff, that the power and honor of the high priesthood is more eminent not only than [that] of private men, but even than [that] of all kings and emperors of the world. These are the enigmas which lie hidden beneath the Pontifical vesture: now let us see what his inscriptions mean.

THE NAME OF GOD, ⁹⁹ graven upon the golden plate — which the Greeks call τετραγράμματον, that is, Quadriliteral [four-lettered], because it is written with these four letters, יהוה — is reckoned ineffable among the Hebrews: either because the letters which compose the name are voiceless, and can of themselves express no articulate utterance; or on account of reverence for the divine majesty, whose most proper name they think it not lawful either to hear or to name. Whence, as often as it falls [to them] to read it in the sacred letters, they pronounce [it] by another name — that is, Adonai, which is interpreted Lord. Clemens of Alexandria, in the fifth book of the Stromata, says that the Hebrew utterance of this name יהוה is ¹⁰⁰ IEHOVA; which, according to him also, is expounded, He who is, and who shall be. Theodoret, in the fifteenth question on Exodus, says that the expression of the same name is, among the Samaritans, Iaue; but among the Jews, Ia. Jerome, in the exposition of the eighth Psalm, explains this same name by the word Iaho. But Philo asserts that this very name Iehova — which signifies Being, or He who is — is most justly attributed to God; because no word agrees with God more reasonably and more truly than To Be. For thus He named Himself, when, to Moses asking, What is thy name? He answered: ¹⁰¹ I am, who am; or, as the Hebrew has it, אני אהיה אשר אהיה Ani eheieh, ascer eheieh, that is, I will be, who will be — which is the same [thing] among the Hebrews, to whom it is proper to use futures for presents. And from this place Augustine, bishop of Chisamus [Chisamensis], judges ¹⁰² the name Tetragrammaton to have been derived — [the name] whereby the Divinity named itself from being: because, in the first utterance of the substantive verb Is, the Hebrews thus write היה haia, that is, He was; to which, in the future of the third person, iod is added, and it becomes יהיה iheieh, that is, He shall be. And this very [word] is the quadriliteral name — only [with] the iod drawn out, so that it becomes vau [vav]; and the same bishop thinks that in the place of that which is now vau, there was [formerly] iod, because the passage from iod to vau is easy, on account of the very great affinity of the like letters. The name of Being, therefore, graven on the golden plate, indicates that supreme and greatest Being of all to be the principle and the bond of all the things whose images the Pontiff puts on — containing and constraining all the parts of the universe, and not suffering them to be dissolved or to slip away, nor anything to be in the world which could be without His aid; who is the fullness of all essence and of all life, from whom all things live, are moved, and have proceeded; and who embraces the whole of being in Himself, as it were a certain infinite and immense sea of essence; which indeed always was, and is, and always shall be — nay rather, always is. For Was, or Shall be, are divisions of fluxile [ever-flowing] nature and of time; but God transcends the reckoning both of nature and of time. Which [truth] those ancient Egyptians also — heathen though they were — acknowledging, ¹⁰³ described God in their temples (as Eusebius, in the eleventh book of the Preparation for the Gospel, is witness) with these words: I AM THAT WHICH WAS, WHICH IS, AND WHICH SHALL BE. MY VEIL NO ONE HAS EVER UNCOVERED. This, then, is what the name of God impressed upon the plate signified.

Moreover, the names of the twelve sons of Israel were graven on twelve gems before the breast in the Rational, and again on two emeralds upon the shoulders of the Pontiff — ¹⁰⁴ as Moses says, for a memorial; that is, that the high priest, entering the holy of holies, might remember that he bears upon [his] shoulders the sins especially of his own people, and might make expiations and sacrifices first for it, then for the other nations. Again, these same names, written on the front part of the Thorax — which designates heaven — mystically show that the names alone of the sons of Israel, and of those who descend from them not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, the promise, and the inheritance of faith, are written in the heavens; and that to them alone pertains that most welcome announcement of the Savior: ¹⁰⁵ REJOICE THAT YOUR NAMES ARE WRITTEN IN HEAVEN. And this is what Solomon said, ¹⁰⁶ that the great deeds of the fathers were described in the Rational — that is, that the magnificent and illustrious deeds of the patriarchs, and of their spiritual posterity, were written in the heavens (whereof the Rational was the exemplar), not with ink, nor as men are wont to write, but in the everlasting memory of God: in that manner in which God is wont to write in the book of Life those whom He willed to be enrolled citizens of the eternal city. And the six names of the patriarchs engraved on the emeralds of each shoulder — [the emeralds] signifying the Sun and the Moon — indicate the eternity of the seed of Israel, [a seed] destined to endure as long as the everlasting stars of the Sun and Moon shall remain. See what we have noted concerning the Pontifical vesture in the third book, in the Sciographic [Shadow-drawn] Method of divine Scripture, where we have also set a picture of the several parts of the pontifical adornment.

PONTIUS PILATE, governor of Judaea, when he had condemned our Savior — the cause unpleaded — to gratify the Jews, and, wishing to show that he had done it for a weighty cause and, beyond the ordinary order of law, most justly, set upon His neck the title and cause of Christ’s condemnation, expressed most briefly in four words, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, in this manner: ¹⁰⁷

ישוע הנצרי מלך היהודים ΙΗΣΟΥΣ ΝΑΖΩΡΑΙΟΣ Ο ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΤΩΝ ΙΟΥΔΑΙΩΝ. JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

This title Pilate — in his own judgment most ignominious, but in very truth most glorious — devised as an excuse and defense of the detestable sentence pronounced by him against Jesus: as it were, an apology for his own injustice, ¹⁰⁸ written to all the nations of the whole world in three tongues, confident that he could defend himself before all, as though he had put to death a seditious [man], an aspirant to kingship, and an enemy of the Roman empire. But the Holy Spirit, who had impelled Pilate to this writing, intended ¹⁰⁹ something far otherwise — namely, to signify by this title the name and title of the kingdom which Christ, through His cross, was soon to receive over all the Jews; that is, according to the interpretation of the Jewish name, over all who confess [Him] — [all] who throughout the whole world confess and worship the true God — and [to signify] that those nations especially would pass under the empire of Christ whose tongues were included in the title of His kingdom. Whence also, when the Jews strove to change the title, Pilate, saying ¹¹⁰ WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN, I HAVE WRITTEN, firmly resisted — God so willing it, [God] who had decreed that the title of Christ’s kingdom should remain unchangeable and uncorrupted forever. This title, still whole after three hundred and thirty years, ¹¹¹ found together with the Lord’s cross by Helena, mother of Constantine, among the ruins of the city of Jerusalem, Rufinus records in the tenth book of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter eight.

THERE ARE CARRIED ABOUT also certain other [writings] under the name of Pilate, among which the first place is held by the ACTS OF PILATE — ¹¹² which, as Eusebius relates in the ninth book of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 4, were forged by the enemies of the Christian name, by the zeal and effort of the emperor Maximinus; who, when he wished to seem to persecute the Christians for just causes, ordered certain Acts to be published abroad — as though composed before Pilate concerning our Savior — in which every kind of blasphemy against Christ was heaped up. These acts he commanded, by a public edict, to be sent through all the provinces of his realm, and to be set up in every city, in the villages, and even in the fields; he also ordered them to be handed to the schoolmasters of boys, so that — in place of the [lessons] they are wont to dictate for meditating or learning by heart — they should deliver these to the boys to be committed to memory, and recited all day long in the schools, and chanted at the crossroads. This so impudent forgery Eusebius, in the first [book] of the same history, chapter 9, easily refutes from the reckoning of the times. For [these] false Acts of Pilate record the time of the crime committed against the Savior as the fourth consulate of Tiberius — which was the seventh year of his reign — at which time [Eusebius] evidently shows that Pilate had not even yet been sent to the procuratorship of Judaea, on the testimony of Josephus, ¹¹³ a most approved historian, who most plainly indicates that Pilate took up the procuratorship of Judaea ¹¹⁴ in the twelfth year of Tiberius Caesar — which also agrees with the Gospel of Luke. ¹¹⁵

Epiphanius, in the second [book] of the Panarion, teaches that there were also certain Acts of Pilate, which the Quartadeciman heretics used, building on them [the claim] that Pascha must always be celebrated on the fourteenth day of the moon of the month of March, because in those same Acts it is written that our Savior suffered on the twenty-fourth day of March. Eusebius, in the second book of the ecclesiastical history, hands down ¹¹⁶ that Pilate, after the Lord’s resurrection, wrote to Tiberius the emperor [a letter] which spread a happy report throughout all Syria concerning the resurrection of Christ, and His miracles, and the opinion of His divinity; the copy of which letter — omitted by Eusebius, but found by us among the ancient monuments of the Vatican Library — is this:

Pontius Pilate to Claudius Tiberius Nero, emperor, greeting.

LATELY it has come to pass — of which thing I myself can be a witness — that the Jews, through envy, have by a cruel condemnation destroyed themselves and all their posterity. For whereas, out of the promises of the oracles received on the authority of their forefathers, they were expecting this — that their God would send [one] by a young virgin, who should by right be called their king — [God] sent Him, I being present, into Judaea. ¹¹⁷ He (as is known to all) restored sight to the blind, cleansed lepers, healed the palsied [those slack in [their] sinews]. They saw also that He drove out demons, and freed those beset by unclean spirits, and likewise raised the dead out of the very sepulchres; the whirlwinds of the winds obeyed Him; He walked upon the sea with dry feet; and He did very many other miracles besides — so that even commonly, among the Jews and the people, He was called the Son of God. But the chief priests, stirred by rivalry and spite, opposed Him; and having seized Him, delivered Him to me, making Him out guilty by feigned crimes, calling Him a magician and a deserter and gainsayer of their law. ¹¹⁸ Led astray by these persuasions, I gave credit to their complaints, and delivered Him, scourged, to them, that they might deal with Him according to their pleasure. They crucified Him, therefore, and set guards over the sepulchre in which He was laid — among whom also were some of my [own] soldiers — who on the third day saw Him rising from the dead. But the wickedness of the Jews blazed up the more at this deed: and they counted out a great sum of money to the soldiers themselves, that they should give out that His disciples had stolen the body by night; and these [soldiers] indeed took the money, yet nonetheless everywhere publicly professed, and bear witness, that they had seen visions of Angels, and that that Jesus had truly risen from the dead. These things I have written for this cause: that no one should give credit to the trifles and lies of the Jews, if they should speak otherwise of the matter [as] done. Farewell.

TERTULLIAN, in the Apologeticus, writes ¹¹⁹ that the emperor Tiberius, when he had heard these [things] concerning Christ’s miracles out of Syria, referred [them] to the senate with the prerogative of his own vote, that Christ might be received among the gods of the Romans; and when the Senate would not approve it, Caesar remained in his opinion, threatening peril to the accusers of the Christians.

PETER COMESTOR, in the Scholastic History, relates ¹²⁰ that Pilate, accused before Caesar concerning the unjust slaughter of the Jews and [the plundering] of the sacred treasury of Jerusalem (which is called Corban), was by him banished to Lyons — which city was his birthplace ¹²¹ — that there, in the hatred and ignominy of his own race, he might die inglorious.

PROCHORUS, one of the seven deacons whom Luke in the Acts reports to have been chosen by the Apostles, is said to have written ¹²² the Gospel of John on the island of Patmos. Simon Metaphrastes attests this, in the life of John, in these words: JOHN bids a certain one of the seven deacons to follow him — this was Prochorus. And he takes the summit of the mountain, and is raised upright after the manner of Samuel, and is figured like Moses with hands uplifted, and withdraws [his] mind from the senses: then dreadful thunders, terrors, and lightnings like to those which had before befallen Moses when he received the law, took place; at last the thunders are expressed into a [human] voice, and clearly resound: In the beginning was the Word, and so forth. At which [voice] Prochorus — who at first had fallen, as it were lifeless with fear — his dread a little repressed, began with trembling hand to write his [John’s] words from the mouth and voice of John the Theologian (a voice which was to him [as] thunder), thus continuing until he had completed the whole gospel. But Athanasius, in the Synopsis, thinks ¹²³ the Gospel of John was written at Ephesus by Gaius.

PTOLEMY PHILOPATOR, fourth king of Egypt, wrote to the governors of his kingdom two letters — one against the Jews, the other for the Jews — the copy of which is extant in the third [book] of Maccabees, chapters 3 and 7.

THE WRITING-TABLET OF ZACHARIAS. Luke, making mention of this, ¹²⁴ said: AND asking for a writing-tablet, he wrote, saying, John is his name. Now the Pugillar [writing-tablet] — which the Greeks call πινακίδιον — is a little tablet smeared with wax, on which one writes with a stylus. Prudentius, in the Peristephanon, describing the martyrdom of Cassian (who, cut to pieces little by little by the writing-tablets and styli of his own pupils, perished), expressed the form and use ¹²⁵ of the writing-tablet and of the stylus (with which the tablets were written upon) in these verses:

Countless boys around [him] — a piteous sight — transfixed [his] pierced limbs with [their] little styli. Hence the tablets, wont to outrun the wax; noting the school’s murmur, they had written [their lessons]. Some hurl stones, and break the tablets upon [his] face; the wood, its surface struck back, flies asunder. The waxed box-wood [tablets] crackle, dashed on [his] bleeding cheeks, and the short swelling page grows red from the blow. Then others brandish goads and iron points — [there] where the wax is written with ploughed furrows, and where the cut letter-strokes are erased; and the field of the rough surface, shining anew, is made fresh again.

There are those who think ¹²⁶ that this Writing-tablet asked for by Zacharias was a public register, diligently kept by the scribes and priests in the synagogue, in which the names, tribes, and parents of circumcised infants — together with the year, month, and day of the circumcision — were noted, for the retaining of certainty and assurance both of the origin and of the age of each. This custom is still observed ¹²⁷ in many cities of Italy: [namely] that the names and times of baptized infants are written down by the parish priests who baptized them, in the authentic volume of the parish. Nor is [the opinion] of these far from what Eusebius, out of Julius Africanus, relates in the first [book] of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 7 — namely, that the Hebrews were accustomed to keep publicly, in the more secret archives of the temple, certain books in which were contained the origins of whatsoever Jews (even of those descended from foreigners) and the lineages and genealogies of all the families: which [books] Herod, thinking himself convicted by them of the ignobility of his own race, burned with flames; ¹²⁸ yet he could not utterly abolish them, since many — and especially those whom a nobility handed down from [their] forefathers put in mind [of it] — kept books of this kind copied out at home. Among which the genealogy of our Savior Jesus was found closely similar to those [things] which are had in the Gospel.