BOOK I.
PART I.
CHAPTERS I THROUGH III.
BOOK I.
CHAPTER I.
THE PLAN OF THE WORK.
It is my purpose to write an account of the successions of the holy apostles,
as well as of the times which have elapsed from the days of our Savior to our own,
and to relate the many important events which are said to have occurred in the
history of the Church, and to mention those who have governed and presided over
the Church in the most prominent parishes, and those who in each generation have
proclaimed the divine word, either orally or in writing.
It is my purpose also to give the names and number and times of those who through
love of innovation have run into the greatest errors, and, proclaiming
themselves discoverers of knowledge, falsely so called, have like fierce wolves
unmercifully devastated the flock of Christ.
It is my intention, moreover, to recount the misfortunes which immediately came
upon the whole Jewish nation in consequence of their plots against our
Savior, and to record the ways and the times in which the divine word has been
attacked by the Gentiles, and to describe the character of those who at various
periods have contended for it in the face of blood and of tortures, as well as the
confessions which have been made in our own days, and finally the gracious and
kindly succor which our Savior has afforded them all.
Since I propose to write of all these things, I shall commence my work with the
beginning of the dispensation of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.
But at the outset I must crave for my work the indulgence of the wise, for I confess
that it is beyond my power to produce a perfect and complete history, and since I
am the first to enter upon the subject, I am attempting to traverse, as it were,
a lonely and untrodden path.
I pray that I may have God as my guide, and the power of the Lord as my aid,
since I am unable to find even the bare footsteps of those who have traveled the
way before me, except in brief fragments, in which some in one way, others in
another, have transmitted to us particular accounts of the times in which they lived.
From afar they raise their voices like torches, and they cry out, as from some
lofty and conspicuous watchtower, admonishing us where to walk and how to
direct the course of our work steadily and safely.
Having gathered therefore from the matters mentioned here and there by them whatever
we consider important for the present work, and having plucked like flowers from
a meadow the appropriate passages from ancient writers, we shall endeavor to
embody the whole in an historical narrative, content if we preserve the
memory of the successions of the apostles of our Savior, if not indeed of all,
yet of the most renowned of them in those churches which are the most noted,
and which even to the present time are held in honor.
This work seems to me of especial importance, because I know of no
ecclesiastical writer who has devoted himself to this subject, and I hope that
it will appear most useful to those who are fond of historical research.
I have already given an epitome of these things in the chronological canons which I
have composed, but notwithstanding that, I have undertaken in the present work to
write as full an account of them as I am able.
My work will begin, as I have said, with the dispensation of the Savior
Christ, which is loftier and greater than human conception, and with a discussion of
His divinity.
For it is necessary, inasmuch as we derive even our name from Christ, for one who
proposes to write a history of the Church to begin with the very origin of Christ's
dispensation, a dispensation more divine than many think.
Chapter 2 Summary View of the Preexistence and Divinity of Our Savior and Lord Jesus
Christ Since in Christ there is a twofold nature, and the one, insofar as he is
thought of as God, resembles the head of the body, while the other may be compared
with the feet, insofar as he, for the sake of our salvation, put on human nature with
the same passions as our own, the following work will be complete only if we
begin with the chief and lordliest events of all his history.
In this way will the antiquity and divinity of Christianity be shown to those
who suppose it of recent and foreign origin, and imagine that it appeared only
yesterday.
No language is sufficient to express the origin and the worth, the being and the
nature of Christ.
Wherefore also the Divine Spirit says in the prophecies, Who shall declare his
generation?
For none knoweth the Father except the Son.
Neither can any one know the Son adequately except the Father alone who
hath begotten him.
For who beside the Father could clearly understand the light which was before the
world, the intellectual and essential wisdom which existed before the ages,
the living word which was in the beginning with the Father and which was God,
the first and only begotten of God, which was before every creature and
creation visible and invisible, the commander-in-chief of the rational and
immortal host of heaven, the messenger of the great council, the executor of the
Father's unspoken will, the creator with the Father of all things, the second cause
of the universe after the Father, the true and only begotten Son of God,
the Lord and God and King of all created things, the one who has received dominion
and power with divinity itself and with might and honor from the Father,
as it is said in regard to him in the mystical passages of scripture which speak
of his divinity, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made.
This, too, the great Moses teaches, when, as the most ancient of all the
prophets, he describes under the influence of the Divine Spirit the creation and
arrangement of the universe.
He declares that the maker of the world and the creator of all things yielded to
Christ himself and to none other than his own clearly divine and firstborn Word the
making of inferior things, and communed with him respecting the creation of man.
For, says he, God said, let us make man in our image and in our likeness.
And another of the prophets confirms this, speaking of God in his hymns as follows.
He spake, and they were made.
He commanded, and they were created.
He here introduces the Father and Maker as ruler of all, commanding with a kingly nod
and second to him the divine Word, none other than the one who is proclaimed
by us, as carrying out the Father's commands.
All that are said to have excelled in righteousness and piety since the creation
of man, the great servant Moses, and before him in the first place Abraham
and his children, and as many righteous men and prophets as afterward appeared,
have contemplated him with the pure eyes of the mind, and have recognized him and
offered to him the worship which is due him as son of God.
But he, by no means neglectful of the reverence due the Father, was appointed to
teach the knowledge of the Father to them all.
For instance, the Lord God, it is said, appeared as a common man to Abraham while
he was sitting at the oak of Mamre.
And he, immediately falling down, although he saw a man with his eyes,
nevertheless worshipped him as God, and sacrificed to him as Lord,
and confessed that he was not ignorant of his identity when he uttered the words,
Lord, the judge of all the earth, wilt thou not execute righteous judgment?
For if it is unreasonable to suppose that the unbegotten and immutable essence of
the Almighty God was changed into the form of man, or that it deceived the eyes of
the beholders with the appearance of some created thing, and if it is unreasonable
to suppose, on the other hand, that the scripture should falsely invent
such things, when the God and Lord who judgeth all the earth and executeth
judgment is seen in the form of a man, who else can be called, if it be not
lawful to call him the first cause of all things, than his only preexistent word?
Concerning whom it is said in the Psalms, he sent his word and healed them,
and delivered them from their destructions.
Moses most clearly proclaims him second Lord after the Father, when he says,
The Lord reigned upon Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord.
The divine scripture also calls him God, when he appeared again to Jacob in the
form of a man, and said to Jacob, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob,
but Israel shall be thy name, because thou hast prevailed with God.
Wherefore also Jacob called the name of that place vision of God, saying,
For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
Nor is it admissible to suppose that the theophanies recorded were appearances of
subordinate angels and ministers of God, for whenever any of these appeared to men,
the scripture does not conceal the fact, but calls them by name not God nor Lord,
but angels, as it is easy to prove by numberless testimonies.
Joshua also, the successor of Moses, calls him, as leader of the heavenly
angels and archangels, and of the supra-mundane powers, and as lieutenant of
the Father, entrusted with the second rank of sovereignty and rule over all,
captain of the host of the Lord, although he saw him not otherwise than
again in the form and appearance of a man.
For it is written, And it came to pass, when Joshua was at Jericho, that he looked
and saw a man standing over against him with his sword drawn in his hand.
And Joshua went unto him, and said, Art thou for us or for our adversaries?
And he said unto him, As captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.
And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and said unto him, Lord, what dost thou
command thy servant?
And the captain of the Lord said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy feet,
for the place whereon thou standest is holy.
You will perceive also from the same words that this was no other than he who talked
with Moses.
For the scripture says in the same words, and with reference to the same one,
When the Lord saw that he drew near to see, the Lord called to him out of the
bush, and said, Moses, Moses.
And he said, What is it?
And he said, Draw not nigh hither.
Loose thy shoe from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is
holy ground.
And he said unto him, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
And that there is a certain substance which lived and subsisted before the
world, and which ministered unto the Father and God of the universe for the
formation of all created things, and which is called the word of God and
wisdom, we may learn, to quote other proofs in addition to those already cited,
from the mouth of wisdom herself, who reveals most clearly through Solomon
the following mysteries concerning herself.
I, wisdom, have dwelt with prudence and knowledge, and I have invoked
understanding.
Through me kings reign, and princes ordain righteousness.
Through me the great are magnified, and through me sovereigns rule the earth.
To which she adds, The Lord created me in the beginning of his ways, for his works.
Before the world he established me, in the beginning, before he made the
earth, before he made the depths, before the mountains were settled,
before all hills he begot me.
When he prepared the heavens, I was present with him.
And when he established the fountains of the region under heaven, I was with him,
disposing.
I was the one in whom he delighted.
Daily I rejoiced before him at all times, when he was rejoicing at having completed
the world.
That the divine word therefore pre-existed and appeared to some, if not to all,
has thus been briefly shown by us.
But why the gospel was not preached in ancient times to all men and to all
nations, as it is now, will appear from the following considerations.
The life of the ancients was not of such a kind as to permit them to receive the
all-wise and all-virtuous teaching of Christ.
For immediately in the beginning, after his original life of blessedness,
the first man despised the command of God and fell into this mortal and perishable
state, and exchanged his former divinely inspired luxury for this curse-laden
earth.
His descendants, having filled our earth, showed themselves much worse, with the
exception of one here and there, and entered upon a certain brutal and
insupportable mode of life.
They thought neither of city nor state, neither of arts nor sciences.
They were ignorant even of the name of laws and of justice, of virtue and of
philosophy.
As nomads they passed their lives in deserts, like wild and fierce beasts,
destroying, by an excess of voluntary wickedness, the natural reason of man,
and the seeds of thought and of culture implanted in the human soul.
They gave themselves wholly over to all kinds of profanity, now seducing one
another, now slaying one another, now eating human flesh, and now daring to
wage war with the gods and to undertake those battles of the giants celebrated by
all, now planning to fortify earth against heaven, and in the madness of ungoverned
pride to prepare an attack upon the very God of all.
On account of these things, when they conducted themselves thus, the all-seeing
God sent down upon them floods and conflagrations as upon a wild forest
spread over the whole earth.
He cut them down with continuous famines and plagues, with wars, and with
thunderbolts from heaven, as if to check some terrible and obstinate disease of
souls with more severe punishments.
Then, when the excess of wickedness had overwhelmed nearly all the race,
like a deep fit of drunkenness beclouding and darkening the minds of men,
the firstborn and first created wisdom of God, the preexistent word himself,
induced by his exceeding love for man, appeared to his servants, now in the form
of angels, and again to one and another of those ancients who enjoyed the favor of
God, in his own person as the saving power of God, not otherwise, however,
than in the shape of man, because it was impossible to appear in any other way.
And as by them the seeds of piety were sown among a multitude of men and the
whole nation, descended from the Hebrews, devoted themselves persistently to the
worship of God, he imparted to them through the prophet Moses, as to
multitudes still corrupted by their ancient practices, images and symbols of a
certain mystic sabbath and of circumcision, and elements of other
spiritual principles, but he did not grant them a complete knowledge of the mysteries
themselves.
But when their law became celebrated, and like a sweet odor was diffused among
all men, as a result of their influence the dispositions of the majority of the
heathen were softened by the lawgivers and philosophers who arose on every side,
and their wild and savage brutality was changed into mildness, so that they
enjoyed deep peace, friendship, and social intercourse.
Then, finally, at the time of the origin of the Roman Empire, there appeared again
to all men and nations throughout the world, who had been, as it were,
previously assisted, and were now fitted to receive the knowledge of the Father,
that same teacher of virtue, the minister of the Father in all good things,
the divine and heavenly Word of God, in a human body not at all differing in
substance from our own.
He did and suffered the things which had been prophesied, for it had been foretold
that one who was at the same time man and God should come and dwell in the world,
should perform wonderful works, and should show himself a teacher to all
nations of the piety of the Father.
The marvelous nature of his birth and his new teaching and his wonderful works had
also been foretold.
So, likewise, the manner of his death, his resurrection from the dead,
and finally, his divine ascension into heaven.
For instance, Daniel the prophet, under the influence of the divine Spirit,
seeing his kingdom at the end of time, was inspired thus to describe the divine
vision in language fitted to human comprehension.
For I beheld, he says, until thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days did sit,
whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool.
His throne was a flame of fire and his wheels burning fire.
A river of fire flowed before him.
Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood
before him.
He appointed judgment, and the books were opened.
And again, I saw, says he, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the
clouds of heaven, and he hastened unto the Ancient of Days and was brought into his
presence.
And there was given him the dominion and the glory and the kingdom.
And all peoples, tribes, and tongues serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom
shall not be destroyed.
It is clear that these words can refer to no one else than to our Savior,
the God Word, who was in the beginning with God, and who was called the Son of
Man because of his final appearance in the flesh.
But since we have collected in separate books the selections from the prophets
which relate to our Savior, Jesus Christ, and have arranged in a more logical form
those things which have been revealed concerning him, what has been said will
suffice for the present.
Chapter 3.
The name Jesus and also the name Christ were known from the beginning,
and were honored by the inspired prophets.
It is now the proper place to show that the very name Jesus and also the name
Christ were honored by the ancient prophets beloved of God.
Moses was the first to make known the name of Christ as a name especially august and
glorious.
When he delivered types and symbols of heavenly things and mysterious images in
accordance with the oracle which said to him, look that thou make all things
according to the pattern which was shown thee in the mount, he consecrated a man,
high priest of God, insofar as that was possible, and him he called Christ.
And thus to this dignity of the high priesthood, which in his opinion surpassed
the most honorable position among men, he attached for the sake of honor and
glory the name of Christ.
He knew so well that in Christ was something divine, and the same one
foreseeing, under the influence of the divine spirit, the name Jesus,
dignified it also with a certain distinguished privilege.
For the name of Jesus, which had never been uttered among men before the time of
Moses, he applied first and only to the one who he knew would receive after his
death again as a type and symbol, the supreme command.
His successor, therefore, who had not hitherto borne the name Jesus,
but had been called by another name, Osses, which had been given him by his
parents, he now called Jesus, bestowing the name upon him as a gift of honor,
far greater than any kingly diadem.
For Jesus himself, the son of Nave, bore a resemblance to our Savior in the
fact that he alone, after Moses and after the completion of the symbolical worship
which had been transmitted by him, succeeded to the government of the true
and pure religion.
Thus Moses bestowed the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, as a mark of the
highest honor, upon the two men who in his time surpassed all the rest of the people
in virtue and glory, namely, upon the high priest and upon his own successor in the
government.
And the prophets that came after also clearly foretold Christ by name,
predicting at the same time the plots which the Jewish people would form against
him, and the calling of the nations through him.
Jeremiah, for instance, speaks as follows, The spirit before our face, Christ the
Lord, was taken in their destructions, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall
live among the nations.
And David, in perplexity, says, Why did the nations rage, and the people
imagine vain things?
The kings of the earth set themselves in array, and the rulers were gathered
together against the Lord and against his Christ.
To which he adds, in the person of Christ himself, The Lord said unto me,
Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.
Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
And not only those who were honored with the high priesthood, and who for the sake
of the symbol were anointed with a specially prepared oil, were adorned with
the name of Christ among the Hebrews, but also the kings whom the prophets
anointed under the influence of the divine spirit, and thus constituted, as it were,
typical Christs.
For they also bore in their own persons types of the royal and sovereign power of
the true and only Christ, the divine word who ruleth over all.
And we have been told also that certain of the prophets themselves became,
by the act of anointing, Christs in type, so that all these have reference to the
true Christ, the divinely inspired and heavenly word, who is the only high priest
of all, and the only king of every creature, and the father's only supreme
prophet of prophets.
And the proof of this is that no one of those who were of old symbolically
anointed, whether priests or kings or prophets, possessed so great a power of
inspired virtue as was exhibited by our Savior and Lord Jesus, the true and only
Christ.
None of them, at least, however superior in dignity and honor they may have been
for many generations among their own people, ever gave to their followers the
name of Christians from their own typical name, Christ.
Neither was divine honor ever rendered to any one of them by their subjects,
nor after their death was the disposition of their followers such that they were
ready to die for the one whom they honored.
And never did so great a commotion arise among all the nations of the earth in
respect to any one of that age, for the mere symbol could not act with
such power among them as the truth itself, which was exhibited by our Savior.
He, although he received no symbols and types of high priesthood from any one,
although he was not born of a race of priests, although he was not elevated to a
kingdom by military guards, although he was not a prophet like those of old,
although he obtained no honor nor preeminence among the Jews, nevertheless
was adorned by the Father with all, if not with the symbols, yet with the
truth itself.
And therefore, although he did not possess like honors with those whom we have
mentioned, he is called Christ more than all of them.
And as himself the true and only Christ of God, he has filled the whole earth with
the truly august and sacred name of Christians, committing to his followers no
longer types and images, but the uncovered virtues themselves and a heavenly life in
the very doctrines of truth.
And he was not anointed with oil prepared from material substances, but,
as befits divinity, with the divine spirit himself, by participation in the
unbegotten deity of the Father.
And this is taught also again by Isaiah, who exclaims, as if in the person of
Christ himself, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, therefore hath he anointed me.
He hath sent me to preach the gospel to the poor, to proclaim deliverance to
captives and recovery of sight to the blind.
And not only Isaiah, but also David addresses him, saying, Thy throne,
O God, is forever and ever.
A scepter of equity is the scepter of thy kingdom.
Thou hast loved righteousness and hast hated iniquity.
Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy
fellows.
Here the scripture calls him God in the first verse, in the second it honors him
with the royal scepter.
Then, a little farther on, after the divine and royal power, it represents him
in the third place as having become Christ, being anointed not with oil made
of material substances, but with the divine oil of gladness.
It thus indicates his especial honor, far superior to and different from that of
those who, as types, were of old anointed in a more material way.
And elsewhere, the same writer speaks of him as follows.
The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy
footstool.
And, out of the womb, before the morning star, have I begotten thee.
The Lord hath sworn, and he will not repent.
Thou art a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.
But this Melchizedek is introduced in the holy scriptures as a priest of the Most
High God, not consecrated by any anointing oil, especially prepared, and not even
belonging by descent to the priesthood of the Jews.
Wherefore, after his order, but not after the order of the others, who received
symbols and types, was our Savior proclaimed, with an appeal to an oath,
Christ and priest.
History, therefore, does not relate that he was anointed corporeally by the Jews,
nor that he belonged to the lineage of priests, but that he came into existence
from God Himself before the morning star, that is, before the organization of the
world, and that he obtained an immortal and undecaying priesthood for eternal
ages.
But it is a great and convincing proof of his incorporeal and divine unction that he
alone of all those who have ever existed is even to the called Christ by all men
throughout the world, and is confessed and witnessed to under this name, and is
commemorated both by Greeks and barbarians, and even to this day is
honored as a king by his followers throughout the world, and is admired as
more than a prophet, and is glorified as the true and only High Priest of God.
And besides all this, as the preexistent Word of God, called into being before all
ages, he has received august honor from the Father, and is worshipped as God.
But most wonderful of all is the fact that we who have consecrated ourselves to him
honor him not only with our voices and with the sound of words, but also with
complete elevation of soul, so that we choose to give testimony unto him rather
than to preserve our own lives.
I have of necessity prefaced my history with these matters in order that no one,
judging from the date of his incarnation, may think that our Savior and Lord Jesus,
the Christ, has but recently come into being.
End of Book 1, Part 1