WEBVTT

00:26.410 --> 00:27.310
BOOK III.

00:27.550 --> 00:28.210
PART I.

00:28.530 --> 00:29.970
CHAPTERS I THROUGH VI.

00:31.130 --> 00:32.190
BOOK III.

00:33.410 --> 00:34.170
CHAPTER I.

00:34.730 --> 00:38.070
THE PARTS OF THE WORLD IN WHICH THE
APOSTLES PREACHED CHRIST.

00:39.870 --> 00:41.810
Such was the condition of the Jews.

00:42.550 --> 00:46.530
Meanwhile the holy apostles and disciples
of our Savior were dispersed throughout

00:46.530 --> 00:47.110
the world.

00:47.830 --> 00:52.110
Parthia, according to tradition,
was allotted to Thomas as his field of

00:52.110 --> 00:57.810
labor, Scythia to Andrew, and Asia to
John, who, after he had lived some time

00:57.810 --> 00:59.530
there, died at Ephesus.

01:01.210 --> 01:06.410
Peter appears to have preached in Pontus,
Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia,

01:06.630 --> 01:09.110
and Asia to the Jews of the dispersion.

01:09.750 --> 01:13.930
And at last, having come to Rome,
he was crucified head downwards,

01:14.330 --> 01:17.290
for he had requested that he might suffer
in this way.

01:18.130 --> 01:22.350
What do we need to say concerning Paul,
who preached the gospel of Christ from

01:22.350 --> 01:27.050
Jerusalem to Illyricum and afterwards
suffered martyrdom in Rome under Nero?

01:27.750 --> 01:32.530
These facts are related by origin in the
third volume of his commentary on Genesis.

01:34.610 --> 01:35.590
CHAPTER II.

01:36.030 --> 01:37.950
THE FIRST RULER OF THE CHURCH OF ROME.

01:39.350 --> 01:43.890
After the martyrdom of Paul and of Peter,
Linus was the first to obtain the

01:43.890 --> 01:45.690
episcopate of the church at Rome.

01:46.450 --> 01:51.310
Paul mentions him when writing to Timothy
from Rome in the salutation at the end of

01:51.310 --> 01:51.850
the epistle.

01:53.630 --> 01:54.610
CHAPTER III.

01:55.170 --> 01:56.990
THE EPISTLES OF THE APOSTLES.

01:58.250 --> 02:02.370
One epistle of Peter, that called the
first, is acknowledged as genuine.

02:02.970 --> 02:07.390
And this the ancient elders used freely in
their own writings as an undisputed work.

02:07.970 --> 02:11.890
But we have learned that his extant second
epistle does not belong to the canon,

02:12.350 --> 02:16.810
yet, as it has appeared profitable to
many, it has been used with the other

02:16.810 --> 02:17.250
scriptures.

02:19.190 --> 02:23.350
The so-called acts of Peter, however,
and the gospel which bears his name,

02:23.630 --> 02:28.170
and the preaching and the apocalypse as
they are called, we know have not been

02:28.170 --> 02:32.890
universally accepted, because no
ecclesiastical writer, ancient or modern,

02:33.210 --> 02:35.670
has made use of testimonies drawn from
them.

02:37.010 --> 02:41.730
But in the course of my history I shall be
careful to show, in addition to the

02:41.730 --> 02:46.990
official succession, what ecclesiastical
writers have from time to time made use of

02:46.990 --> 02:51.710
any of the disputed works, and what they
have said in regard to the canonical and

02:51.710 --> 02:55.870
accepted writings, as well as in regard to
those which are not of this class.

02:57.770 --> 03:01.870
Such are the writings that bear the name
of Peter, only one of which I know to be

03:01.870 --> 03:04.470
genuine and acknowledged by the ancient
elders.

03:06.670 --> 03:09.970
Paul's fourteen epistles are well known
and undisputed.

03:10.470 --> 03:14.110
It is not indeed right to overlook the
fact that some have rejected the epistle

03:14.110 --> 03:18.970
to the Hebrews, saying that it is disputed
by the Church of Rome, on the ground that

03:18.970 --> 03:20.310
it was not written by Paul.

03:20.930 --> 03:24.850
But what has been said concerning this
epistle by those who lived before our

03:24.850 --> 03:27.470
time, I shall quote in the proper place.

03:28.030 --> 03:32.730
In regard to the so-called acts of Paul,
I have not found them among the undisputed

03:32.730 --> 03:33.110
writings.

03:34.570 --> 03:38.830
But as the same apostle, in the
salutations at the end of the epistle to

03:38.830 --> 03:43.370
the Romans, has made mention among others
of Hermas, to whom the book called the

03:43.370 --> 03:47.550
Shepherd is ascribed, it should be
observed that this too has been disputed

03:47.550 --> 03:51.910
by some, and on their account cannot be
placed among the acknowledged books.

03:52.370 --> 03:57.030
While by others it is considered quite
indispensable, especially to those who

03:57.030 --> 03:59.230
need instruction in the elements of the
faith.

04:00.030 --> 04:04.730
Hence, as we know, it has been publicly
read in churches, and I have found that

04:04.730 --> 04:07.010
some of the most ancient writers used it.

04:08.970 --> 04:13.130
This will serve to show the divine
writings that are undisputed, as well as

04:13.130 --> 04:15.230
those that are not universally
acknowledged.

04:17.550 --> 04:24.350
Chapter 4, The First Successors of the
Apostles That Paul preached to the

04:24.350 --> 04:28.690
Gentiles and laid the foundations of the
churches from Jerusalem round about even

04:28.690 --> 04:33.870
unto Illyricum, is evident both from his
own words and from the account which Luke

04:33.870 --> 04:35.150
has given in the Acts.

04:36.310 --> 04:40.650
And in how many provinces Peter preached
Christ and taught the doctrine of the new

04:40.650 --> 04:45.010
covenant to those of the circumcision,
is clear from his own words in his epistle

04:45.010 --> 04:49.150
already mentioned as undisputed,
in which he writes to the Hebrews of the

04:49.150 --> 04:53.870
dispersion in Pontus, Galatia,
Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

04:55.650 --> 04:59.550
But the number and the names of those
among them that became true and zealous

04:59.550 --> 05:03.790
followers of the Apostles, and were judged
worthy to tend the churches founded by

05:03.790 --> 05:08.530
them, it is not easy to tell, except those
mentioned in the writings of Paul.

05:09.950 --> 05:14.790
For he had innumerable fellow laborers,
or fellow soldiers, as he called them,

05:15.170 --> 05:19.590
and most of them were honored by him with
an imperishable memorial, for he gave

05:19.590 --> 05:22.530
enduring testimony concerning them in his
own epistles.

05:24.130 --> 05:28.430
Luke also in the Acts speaks of his
friends and mentions them by name.

05:30.070 --> 05:34.930
Timothy, so it is recorded, was the first
to receive the episcopate of the parish in

05:34.930 --> 05:37.590
Ephesus, Titus of the churches in Crete.

05:39.610 --> 05:44.130
But Luke, who was of Antiochian parentage
and a physician by profession,

05:44.550 --> 05:48.550
and who was especially intimate with Paul
and well acquainted with the rest of the

05:48.550 --> 05:54.330
has left us in two inspired books,
proofs of that spiritual healing art which

05:54.330 --> 05:55.310
he learned from them.

05:55.950 --> 06:00.330
One of these books is the Gospel,
which he testifies that he wrote as those

06:00.330 --> 06:03.990
who were from the beginning eyewitnesses
and ministers of the word delivered unto

06:03.990 --> 06:08.510
him, all of whom, as he says, he followed
accurately from the first.

06:09.250 --> 06:13.170
The other book is the Acts of the
Apostles, which he composed not from the

06:13.170 --> 06:16.150
accounts of others, but from what he had
seen himself.

06:17.990 --> 06:23.030
And they say that Paul meant to refer to
Luke's gospel wherever, as if speaking of

06:23.030 --> 06:27.010
some gospel of his own, he used the words,
according to my gospel.

06:28.870 --> 06:33.630
As to the rest of his followers,
Paul testifies that Crestians was sent to

06:33.630 --> 06:38.490
Gaul, but Linus, whom he mentions in the
second epistle to Timothy as his companion

06:38.490 --> 06:42.770
at Rome, was Peter's successor in the
episcopate of the church there,

06:42.770 --> 06:44.530
as has already been shown.

06:46.250 --> 06:50.630
Clement also, who was appointed third
bishop of the church at Rome, was,

06:50.790 --> 06:54.130
as Paul testifies, his co-laborer and
fellow soldier.

06:56.070 --> 07:01.150
Besides these, that Areopagite named
Dionysius, who was the first to believe

07:01.150 --> 07:05.810
after Paul's address to the Athenians in
the Areopagus, as recorded by Luke in the

07:05.810 --> 07:10.910
Acts, is mentioned by another Dionysius,
an ancient writer and pastor of the parish

07:10.910 --> 07:14.390
in Corinth, as the first bishop of the
church at Athens.

07:16.190 --> 07:20.350
But the events connected with the
apostolic succession we shall relate at

07:20.350 --> 07:21.290
the proper time.

07:21.910 --> 07:24.670
Meanwhile, let us continue the course of
our history.

07:26.690 --> 07:27.650
Chapter 5.

07:28.170 --> 07:30.670
The Last Siege of the Jews After Christ.

07:31.850 --> 07:37.390
After Nero had held the power 13 years,
and Galba and Otho had ruled a year and

07:37.390 --> 07:41.870
six months, Vespasian, who had become
distinguished in the campaign against the

07:41.870 --> 07:47.090
Jews, was proclaimed sovereign in Judea
and received the title of emperor from the

07:47.090 --> 07:47.850
armies there.

07:48.410 --> 07:52.710
Setting out immediately, therefore,
for Rome, he entrusted the conduct of the

07:52.710 --> 07:55.070
war against the Jews to his son Titus.

07:56.890 --> 08:01.570
For the Jews, after the ascension of our
Savior, in addition to their crime against

08:01.570 --> 08:05.650
him, had been devising as many plots as
they could against his apostles.

08:06.530 --> 08:11.310
First Stephen was stoned to death by them,
and after him James, the son of Zebedee

08:11.310 --> 08:13.250
and the brother of John, was beheaded.

08:13.910 --> 08:17.890
And finally James, the first that had
obtained the episcopal seat in Jerusalem

08:17.890 --> 08:22.250
after the ascension of our Savior,
died in the manner already described.

08:23.090 --> 08:27.770
But the rest of the apostles, who had been
incessantly plotted against with a view to

08:27.770 --> 08:32.230
their destruction and had been driven out
of the land of Judea, went unto all

08:32.230 --> 08:37.030
nations to preach the gospel, relying upon
the power of Christ, who had said to them,

08:37.470 --> 08:40.630
Go ye and make disciples of all the
nations in my name.

08:42.750 --> 08:46.970
But the people of the church in Jerusalem
had been commanded by a revelation,

08:47.330 --> 08:52.070
vouchsafed to approved men there before
the war, to leave the city and to dwell in

08:52.070 --> 08:54.170
a certain town of Perea called Pella.

08:54.890 --> 08:58.890
And when those that believed in Christ had
come thither from Jerusalem, then,

08:59.230 --> 09:02.850
as if the royal city of the Jews and the
whole land of Judea were entirely

09:02.850 --> 09:07.810
destitute of holy men, the judgment of God
at length overtook those who had committed

09:07.810 --> 09:12.250
such outrages against Christ and his
apostles, and totally destroyed that

09:12.250 --> 09:14.090
generation of impious men.

09:15.470 --> 09:19.570
But the number of calamities which
everywhere fell upon the nation at that

09:19.570 --> 09:24.170
time, the extreme misfortunes to which the
inhabitants of Judea were especially

09:24.170 --> 09:27.970
subjected, the thousands of men,
as well as women and children,

09:28.430 --> 09:32.850
that perished by the sword, by famine,
and by other forms of death innumerable,

09:33.430 --> 09:37.430
all these things, as well as the many
great sieges which were carried on against

09:37.430 --> 09:42.330
the cities of Judea, and the excessive
sufferings endured by those that fled to

09:42.330 --> 09:47.890
Jerusalem itself as to a city of perfect
safety, and finally the general course of

09:47.890 --> 09:52.910
the whole war, as well as its particular
occurrences in detail, and how at last the

09:52.910 --> 09:57.410
abomination of desolation proclaimed by
the prophets stood in the very temple of

09:57.410 --> 10:02.290
God so celebrated of old, the temple which
was now awaiting its total and final

10:02.290 --> 10:07.270
destruction by fire, all these things
anyone that wishes may find accurately

10:07.270 --> 10:10.050
described in the history written by
Josephus.

10:11.510 --> 10:16.190
But it is necessary to state that this
writer records that the multitude of those

10:16.190 --> 10:20.470
who were assembled from all Judea at the
time of the Passover, to the number of

10:20.470 --> 10:25.390
three million souls, were shut up in
Jerusalem as in a prison, to use his own

10:25.390 --> 10:25.850
words.

10:27.290 --> 10:31.310
For it was right that in the very days in
which they had inflicted suffering upon

10:31.310 --> 10:35.990
the Saviour and the benefactor of all,
the Christ of God, that in those days,

10:36.210 --> 10:40.330
shut up as in a prison, they should meet
with destruction at the hands of divine

10:40.330 --> 10:40.850
justice.

10:42.670 --> 10:47.110
But passing by the particular calamities
which they suffered from the attempts made

10:47.110 --> 10:51.710
upon them by the sword and by other means,
I think it necessary to relate only the

10:51.710 --> 10:56.030
misfortunes which the famine caused,
that those who read this work may have

10:56.030 --> 11:00.530
some means of knowing that God was not
long in executing vengeance upon them for

11:00.530 --> 11:02.750
their wickedness against the Christ of
God.

11:04.930 --> 11:06.090
Chapter 6.

11:06.530 --> 11:12.530
The Famine Which Oppressed Them Taking the
fifth book of the history of Josephus

11:12.530 --> 11:17.090
again in our hands, let us go through the
tragedy of events which then occurred.

11:17.870 --> 11:21.790
For the wealthy, he says, it was equally
dangerous to remain.

11:22.330 --> 11:26.470
For under pretense that they were going to
desert, men were put to death for their

11:26.470 --> 11:26.830
wealth.

11:27.210 --> 11:31.230
The madness of the seditions increased
with the famine and both the miseries were

11:31.230 --> 11:33.530
inflamed more and more day by day.

11:35.990 --> 11:37.830
Nowhere was food to be seen.

11:38.230 --> 11:41.250
But bursting into the houses, men searched
them thoroughly.

11:41.670 --> 11:45.270
And whenever they found anything to eat,
they tormented the owners on the ground

11:45.270 --> 11:47.070
that they had denied that they had
anything.

11:47.550 --> 11:51.090
But if they found nothing, they tortured
them on the ground that they had more

11:51.090 --> 11:52.450
carefully concealed it.

11:54.050 --> 11:58.350
The proof of their having or not having
food was found in the bodies of the poor

11:58.350 --> 11:58.830
wretches.

11:59.430 --> 12:03.310
Those of them who were still in good
condition, they assumed were well supplied

12:03.310 --> 12:03.950
with food.

12:04.450 --> 12:09.250
While those who were already wasted away,
they passed by, for it seemed absurd to

12:09.250 --> 12:11.930
slay those who were on the point of
perishing for want.

12:13.410 --> 12:18.330
Many indeed secretly sold their
possessions for one measure of wheat if

12:18.330 --> 12:22.250
they belonged to the wealthier class,
of barley if they were poorer.

12:23.090 --> 12:26.230
Then shutting themselves up in the
innermost parts of their houses,

12:26.630 --> 12:31.030
some ate the grain uncooked on account of
their terrible want, while others baked it

12:31.030 --> 12:33.410
according as necessity and fear dictated.

12:35.450 --> 12:37.150
Nowhere were tables set.

12:37.570 --> 12:41.590
But snatching the yet uncooked food from
the fire, they tore it in pieces.

12:42.210 --> 12:46.830
Wretched was the fare, and a lamentable
spectacle it was to see the more powerful

12:46.830 --> 12:49.370
secure an abundance while the weaker
mourned.

12:51.090 --> 12:57.850
Of all evils, indeed, famine is the worst,
and it destroys nothing so effectively as

12:57.850 --> 12:58.410
shame.

12:58.990 --> 13:03.230
For that which under other circumstances
is worthy of respect, in the midst of

13:03.230 --> 13:04.710
famine, is despised.

13:04.710 --> 13:09.150
Thus women snatched the food from the very
mouths of their husbands and children,

13:09.510 --> 13:14.370
from their fathers, and what was most
pitiable of all, mothers from their babes.

13:14.730 --> 13:19.010
And while their dearest ones were wasting
away in their arms, they were not ashamed

13:19.010 --> 13:22.310
to take away from them the last drops that
supported life.

13:24.070 --> 13:28.310
And even while they were eating thus,
they did not remain undiscovered.

13:28.590 --> 13:33.150
But everywhere the rioters appeared to rob
them even of these portions of food.

13:33.150 --> 13:37.910
For whenever they saw a house shut up,
they regarded it as a sign that those

13:37.910 --> 13:39.290
inside were taking food.

13:39.810 --> 13:43.550
And immediately bursting open the doors,
they rushed in and seized what they were

13:43.550 --> 13:46.550
eating, almost forcing it out of their
very throats.

13:48.190 --> 13:52.830
Old men who clung to their food were
beaten, and if the women concealed it in

13:52.830 --> 13:55.310
their hands, their hair was torn for so
doing.

13:55.870 --> 14:00.450
There was pity neither for gray hairs nor
for infants, but taking up the babes that

14:00.450 --> 14:03.530
clung to their morsels of food,
they dashed them to the ground.

14:04.170 --> 14:07.330
But to those that anticipated their
entrance and swallowed what they were

14:07.330 --> 14:11.930
about to seize, they were still more
cruel, just as if they had been wronged by

14:11.930 --> 14:12.210
them.

14:13.710 --> 14:18.830
And they devised the most terrible modes
of torture to discover food, stopping up

14:18.830 --> 14:23.030
the privy passages of the poor wretches
with bitter herbs, and piercing their

14:23.030 --> 14:24.530
seats with sharp rods.

14:25.130 --> 14:29.450
And men suffered things horrible even to
hear of, for the sake of compelling them

14:29.450 --> 14:33.970
to confess to the possession of one loaf
of bread, or in order that they might be

14:33.970 --> 14:37.810
made to disclose a single drachma of
barley which they had concealed.

14:38.730 --> 14:41.950
But the tormentors themselves did not
suffer hunger.

14:43.590 --> 14:47.870
Their conduct might indeed have seemed
less barbarous if they had been driven to

14:47.870 --> 14:52.670
it by necessity, but they did it for the
sake of exercising their madness and of

14:52.670 --> 14:55.430
providing sustenance for themselves for
days to come.

14:57.070 --> 15:01.630
And when anyone crept out of the city by
night as far as the outposts of the Romans

15:01.630 --> 15:05.170
to collect wild herbs and grass,
they went to meet him.

15:05.490 --> 15:09.750
And when he thought he had already escaped
the enemy, they seized what he had brought

15:09.750 --> 15:14.070
with him, and even though oftentimes the
man would entreat them, and calling upon

15:14.070 --> 15:18.730
the most awful name of God, adjure them to
give him a portion of what he had obtained

15:18.730 --> 15:22.130
at the risk of his life, they would give
him nothing back.

15:22.670 --> 15:26.890
Indeed, it was fortunate if the one that
was plundered was not also slain.

15:28.230 --> 15:32.810
To this account, Josephus, after relating
other things, adds the following.

15:33.630 --> 15:38.050
The possibility of going out of the city
being brought to an end, all hope of

15:38.050 --> 15:42.810
safety for the Jews was cut off,
and the famine increased and devoured the

15:42.810 --> 15:47.250
people by houses and families,
and the rooms were filled with dead women

15:47.250 --> 15:51.170
and children, the lanes of the city with
the corpses of old men.

15:52.830 --> 15:57.370
Children and youths, swollen with the
famine, wandered about the marketplaces

15:57.370 --> 16:01.690
like shadows, and fell down wherever the
death agony overtook them.

16:02.330 --> 16:06.770
The sick were not strong enough to bury
even their own relatives, and those who

16:06.770 --> 16:10.930
had the strength hesitated because of the
multitude of the dead and the uncertainty

16:10.930 --> 16:12.270
as to their own fate.

16:12.930 --> 16:18.050
Many indeed died while they were burying
others, and many betook themselves to

16:18.050 --> 16:20.430
their graves before death came upon them.

16:22.450 --> 16:27.490
There was neither weeping nor lamentation
under these misfortunes, but the famine

16:27.490 --> 16:29.370
stifled the natural affections.

16:29.990 --> 16:34.170
Those that were dying a lingering death
looked with dry eyes upon those that had

16:34.170 --> 16:35.830
gone to their rest before them.

16:36.510 --> 16:39.710
Deep silence and death-laden night
encircled the city.

16:41.530 --> 16:46.290
But the robbers were more terrible than
these miseries, for they broke open the

16:46.290 --> 16:50.810
houses, which were now mere sepulchers,
robbed the dead, and stripped the covering

16:50.810 --> 16:53.710
from their bodies, and went away with a
laugh.

16:54.150 --> 16:58.450
They tried the points of their swords in
the dead bodies, and some that were lying

16:58.450 --> 17:02.550
on the ground still alive they thrust
through in order to test their weapons.

17:03.250 --> 17:07.130
But those that prayed that they would use
their right hand and their sword upon

17:07.130 --> 17:10.550
them, they contemptuously left to be
destroyed by the famine.

17:11.430 --> 17:15.910
Every one of these died with eyes fixed
upon the temple, and they left the

17:15.910 --> 17:17.150
seditious alive.

17:19.070 --> 17:22.870
These at first gave orders that the dead
should be buried out of the public

17:22.870 --> 17:25.770
treasury, for they could not endure the
stench.

17:26.450 --> 17:30.510
But afterward, when they were not able to
do this, they threw the bodies from the

17:30.510 --> 17:31.690
walls into the trenches.

17:33.250 --> 17:37.710
And as Titus went around and saw the
trenches filled with the dead and the

17:37.710 --> 17:42.630
thick blood oozing out of the putrid
bodies, he groaned aloud, and raising his

17:42.630 --> 17:46.210
hands, called God to witness that this was
not his doing.

17:47.830 --> 17:51.890
After speaking of some other things,
Josephus proceeds as follows.

17:52.250 --> 17:56.030
I cannot hesitate to declare what my
feelings compel me to.

17:56.610 --> 18:01.090
I suppose if the Romans had longer delayed
in coming against these guilty wretches,

18:01.330 --> 18:05.890
the city would have been swallowed up by a
chasm, or overwhelmed with a flood,

18:06.250 --> 18:09.350
or struck with such thunderbolts as
destroyed Sodom.

18:09.810 --> 18:14.170
For it had brought forth a generation of
men much more godless than were those that

18:14.170 --> 18:15.370
suffered such punishment.

18:16.210 --> 18:19.710
By their madness, indeed, was the whole
people brought to destruction.

18:21.150 --> 18:23.930
And in the sixth book, he writes as
follows.

18:24.350 --> 18:28.110
Of those that perished by famine in the
city, the number was countless,

18:28.670 --> 18:31.490
and the miseries they underwent
unspeakable.

18:32.110 --> 18:36.670
For if so much as the shadow of food
appeared in any house, there was war,

18:37.090 --> 18:40.950
and the dearest friends engaged in
hand-to-hand conflict with one another,

18:41.250 --> 18:44.430
and snatched from each other the most
wretched supports of life.

18:45.790 --> 18:49.870
Nor would they believe that even the dying
were without food, but the robbers would

18:49.870 --> 18:53.810
search them while they were expiring,
lest anyone should feign death while

18:53.810 --> 18:55.570
concealing food in his bosom.

18:56.230 --> 19:01.030
With mouths gaping for want of food,
they stumbled and staggered along like mad

19:01.030 --> 19:05.550
dogs, and beat the doors as if they were
drunk, and in their impotence they would

19:05.550 --> 19:08.770
rush into the same houses twice or thrice
in one hour.

19:10.870 --> 19:14.910
Necessity compelled them to eat anything
they could find, and they gathered and

19:14.910 --> 19:18.730
devoured things that were not fit even for
the filthiest of irrational beasts.

19:19.290 --> 19:23.570
Finally, they did not abstain even from
their girdles and shoes, and they stripped

19:23.570 --> 19:25.910
the hides off their shields and devoured
them.

19:26.190 --> 19:31.510
Some used even wisps of old hay for food,
and others gathered stubble and sold the

19:31.510 --> 19:33.890
smallest weight of it for four adikdrakme.

19:35.330 --> 19:38.930
But why should I speak of the
shamelessness which was displayed during

19:38.930 --> 19:40.790
the famine toward inanimate things?

19:41.270 --> 19:46.150
For I am going to relate a fact such as is
recorded neither by Greeks nor barbarians,

19:46.730 --> 19:49.290
horrible to relate, incredible to hear.

19:49.870 --> 19:54.550
And indeed I should gladly have omitted
this calamity, that I might not seem to

19:54.550 --> 19:59.670
posterity to be a teller of fabulous
tales, if I had not innumerable witnesses

19:59.670 --> 20:01.290
to it in my own age.

20:01.870 --> 20:06.890
And besides, I should render my country
poor service, if I suppress the account of

20:06.890 --> 20:08.490
the sufferings which she endured.

20:10.010 --> 20:14.730
There was a certain woman named Mary that
dwelt beyond Jordan, whose father was

20:14.730 --> 20:19.670
Eleazar, of the village of Bathazor,
which signifies the house of Hyssop.

20:20.190 --> 20:24.530
She was distinguished for her family and
her wealth, and had fled with the rest of

20:24.530 --> 20:28.510
the multitude to Jerusalem, and was shut
up there with them during the siege.

20:30.270 --> 20:34.110
The tyrants had robbed her of the rest of
the property which she had brought with

20:34.110 --> 20:38.530
her into the city from Perea, and the
remnants of her possessions and whatever

20:38.530 --> 20:42.910
food was to be seen the guards rushed in
daily and snatched away from her.

20:43.450 --> 20:47.690
This made the woman terribly angry,
and by her frequent reproaches and

20:47.690 --> 20:52.050
imprecations she aroused the anger of the
rapacious villains against herself.

20:53.570 --> 20:58.750
But no one either through anger or pity
would slay her, and she grew weary of

20:58.750 --> 21:00.450
finding food for others to eat.

21:01.090 --> 21:05.430
The search too was already become
everywhere difficult, and the famine was

21:05.430 --> 21:09.690
piercing her bowels and marrow,
and resentment was raging more violently

21:09.690 --> 21:10.470
than famine.

21:11.230 --> 21:16.430
Taking therefore anger and necessity as
her counselors, she proceeded to do a most

21:16.430 --> 21:17.690
unnatural thing.

21:19.450 --> 21:24.950
Seizing her child, a boy which was sucking
at her breast, she said, O wretched child,

21:25.190 --> 21:29.250
in war, in famine, in sedition,
for what do I preserve thee?

21:29.690 --> 21:33.730
Slaves among the Romans we shall be even
if we are allowed to live by them.

21:34.170 --> 21:38.790
But even slavery is anticipated by the
famine, and the rioters are more cruel

21:38.790 --> 21:39.410
than both.

21:39.950 --> 21:45.550
Come, be food for me, a fury for these
rioters, and a byword to the world,

21:45.890 --> 21:49.670
for this is all that is wanting to
complete the calamities of the Jews.

21:51.030 --> 21:57.070
And when she had said this, she slew her
son, and having roasted him, she ate one

21:57.070 --> 22:00.830
half herself, and covering up the
remainder, she kept it.

22:01.570 --> 22:06.030
Very soon the rioters appeared on the
scene, and smelling the nefarious odor,

22:06.430 --> 22:10.010
they threatened to slay her immediately
unless she should show them what she had

22:10.010 --> 22:10.430
prepared.

22:11.090 --> 22:15.350
She replied that she had saved an
excellent portion for them, and with that

22:15.350 --> 22:17.570
she uncovered the remains of the child.

22:18.890 --> 22:24.030
They were immediately seized with horror
and amazement, and stood transfixed at the

22:24.030 --> 22:24.350
sight.

22:25.070 --> 22:29.210
But she said, This is my own son,
and the deed is mine.

22:29.630 --> 22:31.270
Eat, for I too have eaten.

22:31.750 --> 22:35.730
Be not more merciful than a woman,
nor more compassionate than a mother.

22:36.270 --> 22:41.610
But if you are too pious and shrink from
my sacrifice, I have already eaten of it.

22:41.850 --> 22:43.750
Let the rest also remain for me.

22:45.070 --> 22:50.450
At these words the men went out trembling,
in this one case being affrighted,

22:50.710 --> 22:53.750
yet with difficulty did they yield that
food to the mother.

22:54.630 --> 22:58.770
Forthwith the whole city was filled with
the awful crime, and as all pictured the

22:58.770 --> 23:02.870
terrible deed before their own eyes,
they trembled as if they had done it

23:02.870 --> 23:03.570
themselves.

23:05.110 --> 23:09.910
Those that were suffering from the famine
now longed for death, and blessed were

23:09.910 --> 23:13.670
they that had died before hearing and
seeing miseries like these.

23:15.130 --> 23:19.930
Such was the reward which the Jews
received for their wickedness and impiety

23:19.930 --> 23:21.790
against the Christ of God.

23:23.330 --> 23:25.810
End of Book Three, Part One