Tatian's Address to the Greeks
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Introductory Note to Taitian the Assyrian
Translated by J. E. Ryland.
Text edited by Rev. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson and
first published by T&T Clark in Edinburgh in 1867. Additional
introductionary material and notes provided for the American
edition by A. Cleveland Coxe, 1886.
[a.d. 110-172.] It was my first intention to make this author a mere
appendix to his master, Justin Martyr; for he stands in an equivocal
position, as half Father and half heretic. His good seems to have been
largely due to Justin's teaching and influence. One may trust that his
falling away, in the decline of life, is attributable to infirmity of
mind and body; his severe asceticism countenancing this charitable
thought. Many instances of human frailty, which the experience of ages
has taught Christians to view with compassion rather than censure, are
doubtless to be ascribed to mental aberration and decay. Early
Christians had not yet been taught this lesson; for, socially, neither
Judaism nor Paganism had wholly surrendered their unloving influences
upon their minds. Moreover, their high valuation of discipline, as an
essential condition of self-preservation amid the fires of surrounding
scorn and hatred, led them to practice, perhaps too sternly, upon
offenders, what they often heroically performed upon themselves,--the
amputation of the scandalous hand, or the plucking out of the evil
eye.
In Tatian, another Assyrian follows the Star of Bethlehem, from
Euphrates and the Tigris. The scanty facts of his personal history are
sufficiently detailed by the translator, in his Introductory Note. We
owe to himself the pleasing story of his conversion from heathenism.
But I think it important to qualify the impressions the translation
may otherwise leave upon the student's mind, by a little more sympathy
with the better side of his character, and a more just statement of
his great services to the infant Church.
His works, which were very numerous, have perished, in consequence of
his lapse from orthodoxy. Give him due credit for his Diatessaron, of
which the very name is a valuable testimony to the Four Gospels as
recognised by the primitive churches. It is lost, with the "infinite
number" of other books which St. Jerome attributes to him. All honour
to this earliest harmonist for such a work; and let us believe, with
Mill and other learned authorities, that, if Eusebius had seen the
work he censures, he might have expressed himself more charitably
concerning it.
We know something of Tatian, already, from the melancholy pages of
Irenæus. Theodoret finds no other fault with his Diatessaron than its
omission of the genealogies, which he, probably, could not harmonize
on any theory of his own. The errors into which he fell in his old age
[420] were so absurd, and so contrary to the Church's doctrine and
discipline, that he could not be tolerated as one of the faithful,
without giving to the heathen new grounds for the malignant slanders
with which they were ever assailing the Christians. At the same time,
let us reflect, that his fall is to be attributed to extravagant ideas
of that encraty which is a precept of the Gospel, and which a pure
abhorrence of pagan abominations led many of the orthodox to practice
with extreme rigidity. And this is the place to say, once for all,
that the figures of Elijah upon Mt. Carmel and of John Baptist in the
wilderness, approved by our Lord's teachings, but moderated, as a
lesson to others, by his own holy but less austere example, justify
the early Church in making room for the two classes of Christians
which must always be found in earnest religion, and which seem to have
their warrant in the fundamental constitution of human nature. There
must be men like St. Paul, living in the world, though not of it; and
there must be men like the Baptist, of whom the world will say, "he
hath a devil." Marvellously the early Catholics were piloted between
the rocks and the whirlpools, in the narrow drift of the Gospel; and
always the Holy Spirit of counsel and might was their guardian, amid
their terrible trials and temptations. This must suggest, to every
reflecting mind, a gratitude the most profound. To preserve
evangelical encraty, and to restrain fanatical asceticism, was the
spirit of early Christianity, as one sees in the ethics of Hermas. But
the awful malaria of Montanism was even now rising like a fog of the
marshes, and was destined to leave its lasting impress upon Western
Christianity; "forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from
meats." Our author, alas, laid the egg which Tertullian hatched, and
invented terms which that great author raised to their highest power;
for he was rather the disciple of Tatian than of the Phrygians, though
they kindled his strange fire. After Tertullian, the whole subject of
marriage became entangled with sophistries, which have ever since
adhered to the Latin churches, and introduced the most corrosive
results into the vitals of individuals and of nations. Southey
suggests, that, in the Roman Communion, John Wesley would have been
accommodated with full scope for his genius, and canonized as a saint,
while his Anglican mother had no place for him. [421] But, on the
other hand, let us reflect that while Rome had no place for Wiclif and
Hus, or Jerome of Prague, she has used and glorified and canonized
many fanatics whose errors were far more disgraceful than those of
Tatian and Tertullian. In fact, she would have utilized and beatified
these very enthusiasts, had they risen in the Middle Ages, to combine
their follies with equal extravagance in persecuting the Albigenses,
while aggrandizing the papal ascendency.
I have enlarged upon the equivocal character of Tatian with melancholy
interest, because I shall make sparing use of notes, in editing his
sole surviving work, pronounced by Eusebius his masterpiece. I read it
with sympathy, admiration, and instruction. I enjoy his biting satire
of heathenism, his Pauline contempt for all philosophy save that of
the Gospel, his touching reference to his own experiences, and his
brilliant delineation of Christian innocence and of his own
emancipation from the seductions of a deceitful and transient world.
In short, I feel that Tatian deserves critical editing, in the
original, at the hand and heart of some expert who can thoroughly
appreciate his merits, and his relations to primitive Christianity.
The following is the original Introductory Notice:--
We learn from several sources that Tatian was an Assyrian, but know
nothing very definite either as to the time or place of his birth.
Epiphanius (Hær., xlvi.) declares that he was a native of Mesopotamia;
and we infer from other ascertained facts regarding him, that he
flourished about the middle of the second century. He was at first an
eager student of heathen literature, and seems to have been especially
devoted to researches in philosophy. But he found no satisfaction in
the bewildering mazes of Greek speculation, while he became utterly
disgusted with what heathenism presented to him under the name of
religion. In these circumstances, he happily met with the sacred books
of the Christians, and was powerfully attracted by the purity of
morals which these inculcated, and by the means of deliverance from
the bondage of sin which they revealed. He seems to have embraced
Christianity at Rome, where he became acquainted with Justin Martyr,
and enjoyed the instructions of that eminent teacher of the Gospel.
After the death of Justin, Tatian unfortunately fell under the
influence of the Gnostic heresy, and founded an ascetic sect, which,
from the rigid principles it professed, was called that of the
Encratites, that is, "The self-controlled," or, "The masters of
themselves." Tatian latterly established himself at Antioch, and
acquired a considerable number of disciples, who continued after his
death to be distinguished by the practice of those austerities which
he had enjoined. The sect of the Encratites is supposed to have been
established about a.d. 166, and Tatian appears to have died some few
years afterwards.
The only extant work of Tatian is his "Address to the Greeks." It is a
most unsparing and direct exposure of the enormities of heathenism.
Several other works are said to have been composed by Tatian; and of
these, a Diatessaron, or Harmony of the Four Gospels, is specially
mentioned. His Gnostic views led him to exclude from the continuous
narrative of our Lord's life, given in this work, all those passages
which bear upon the incarnation and true humanity of Christ. Not
withstanding this defect, we cannot but regret the loss of this
earliest Gospel harmony; but the very title it bore is important, as
showing that the Four Gospels, and these only, were deemed
authoritative about the middle of the second century.
Footnotes
[420] "Paul the aged" was only sixty when he gives himself this title.
(Philem. 9). See the additional note, Speaker's Commentary, vol. iii.
843.
[421] See (vol. ii. p. 331.) Southey's Life of Wesley; an invaluable
work, and one which presents this eminent saint in a most interesting
light, even to worldly men. Ed. New York, Harpers, 1853.
Address of Tatian to the Greeks.
Chapter I.--The Greeks Claim, Without Reason, the Invention of the Arts.
Be not, O Greeks, so very hostilely disposed towards the Barbarians,
nor look with ill will on their opinions. For which of your
institutions has not been derived from the Barbarians? The most
eminent of the Telmessians invented the art of divining by dreams; the
Carians, that of prognosticating by the stars; the Phrygians and the
most ancient Isaurians, augury by the flight of birds; the Cyprians,
the art of inspecting victims. To the Babylonians you owe astronomy;
to the Persians, magic; to the Egyptians, geometry; to the
Phoenicians, instruction by alphabetic writing. Cease, then, to
miscall these imitations inventions of your own. Orpheus, again,
taught you poetry and song; from him, too, you learned the mysteries.
The Tuscans taught you the plastic art; from the annals of the
Egyptians you learned to write history; you acquired the art of
playing the flute from Marsyas and Olympus,--these two rustic
Phrygians constructed the harmony of the shepherd's pipe. The
Tyrrhenians invented the trumpet; the Cyclopes, the smith's art; and a
woman who was formerly a queen of the Persians, as Hellanicus tells
us, the method of joining together epistolary tablets: [422] her name
was Atossa. Wherefore lay aside this conceit, and be not ever boasting
of your elegance of diction; for, while you applaud yourselves, your
own people will of course side with you. But it becomes a man of sense
to wait for the testimony of others, and it becomes men to be of one
accord also in the pronunciation of their language. But, as matters
stand, to you alone it has happened not to speak alike even in common
intercourse; for the way of speaking among the Dorians is not the same
as that of the inhabitants of Attica, nor do the Æolians speak like
the Ionians. And, since such a discrepancy exists where it ought not
to be, I am at a loss whom to call a Greek. And, what is strangest of
all, you hold in honour expressions not of native growth, and by the
intermixture of barbaric words have made your language a medley. On
this account we have renounced your wisdom, though I was once a great
proficient in it; for, as the comic poet [423] says,--
These are gleaners' grapes and small talk,--
Twittering places of swallows, corrupters of art.
Yet those who eagerly pursue it shout lustily, and croak like so many
ravens. You have, too, contrived the art of rhetoric to serve
injustice and slander, selling the free power of your speech for hire,
and often representing the same thing at one time as right, at another
time as not good. The poetic art, again, you employ to describe
battles, and the amours of the gods, and the corruption of the soul.
Footnotes
[422] epistolas suntattein , i.e., for transmission by
letter-carriers.--Otto.
[423] Aristoph., Ranæ, 92, 93.
Chapter II.--The Vices and Errors of the Philosophers.
What noble thing have you produced by your pursuit of philosophy? Who
of your most eminent men has been free from vain boasting? Diogenes,
who made such a parade of his independence with his tub, was seized
with a bowel complaint through eating a raw polypus, and so lost his
life by gluttony. Aristippus, walking about in a purple robe, led a
profligate life, in accordance with his professed opinions. Plato, a
philosopher, was sold by Dionysius for his gormandizing propensities.
And Aristotle, who absurdly placed a limit to Providence and made
happiness to consist in the things which give pleasure, quite contrary
to his duty as a preceptor flattered Alexander, forgetful that he was
but a youth; and he, showing how well he had learned the lessons of
his master, because his friend would not worship him shut him up and
and carried him about like a bear or a leopard. He in fact obeyed
strictly the precepts of his teacher in displaying manliness and
courage by feasting, and transfixing with his spear his intimate and
most beloved friend, and then, under a semblance of grief, weeping and
starving himself, that he might not incur the hatred of his friends. I
could laugh at those also who in the present day adhere to his
tenets,--people who say that sublunary things are not under the care
of Providence; and so, being nearer the earth than the moon, and below
its orbit, they themselves look after what is thus left uncared for;
and as for those who have neither beauty, nor wealth, nor bodily
strength, nor high birth, they have no happiness, according to
Aristotle. Let such men philosophize, for me!
Chapter III.--Ridicule of the Philosophers.
I cannot approve of Heraclitus, who, being self-taught and arrogant,
said, "I have explored myself." Nor can I praise him for hiding his
poem [424] in the temple of Artemis, in order that it might be
published afterwards as a mystery; and those who take an interest in
such things say that Euripides the tragic poet came there and read it,
and, gradually learning it by heart, carefully handed down to
posterity this darkness [425] of Heraclitus. Death, however,
demonstrated the stupidity of this man; for, being attacked by dropsy,
as he had studied the art of medicine as well as philosophy, he
plastered himself with cow-dung, which, as it hardened, contracted the
flesh of his whole body, so that he was pulled in pieces, and thus
died. Then, one cannot listen to Zeno, who declares that at the
conflagration the same man will rise again to perform the same actions
as before; for instance, Anytus and Miletus to accuse, Busiris to
murder his guests, and Hercules to repeat his labours; and in this
doctrine of the conflagration he introduces more wicked than just
persons--one Socrates and a Hercules, and a few more of the same
class, but not many, for the bad will be found far more numerous than
the good. And according to him the Deity will manifestly be the author
of evil, dwelling in sewers and worms, and in the perpetrators of
impiety. The eruptions of fire in Sicily, moreover, confute the empty
boasting of Empedocles, in that, though he was no god, he falsely
almost gave himself out for one. I laugh, too, at the old wife's talk
of Pherecydes, and the doctrine inherited from him by Pythagoras, and
that of Plato, an imitation of his, though some think otherwise. And
who would give his approval to the cynogamy of Crates, and not rather,
repudiating the wild and tumid speech of those who resemble him, turn
to the investigation of what truly deserves attention? Wherefore be
not led away by the solemn assemblies of philosophers who are no
philosophers, who dogmatize one against the other, though each one
vents but the crude fancies of the moment. They have, moreover, many
collisions among themselves; each one hates the other; they indulge in
conflicting opinions, and their arrogance makes them eager for the
highest places. It would better become them, moreover, not to pay
court to kings unbidden, nor to flatter men at the head of affairs,
but to wait till the great ones come to them.
Footnotes
[424] peri phuseos
[425] He was called d skoteinos for his obscurity.
Chapter IV.--The Christians Worship God Alone.
For what reason, men of Greece, do you wish to bring the civil powers,
as in a pugilistic encounter, into collision with us? And, if I am not
disposed to comply with the usages of some of them, why am I to be
abhorred as a vile miscreant? [426] Does the sovereign order the
payment of tribute, I am ready to render it. Does my master command me
to act as a bondsman and to serve, I acknowledge the serfdom. Man is
to be honoured as a fellow-man; [427] God alone is to be feared,--He
who is not visible to human eyes, nor comes within the compass of
human art. Only when I am commanded to deny Him, will I not obey, but
will rather die than show myself false and ungrateful. Our God did not
begin to be in time: [428] He alone is without beginning, and He
Himself is the beginning of all things. God is a Spirit, [429] not
pervading matter, but the Maker of material spirits, [430] and of the
forms that are in matter; He is invisible, impalpable, being Himself
the Father of both sensible and invisible things. Him we know from His
creation, and apprehend His invisible power by His works. [431] I
refuse to adore that workmanship which He has made for our sakes. The
sun and moon were made for us: how, then, can I adore my own servants?
How can I speak of stocks and stones as gods? For the Spirit that
pervades matter [432] is inferior to the more divine spirit; and this,
even when assimilated to the soul, is not to be honoured equally with
the perfect God. Nor even ought the ineffable God to be presented with
gifts; for He who is in want of nothing is not to be misrepresented by
us as though He were indigent. But I will set forth our views more
distinctly.
Footnotes
[426] [Dear Christians of those times; so Justin and all the rest
appeal against this odium. Their name an offence, "cast out as evil,"
but fragrant with unrequited love. Matt. x. 22-39.]
[427] [1 Pet. ii. 17. This claim for man as man is the inspiration of
Christianity. Terence breathes it from his wounded soul in slavery;
and his immortal line, "Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto"
(Hæuntontimor., act. i. sc. 1, verse 25), looks as if it had been
written in the second century of illumination.]
[428] [Kaye's Justin, pp. 56, 158.]
[429] John iv. 24.
[430] [Over again Tatian asserts spirits to be material, though not
fleshly; and I think with reference to 1 Cor. xv. 44.]
[431] Rom. i. 20.
[432] [Over again Tatian asserts spirits to be material, though not
fleshly; and I think with reference to 1 Cor. xv. 44.]
Chapter V.--The Doctrine of the Christians as to the Creation of the
World.
God was in the beginning; but the beginning, we have been taught, is
the power of the Logos. For the Lord of the universe, who is Himself
the necessary ground (hupostasis) of all being, inasmuch as no
creature was yet in existence, was alone; but inasmuch as He was all
power, Himself the necessary ground of things visible and invisible,
with Him were all things; with Him, by Logos-power (dia logikes
dunameos), the Logos Himself also, who was in Him, subsists. [433] And
by His simple will the Logos springs forth; and the Logos, not coming
forth in vain, becomes the first-begotten work of the Father. Him (the
Logos) we know to be the beginning of the world. But He came into
being by participation, [434] not by abscission; for what is cut off
is separated from the original substance, but that which comes by
participation, making its choice of function, [435] does not render
him deficient from whom it is taken. For just as from one torch many
fires are lighted, but the light of the first torch is not lessened by
the kindling of many torches, so the Logos, coming forth from the
Logos-power of the Father, has not divested of the Logos-power Him who
begat Him. I myself, for instance, talk, and you hear; yet, certainly,
I who converse do not become destitute of speech (logos) by the
transmission of speech, but by the utterance of my voice I endeavour
to reduce to order the unarranged matter in your minds. And as the
Logos, [436] begotten in the beginning, begat in turn our world,
having first created for Himself the necessary matter, so also I, in
imitation of the Logos, being begotten again, [437] and having become
possessed of the truth, am trying to reduce to order the confused
matter which is kindred with myself. For matter is not, like God,
without beginning, nor, as having no beginning, is of equal power with
God; it is begotten, and not produced by any other being, but brought
into existence by the Framer of all things alone.
Footnotes
[433] [See Kaye's Justin Martyr, p. 161, note; and observe his
stricture on Bull and Waterland.]
[434] kata merismon. Some translate, "by division," but the above is
preferable. The sense, according to Otto, is that the Logos, having
received a peculiar nature, shares in the rational power of the Father
as a lighted torch partakes of the light of the torch from which it is
kindled. Comp. Just. Mar., Dial. c. T., chap. lxi.
[435] oikonomias ten airesin proslabon. The above seems the simplest
rendering of this difficult passage, but several others have been
proposed. [See [4]note 4, cap. ix., infra, p. 69.]
[436] [Matter not eternal. He seems to have understood Gen. i. 1, of
the creation of matter; and verse 2, as beginning the history of our
planet and the visible universe.]
[437] [Supposed to be a personal reference to his conversion and
baptism. As to "confused matter," it should be kindred matter, and
must be set over "kindred spirit." See p. 71, cap. xiii., infra.]
Chapter VI.--Christians' Belief in the Resurrection.
And on this account we believe that there will be a resurrection of
bodies after the consummation of all things; not, as the Stoics
affirm, according to the return of certain cycles, the same things
being produced and destroyed for no useful purpose, but a resurrection
once for all, [438] when our periods of existence are completed, and
in consequence solely of the constitution of things under which men
alone live, for the purpose of passing judgment upon them. Nor is
sentence upon us passed by Minos or Rhadamanthus, before whose decease
not a single soul, according to the mythic tales, was judged; but the
Creator, God Himself, becomes the arbiter. And, although you regard us
as mere triflers and babblers, it troubles us not, since we have faith
in this doctrine. For just as, not existing before I was born, I knew
not who I was, and only existed in the potentiality (upostasis) of
fleshly matter, but being born, after a former state of nothingness, I
have obtained through my birth a certainty of my existence; in the
same way, having been born, and through death existing no longer, and
seen no longer, I shall exist again, just as before I was not, but was
afterwards born. Even though fire destroy all traces of my flesh, the
world receives the vaporized matter; [439] and though dispersed
through rivers and seas, or torn in pieces by wild beasts, I am laid
up in the storehouses of a wealthy Lord. And, although the poor and
the godless know not what is stored up, yet God the Sovereign, when He
pleases, will restore the substance that is visible to Him alone to
its pristine condition.
Footnotes
[438] [Comp. cap. xvii., infra, note 5, p. 72. en hemera sunteleias.]
[439] [A supposed discovery of modern science. See Religion and
Chemistry, by Professor Cook of Harvard, pp. 79, 101. Revised Edition,
Scribners, 1880.]
Chapter VII.--Concerning the Fall of Man.
For the heavenly Logos, a spirit emanating from the Father and a Logos
from the Logos-power, in imitation of the Father who begat Him made
man an image of immortality, so that, as incorruption is with God, in
like manner, man, sharing in a part of God, might have the immortal
principle also. The Logos, [440] too, before the creation of men, was
the Framer of angels. And each of these two orders of creatures was
made free to act as it pleased, not having the nature of good, which
again is with God alone, but is brought to perfection in men through
their freedom of choice, in order that the bad man may be justly
punished, having become depraved through his own fault, but the just
man be deservedly praised for his virtuous deeds, since in the
exercise of his free choice he refrained from transgressing the will
of God. Such is the constitution of things in reference to angels and
men. And the power of the Logos, having in itself a faculty to foresee
future events, not as fated, but as taking place by the choice of free
agents, foretold from time to time the issues of things to come; it
also became a forbidder of wickedness by means of prohibitions, and
the encomiast of those who remained good. And, when men attached
themselves to one who was more subtle than the rest, having regard to
his being the first-born, [441] and declared him to be God, though he
was resisting the law of God, then the power of the Logos excluded the
beginner of the folly and his adherents from all fellowship with
Himself. And so he who was made in the likeness of God, since the more
powerful spirit is separated from him, becomes mortal; but that
first-begotten one through his transgression and ignorance becomes a
demon; and they who imitated him, that is his illusions, are become a
host of demons, and through their freedom of choice have been given up
to their own infatuation.
Footnotes
[440] [Kaye's rendering of this passage should be compared. See his
Justin, p. 182.]
[441] Gen. iii. 1 [First-born. angelos protogonos.]
Chapter VIII.--The Demons Sin Among Mankind.
But men form the material (hupothesis) of their apostasy. For, having
shown them a plan of the position of the stars, like dice-players,
they introduced Fate, a flagrant injustice. For the judge and the
judged are made so by Fate; the murderers and the murdered, the
wealthy and the needy, are the offspring of the same Fate; and every
nativity is regarded as a theatrical entertainment by those beings of
whom Homer says,--
"Among the gods Rose laughter irrepressible." [442]
But must not those who are spectators of single combats and are
partisans on one side or the other, and he who marries and is a
pæderast and an adulterer, who laughs and is angry, who flees and is
wounded, be regarded as mortals? For, by whatever actions they
manifest to men their characters, by these they prompt their hearers
to copy their example. And are not the demons themselves, with Zeus at
their head, subjected to Fate, being overpowered by the same passions
as men? And, besides, how are those beings to be worshipped among whom
there exists such a great contrariety of opinions? For Rhea, whom the
inhabitants of the Phrygian mountains call Cybele, enacted
emasculation on account of Attis, of whom she was enamoured; but
Aphrodité is delighted with conjugal embraces. Artemis is a poisoner;
Apollo heals diseases. And after the decapitation of the Gorgon, the
beloved of Poseidon, whence sprang the horse Pegasus and Chrysaor,
Athené and Asclepios divided between them the drops of blood; and,
while he saved men's lives by means of them, she, by the same blood,
became a homicide and the instigator of wars. From regard to her
reputation, as it appears to me, the Athenians attributed to the earth
the son born of her connection with Hephæstos, that Athené might not
be thought to be deprived of her virility by Hephæstos, as Atalanta by
Meleager. This limping manufacturer of buckles and earrings, as is
likely, deceived the motherless child and orphan with these girlish
ornaments. Poseidon frequents the seas; Ares delights in wars; Apollo
is a player on the cithara; Dionysus is absolute sovereign of the
Thebans; Kronos is a tyrannicide; Zeus has intercourse with his own
daughter, who becomes pregnant by him. I may instance, too, Eleusis,
and the mystic Dragon, and Orpheus, who says,--
"Close the gates against the profane!"
Aïdoneus carries off Koré, and his deeds have been made into
mysteries; Demeter bewails her daughter, and some persons are deceived
by the Athenians. In the precincts of the temple of the son of Leto is
a spot called Omphalos; but Omphalos is the burial-place of Dionysus.
You now I laud, O Daphne!--by conquering the incontinence of Apollo,
you disproved his power of vaticination; for, not foreseeing what
would occur to you, [443] he derived no advantage from his art. Let
the far-shooting god tell me how Zephyrus slew Hyacinthus. Zephyrus
conquered him; and in accordance with the saying of the tragic poet,--
"A breeze is the most honourable chariot of the gods," [444] --
conquered by a slight breeze, Apollo lost his beloved.
Footnotes
[442] Il., i. 599; Od., viii. 326.
[443] On fleeing from Apollo, she became a bay-tree.
[444] It is uncertain from whom this line is quoted.
Chapter IX.--They Give Rise to Superstitions.
Such are the demons; these are they who laid down the doctrine of
Fate. Their fundamental principle was the placing of animals in the
heavens. For the creeping things on the earth, and those that swim in
the waters, and the quadrupeds on the mountains, with which they lived
when expelled from heaven,--these they dignified with celestial
honour, in order that they might themselves be thought to remain in
heaven, and, by placing the constellations there, might make to appear
rational the irrational course of life on earth. [445] Thus the
high-spirited and he who is crushed with toil, the temperate and the
intemperate, the indigent and the wealthy, are what they are simply
from the controllers of their nativity. For the delineation of the
zodiacal circle is the work of gods. And, when the light of one of
them predominates, as they express it, it deprives all the rest of
their honour; and he who now is conquered, at another time gains the
predominance. And the seven planets are well pleased with them, [446]
as if they were amusing themselves with dice. But we are superior to
Fate, and instead of wandering (planeton) demons, we have learned to
know one Lord who wanders not; and, as we do not follow the guidance
of Fate, we reject its lawgivers. Tell me, I adjure you, [447] did
Triptolemus sow wheat and prove a benefactor to the Athenians after
their sorrow? And why was not Demeter, before she lost her daughter, a
benefactress to men? The Dog of Erigone is shown in the heavens, and
the Scorpion the helper of Artemis, and Chiron the Centaur, and the
divided Argo, and the Bear of Callisto. Yet how, before these
performed the aforesaid deeds, were the heavens unadorned? And to whom
will it not appear ridiculous that the Deltotum [448] should be placed
among the stars, according to some, on account of Sicily, or, as
others say, on account of the first letter in the name of Zeus (Dios)?
For why are not Sardinia and Cyprus honoured in heaven? And why have
not the letters of the names of the brothers of Zeus, who shared the
kingdom with him, been fixed there too? And how is it that Kronos, who
was put in chains and ejected from his kingdom, is constituted a
manager [449] of Fate? How, too, can he give kingdoms who no longer
reigns himself? Reject, then, these absurdities, and do not become
transgressors by hating us unjustly.
Footnotes
[445] Comp. ch. viii. init.
[446] The signs of the Zodiac (Gesner).
[447] Literally, "Tell me by God," or, "in the name of God."
[448] The Deltotum was a star of the shape of a triangle.--Otto.
[449] [oikonomos. So cap. xii., infra: "the constitution of the body
is under one management," mias estin oikonomhias. Also cap. xxi., p.
74, infra, [5]note 5.]
Chapter X.--Ridicule of the Heathen Divinities.
There are legends of the metamorphosis of men: with you the gods also
are metamorphosed. Rhea becomes a tree; Zeus a dragon, on account of
Persephone; the sisters of Phaëthon are changed into poplars, and Leto
into a bird of little value, on whose account what is now Delos was
called Ortygia. A god, forsooth, becomes a swan, or takes the form of
an eagle, and, making Ganymede his cupbearer, glories in a vile
affection. How can I reverence gods who are eager for presents, and
angry if they do not receive them? Let them have their Fate! I am not
willing to adore wandering stars. What is that hair of Berenicé? Where
were her stars before her death? And how was the dead Antinous fixed
as a beautiful youth in the moon? Who carried him thither: unless
perchance, as men, perjuring themselves for hire, are credited when
they say in ridicule of the gods that kings have ascended into heaven,
so some one, in like manner, has put this man also among the gods,
[450] and been recompensed with honour and reward? Why have you robbed
God? Why do you dishonour His workmanship? You sacrifice a sheep, and
you adore the same animal. The Bull is in the heavens, and you
slaughter its image. The Kneeler [451] crushes a noxious animal; and
the eagle that devours the man-maker Prometheus is honoured. The swan
is noble, forsooth, because it was an adulterer; and the Dioscuri,
living on alternate days, the ravishers of the daughters of Leucippus,
are also noble! Better still is Helen, who forsook the flaxen-haired
Menelaus, and followed the turbaned and gold-adorned Paris. A just man
also is Sophron, [452] who transported this adulteress to the Elysian
fields! But even the daughter of Tyndarus is not gifted with
immortality, and Euripides has wisely represented this woman as put to
death by Orestes.
Footnotes
[450] [He uses the verb theologein as = theopoiein; but Kaye directs
attention to Justin's use of the same as = to discourse on divine
things, and again in calling Christ God.]
[451] Hercules--a sign in the sky. Leaning on his right knee, he tries
to crush with his left foot the right side of the dragon's head.
[452] A writer of mimes.
Chapter XI.--The Sin of Men Due Not to Fate, But to Free-Will.
How, then, shall I admit this nativity according to Fate, when I see
such managers of Fate? I do not wish to be a king; I am not anxious to
be rich; I decline military command; I detest fornication; I am not
impelled by an insatiable love of gain to go to sea; I do not contend
for chaplets; I am free from a mad thirst for fame; I despise death; I
am superior to every kind of disease; grief does not consume my soul.
Am I a slave, I endure servitude. Am I free, I do not make a vaunt of
my good birth. I see that the same sun is for all, and one death for
all, whether they live in pleasure or destitution. The rich man sows,
and the poor man partakes of the same sowing. The wealthiest die, and
beggars have the same limits to their life. The rich lack many things,
and are glorious only through the estimation they are held in; [453]
but the poor man and he who has very moderate desires, seeking as he
does only the things suited to his lot, more easily obtains his
purpose. How is it that you are fated to be sleepless through avarice?
Why are you fated to grasp at things often, and often to die? Die to
the world, repudiating the madness that is in it. Live to God, and by
apprehending Him lay aside your old nature. [454] We were not created
to die, but we die by our own fault. [455] Our free-will has destroyed
us; we who were free have become slaves; we have been sold through
sin. Nothing evil has been created by God; we ourselves have
manifested wickedness; but we, who have manifested it, are able again
to reject it.
Footnotes
[453] Or, reading with Maranus, khan ... gen., "even though," etc.
[454] [Think of a Chaldean heathen, by the power of grace, thus
transformed. Sapiens solus liber, but the Christian alone is wise.
This chapter compares favourably with the eloquence of Chrysostom in
his letter to Cyriac, which, if spurious, is made up of passages to be
found elsewhere in his works. Tom. iii. p. 683. Ed. Migne, Paris,
1859.]
[455] [Comp. cap. xv., infra, and the [6]note 6, p. 71.]
Chapter XII.--The Two Kinds of Spirits.
We recognise two varieties of spirit, one of which is called the soul
[456] (psuche), but the other is greater than the soul, an image and
likeness of God: both existed in the first men, that in one sense they
might be material (hulikoi), and in another superior to matter. The
case stands thus: we can see that the whole structure of the world,
and the whole creation, has been produced from matter, and the matter
itself brought into existence [457] by God; so that on the one hand it
may be regarded as rude and unformed before it was separated into
parts, and on the other as arranged in beauty and order after the
separation was made. Therefore in that separation the heavens were
made of matter, and the stars that are in them; and the earth and all
that is upon it has a similar constitution: so that there is a common
origin of all things. But, while such is the case, there yet are
certain differences in the things made of matter, so that one is more
beautiful, and another is beautiful but surpassed by something better.
For as the constitution of the body is under one management, and is
engaged in doing that which is the cause of its having been made,
[458] yet though this is the case, there are certain differences of
dignity in it, and the eye is one thing, and another the ear, and
another the arrangement of the hair and the distribution of the
intestines, and the compacting together of the marrow and the bones
and the tendons; and though one part differs from another, there is
yet all the harmony of a concert of music in their arrangement;--in
like manner the world, according to the power of its Maker containing
some things of superior splendour, but some unlike these, received by
the will of the Creator a material spirit. And these things severally
it is possible for him to perceive who does not conceitedly reject
those most divine explanations which in the course of time have been
consigned to writing, and make those who study them great lovers of
God. Therefore the demons, [459] as you call them, having received
their structure from matter and obtained the spirit which inheres in
it, became intemperate and greedy; some few, indeed, turning to what
was purer, but others choosing what was inferior in matter, and
conforming their manner of life to it. These beings, produced from
matter, but very remote from right conduct, you, O Greeks, worship.
For, being turned by their own folly to vaingloriousness, and shaking
off the reins [of authority], they have been forward to become robbers
of Deity; and the Lord of all has suffered them to besport themselves,
till the world, coming to an end, be dissolved, and the Judge appear,
and all those men who, while assailed by the demons, strive after the
knowledge of the perfect God obtain as the result of their conflicts a
more perfect testimony in the day of judgment. There is, then, a
spirit in the stars, a spirit in angels, a spirit in plants and the
waters, a spirit in men, a spirit in animals; but, though one and the
same, it has differences in itself. [460] And while we say these
things not from mere hearsay, nor from probable conjectures and
sophistical reasoning, but using words of a certain diviner speech, do
you who are willing hasten to learn. And you who do not reject with
contempt the Scythian Anacharsis, do not disdain to be taught by those
who follow a barbaric code of laws. Give at least as favourable a
reception to our tenets as you would to the prognostications of the
Babylonians. Hearken to us when we speak, if only as you would to an
oracular oak. And yet the things just referred to are the trickeries
of frenzied demons, while the doctrines we inculcate are far beyond
the apprehension of the world.
Footnotes
[456] [See cap. xv., infra.]
[457] Literally, "brought forth" or "forward." The word does not imply
that matter was created by God.
[458] Tatian's words are somewhat obscure. We have given substantially
the opinion of Worth, as expressed in his translation. The sense is:
The body is evidently a unity in its organization and its activity,
and the ultimate end which it serves in creation is that with which it
is occupied, yet there are differences in respect of the parts. Otto
renders: "For as the constitution of the body is of one plan, and in
reference to the body the cause of its origin is occupied."
[459] [Demons. The Paris editors have a note here, bidding us to read
with caution; as our author seems rashly to imagine the demons to be
material creatures. p. 151, ed. 1615.]
[460] ["Which, though one and the same, is thus variously modified."
Kaye's rendering in his Justin, p. 184.]
Chapter XIII.--Theory of the Soul's Immortality.
The soul is not in itself immortal, O Greeks, but mortal. [461] Yet it
is possible for it not to die. If, indeed, it knows not the truth, it
dies, and is dissolved with the body, but rises again at last at the
end of the world with the body, receiving death by punishment in
immortality. But, again, if it acquires the knowledge of God, it dies
not, although for a time it be dissolved. In itself it is darkness,
and there is nothing luminous in it. And this is the meaning of the
saying, "The darkness comprehendeth not the light." [462] For the soul
does not preserve the spirit, but is preserved by it, and the light
comprehends the darkness. The Logos, in truth, is the light of God,
but the ignorant soul is darkness. On this account, if it continues
solitary, it tends downward towards matter, and dies with the flesh;
but, if it enters into union with the Divine Spirit, it is no longer
helpless, but ascends to the regions whither the Spirit guides it: for
the dwelling-place of the spirit is above, but the origin of the soul
is from beneath. Now, in the beginning the spirit was a constant
companion of the soul, but the spirit forsook it because it was not
willing to follow. Yet, retaining as it were a spark of its power,
though unable by reason of the separation to discern the perfect,
while seeking for God it fashioned to itself in its wandering many
gods, following the sophistries of the demons. But the Spirit of God
is not with all, but, taking up its abode with those who live justly,
and intimately combining with the soul, by prophecies it announced
hidden things to other souls. And the souls that are obedient to
wisdom have attracted to themselves the cognate spirit; [463] but the
disobedient, rejecting the minister of the suffering God, [464] have
shown themselves to be fighters against God, rather than His
worshippers.
Footnotes
[461] [Here Bishop Kaye has a very full note, quoting a beautiful
passage textually from Beausobre, with whom, however, he does not
entirely coincide. Justin, p. 184.]
[462] John. i. 5.
[463] [See cap. v., note, supra, p. 67.]
[464] [tou peponthotos Theou. A very noteworthy testimony to the
mystery of the Cross, and an early specimen of the Communicatio
idiomatum: the antidosis or antimetastasis of the Greek theologians.
Pearson, On the Creed, p. 314. London, 1824.]
Chapter XIV.--The Demons Shall Be Punished More Severely Than Men.
And such are you also, O Greeks,--profuse in words, but with minds
strangely warped; and you acknowledge the dominion of many rather than
the rule of one, accustoming yourselves to follow demons as if they
were mighty. For, as the inhuman robber is wont to overpower those
like himself by daring; so the demons, going to great lengths in
wickedness, have utterly deceived the souls among you which are left
to themselves by ignorance and false appearances. These beings do not
indeed die easily, for they do not partake of flesh; but while living
they practice the ways of death, and die themselves as often as they
teach their followers to sin. Therefore, what is now their chief
distinction, that they do not die like men, they will retain when
about to suffer punishment: they will not partake of everlasting life,
so as to receive this instead of death in a blessed immortality. And
as we, to whom it now easily happens to die, afterwards receive the
immortal with enjoyment, or the painful with immortality, so the
demons, who abuse the present life to purposes of wrong-doing, dying
continually even while they live, will have hereafter the same
immortality, like that which they had during the time they lived, but
in its nature like that of men, who voluntarily performed what the
demons prescribed to them during their lifetime. And do not fewer
kinds of sin break out among men owing to the brevity of their lives,
[465] while on the part of these demons transgression is more abundant
owing to their boundless existence?
Footnotes
[465] [The shortening of human life is a gracious limitation of
tarnsgression and of the peril of probation. "Let not our years be
multiplied to increase our guilt."]
Chapter XV.--Necessity of a Union with the Holy Spirit.
But further, it becomes us now to seek for what we once had, but have
lost, to unite the soul with the Holy Spirit, and to strive after
union with God. The human soul consists of many parts, and is not
simple; it is composite, so as to manifest itself through the body;
for neither could it ever appear by itself without the body, nor does
the flesh rise again without the soul. Man is not, as the croaking
philosophers say, merely a rational animal, capable of understanding
and knowledge; for, according to them, even irrational creatures
appear possessed of understanding and knowledge. But man alone is the
image and likeness of God; and I mean by man, not one who performs
actions similar to those of animals, but one who has advanced far
beyond mere humanity--to God Himself. This question we have discussed
more minutely in the treatise concerning animals. But the principal
point to be spoken of now is, what is intended by the image and
likeness of God. That which cannot be compared is no other than
abstract being; but that which is compared is no other than that which
is like. The perfect God is without flesh; but man is flesh. The bond
of the flesh is the soul; [466] that which encloses the soul is the
flesh. Such is the nature of man's constitution; and, if it be like a
temple, God is pleased to dwell in it by the spirit, His
representative; but, if it be not such a habitation, man excels the
wild beasts in articulate language only,--in other respects his manner
of life is like theirs, as one who is not a likeness of God. But none
of the demons possess flesh; their structure is spiritual, like that
of fire or air. And only by those whom the Spirit of God dwells in and
fortifies are the bodies of the demons easily seen, not at all by
others,--I mean those who possess only soul; [467] for the inferior
has not the ability to apprehend the superior. On this account the
nature of the demons has no place for repentance; for they are the
reflection of matter and of wickedness. But matter desired to exercise
lordship over the soul; and according to their free-will these gave
laws of death to men; but men, after the loss of immortality, have
conquered death by submitting to death in faith; [468] and by
repentance a call has been given to them, according to the word which
says, "Since they were made a little lower than the angels." [469]
And, for every one who has been conquered, it is possible again to
conquer, if he rejects the condition which brings death. And what that
is, may be easily seen by men who long for immortality.
Footnotes
[466] [desmos de tou sarkos psuche.]
[467] Comp. 1 Cor. ii. 14, 15. [The psuchikoi, of whom we are to hear
so much in Tertullian. Comp. cap. xii., supra, p. 70.]
[468] [But Kaye would translate, "by dying to the world through
faith."]
[469] Ps. viii. 5.
Chapter XVI.--Vain Display of Power by the Demons.
But the demons [470] who rule over men are not the souls of men; for
how should these be capable of action after death? unless man, who
while living was void of understanding and power, should be believed
when dead to be endowed with more of active power. But neither could
this be the case, as we have shown elsewhere. [471] And it is
difficult to conceive that the immortal soul, which is impeded by the
members of the body, should become more intelligent when it has
migrated from it. For the demons, inspired with frenzy against men by
reason of their own wickedness, pervert their minds, which already
incline downwards, by various deceptive scenic representations, that
they may be disabled from rising to the path that leads to heaven. But
from us the things which are in the world are not hidden, and the
divine is easily apprehended by us if the power that makes souls
immortal visits us. The demons are seen also by the men possessed of
soul, when, as sometimes, they exhibit themselves to men, either that
they may be thought to be something, or as evil-disposed friends may
do harm to them as to enemies, or afford occasions of doing them
honour to those who resemble them. For, if it were possible, they
would without doubt pull down heaven itself with the rest of creation.
But now this they can by no means effect, for they have not the power;
but they make war by means of the lower matter against the matter that
is like themselves. Should any one wish to conquer them, let him
repudiate matter. Being armed with the breastplate [472] of the
celestial Spirit, he will be able to preserve all that is encompassed
by it. There are, indeed, diseases and disturbances of the matter that
is in us; but, when such things happen, the demons ascribe the causes
of them to themselves, and approach a man whenever disease lays hold
of him. Sometimes they themselves disturb the habit of the body by a
tempest of folly; but, being smitten by the word of God, they depart
in terror, and the sick man is healed.
Footnotes
[470] [For a learned and valuable comparison of early patristic
Demonologies, see Kaye's Justin Martyr, pp. 201-210.]
[471] Perhaps in his treatise "On Animals."
[472] Comp. Eph. vi. 13, 14, 17.
Chapter XVII.--They Falsely Promise Health to Their Votaries.
Concerning the sympathies and antipathies of Democritus what can we
say but this, that, according to the common saying, the man of Abdera
is Abderiloquent? But, as he who gave the name to the city, a friend
of Hercules as it is said, was devoured by the horses of Diomedes, so
he who boasted of the Magian Ostanes [473] will be delivered up in the
day of consummation [474] as fuel for the eternal fire. And you, if
you do not cease from your laughter, will gain the same punishment as
the jugglers. Wherefore, O Greeks, hearken to me, addressing you as
from an eminence, nor in mockery transfer your own want of reason to
the herald of the truth. A diseased affection (pathos) is not
destroyed by a counter-affection (antipatheia), nor is a maniac cured
by hanging little amulets of leather upon him. There are visitations
of demons; and he who is sick, and he who says he is in love, and he
who hates, and he who wishes to be revenged, accept them as helpers.
And this is the method of their operation: just as the forms of
alphabetic letters and the lines composed of them cannot of themselves
indicate what is meant, but men have invented for themselves signs of
their thoughts, knowing by their peculiar combination what the order
of the letters was intended to express; so, in like manner, the
various kinds of roots and the mutual relation of the sinews and bones
can effect nothing of themselves, but are the elemental matter with
which the depravity of the demons works, who have determined for what
purpose each of them is available. And, when they see that men consent
to be served by means of such things, they take them and make them
their slaves. But how can it be honourable to minister to adulteries?
How can it be noble to stimulate men in hating one another? Or how is
it becoming to ascribe to matter the relief of the insane, and not to
God? For by their art they turn men aside from the pious
acknowledgment of God, leading them to place confidence in herbs and
roots. [475] But God, if He had prepared these things to effect just
what men wish, would be a Producer of evil things; whereas He Himself
produced everything which has good qualities, but the profligacy of
the demons has made use of the productions of nature for evil
purposes, and the appearance of evil which these wear is from them,
and not from the perfect God. For how comes it to pass that when alive
I was in no wise evil, but that now I am dead and can do nothing, my
remains, which are incapable of motion or even sense, should effect
something cognizable by the senses? And how shall he who has died by
the most miserable death be able to assist in avenging any one? If
this were possible, much more might he defend himself from his own
enemy; being able to assist others, much more might he constitute
himself his own avenger.
Footnotes
[473] Democritus. [The Paris editors add, vide Lærtium. As to Ostanes,
see that invaluable thesaurus, Hofmann's Lex. Universale, vol. ii. p.
6. Leyden, 1698.]
[474] [Comp. cap. vi. [7]note 6, supra. p. 67.]
[475] [Naviget Anticyras. On hellebore, see otherwise useless learning
but illustrative of this place, in Burton, Anat. Melanchol., p. 400.
Ed. New York, 1847.]
Chapter XVIII.--They Deceive, Instead of Healing.
But medicine and everything included in it is an invention of the same
kind. If any one is healed by matter, through trusting to it, much
more will he be healed by having recourse to the power of God. As
noxious preparations are material compounds, so are curatives of the
same nature. If, however, we reject the baser matter, some persons
often endeavour to heal by a union of one of these bad things with
some other, and will make use of the bad to attain the good. But, just
as he who dines with a robber, though he may not be a robber himself,
partakes of the punishment on account of his intimacy with him, so he
who is not bad but associates with the bad, having dealings with them
for some supposed good, will be punished by God the Judge for
partnership in the same object. Why is he who trusts in the system of
matter [476] not willing to trust in God? For what reason do you not
approach the more powerful Lord, but rather seek to cure yourself,
like the dog with grass, or the stag with a viper, or the hog with
river-crabs, or the lion with apes? Why you deify the objects of
nature? And why, when you cure your neighbour, are you called a
benefactor? Yield to the power of the Logos! The demons do not cure,
but by their art make men their captives. And the most admirable
Justin [477] has rightly denounced them as robbers. For, as it is the
practice of some to capture persons and then to restore them to their
friends for a ransom, so those who are esteemed gods, invading the
bodies of certain persons, and producing a sense of their presence by
dreams, command them to come forth into public, and in the sight of
all, when they have taken their fill of the things of this world, fly
away from the sick, and, destroying the disease which they had
produced, restore men to their former state.
Footnotes
[476] [hules oikonomia. note Comp. cap. ix., supra, note 4; p. 69.]
[477] [The language of an affectionate pupil: ho thaumasiotatos
Ioustinos.]
Chapter XIX.--Depravity Lies at the Bottom of Demon-Worship.
But do you, who have not the perception of these things, be instructed
by us who know them: though you do profess to despise death, and to be
sufficient of yourselves for everything. But this is a discipline in
which your philosophers are so greatly deficient, that some of them
receive from the king of the Romans 600 aurei yearly, for no useful
service they perform, but that they may not even wear a long beard
without being paid for it! Crescens, who made his nest in the great
city, surpassed all men in unnatural love (paiderastia), and was
strongly addicted to the love of money. Yet this man, who professed to
despise death, was so afraid of death, that he endeavoured to inflict
on Justin, and indeed on me, the punishment of death, as being an
evil, because by proclaiming the truth he convicted the philosophers
of being gluttons and cheats. But whom of the philosophers, save you
only, was he accustomed to inveigh against? If you say, in agreement
with our tenets, that death is not to be dreaded, do not court death
from an insane love of fame among men, like Anaxagoras, but become
despisers of death by reason of the knowledge of God. The construction
of the world is excellent, but the life men live in it is bad; and we
may see those greeted with applause as in a solemn assembly who know
not God. For what is divination? and why are ye deceived by it? It is
a minister to thee of worldly lusts. You wish to make war, and you
take Apollo as a counsellor of slaughter. You want to carry off a
maiden by force, and you select a divinity to be your accomplice. You
are ill by your own fault; and, as Agamemnon [478] wished for ten
councillors, so you wish to have gods with you. Some woman by drinking
water gets into a frenzy, and loses her senses by the fumes of
frankincense, and you say that she has the gift of prophecy. Apollo
was a prognosticator and a teacher of soothsayers: in the matter of
Daphne he deceived himself. An oak, forsooth, is oracular, and birds
utter presages! And so you are inferior to animals and plants! It
would surely be a fine thing for you to become a divining rod, or to
assume the wings of a bird! He who makes you fond of money also
foretells your getting rich; he who excites to seditions and wars also
predicts victory in war. If you are superior to the passions, you will
despise all worldly things. Do not abhor us who have made this
attainment, but, repudiating the demons, [479] follow the one God.
"All things [480] were made by Him, and without Him not one thing was
made." If there is poison in natural productions, this has supervened
through our sinfulness. I am able to show the perfect truth of these
things; only do you hearken, and he who believes will understand.
Footnotes
[478] Comp. Hom. Il., ii. 372.
[479] [The baptismal renunciation.]
[480] John i. 3.
Chapter XX.--Thanks are Ever Due to God.
Even if you be healed by drugs (I grant you that point by courtesy),
yet it behoves you to give testimony of the cure to God. For the world
still draws us down, and through weakness I incline towards matter.
For the wings of the soul were the perfect spirit, but, having cast
this off through sin, it flutters like a nestling and falls to the
ground. Having left the heavenly companionship, it hankers after
communion with inferior things. The demons were driven forth to
another abode; the first created human beings were expelled from their
place: the one, indeed, were cast down from heaven; but the other were
driven from earth, yet not out of this earth, but from a more
excellent order of things than exists here now. And now it behoves us,
yearning after that pristine state, to put aside everything that
proves a hindrance. The heavens are not infinite, O man, but finite
and bounded; and beyond them are the superior worlds which have not a
change of seasons, by which various diseases are produced, but,
partaking of every happy temperature, have perpetual day, and light
unapproachable by men below. [481] Those who have composed elaborate
descriptions of the earth have given an account of its various regions
so far as this was possible to man; but, being unable to speak of that
which is beyond, because of the impossibility of personal observation,
they have assigned as the cause the existence of tides; and that one
sea is filled with weed, and another with mud; and that some
localities are burnt up with heat, and others cold and frozen. We,
however, have learned things which were unknown to us, through the
teaching of the prophets, who, being fully persuaded that the heavenly
spirit [482] along with the soul will acquire a clothing of mortality,
foretold things which other minds were unacquainted with. But it is
possible for every one who is naked to obtain this apparel, and to
return to its ancient kindred.
Footnotes
[481] [The flavour of this passage comes out with more sweetness in
Kaye's note (p. 198, Justin M.), thus: "Above the visible heavens
exist the better ages, aiones oi kreittones, having no change of
seasons from which various diseases take their orgin; but, blest with
a uniform goodness of temperature, they enjoy perpetual day, and light
inaccessible to men who dwell here below." Here Tatian seems to me to
have had in mind a noble passage from Pindar, one of the most
exquisite specimens of Greek poetry, which he baptizes and sanctifies.
Ison de nuktessin aiei;
Isa d'en hamerais ali-
on echontes, aponesteron
Esthloi nemontai bio-
ton ou chthona tarasson-
tes alka cheron,
Oude pontion hudor,
Keinan para diaitan ; k.t.l. Olymp. ii.
Truly the Gentiles reflect some light from the window in the ark of
their father Noah. How sweet what follows: adakrun nemontai aiona.
Comp. Rev. vii. 7, xxi. 4, xxii.]
Footnotes
[482] [Kaye thus renders this passage: "the spirit together with the
soul will receive immortality, the heavenly covering of mortality."
Justin, p. 288.]
Chapter XXI.--Doctrines of the Christians and Greeks Respecting God
Compared.
We do not act as fools, O Greeks, nor utter idle tales, when we
announce that God was born in the form of a man. I call on you who
reproach us to compare your mythical accounts with our narrations.
Athené, as they say, took the form of Deïphobus for the sake of
Hector, [483] and the unshorn Phooebus for the sake of Admetus fed the
trailing-footed oxen, and the spouse us came as an old woman to
Semele. But, while you treat seriously such things, how can you deride
us? Your Asclepios died, and he who ravished fifty virgins in one
night at Thespiæ lost his life by delivering himself to the devouring
flame. Prometheus, fastened to Caucasus, suffered punishment for his
good deeds to men. According to you, Zeus is envious, and hides the
dream [484] from men, wishing their destruction. Wherefore, looking at
your own memorials, vouchsafe us your approval, though it were only as
dealing in legends similar to your own. We, however, do not deal in
folly, but your legends are only idle tales. If you speak of the
origin of the gods, you also declare them to be mortal. For what
reason is Hera now never pregnant? Has she grown old? or is there no
one to give you information? Believe me now, O Greeks, and do not
resolve your myths and gods into allegory. If you attempt to do this,
the divine nature as held by you is overthrown by your own selves;
for, if the demons with you are such as they are said to be, they are
worthless as to character; or, if regarded as symbols of the powers of
nature, they are not what they are called. But I cannot be persuaded
to pay religious homage to the natural elements, nor can I undertake
to persuade my neighbour. And Metrodorus of Lampsacus, in his treatise
concerning Homer, has argued very foolishly, turning everything into
allegory. For he says that neither Hera, nor Athené, nor Zeus are what
those persons suppose who consecrate to them sacred enclosures and
groves, but parts of nature and certain arrangements of the elements.
Hector also, and Achilles, and Agamemnon, and all the Greeks in
general, and the Barbarians with Helen and Paris, being of the same
nature, you will of course say are introduced merely for the sake of
the machinery [485] of the poem, not one of these personages having
really existed. But these things we have put forth only for argument's
sake; for it is not allowable even to compare our notion of God with
those who are wallowing in matter and mud.
Footnotes
[483] Il., xxii. 227.
[484] Il., ii. init.
[485] [Charin oikonmias. Compare divers uses of this word in Kaye's
Justin, p. 174.]
Chapter XXII.--Ridicule of the Solemnities of the Greeks.
And of what sort are your teachings? Who must not treat with contempt
your solemn festivals, which, being held in honour of wicked demons,
cover men with infamy? I have often seen a man [486] --and have been
amazed to see, and the amazement has ended in contempt, to think how
he is one thing internally, but outwardly counterfeits what he is
not--giving himself excessive airs of daintiness and indulging in all
sorts of effeminacy; sometimes darting his eyes about; sometimes
throwing his hands hither and thither, and raving with his face
smeared with mud; sometimes personating Aphrodité, sometimes Apollo; a
solitary accuser of all the gods, an epitome of superstition, a
vituperator of heroic deeds, an actor of murders, a chronicler of
adultery, a storehouse of madness, a teacher of cynædi, an instigator
of capital sentences;--and yet such a man is praised by all. But I
have rejected all his falsehoods, his impiety, his practices,--in
short, the man altogether. But you are led captive by such men, while
you revile those who do not take a part in your pursuits. I have no
mind to stand agape at a number of singers, nor do I desire to be
affected in sympathy with a man when he is winking and gesticulating
in an unnatural manner. What wonderful or extraordinary thing is
performed among you? They utter ribaldry in affected tones, and go
through indecent movements; your daughters and your sons behold them
giving lessons in adultery on the stage. Admirable places, forsooth,
are your lecture-rooms, where every base action perpetrated by night
is proclaimed aloud, and the hearers are regaled with the utterance of
infamous discourses! Admirable, too, are your mendacious poets, who by
their fictions beguile their hearers from the truth!
Footnotes
[486] Tatian here describes an actor. [And in America heathenism has
returned upon us in most of the indecencies here exposed. Are we
Christians?]
Chapter XXIII.--Of the Pugilists and Gladiators.
I have seen men weighed down by bodily exercise, and carrying about
the burden of their flesh, before whom rewards and chaplets are set,
while the adjudicators cheer them on, not to deeds of virtue, but to
rivalry in violence and discord; and he who excels in giving blows is
crowned. These are the lesser evils; as for the greater, who would not
shrink from telling them? Some, giving themselves up to idleness for
the sake of profligacy, sell themselves to be killed; and the indigent
barters himself away, while the rich man buys others to kill him. And
for these the witnesses take their seats, and the boxers meet in
single combat, for no reason whatever, nor does any one come down into
the arena to succour. Do such exhibitions as these redound to your
credit? He who is chief among you collects a legion of blood-stained
murderers, engaging to maintain them; and these ruffians are sent
forth by him, and you assemble at the spectacle to be judges, partly
of the wickedness of the adjudicator, and partly of that of the men
who engage in the combat. And he who misses the murderous exhibition
is grieved, because he was not doomed to be a spectator of wicked and
impious and abominable deeds. You slaughter animals for the purpose of
eating their flesh, and you purchase men to supply a cannibal banquet
for the soul, nourishing it by the most impious bloodshedding. The
robber commits murder for the sake of plunder, but the rich man
purchases gladiators for the sake of their being killed. [487]
Footnotes
[487] [Here Christianity began to avenge itself on the brutal
spectacles of the Coliseum, which stands a gigantic monument of the
religious system of which they were a part. See Athenagoras, Embassy,
cap. xxxv.]
Chapter XXIV.--Of the Other Public Amusements.
What advantage should I gain from him who is brought on the stage by
Euripides raving mad, and acting the matricide of Alcmæon; who does
not even retain his natural behaviour, but with his mouth wide open
goes about sword in hand, and, screaming aloud, is burned to death,
habited in a robe unfit for man? Away, too, with the mythical tales of
Acusilaus, and Menander, a versifier of the same class! And why should
I admire the mythic piper? Why should I busy myself about the Theban
Antigenides, [488] like Aristoxenus? We leave you to these worthless
things; and do you either believe our doctrines, or, like us, give up
yours.
Footnotes
[488] Antigenides was a flute-player, and Aristoxenus a writer on
music and musical instruments.
Chapter XXV.--Boastings and Quarrels of the Philosophers.
What great and wonderful things have your philosophers effected? They
leave uncovered one of their shoulders; they let their hair grow long;
they cultivate their beards; their nails are like the claws of wild
beasts. Though they say that they want nothing, yet, like Proteus,
[489] they need a currier for their wallet, and a weaver for their
mantle, and a wood-cutter for their staff, and the rich, [490] and a
cook also for their gluttony. O man competing with the dog, [491] you
know not God, and so have turned to the imitation of an irrational
animal. You cry out in public with an assumption of authority, and
take upon you to avenge your own self; and if you receive nothing, you
indulge in abuse, and philosophy is with you the art of getting money.
You follow the doctrines of Plato, and a disciple of Epicurus lifts up
his voice to oppose you. Again, you wish to be a disciple of
Aristotle, and a follower of Democritus rails at you. Pythagoras says
that he was Euphorbus, and he is the heir of the doctrine of
Pherecydes; but Aristotle impugns the immortality of the soul. You who
receive from your predecessors doctrines which clash with one another,
you the inharmonious, are fighting against the harmonious. One of you
asserts that God is body, but I assert that He is without body; that
the world is indestructible, but I say that it is to be destroyed;
that a conflagration will take place at various times, but I say that
it will come to pass once for all; that Minos and Rhadamanthus are
judges, but I say that God Himself is Judge; that the soul alone is
endowed with immortality, but I say that the flesh also is endowed
with it. [492] What injury do we inflict upon you, O Greeks? Why do
you hate those who follow the word of God, as if they were the vilest
of mankind? It is not we who eat human flesh [493] --they among you
who assert such a thing have been suborned as false witnesses; it is
among you that Pelops is made a supper for the gods, although beloved
by Poseidon, and Kronos devours his children, and Zeus swallows Metis.
Footnotes
[489] The Cynic Peregrinus is meant.
[490] They need the rich to invite them to banquets.
[491] The Cynic.
[492] [The vigor of this passage, and the impact of its truths upon
heathen idols, are noble specimens of our author's power.]
[493] [They ate and drank bread and wine hallowed to be the koinonia
of the flesh and blood of Christ (1 Cor. x. 16); but they knew nothing
of the modern doctrine of the Latin churches, which is precisely what
Tatian denies.]
Chapter XXVI.--Ridicule of the Studies of the Greeks.
Cease to make a parade of sayings which you have derived from others,
and to deck yourselves like the daw in borrowed plumes. If each state
were to take away its contribution to your speech, your fallacies
would lose their power. While inquiring what God is, you are ignorant
of what is in yourselves; and, while staring all agape at the sky, you
stumble into pitfalls. The reading of your books is like walking
through a labyrinth, and their readers resemble the cask of the
Danaïds. Why do you divide time, saying that one part is past, and
another present, and another future? For how can the future be passing
when the present exists? As those who are sailing imagine in their
ignorance, as the ship is borne along, that the hills are in motion,
so you do not know that it is you who are passing along, but that time
(ho aion) remains present as long as the Creator wills it to exist.
Why am I called to account for uttering my opinions, and why are you
in such haste to put them all down? Were not you born in the same
manner as ourselves, and placed under the same government of the
world? Why say that wisdom is with you alone, who have not another
sun, nor other risings of the stars, nor a more distinguished origin,
nor a death preferable to that of other men? The grammarians have been
the beginning of this idle talk; and you who parcel out wisdom are cut
off from the wisdom that is according to truth, and assign the names
of the several parts to particular men; and you know not God, but in
your fierce contentions destroy one another. And on this account you
are all nothing worth. While you arrogate to yourselves the sole right
of discussion, you discourse like the blind man with the deaf. Why do
you handle the builder's tools without knowing how to build? Why do
you busy yourselves with words, while you keep aloof from deeds,
puffed up with praise, but cast down by misfortunes? Your modes of
acting are contrary to reason, for you make a pompons appearance in
public, but hide your teaching in corners. Finding you to be such men
as these, we have abandoned you, and no longer concern ourselves with
your tenets, but follow the word of God. Why, O man, do you set the
letters of the alphabet at war with one another? Why do you, as in a
boxing match, make their sounds clash together with your mincing Attic
way of speaking, whereas you ought to speak more according to nature?
For if you adopt the Attic dialect though not an Athenian, pray why do
you not speak like the Dorians? How is it that one appears to you more
rugged, the other more pleasant for intercourse?
Chapter XXVII.--The Christians are Hated Unjustly.
And if you adhere to their teaching, why do you fight against me for
choosing such views of doctrine as I approve? Is it not unreasonable
that, while the robber is not to be punished for the name he bears,
[494] but only when the truth about him has been clearly ascertained,
yet we are to be assailed with abuse on a judgment formed without
examination? Diagoras was an Athenian, but you punished him for
divulging the Athenian mysteries; yet you who read his Phrygian
discourses hate us. You possess the commentaries of Leo, and are
displeased with our refutations of them; and having in your hands the
opinions of Apion concerning the Egyptian gods, you denounce us as
most impious. The tomb of Olympian Zeus is shown among you, [495]
though some one says that the Cretans are liars. [496] Your assembly
of many gods is nothing. Though their despiser Epicurus acts as a
torch-bearer, [497] I do not any the more conceal from the rulers that
view of God which I hold in relation to His government of the
universe. Why do you advise me to be false to my principles? Why do
you who say that you despise death exhort us to use art in order to
escape it? I have not the heart of a deer; but your zeal for
dialectics resembles the loquacity of Thersites. How can I believe one
who tells me that the sun is a red-hot mass and the moon an earth?
Such assertions are mere logomachies, and not a sober exposition of
truth. How can it be otherwise than foolish to credit the books of
Herodotus relating to the history of Hercules, which tell of an upper
earth from which the lion came down that was killed by Hercules? And
what avails the Attic style, the sorites of philosophers, the
plausibilities of syllogisms, the measurements of the earth, the
positions of the stars, and the course of the sun? To be occupied in
such inquiries is the work of one who imposes opinions on himself as
if they were laws.
Footnotes
[494] [Athenagoras, Embassy, cap. ii., infra.]
[495] In Crete.
[496] Comp. Tit. i. 12. Callimachus is probably the author referred
to, through others express the same opinion respecting the Cretans.
[497] Accommodating himself to the popular opinions, through fear.
Chapter XXVIII.--Condemnation of the Greek Legislation.
On this account I reject your legislation also; for there ought to be
one common polity for all; but now there are as many different codes
as there are states, so that things held disgraceful in some are
honourable in others. The Greeks consider intercourse with a mother as
unlawful, but this practice is esteemed most becoming by the Persian
Magi; pæderasty is condemned by the Barbarians, but by the Romans, who
endeavour to collect herds of boys like grazing horses, it is honoured
with certain privileges.
Chapter XXIX.--Account of Tatian's Conversion.
Wherefore, having seen these things, and moreover also having been
admitted to the mysteries, and having everywhere examined the
religious rites performed by the effeminate and the pathic, and having
found among the Romans their Latiarian Jupiter delighting in human
gore and the blood of slaughtered men, and Artemis not far from the
great city [498] sanctioning acts of the same kind, and one demon here
and another there instigating to the perpetration of evil,--retiring
by myself, I sought how I might be able to discover the truth. And,
while I was giving my most earnest attention to the matter, I happened
to meet with certain barbaric writings, too old to be compared with
the opinions of the Greeks, and too divine to be compared with their
errors; and I was led to put faith in these by the unpretending cast
of the language, the inartificial character of the writers, the
foreknowledge displayed of future events, the excellent quality of the
precepts, and the declaration of the government of the universe as
centred in one Being. [499] And, my soul being taught of God, I
discern that the former class of writings lead to condemnation, but
that these put an end to the slavery that is in the world, and rescue
us from a multiplicity of rulers and ten thousand tyrants, while they
give us, not indeed what we had not before received, but what we had
received but were prevented by error from retaining.
Footnotes
[498] At Aricia, near Rome.
[499] [A memorable tribute to the light-giving power of the Holy
Scriptures. "Barbarian books" (barbaric means something else) they
were; but well says Dr. Watts in a paraphrase of Ps. cxix. 96 (and
comp. capp. xl., xli., infra),--
"Let all the heathen writers join to form one perfect book,
Great God if once compared with thine, how mean their writings look!"
See his Hymns, p. 238. Ed. Worcester, 1836.]
Chapter XXX.--How He Resolved to Resist the Devil.
Therefore, being initiated and instructed in these things, I wish to
put away my former errors as the follies of childhood. For we know
that the nature of wickedness is like that of the smallest seeds;
since it has waxed strong from a small beginning, but will again be
destroyed if we obey the words of God and do not scatter ourselves.
For He has become master of all we have by means of a certain "hidden
treasure," [500] which while we are digging for we are indeed covered
with dust, but we secure it as our fixed possession. He who receives
the whole of this treasure has obtained command of the most precious
wealth. Let these things, then, be said to our friends. But to you
Greeks what can I say, except to request you not to rail at those who
are better than yourselves, nor if they are called Barbarians to make
that an occasion of banter? For, if you are willing, you will be able
to find out the cause of men's not being able to understand one
another's language; for to those who wish to examine our principles I
will give a simple and copious account of them.
Footnotes
[500] Comp. Matt. xiii. 44. [Cogent reasoning with Greeks.]
Chapter XXXI.--The Philosophy of the Christians More Ancient Than that of
the Greeks.
But now it seems proper for me to demonstrate that our philosophy is
older than the systems of the Greeks. Moses and Homer shall be our
limits, each of them being of great antiquity; the one being the
oldest of poets and historians, and the other the founder of all
barbarian wisdom. Let us, then, institute a comparison between them;
and we shall find that our doctrines are older, not only than those of
the Greeks, but than the invention of letters. [501] And I will not
bring forward witnesses from among ourselves, but rather have recourse
to Greeks. To do the former would be foolish, because it would not be
allowed by you; but the other will surprise you, when, by contending
against you with your own weapons, I adduce arguments of which you had
no suspicion. Now the poetry of Homer, his parentage, and the time in
which he flourished have been investigated by the most ancient
writers,--by Theagenes of Rhegium, who lived in the time of Cambyses,
Stesimbrotus of Thasos and Antimachus of Colophon, Herodotus of
Halicarnassus, and Dionysius the Olynthian; after them, by Ephorus of
Cumæ, and Philochorus the Athenian, Megaclides and Chamæleon the
Peripatetics; afterwards by the grammarians, Zenodotus, Aristophanes,
Callimachus, Crates, Eratosthenes, Aristarchus, and Apollodorus. Of
these, Crates says that he flourished before the return of the
Heraclidæ, and within 80 years after the Trojan war; Eratosthenes says
that it was after the 100th year from the taking of Ilium;
Aristarchus, that it was about the time of the Ionian migration, which
was 140 years after that event; but, according to Philochorus, after
the Ionian migration, in the archonship of Archippus at Athens, 180
years after the Trojan war; Apollodorus says it was 100 years after
the Ionian migration, which would be 240 years after the Trojan war.
Some say that he lived 90 years before the Olympiads, which would be
317 years after the taking of Troy. Others carry it down to a later
date, and say that Homer was a contemporary of Archilochus; but
Archilochus flourished about the 23d Olympiad, in the time of Gyges
the Lydian, 500 years after Troy. Thus, concerning the age of the
aforesaid poet, I mean Homer, and the discrepancies of those who have
spoken of him, we have said enough in a summary manner for those who
are able to investigate with accuracy. For it is possible to show that
the opinions held about the facts themselves also are false. For,
where the assigned dates do not agree together, it is impossible that
the history should be true. For what is the cause of error in writing,
but the narrating of things that are not true?
Footnotes
[501] Comp. Matt. xiii. 44. [Cogent reasoning with Greeks.]
Chapter XXXII.--The Doctrine of the Christians, is Opposed to
Dissensions, and Fitted for All.
But with us there is no desire of vainglory, nor do we indulge in a
variety of opinions. For having renounced the popular and earthly, and
obeying the commands of God, and following the law of the Father of
immortality, we reject everything which rests upon human opinion. Not
only do the rich among us pursue our philosophy, but the poor enjoy
instruction gratuitously; [502] for the things which come from God
surpass the requital of worldly gifts. Thus we admit all who desire to
hear, even old women and striplings; and, in short, persons of every
age are treated by us with respect, but every kind of licentiousness
is kept at a distance. And in speaking we do not utter falsehood. It
would be an excellent thing if your continuance in unbelief should
receive a check; but, however that may be, let our cause remain
confirmed by the judgment pronounced by God. Laugh, if you please; but
you will have to weep hereafter. Is it not absurd that Nestor, [503]
who was slow at cutting his horses' reins owing to his weak and
sluggish old age, is, according to you, to be admired for attempting
to rival the young men in fighting, while you deride those among us
who struggle against old age and occupy themselves with the things
pertaining to God? Who would not laugh when you tell us that the
Amazons, and Semiramis, and certain other warlike women existed, while
you cast reproaches on our maidens? Achilles was a youth, yet is
believed to have been very magnanimous; and Neoptolemus was younger,
but strong; Philoctetes was weak, but the divinity had need of him
against Troy. What sort of man was Thersites? yet he held a command in
the army, and, if he had not through doltishness had such an unbridled
tongue, he would not have been reproached for being peak-headed and
bald. As for those who wish to learn our philosophy, we do not test
them by their looks, nor do we judge of those who come to us by their
outward appearance; for we argue that there may be strength of mind in
all, though they may be weak in body. But your proceedings are full of
envy and abundant stupidity.
Footnotes
[502] [Compare cap. xi. p. 69. And note, thus early, the Christian
freeschools, such as Julian closed and then imitated, confessing their
power.]
[503] Il., ix.
Chapter XXXIII.--Vindication of Christian Women.
Therefore I have been desirous to prove from the things which are
esteemed honourable among you, that our institutions are marked by
sober-mindedness, but that yours are in close affinity with madness.
[504] You who say that we talk nonsense among women and boys, among
maidens and old women, and scoff at us for not being with you, hear
what silliness prevails among the Greeks. For their works of art are
devoted to worthless objects, while they are held in higher estimation
by you than even your gods; and you behave yourselves unbecomingly in
what relates to woman. For Lysippus cast a statue of Praxilla, whose
poems contain nothing useful, and Menestratus one of Learchis, and
Selanion one of Sappho the courtezan, and Naucydes one of Erinna the
Lesbian, and Boiscus one of Myrtis, and Cephisodotus one of Myro of
Byzantium, and Gomphus one of Praxigoris, and Amphistratus one of
Clito. And what shall I say about Anyta, Telesilla, and Mystis? Of the
first Euthycrates and Cephisodotus made a statue, and of the second
Niceratus, and of the third Aristodotus; Euthycrates made one of
Mnesiarchis the Ephesian, Selanion one of Corinna, and Euthycrates one
of Thalarchis the Argive. My object in referring to these women is,
that you may not regard as something strange what you find among us,
and that, comparing the statues which are before your eyes, you may
not treat the women with scorn who among us pursue philosophy. This
Sappho is a lewd, love-sick female, and sings her own wantonness;
[505] but all our women are chaste, and the maidens at their distaffs
sing of divine things [506] more nobly than that damsel of yours.
Wherefore be ashamed, you who are professed disciples of women yet
scoff at those of the sex who hold our doctrine, as well as at the
solemn assemblies they frequent. [507] What a noble infant did
Glaucippé present to you, who brought forth a prodigy, as is shown by
her statue cast by Niceratus, the son of Euctemon the Athenian! But,
if Glaucippé brought forth an elephant, was that a reason why she
should enjoy public honours? Praxiteles and Herodotus made for you
Phryné the courtezan, and Euthycrates cast a brazen statue of
Panteuchis, who was pregnant by a whoremonger; and Dinomenes, because
Besantis queen of the Pæonians gave birth to a black infant, took
pains to preserve her memory by his art. I condemn Pythagoras too, who
made a figure of Europa on the bull; and you also, who honour the
accuser of Zeus on account of his artistic skill. And I ridicule the
skill of Myron, who made a heifer and upon it a Victory because by
carrying off the daughter of Agenor it had borne away the prize for
adultery and lewdness. The Olynthian Herodotus made statues of Glycera
the courtezan and Argeia the harper. Bryaxis made a statue of
Pasiphaë; and, by having a memorial of her lewdness, it seems to have
been almost your desire that the women of the present time should be
like her. [508] A certain Melanippë was a wise woman, and for that
reason Lysistratus made her statue. But, forsooth, you will not
believe that among us there are wise women!
Footnotes
[504] [See [8]note 2, next page.]
[505] [St. Chrysostom speaks of the heathen as hoi tais satanikais
odais katasepomenoi. In Psalmum, cxvii. tom. v. p. 533. Ed. Migne.]
[506] [Such as the Magnificat of the Virgin, the Twenty-third Psalm,
or the Christian Hymn for Eventide, which they learned in the
Christian schools (cap. xxxii. p. 78). Cold is the heart of any
mother's son that does not warm over such a chapter as this on the
enfranchisement of womanhood by Christ. Observe our author's scorn for
the heathen "affinity with unreason" (this chapter, supra), and then
enjoy this glimpse of the contrast afforded by the Gospel in its
influence upon women. Intensely should we delight in the pictures of
early Christian society, of which the Fathers give us these suggestive
outlines. Rejecting the profane and wanton songs they heard around
them,-- "Satanic minstrelsies," as St. Chryosostom names them,--they
beguiled their toils and soothed their sorrows with "Psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs." As St. Jerome relates, "You could not go into
the field, but you might hear the ploughman's hallelujahs, the mower's
hymns, and the vine-dresser's chant of the Psalms of David." See
Cave's Primitive Christianity, p. 132.]
[507] [Such as the Magnificat of the Virgin, the Twenty-third Psalm,
or the Christian Hymn for Eventide, which they learned in the
Christian schools (cap. xxxii. p. 78). Cold is the heart of any
mother's son that does not warm over such a chapter as this on the
enfranchisement of womanhood by Christ. Observe our author's scorn for
the heathen "affinity with unreason" (this chapter, supra), and then
enjoy this glimpse of the contrast afforded by the Gospel in its
influence upon women. Intensely should we delight in the pictures of
early Christian society, of which the Fathers give us these suggestive
outlines. Rejecting the profane and wanton songs they heard around
them,--"Satanic minstrelsies," as St. Chryosostom names them,--they
beguiled their toils and soothed their sorrows with "Psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs." As St. Jerome relates, "You could not go into
the field, but you might hear the ploughman's hallelujahs, the mower's
hymns, and the vine-dresser's chant of the Psalms of David." See
Cave's Primitive Christianity, p. 132.]
[508] [St. Paul's spirit was stirred within him, beholding the
abominable idolatries of the Athenians; and who can wonder at the
loathing of Christians, whose wives and children could not escape from
these shameful spectacles. The growing asceticism and fanatical views
of sexual relations, which were now rising in the Church, were a
morbid but virtuous revolt of faith against these impurities.]
Chapter XXXIV.--Ridicule of the Statues Erected by the Greeks.
Worthy of very great honour, certainly, was the tyrant Bhalaris, who
devoured sucklings, and accordingly is exhibited by the workmanship of
Polystratus the Ambraciot, even to this day, as a very wonderful man!
The Agrigentines dreaded to look on that countenance of his, because
of his cannibalism; but people of culture now make it their boast that
they behold him in his statue! Is it not shameful that fratricide is
honoured by you who look on the statues of Polynices and Eteocles, and
that you have not rather buried them with their maker Pythagoras?
Destroy these memorials of iniquity! Why should I contemplate with
admiration the figure of the woman who bore thirty children, merely
for the sake of the artist Periclymenus? One ought to turn away with
disgust from one who bore off the fruits of great incontinence, and
whom the Romans compared to a sow, which also on a like account, they
say, was deemed worthy of a mystic worship. Ares committed adultery
with Aphrodité, and Andron made an image of their offspring Harmonia.
Sophron, who committed to writing trifles and absurdities, was more
celebrated for his skill in casting metals, of which specimens exist
even now. And not only have his tales kept the fabulist Æsop in
everlasting remembrance, but also the plastic art of Aristodemus has
increased his celebrity. How is it then that you, who have so many
poetesses whose productions are mere trash, and innumerable
courtezans, and worthless men, are not ashamed to slander the
reputation of our women? What care I to know that Euanthé gave birth
to an infant in the Peripatus, or to gape with wonder at the art of
Callistratus, or to fix my gaze on the Neæra of Calliades? For she was
a courtezan. Laïs was a prostitute, and Turnus made her a monument of
prostitution. Why are you not ashamed of the fornication of
Hephæstion, even though Philo has represented him very artistically?
And for what reason do you honour the hermaphrodite Ganymede by
Leochares, as if you possessed something admirable? Praxiteles even
made a statue of a woman with the stain of impurity upon it. It
behoved you, repudiating everything of this kind, to seek what is
truly worthy of attention, and not to turn with disgust from our mode
of life while receiving with approval the shameful productions of
Philænis and Elephantis.
Chapter XXXV.--Tatian Speaks as an Eye-Witness.
The things which I have thus set before you I have not learned at
second hand. I have visited many lands; I have followed rhetoric, like
yourselves; I have fallen in with many arts and inventions; and
finally, when sojourning in the city of the Romans, I inspected the
multiplicity of statues brought thither by you: for I do not attempt,
as is the custom with many, to strengthen my own views by the opinions
of others, but I wish to give you a distinct account of what I myself
have seen and felt. So, bidding farewell to the arrogance of Romans
and the idle talk of Athenians, and all their ill-connected opinions,
I embraced our barbaric philosophy. I began to show how this was more
ancient than your institutions, [509] but left my task unfinished, in
order to discuss a matter which demanded more immediate attention; but
now it is time I should attempt to speak concerning its doctrines. Be
not offended with our teaching, nor undertake an elaborate reply
filled with trifling and ribaldry, saying, "Tatian, aspiring to be
above the Greeks, above the infinite number of philosophic inquirers,
has struck out a new path, and embraced the doctrines of Barbarians."
For what grievance is it, that men manifestly ignorant should be
reasoned with by a man of like nature with themselves? Or how can it
be irrational, according to your own sophist, [510] to grow old always
learning something?
Footnotes
[509] Chap. xxxi. [With what calm superiority he professes himself a
barbarian! I honour the eye-witness who tells not only what he had
seen, but what he felt amid such evidences of man's degradation and
impiety.]
[510] Solon. Bergh., Poetæ Græc. Lyr., fr. 18. [The interest and
biographical importance of this chapter must be apparent.]
Chapter XXXVI.--Testimony of the Chaldeans to the Antiquity of Moses.
But let Homer be not later than the Trojan war; let it be granted that
he was contemporary with it, or even that he was in the army of
Agamemnon, and, if any so please, that he lived before the invention
of letters. The Moses before mentioned will be shown to have been many
years older than the taking of Troy, and far more ancient than the
building of Troy, or than Tros and Dardanus. To demonstrate this I
will call in as witnesses the Chaldeans, the Phoenicians and the
Egyptians. And what more need I say? For it behoves one who professes
to persuade his hearers to make his narrative of events very concise.
Berosus, a Babylonian, a priest of their god Belus, born in the time
of Alexander, composed for Antiochus, the third after him, the history
of the Chaldeans in three books; and, narrating the acts of the kings,
he mentions one of them, Nabuchodonosor by name, who made war against
the Phoenicians and the Jews,--events which we know were announced by
our prophets, and which happened much later than the age of Moses,
seventy years before the Persian empire. But Berosus is a very
trustworthy man, and of this Juba is a witness, who, writing
concerning the Assyrians, says that he learned the history from
Berosus: there are two books of his concerning the Assyrians.
Chapter XXXVII.--Testimony of the Phoenicians.
After the Chaldeans, the testimony of the Phoenicians is as follows.
There were among them three men, Theodotus, Hypsicrates, and Mochus;
Chaitus translated their books into Greek, and also composed with
exactness the lives of the philosophers. Now, in the histories of the
aforesaid writers it is shown that the abduction of Europa happened
under one of the kings, and an account is given of the coming of
Menelaus into Phoenicia, and of the matters relating to Chiramus,
[511] who gave his daughter in marriage to Solomon the king of the
Jews, and supplied wood of all kind of trees for the building of the
temple. Menander of Pergamus composed a history concerning the same
things. But the age of Chiramus is somewhere about the Trojan war; but
Solomon, the contemporary of Chiramus, lived much later than the age
of Moses.
Footnotes
[511] Called Hiram in our authorized translation.
Chapter XXXVIII.--The Egyptians Place Moses in the Reign of Inachus.
Of the Egyptians also there are accurate chronicles. Ptolemy, not the
king, but a priest of Mendes, is the interpreter of their affairs.
This writer, narrating the acts of the kings, says that the departure
of the Jews from Egypt to the places whither they went occurred in the
time of king Amosis, under the leadership of Moses. He thus speaks:
"Amosis lived in the time of king Inachus." After him, Apion the
grammarian, a man most highly esteemed, in the fourth book of his
Ægyptiaca (there are five books of his), besides many other things,
says that Amosis destroyed Avaris in the time of the Argive Inachus,
as the Mendesian Ptolemy wrote in his annals. But the time from
Inachus to the taking of Troy occupies twenty generations. The steps
of the demonstration are the following:--
Chapter XXXIX.--Catalogue of the Argive Kings.
The kings of the Argives were these: Inachus, Phoroneus, Apis,
Criasis, Triopas, Argeius, Phorbas, Crotopas, Sthenelaus, Danaus,
Lynceus, Proetus, Abas, Acrisius, Perseus, Sthenelaus, Eurystheus,
Atreus, Thyestes, and Agamemnon, in the eighteenth year of whose reign
Troy was taken. And every intelligent person will most carefully
observe that, according to the tradition of the Greeks, they possessed
no historical composition; for Cadmus, who taught them letters, came
into Boeotia many generations later. But after Inachus, under
Phoroneus, a check was with difficulty given to their savage and
nomadic life, and they entered upon a new order of things. Wherefore,
if Moses is shown to be contemporary with Inachus, he is four hundred
years older than the Trojan war. But this is demonstrated from the
succession of the Attic, [and of the Macedonian, the Ptolemaic, and
the Antiochian] [512] kings. Hence, if the most illustrious deeds
among the Greeks were recorded and made known after Inachus, it is
manifest that this must have been after Moses. In the time of
Phoroneus, who was after Inachus, Ogygus is mentioned among the
Athenians, in whose time was the first deluge; and in the time of
Phorbas was Actæus, from whom Attica was called Actæa; and in the time
of Triopas were Prometheus, and Epimetheus, and Atlas, and Cecrops of
double nature, and Io; in the time of Crotopas was the burning of
Phaëthon and the flood of Deucalion; in the time of Sthenelus was the
reign of Amphictyon and the coming of Danaus into Peloponnesus, and
the founding of Dardania by Dardanus, and the return of Europa from
Phoenicia to Crete; in the time of Lynceus was the abduction of Koré,
and the founding of the temple in Eleusis, and the husbandry of
Triptolemus, and the coming of Cadmus to Thebes, and the reign of
Minos; in the time of Proetus was the war of Eumolpus against the
Athenians; in the time of Acrisius was the coming over of Pelops from
Phrygia, and the coming of Ion to Athens, and the second Cecrops, and
the deeds of Perseus and Dionysus, and Musæus, the disciple of
Orpheus; and in the reign of Agamemnon Troy was taken.
Footnotes
[512] The words within brackets, though they occur in the mss. and in
Eusebius, are supposed by some scholars to be a very old
interpolation.
Chapter XL.--Moses More Ancient and Credible Than the Heathen Heroes.
Therefore, from what has been said it is evident that Moses was older
than the ancient heroes, wars, and demons. And we ought rather to
believe him, who stands before them in point of age, than the Greeks,
who, without being aware of it, [513] drew his doctrines [as] from a
fountain. For many of the sophists among them, stimulated by
curiosity, endeavoured to adulterate whatever they learned from Moses,
[514] and from those who have philosophized like him, first that they
might be considered as having something of their own, and secondly,
that covering up by a certain rhetorical artifice whatever things they
did not understand, they might misrepresent the truth as if it were a
fable. But what the learned among the Greeks have said concerning our
polity and the history of our laws, and how many and what kind of men
have written of these things, will be shown in the treatise against
those who have discoursed of divine things. [515]
Footnotes
[513] This expression admits of several meanings: "Without properly
understanding them,"--Worth; "not with a proper sense of
gratitude."--Maranus.
[514] [There is increasing evidence of the obligations of the Greek
sages to that "light shining in a dark place," i.e., amid an
idolatrous world.]
[515] [Let it be noted as the moral of our author's review, that there
is no self-degradation of which man is not capable when he rejects the
true God. Rom. i. 28.]
Chapter XLI.
But the matter of principal importance is to endeavour with all
accuracy to make it clear that Moses is not only older than Homer, but
than all the writers that were before him--older than Linus,
Philammon, Thamyris, Amphion, Musæus, Orpheus, Demodocus, Phemius,
Sibylla, Epimenides of Crete, who came to Sparta, Aristæus of
Proconnesus, who wrote the Arimaspia, Asbolus the Centaur, Isatis,
Drymon, Euclus the Cyprian, Horus the Samian, and Pronapis the
Athenian. Now, Linus was the teacher of Hercules, but Hercules
preceded the Trojan war by one generation; and this is manifest from
his son Tlepolemus, who served in the army against Troy. And Orpheus
lived at the same time as Hercules; moreover, it is said that all the
works attributed to him were composed by Onomacritus the Athenian, who
lived during the reign of the Pisistratids, about the fiftieth
Olympiad. Musæus was a disciple of Orpheus. Amphion, since he preceded
the siege of Troy by two generations, forbids our collecting further
particulars about him for those who are desirous of information.
Demodocus and Phemius lived at the very time of the Trojan war; for
the one resided with the suitors, and the other with the Phoeacians.
Thamyris and Philammon were not much earlier than these. Thus,
concerning their several performances in each kind, and their times
and the record of them, we have written very fully, and, as I think,
with all exactness. But, that we may complete what is still wanting, I
will give my explanation respecting the men who are esteemed wise.
Minos, who has been thought to excel in every kind of wisdom, and
mental acuteness, and legislative capacity, lived in the time of
Lynceus, who reigned after Danaus in the eleventh generation after
Inachus. Lycurgus, who was born long after the taking of Troy, gave
laws to the Lacedemonians. Draco is found to have lived about the
thirty-ninth Olympiad, Solon about the forty-sixth, and Pythagoras
about the sixty-second. We have shown that the Olympiads commenced 407
years after the taking of Troy. These facts being demonstrated, we
shall briefly remark concerning the age of the seven wise men. The
oldest of these, Thales, lived about the fiftieth Olympiad; and I have
already spoken briefly of those who came after him.
Chapter XLII.--Concluding Statement as to the Author.
These things, O Greeks, I Tatian, a disciple of the barbarian
philosophy, [516] have composed for you. I was born in the land of the
Assyrians, having been first instructed in your doctrines, and
afterwards in those which I now undertake to proclaim. Henceforward,
knowing who God is and what is His work, I present myself to you
prepared for an examination [517] concerning my doctrines, while I
adhere immoveably to that mode of life which is according to God.
[518]
Footnotes
[516] [Comp. cap. xxix. p. 77, supra.]
[517] [Compare the boastful Rousseau: "Que la trompette du jugement
sonne quand elle voudra, je viendrai ce livra a la main, me presenter
devant le souverain Juge." Confessions, livre i. p. 2.]
[518] ["Adhere immoveably." Alas! "let him that thinketh he standeth",
etc. But I cannot part with Tatian nor think of Tertullian without
recalling David's threnode: "There the shield of the mighty is vilely
cast away ... . I am distressed for thee, my brother: ... very
pleasant hast thou been unto me ... How are the mighty fallen, and the
weapons of war perished!" Our own sad times have taught us similar
lamentations for some who seemed for a time to be "burning and shining
lights." God be merciful to poor frail men.]
Fragments.
[519]
I.
In his treatise, Concerning Perfection according to the Saviour, he
writes, "Consent indeed fits for prayer, but fellowship in corruption
weakens supplication. At any rate, by the permission he certainly,
though delicately, forbids; for while he permits them to return to the
same on account of Satan and incontinence, he exhibits a man who will
attempt to serve two masters--God by the `consent' (1 Cor. 7:5), but
by want of consent, incontinence, fornication, and the devil."--Clem.
Alex.: Strom., iii. c. 12.
II.
A certain person inveighs against generation, calling it corruptible
and destructive; and some one does violence [to Scripture], applying
to pro-creation the Saviour's words, "Lay not up treasure on earth,
where moth and rust corrupt;" and he is not ashamed to add to these
the words of the prophet: "You all shall grow old as a garment, and
the moth shall devour you."
And, in like manner, they adduce the saying concerning the
resurrection of the dead, "The sons of that world neither marry nor
are given in marriage."--Clem. Alex.: iii. c. 12, § 86.
III.
Tatian, who maintaining the imaginary flesh of Christ, pronounces all
sexual connection impure, who was also the very violent heresiarch of
the Encratites, employs an argument of this sort: "If any one sows to
the flesh, of the flesh he shall reap corruption;" but he sows to the
flesh who is joined to a woman; therefore he who takes a wife and sows
in the flesh, of the flesh he shall reap corruption.--Hieron.: Com. in
Ep. ad Gal.
IV.
Seceding from the Church, and being elated and puffed up by a conceit
of his teacher, [520] as if he were superior to the rest, he formed
his own peculiar type of doctrine. Imagining certain invisible Æons
like those of Valentinus, and denouncing marriage as defilement and
fornication in the same way as Marcion and Saturninus, and denying the
salvation of Adam as an opinion of his own.--Irenæus: Adv. Hoer., i.
28.
V.
Tatian attempting from time to time to make use of Paul's language,
that in Adam all die, but ignoring that "where sin abounded, grace has
much more abounded."--Irenæus: Adv. Heres., iii. 37.
VI.
Against Tatian, who says that the words, "Let there be light," are to
be taken as a prayer. If He who uttered it knew a superior God, how is
it that He says, "I am God, and there is none beside me"?
He said that there are punishments for blasphemies, foolish talking,
and licentious words, which are punished and chastised by the Logos.
And he said that women were punished on account of their hair and
ornaments by a power placed over those things, which also gave
strength to Samson by his hair, and punishes those who by the ornament
of their hair are urged on to fornication.--Clem. Alex.: Frag.
VII.
But Tatian, not understanding that the expression "Let there be" is
not always precative but sometimes imperative, most impiously imagined
concerning God, who said "Let there be light," that He prayed rather
than commanded light to be, as if, as he impiously thought, God was in
darkness.--Origen: De Orat.
VIII.
Tatian separates the old man and the new, but not, as we say,
understanding the old man to be the law, and the new man to be the
Gospel. We agree with him in saying the same thing, but not in the
sense he wishes, abrogating the law as if it belonged to another
God.--Clem. Alex.: Strom., iii. 12.
IX.
Tatian condemns and rejects not only marriage, but also meats which
God has created for use.--Hieron.: Adv. Jovin., i. 3.
X.
"But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets,
saying, Prophesy not." On this, perhaps, Tatian the chief of the
Encratites endeavours to build his heresy, asserting that wine is not
to be drunk, since it was commanded in the law that the Nazarites were
not to drink wine, and now those who give the Nazarites wine are
accused by the prophet.--Hieron.: Com. in Amos.
XI.
Tatian, the patriarch of the Encratites, who himself rejected some of
Paul's Epistles, believed this especially, that is [addressed] to
Titus, ought to be declared to be the apostle's, thinking little of
the assertion of Marcion and others, who agree with him on this
point.--Hieron.: Præf. in Com. ad Tit.
XII.
[Archelaus (a.d. 280), Bishop of Carrha in Mesopotamia, classes his
countryman Tatian with "Marcion, Sabellius, and others who have made
up for themselves a peculiar science," i.e., a theology of their
own.--Routh: Reliquiæ, tom. v. p. 137. But see Edinburgh Series of
this work, vol. xx. p. 267.]
Footnotes
[519] From the lost works of Tatian. Ed. Otto.
[520] i.e., Justin Martyr.
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