Part 8

[133]It is very difficult, without a knowledge of Latin and Greek, to understand Dionysius's play on words throughout this section. The office which Macrianus held was that of, in Latin, _Rationalis or Procurator summæ rei_, in Greek {ho epi tôn katholou logôn} (something like our Chancellor of the Exchequer): hence Dionysius says he was not _rational_ (or reasonable) in his treatment of the Christians and showed no _catholic_ spirit towards them.

[134]Ezek. xiii. 3. Dionysius takes the last phrase ({to katholou}), as if it was the object of the verb, not an adverb, in order to suit his argument.

[135]This may perhaps mean that besides his other faults Macrianus was tainted with the atheistic views of the Epicureans, while Dionysius also alludes in this sentence to the accounts which Macrianus would have to present to the Emperor of his own administration.

[136]Cf. Eph. iv. 6 and Col. i. 17.

[137]Another play on words, as if Macrianus was derived from the Greek {makros} (far off), which is somewhat doubtful.

[138]Is. lxvi. 3, 4 (LXX). Here the reference is to Valerian falling into the hands of Sapor, the Persian King, who inflicted grievous insults upon him, and kept him in captivity till his death.

[139]Macrianus was lame of one leg. After Valerian's defeat and disappearance (in 260), for which he was himself largely responsible, Macrianus and his two sons, Macrianus junior and Quietus, made an abortive attempt to seize the throne, which was soon defeated.

[140]Ex. xx. 5.

[141]The two Macriani were defeated and slain by Aureolus, another usurper, in Illyricum, and Quietus was put to death in the East.

[142]Dionysius is still speaking of Macrianus, who had incited Valerian to attack the Persians, and then had himself attacked Gallienus and tried to usurp the throne.

[143]Is. xlii. 9, but Dionysius has substituted, for the last phrase, a phrase from xliii. 19. The original prophecy applies to the triumph of Cyrus and the conversion of the world to the worship of Jehovah. Its application in the text strikes us to-day as too fanciful.

[144]Whether Gallienus himself was really a Christian is very doubtful, but his wife, Cornelia Salonina, seems to have been.

[145]This is a very obscure calculation, but the upshot of it may be as follows: Gallienus was associated with his father Valerian as Emperor seven years (253-60), then Macrianus usurped the power (in Egypt) for one year, or rather more; thus Gallienus regained the power in his ninth year (_i. e._ after midsummer 261). Gallienus's original Edict of Peace was issued in Oct. 260, but the Rescript applying it to Egypt was delayed for some time. The Easter festival for which this letter was written, therefore, must have been that of 262.

[146]Cf. 1 Cor. v. 8.

[147]Exod. xii. 30.

[148]I have translated the Berlin editor's reading here, as being the least unsatisfactory of those proposed. Others give a text which may be rendered: "I would this were all: for the things that befell us before drove us into many grievous troubles." But the exact meaning is doubtful, however we take it.

[149]This epithet for martyrs has already occurred on p. 64.

[150]This is none other than a quotation from Pericles's speech about the plague at Athens in Thucyd. ii. 64, though in Dionysius's original phrase it sounds as if he meant some local minor historian.

[151]The word Dionysius uses here is the same as S. Paul, uses (1 Cor. iv. 13: {peripsêma}, offscouring). It is said to have been used at Athens of the human scapegoats thrown into the river in time of famine: "Be thou my expiation ({peripsêma})." Elsewhere it seems to have degenerated into a sort of extravagant compliment: "I am your humble servant ({peripsêma})." Dionysius suggests it might regain its more serious meaning in the present case.

[152]Here again Dionysius uses an expression suggested by S. Paul in Phil. iii. 8.

[153]It is not clear whether Dionysius actually alludes here to the well-protected harbours of Alexandria or (more loosely) to the Lake Mareotis: probably to the former, because the canal he refers to in the next sentence (though he calls it a river) was cut from the Nile into one of the harbours and passed at the back of the city between it and the Lake Mareotis.

[154]Cf. Ps. lxxvii. 13, cxxxvi. 4, and Wisd. xi. 4. The whole passage, of course, refers to Exod. xiv. and xvii.

[155]Cf. Exod. vii. 20, 21.

[156]_i. e._ if the biggest river and the ocean itself, as he proceeds exaggeratedly to claim, cannot do so, what other cleansing can there be?

[157]Cf. Gen. ii. 10 ff. Dionysius evidently adopts the later Jewish view that the Gihon was the Nile, Æthiopia (or Cush) being identified with Egypt.

[158]The meaning of the phrase employed by Dionysius here ("hale old men") comes from Homer, _Il._ xxiii. 791 (cf. Virg., _Æn._ vi. 304); but elsewhere a very similar phrase seems to suggest "a cruel, untimely old age."

[159]Evidently at Alexandria (the capital of that country which was the chief granary of Rome) either the necessitous citizens or perhaps all between forty and seventy were entitled to receive doles of corn; but now the relief was extended to all ages between fourteen and eighty.

[160]Either the heathen are meant, who ought to tremble and be convinced, or the Christians, who were too courageous through trust in God to tremble.

[161]The last sentence is involved and obscure. I am not sure that my paraphrase rightly expresses the thought.

[162]I have adopted our modern mode of expression, but in the early Church Pascha was often used for the fast which receded Easter as well as for the feast itself, and that is how Dionysius uses it here.

[163]_i. e._ at 3 a.m. on Easter Day, the traditional hour of our Lord's Resurrection, especially in the West.

[164]_i. e._ at 6 p.m. on Easter Eve.

[165]"All," _i. e._ "who came," or perhaps "all the four evangelists." The "difference" is not really confined to the time, but to the

## parties which came, the other devout women coming later than the two

Marys.

[166]The four references are to Matt. xxviii. 1, John xx. 1, Luke xxiv. 1, and Mark xvi. 2.

[167]Cf. John ix. 5, etc.

[168]The Council _in Trullo_ (A.D. 680) accepted this second meaning and consented to Dionysius's ruling on the point raised without reserve.

[169]Dionysius thinks that S. Matthew's account, with which S. John's tallies, speaks of the two Marys coming to look at the tomb about midnight on Easter eve or morning, while S. Luke and S. Mark mentioned certain women who arrived at the tomb somewhat later, when the sun had just risen, but one at least of the Marys mentioned by S. Matthew is identical with one of those mentioned by S. Mark and apparently by S. Luke. Possibly, however, Dionysius means that the two Marys took part in both visits to the tomb. Dr. Swete on S. Mark and Dr. Westcott on S. John should be consulted by any one who wishes to pursue the question further.

[170]_i. e._ as on the former occasion mentioned by S. Matthew and S. Mark.

[171]The author of this saying (which is equivalent to our proverb, "A miss is as good as a mile") is not known. Basil (_de Baptism._ ii. i) quotes something like it, but with a different turn, and he, too, attributes it to "one of our wise men," but perhaps he is only referring to Dionysius in this passage.

[172]Cf. Matt. xiv. 26.

[173]He means the six days of what we call Holy Week, but he gives no indication whether the Lenten fast was then confined to those days in Alexandria and the Pentapolis or lasted longer. By "equally" he proceeds to explain is meant the length of the fasting (six days or two, and so on), and by "similarly" the manner or degree of it (till cockcrow or till evening).

[174]The verb used ({hypertithenai}, Lat. _superponere_, to exceed) is the technical one for this prolonged fast: the ordinary fast ended at 6 p.m. and that of the station days (Wednesday and Friday) at 3 p.m.

[175]Cf. 1 Pet. iii. 8 and Phil. ii. 20.

[176]The expression comes from Acts xiii. 2, where, however, it describes a special act of worship rather than "ministering" in general.

[177]Nepos had apparently been Bishop of Arsenoe in Egypt, and was the author of a work ({Elenchos Allêgoristôn}) putting forward grossly material views of the Millennium. Dionysius refuted it in a carefully prepared treatise in two books. This extract is from the second book, and deals chiefly with the authorship of the Revelation of St. John the Divine in a way very characteristic of his large-hearted and broad-minded spirit.

[178]Or Dionysius may mean that he had encouraged the singing of the Psalms in service.

[179]Cf. Tit. ii. 13, 2 Thess. ii. 8, etc.

[180]The reference is to 2 Thess. ii. 1 and 1 John iii. 2.

[181]It does not appear to whom Dionysius addressed this treatise, but he usually did address what he wrote to some particular person.

[182]Here the two offices are conjoined as in 1 Tim. v. 17. The "teacher" as an officer of the Church is mentioned in several of the early Church Orders.

[183]Nothing more is known of him: either he had succeeded to the leadership since the death of Nepos, or on this particular occasion took the lead.

[184]The allusion is probably to Gaius of Rome and his school rather than to the Alogi, as they were called, of the East; but both these bodies were strongly opposed to Millenarian views.

[185]If this refers to a formal division into chapters, it disappeared afterwards, for a new division was devised in the sixth century, on which our present system is partly based.

[186]Dionysius plays here on the meaning of the Greek word for Revelation, {apokalypsis}, "unveiling." He is fond of such a device.

[187]If that is the meaning of the words employed, then "saints" ({hagioi}) is not used in its New Testament sense for the "faithful" generally, but a distinction is made more like the later use of the word for those who attained higher saintliness than the rest; but perhaps the phrase for "churchmen" implies "clerical or ecclesiastical persons," and "saints" has its earlier sense.

[188]Cerinthus was the earliest exponent of Gnostic views, and as such much abhorred by St. John the Apostle.

[189]_i. e._ reckoning that it is a matter where faith rather than reason should act; or perhaps the translation should be "giving more weight to (the author's) trustworthiness."

[190]This title is to be noticed, as the author himself never actually describes himself by it. Dionysius is much more cautious as to the authorship than Origen, his former master, who attributed the book to St. John the Evangelist without hesitation, according to Eusebius, _H. E._ vi. 25, 9.

[191]Rev. xxii. 7, 8: but Dionysius has no authority for joining the latter clause on to the former, its construction being "it is I John who saw and heard."

[192]_i. e._ the First Epistle of St. John; the second and third were not so described at first and rightly so.

[193]Rev. i. 1, 2. One might almost think Dionysius was quoting from memory, for he follows no extant text in omitting "God" before "gave" (thus making Jesus Christ the subject and "him" = "to John") and "the things which must come to pass" before "speedily": also he substitutes "his testimony" for "the testimony of Jesus Christ," though "his" still = "Jesus Christ."

[194]Rev. i. 4.

[195]Dionysius seems to contrast the "Divine revelation" of the Epistle which we can trust with that of the Book so-called about which he felt less sure.

[196]1 John i. 1.

[197]Matt. xvi. 17. Dionysius substitutes the adjective "heavenly" for "which is in heaven."

[198]Rev. i. 9. Here again the text is somewhat inaccurate "in the patience of Jesus" having no support elsewhere.

[199]Rev. xxii. 7. See note on p. 86, above.

[200]It would seem likely, but by no means certain, that Dionysius is speaking of strictly baptismal names here. We have very slight grounds for being sure that the custom of connecting the giving of a name at baptism was universal as early as this.

[201]See Acts xii. 25 and xiii. 5.

[202]_Ibid._, xiii. 13.

[203]This assertion is taken almost verbatim from Eus., _H. E._ iii. 39, where a passage is also quoted from Papias in which John the Elder is mentioned as well as John the Apostle among the Lord's disciples.

[204]This is the second argument which Dionysius adduces, but he seems as if he now includes the third with it. See above.

[205]John i. 1, and 1 John i. 1, 2.

[206]Cf. 1 John iv. 2.

[207]_Ibid._, i. 2, 3.

[208]It looks as if this phrase may be a marginal gloss on the Light, which has crept into the text, as it occurs nowhere in the writings of St. John nor elsewhere in the New Testament; but the same might be said of the "adoption" below, and one or two others of the other phrases are quite rare in St. John's writings, so that they may be all instances of the thoughts, not the words being identical in the two books.

[209]The reference is to such passages as 2 Cor. xii. 1 ff., Gal. i. 12, ii. 2, etc.

[210]This is the third argument.

[211]A rather forced and fanciful statement. Dionysius appears loosely to refer to 1 Cor. xii. 8, somewhat boldly substituting "of speech" ({tês phraseôs}) for St. Paul's "of wisdom."

[212]Cf. 1 Cor. xiv. 6 and 8.

[213]_i. e._ the results not of design but of the fortuitous intersection of lines of causation.

[214]Gen. i. 31.

[215]The argument appears to be that, as on a small scale design is "evident in the construction or repairing of a thing but is absent in its decay," so the orderly creation and maintenance of the Universe on the large scale implies intelligent direction.

[216]Hesiod (_Works and Days_, 554) is meant, but of course 100 stands here, as elsewhere, for an indefinitely large number.

[217]The point is that movement which is useful suggests design: but as the movement of the atoms is without design, it cannot be useful.

[218]Ps. cxxxviii. (cxxxix.) 16. Dionysius quotes the best text here of LXX, but his application is rather obscure. Apparently he means that the Epicureans claimed to know without either revelation or research what the Psalmist knew only by revelation from God.

[219]Dionysius says that even the spider has more notion of design than the atoms, but the sarcasm is not quite to the point.

[220]1 Cor. xv. 41.

[221]"God ever brings like to like."--Homer, _Od._ xvii. 218, a proverb quoted both by Plato and Aristotle.

[222]Dionysius is probably thinking of Plato's _Timæus_ 56B, where the pyramid is said to be the geometrical shape of fire which is the principal constituent of the bodies of the stars (Professor H. Jackson).

[223]Dionysius is here referring to such a passage as Gen. i. 6 ff. No doubt the ancients thought the vault of heaven was solid, enclosing the atmosphere which covers the earth, and that the stars were either fixed upon it or moved in their courses on its surface.

[224]Ps. civ. 23.

[225]_i. e._ the sun's yearly (as opposed to its daily) course.

[226]"The righteous" here is a very unusual equivalent for "the Christians": it is possible, however, that the translation is: "however much these men disagree, being but poor creatures, though righteous enough in their own estimate."

[227]Ecclus. xliii. 5.

[228]The idea is of some stars being solitary, like a Greek or Roman colony ({apoikia}) with a constitution of its own, and of others grouping themselves into constellations or communities ({synoikia}). The colony had a founder ({oikistês}), the community or household would have some sort of controller ({oikodespotês}).

[229]Ecclus. xvi. 26 f.

[230]The natural motion of atoms was downwards, but there was also a slight sideward motion, and when they impinged a motion upwards by blows and tossings, and this produced the shape of things. But Dionysius here says, how is that theory consistent with the orderly march of the stars?

[231]Dionysius here plays on the derivation of {atomoi}, from {temnein} (= to cut).

[232]Amos iii. 3 (LXX). The A.V. and R.V. give the more exact meaning "agreed" to the last word.

[233]Hesiod, _Works and Days_, iv. 408 and 411.

[234]Viz. the heathen, to whom the poets were to some extent what the prophets are to us Christians.

[235]Jer. xlviii. 10.

[236]The happiness of the King of Persia was proverbial: see Hor., _Od._ ii. 12, 21, iii. 9, 4.

[237]By "Necessity" here Dionysius means not "Fate" in the fatalist's sense, but that supreme Will and Purpose of God, which is opposed to the Epicurean doctrine of chance.

[238]The title here given ({hypothêkai}) is not given in the list of Democritus's works, but the {hypomnêmata êthika} may be meant.

[239]It is impossible to reproduce the play upon words here, {eutychê tên phronêsin, emphronestatên tên tychên}. The reference seems to be to such poetical passages as Soph., _O. T._ 977 ff., and Eur., _Alc._ 785 ff., where the practical wisdom of leaving the future to take care of itself is extolled.

[240]Epicurus himself contended that by {hêdonê} (pleasure) he meant not sensual enjoyments so much as freedom from pain of body and from disturbance of soul ({ataraxia}), the source of which was largely in the exercise of the mind and will: see Zeller, _Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics_, pp. 473 ff.

[241]The words quoted ({dôtêras eaôn}) are a Homeric phrase, e. g. _Od._ viii. 325 and 335.

[242]The derivation from {theein} is proposed by Plato, _Cratyl._ 397 C: that from {theinai} by Herod, ii. 52, and of the two the latter is the more likely ({root}{the}) though Curtius suggests a root {thes} = to pray: see Peile, _Introd. to Philology_, p. 37 (3rd ed., 1875).

[243]These are probably some sort of Gnostics who took over Manichean views of God and Matter, but not of the worst kind, for they recognized that God had the control and disposition of matter.

[244]Some one, _i. e._ who could give them the property of being without beginning.

[245]"Different from both," because the being without beginning is not of the very essence of both. See further on.

[246]A curious expression, for which one would have expected the opposite statement, viz. that the handicrafts can shape and form the materials they deal with rather than that the materials give the necessary methods and designs to the handicrafts which deal with them. Up to this point Dionysius has been combating the view with which the extract begins. The rest of the extract proceeds to show what amount of truth there is in it.

[247]The reference here is to Manichean views of the worst kind, _i. e._ that matter is not only without beginning, but the source of evil and altogether independent of God.

[248]_i. e._ Dionysius of Rome, to whom this treatise was addressed. This

## particular "other letter" does not seem to have been known to

Eusebius, and when Athanasius quotes this extract in another of his treatises he omits the words "to thee."

[249]Athanasius himself was sparing in his use of the term, and the Synod of Antioch (A.D. 264) refused to accept it, as liable to misconstruction.

[250]_i. e._ in the letter to Euphranor (about Sabellianism in Libya) which had given rise to the Bishop of Rome's intervention.

[251]It looks as if Dionysius was in exile when he wrote this. See above, p. 19.

[252]_i. e._ each of the two is itself and not the other, as was said above in the case of parents and children.

[253]i. e. they had gone or sent to Rome, in order to attack him.

[254]Viz. about the plant and the ship, which he has already apologized for as not quite appropriate.

[255]_i. e._ in Scripture, _e. g._ in such passage as Wisd. vii. 25, to which he refers in the next sentence.

[256]Sc. in Dionysius's letter to Euphranor: cf. John x. 30, xvii. 11, 21, 22. The extract on p. 106 below deals with the same thought more fully. In both places Dionysius's language is based on Philo's discussion of the {logos endiathetos} and the {logos prophorikos} (the conceived and the expressed word), _de vita Mosis_, p. 230, Cohn.

[257]i. e. _from_ the Father and _through_ the Son: Dionysius seems to have derived this view of the Holy Spirit's Procession from his master, Origen, though he is thinking here rather of the Mission of the Spirit into the Church and its members than of the eternal and necessary relations of the three Persons in the Holy Trinity to one another, as the sentences that follow indicate.

[258]_Lit._ in their hands: a striking expression which Athanasius borrows from Dionysius in his _Exposition of the Faith_.

[259]This is what Dionysius of Rome had imputed to our Dionysius, though without the word "wholly" he would not have altogether discarded the position.

[260]{Logos} is translated throughout this passage by "speech" (_i. e._ uttered words), except in the last clause, where it refers to the Son Himself and where it must be rendered by "Word" as usual: but obviously "speech" is only part of the full meaning of {logos}. The whole passage should be compared with the preceding extract.

[261]Ps. xliv. (xlv.) 1: here R.V. translates {logon agathon}, "a goodly matter," in accordance with A.V.

[262]The word used ({enkyklein}) suggests the scenic device of the {enkyklêma}, by which some kind of change of scene was brought on to the stage in the Greek theatre: see _Classical Dict._, s.v.

INDEX

Absolution, 43, 60 f. Ælia (Jerusalem), 52 Æmilianus, Governor of Pannonia, 14, 65 Prefect of Egypt, 16, 27, 46 f. Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem, 51 Bishop of Tyre, 52 a martyr, 38 Alexander Severus, Emperor, 12, 66 Alexandrians, letter to, 28, 70 ff. Alogi referred to, 84 Ammon, a martyr, 40 Ammonarion, a martyr, 39 Antioch, Council of, 10, 51, 103 Apollonia, a martyr, 36 Arabia, 10, 41, 52 Aristotle referred to, 28, 95 Arius, heresy of, 20, 56, 108 Ater, a martyr, 39 Athanasius, 9, 19 ff., 103 ff.

Baptism of heretics, 15, 26, 51 ff., 59 Basil, Bishop of Cæsarea, 9, 22, 80 Basilides, letter to, 26, 29, 76 ff. Benson, Archbishop, 14, 34, 51, 52, 55 Besas, a martyr, 38 Bethune-Baker, Dr., 22 Bithynia, Churches of, 52

Cappadocia, Churches of, 52, 54 Catechetical School of Alexandria, 9, 10, 11, 12, 32 Cemeteries, Christian, 17, 47 Cephro, 17, 46, 48 f. Cerinthus, heresy of, 85 Chæremon, Bishop of Nilopolis, 41 a deacon, 46, 64 _Chronicon Orientale_, 9 ff. Cilicia, Churches of, 52, 54 Colluthion, 17, 49 Communion, ritual of, 26, 60 reservation of species, 42 f. Conon, letter to, 60 f. _Consistentes_, 60 Copts (Egyptians), 10, 39, 66, 70, 73 Coracion, converted from heresy, 84 Cornelia Salonina, 14, 69 Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, 15, 51 Cronion Eunous, a martyr, 38 Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, 9, 11, 15, 55, 58

Damascus, John of, 9, 75 Decius, Persecution of, 13 f., 39, 43, 65 Demetrianus, Bishop of Antioch, 52 Demetrius, Bishop of Alexandria, 11 Democritus quoted, 25, 28, 99 Dionysia, a martyr, 39 Dionysius, Bishop of Rome, 19 f., 58 f., 103 Dionysius, church dedicated to St., 31 Dioscorus, a presbyter, 64 a boy confessor, 39 Domitius and Didymus, letter to, 63 f. _Duumviri_, 63

Easter Letters, 28, 63 ff. Ecclesiastes, Beginning of, 30 Ephesus and the two Johns, 89 Epicurus, 12, 23 ff., 91 ff. Epimachus, a martyr, 38 Euphranor, letter to, 56, 104, 105 Euripides referred to, 100 Eusebius, _Eccl. Hist_. of, 9, 22, 35 ff., 82 ff. _Præpar. Evangelica_ of, 9, 34, 91 ff., 101 f. Exorcists, 66

Fabius, Bishop of Antioch, 12, 35 Fast before Easter, 76 ff. Firmilianus, Bishop of Cæsarea, 52, 54 _Frumentarius_, 13, 43