Archive for March, 2009

Update on the Chronicon of Hippolytus

Monday, March 30th, 2009

I have slowly been translating the first 150 lines of Hippolytus’ Chronicon. Work is hard going, mostly because there are hundreds of proper names of people groups in the ancient world. These names are not listed in the principle Greek lexicons. So I have been using William Smith’s two volume epic “Dictionary of Greek And Roman Geography” which was published more than 150 years ago. It took me a bit, but I found a digital copy of the dictionary online and have  assembled it in Microsoft Word and am using Word’s Find function to look for the names of the people groups in the original Greek. According to Microsoft Word the dictionary contains 2.7 million words and over 5000 pages! As of now I have essentially finished Hippolytus’ discussion on the division of the earth to the first two sons of Noah and am about to begin the section on the third son, Shem. After that begins the second section, a rather long list of the distances between cities in the mediteranean. And then there is the third and last section which is a chronology of world history.

So far Hippolytus does not seem to be following Josephus’ account of the division of the earth.  For example, Josephus says that biblical Magog (Genesis 10) begot the Scythians, Hippolytus says Magog begot the Celts and the Galatians.  I have not yet compared Hippolytus’ account to that found in Jubilees.

I have noticed that section 15 of the “Chronography of 354 AD“  (Liber Generationis 1) seems to be a complete Latin translation of the first and third parts of Hippolytus’ Chronicon. Much thanks is due to Roger Pearse for placing the “Chronography of 354″ online.  It was actually quite a frustrating thing to see a Latin translation of this Greek work.  As a former Latin teacher I find it much easier to read the Latin translation than the original Greek!

I am really questioning whether or not it is wise for me to translate the second part of the Chronicon.  How many people are interested in how many stades separate an ancient city?  I am also worried that many of the ancient cities will not be listed anywhere and I will simply transliterate the name.  But I suppose that the translation does need to be done at some point.  I’m sure it would be an invaluable resource to someone out there(like an archaeologist).  Anyone have advice or thoughts on the matter?

More on Quirinius

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

Strabo also mentions Quirinius (in this translation his name is spelled “Cyrinius”).

Geography 12.6.5

Now Cremna is occupied by Roman colonists and Sagalassus is subject to the same Roman governor to whom the whole kingdom of Amyntas was subject. It is a day’s journey distant from Apameia, having a descent of about thirty stadia from the fortress. It is also called Selgessus; this city was also captured by Alexander. Now Amyntas captured Cremna, and, passing into the country of the Homonadeis, who were considered too strong to capture, and having now established himself as master of most of the places, having even slain their tyrant, was caught by treachery through the artifice of the tyrant’s wife. And he was put to death by those people, but Cyrinius overthrew the inhabitants by starving them, and captured alive four thousand men and settled them in the neighboring cities, leaving the country destitute of all its men who were in the prime of life

Lastly, Josephus also mentions Quirinius (Cyrenius) on five occasions, and talks about his census.

War 2.17.8

In the mean time, one Manahem, the son of Judas, that was called the Galilean, (who was a very cunning sophister, and had formerly reproached the Jews under Cyrenius, that after God they were subject to the Romans,) took some of the men of note with him, and retired to Masada, where he broke open king Herod’s armory, and gave arms not only to his own people, but to other robbers also.

War 7.8.1

When Bassus was dead in Judea, Flavius Silva succeeded him as procurator there; who, when he saw that all the rest of the country was subdued in this war, and that there was but one only strong hold that was still in rebellion, he got all his army together that lay in different places, and made an expedition against it. This fortress was called Masada. It was one Eleazar, a potent man, and the commander of these Sicarii, that had seized upon it. He was a descendant from that Judas who had persuaded abundance of the Jews, as we have formerly related, not to submit to the taxation when Cyrenius was sent into Judea to make one.

Antiquities 17.13.5

So Archelaus’s country was laid to the province of Syria; and Cyrenius, one that had been consul, was sent by Caesar to take account of people’s effects in Syria, and to sell the house of Archelaus.

Antiquites 18.1.1

Now Cyrenius, a Roman senator, and one who had gone through other magistracies, and had passed through them till he had been consul, and one who, on other accounts, was of great dignity, came at this time into Syria, with a few others, being sent by Caesar to he a judge of that nation, and to take an account of their substance. Coponius also, a man of the equestrian order, was sent together with him, to have the supreme power over the Jews. Moreover, Cyrenius came himself into Judea, which was now added to the province of Syria, to take an account of their substance, and to dispose of Archelaus’s money; but the Jews, although at the beginning they took the report of a taxation heinously, yet did they leave off any further opposition to it, by the persuasion of Joazar, who was the son of Beethus, and high priest; so they, being over-pesuaded by Joazar’s words, gave an account of their estates, without any dispute about it.

Antiquities 18.2.1-2

When Cyrenius had now disposed of Archelaus’s money, and when the taxings were come to a conclusion, which were made in the thirty-seventh year of Caesar’s victory over Antony at Actium, he deprived Joazar of the high priesthood, which dignity had been conferred on him by the multitude, and he appointed Ananus, the son of Seth, to be high priest; while Herod and Philip had each of them received their own tetrarchy, and settled the affairs thereof. Herod also built a wall about Sepphoris, (which is the security of all Galilee,) and made it the metropolis of the country. He also built a wall round Betharamphtha, which was itself a city also, and called it Julias, from the name of the emperor’s wife. When Philip also had built Paneas, a city at the fountains of Jordan, he named it Cesarea. He also advanced the village Bethsaids, situate at the lake of Gennesareth, unto the dignity of a city, both by the number of inhabitants it contained, and its other grandeur, and called it by the name of Julias, the same name with Caesar’s daughter.

As Coponius, who we told you was sent along with Cyrenius, was exercising his office of procurator, and governing Judea, the following accidents happened…

Antiquities 20.5.2

Then came Tiberius Alexander as successor to Fadus; he was the son of Alexander the alabarch of Alexandria, which Alexander was a principal person among all his contemporaries, both for his family and wealth: he was also more eminent for his piety than this his son Alexander, for he did not continue in the religion of his country. Under these procurators that great famine happened in Judea, in which queen Helena bought corn in Egypt at a great expense, and distributed it to those that were in want, as I have related already. And besides this, the sons of Judas of Galilee were now slain; I mean of that Judas who caused the people to revolt, when Cyrenius came to take an account of the estates of the Jews, as we have showed in a foregoing book.

Josephus and the Gospel of Luke appear to contradict each other about the date of the census.  The four basic options we have to resolve this are:  (1) The Gospel of Luke is incorrect, (2) Jospehus is incorrect, (3) the Gospel of Luke is awkwardly phrased and has therefore been mistranslated or misunderstood, and finally  (4) Quirinius had more than one govenorship of Syria.

Suetonius (and Tacitus) and the New Testament #3 Quirinius

Sunday, March 15th, 2009

Quirinius is mentioned once in the New Testament in the Gospel of Luke 2:1-3:

And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria.  So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.

Suetonius mentions Quirinius in his discussion of Emperor Tiberius.

Tiberius 49:

In the course of a very short time, he [Tiberius] turned his mind to sheer robbery. It is certain that Cneius Lentulus, the augur, a man of vast estate, was so terrified and worried by his threats and importunities, that he was obliged to make him his heir; and that Lepida, a lady of a very noble family, was condemned by him, in order to gratify Quirinus, a man of consular rank, extremely rich, and childless, who had divorced her twenty years before, and now charged her with an old design to poison him.

In my reading of Tacitus I missed references to Quirinius.  Here they are:

Annals 2.30

As an ancient statute of the Senate forbade such inquiry in a case affecting a master’s life, Tiberius, with his cleverness in devising new law, ordered Libo’s slaves to be sold singly to the State-agent, so that, forsooth, without an infringement of the Senate’s decree, Libo might be tried on their evidence. As a consequence, the defendant asked an adjournment till next day, and having gone home he charged his kinsman, Publius Quirinus, with his last prayer to the emperor.

Annals 3.22-23

At Rome meanwhile Lepida, who beside the glory of being one of the Æmilii was the great-granddaughter of Lucius Sulla and Cneius Pompeius, was accused of pretending to be a mother by Publius Quirinus, a rich and childless man. Then, too, there were charges of adulteries, of poisonings, and of inquiries made through astrologers concerning the imperial house. The accused was defended by her brother Manius Lepidus. Quirinus by his relentless enmity even after his divorce, had procured for her some sympathy, infamous and guilty as she was. One could not easily perceive the emperor’s feelings at her trial; so effectually did he interchange and blend the outward signs of resentment and compassion. He first begged the Senate not to deal with the charges of treason, and subsequently induced Marcus Servilius, an ex-consul, to divulge what he had seemingly wished to suppress. He also handed over to the consuls Lepida’s slaves, who were in military custody, but would not allow them to be examined by torture on matters referring to his own family. Drusus too, the consul-elect, he released from the necessity of having to speak first to the question. Some thought this a gracious act, done to save the rest of the Senators from a compulsory assent, while others ascribed it to malignity, on the ground that he would have yielded only where there was a necessity of condemning.

On the days of the games which interrupted the trial, Lepida went into the theatre with some ladies of rank, and as she appealed with piteous wailings to her ancestors and to that very Pompey, the public buildings and statues of whom stood there before their eyes, she roused such sympathy that people burst into tears and shouted, without ceasing, savage curses on Quirinus, “to whose childless old-age and miserably obscure family, one once destined to be the wife of Lucius Cæsar and the daughter-in-law of the Divine Augustus was being sacrificed.” Then, by the torture of the slaves, her infamies were brought to light, and a motion of Rubellius Blandus was carried which outlawed her. Drusus supported him, though others had proposed a milder sentence. Subsequently, Scaurus, who had had a daughter by her, obtained as a concession that her property should not be confiscated. Then at last Tiberius declared that he had himself too ascertained from the slaves of Publius Quirinus that Lepida had attempted their master’s life by poison.

Annals 3.48

About the same time he requested the Senate to let the death of Sulpicius Quirinus be celebrated with a public funeral. With the old patrician family of the Sulpicii this Quirinus, who was born in the town of Lanuvium, was quite unconnected. An indefatigable soldier, he had by his zealous services won the consulship under the Divine Augustus, and subsequently the honours of a triumph for having stormed some fortresses of the Homonadenses in Cilicia. He was also appointed adviser to Caius Cæsar in the government of Armenia, and had likewise paid court to Tiberius, who was then at Rhodes. The emperor now made all this known to the Senate, and extolled the good offices of Quirinus to himself, while he censured Marcus Lollius, whom he charged with encouraging Caius Cæsar in his perverse and quarrelsome behaviour. But people generally had no pleasure in the memory of Quirinus, because of the perils he had brought, as I have related, on Lepida, and the meanness and dangerous power of his last years.

Next week I will post Josephus’ references to Quirinius as well as Strabo’s.

The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

After some delay, I have finally finished the digitization of The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus, which can be found here.  It is a fascinating liturgical and ecclesiastical piece written at a time when the church still felt fierce persecution and the spiritual gifts were believed to still be active.  It seems to have been, roughly, assembled into the form we have today around 200-230 AD by someone or a body of people associated with the Roman Church.  It is disupuated about whether Hippolytus himself had a hand in creating it, but I believe he did.  Much credit is due to Roger Pease whose own method of presenting digitization projects I have copied.

I learned some lessons through this project:

* Never digitize a document with old optical character recognition software
* Digitizing other languages is hard
* Digitizing other languages that are written in non-latin characters is even harder
* Digitizing footnotes is hard
* Digitizing sidenotes is even harder

Here is one of the many passages in The Apostolic Tradition that made me pause:

If a catechumen should be arrested for the name of the Lord, let him not hesitate about bearing his testi­mony; for if it should happen that they treat him shame­fully and kill him, he will be justified, for he has been baptized in his own blood. -The Apostolic Tradition 19