Part 5 (1/2)

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and much more to a.s.sert, any thing impious concerning G.o.d. But if any one should order us to celebrate the Sun or Minerva, we ought most gladly to sing hymns to their praise. For thus you will appear to venerate the supreme G.o.d in a greater degree *, if you also celebrate these powers: for piety when it pa.s.ses through all things becomes more perfect.”

EXTRACTS FROM, AND INFORMATION RELATIVE TO, THE TREATISE OF PORPHYRY AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS

[Ill.u.s.tration: Porphyry]

This work of Porphyry consisted of Fifteen Books, and is unfortunately lost. It is frequently mentioned by the Fathers of the Church, from whose writings the following particulars are collected.

The First Book appears to have contained a development of the contrariety of the Scriptures, and proofs that they did not proceed from Divinity, but from men. To this end Porphyry especially adduces what Paul writes to the Galatians, chap. ii.

* For as the ineffable principle of things possesses all power and the highest power, he first produced from himself beings most transcendently allied to himself; and therefore, by venerating these, the highest G.o.d will be in a greater degree venerated, as being a greater veneration of his power.

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viz. that ”when Peter came to Antioch, he withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed.” Hence Porphyry infers, ”that the Apostles, and indeed the chief of them, did not publicly study the salvation of all men, but that each of them was privately attentive to his own renown.” This the Fathers testify in more than one place. See the Commentary of Jerome on the above-mentioned Epistle. Jerome also, in his 89th Epistle to Augustin, informs us that Porphyry says, ”that Peter and Paul opposed each other in a puerile contest, and that Paul was envious of the virtue of Peter.”

The Third Book treated of the interpretation of the Scriptures, in which Porphyry condemned the mode of explaining them adopted by the commentators, and especially the allegories of Origen. This is evident from a long extract from this work of Porphyry given by Eusebius in Hist. Eccl. lib. i. cap. 13.

The Fourth Book treated of the Mosaic history and the antiquities of the Jews, as we learn from Eusebius, Proep. Evang. lib. i. cap. 9, and from Theo-doret, Serm. ii. Therap.

But the Twelfth Book was the most celebrated of all, in which Porphyry strenuously opposes the

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prophecy of Daniel. Of this work Jerome thus speaks in the Preface to his Commentary on that prophet: ”Porphyry's twelfth book is against the prophet Daniel, as he was unwilling to admit that it was written by that prophet, but contends that it was composed by a person in Judaea named Epiphanes, and who lived in the time of Antiochus. Hence he says, that Daniel does not so much narrate future as past events. Lastly, he a.s.serts, that whatever is related as far as to the reign of Antiochus contains a true history; but that all that is said posterior to this time, as the writer was ignorant of futurity, is false.”

The Thirteenth Book also, according to Jerome*, was written against the same prophet; in which book, speaking of the ”abomination of desolation,” as it is called by Daniel, (when standing in the sacred place,) he says many reproachful things of the Christians.

The same Jerome likewise, in Epist. ci., ad Pam-machium, testifies, that Porphyry accuses the history of the Evangelists of falsehood, and says**

that Christ, after he had told his brethren that he should

* Vid. lib. iv. Comment, in 24 Cap. Matth.

** Lib. ii. adversus Pelagianos.

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not go up to the feast of tabernacles, yet afterwards went up to it (John vii.). Hence Porphyry accuses him of inconstancy and mutability.

Jerome's observation on this is curious, viz. ”Nesciens omnia scandala ad carnem esse referenda.”

Jerome adds (in Lib. Qua.s.st. Hebraic, in Genesin) ”that Porphyry calumniates the Evangelists for making a miracle to the ignorant, by a.s.serting that Christ walked on the sea, calling the lake Genezareth the sea.” He likewise says, that Porphyry called the miracles which were performed at the sepulchres of the martyrs, ”the delusions of evil demons.”

The following remarkable pa.s.sage from one of the lost writings of Porphyry relative to the Christians, is preserved by Augustin in his Treatise De Civit. lib. xix. cap. 23.

”Sunt spiritus terreni minimi loco terreno quodam malorum daemonum potestati subjecti. Ab his sapientes Hebraeorum, quorum unus iste etiam Jesus fuit, sicut audivisti divina Apollonis oracula quae superius dicta sunt. Ab his ergo _Hebaei_ dsemonibus pessimis et minoribus spiritibus vetabant religiosos, et ipsis vacare prohibebant: venerari autem magis coelestes Deos, amplius autem venerari Deum patrem. Hoc autem et Dii praecipiunt, et in