Read City of God (Penguin Classics) Online
Authors: Saint Augustine
120
. Bar. 3, 36.
121
. Jer. 23, 5f.
122
. Jer. 16, 19.
123
. Jer. 17, 9 (LXX).
124
. Bk XVII, 3.
125
. Jer. 31, 31.
126
. Zeph. 3, 8.
127
. Zeph. 2, 11.
128
. Zeph. 3, 9–12.
129
. Is. 10, 22; cf. Rom. 9, 27.
130
. Dan. 7, 13f.
131
. cf. Phil. 2, 7.
132
. Ezek. 34, 23f.
133
. Ezek. 37, 22ff.
134
. Hagg. 2, 6.
135
. Zech. 9, 9f.
136
. Matt., 21, 5.
137
. Zech. 9, 11.
138
. Ps. 40, 2.
139
. Mal. 1, 10.
140
. Mal. 2, 5ff.
141
. Mal. 3, 4.
142
. John 2, 19.
143
. ‘by their complacency about their merits’; or ‘because they deserve such blindness’. The Latin is ambiguous, perhaps intentionally.
144
. Mal. 3, 13–16.
145
. Mal. 3, 17–4, 3.
146
. Esdr. 3, 1–4, 41.
147
. John 14, 16.
148
. Aristobulus ii, the last Hasmonean ruler, 66–63
B.C.
149
. cf. Bk VIII, 2.
150
. End of captivity, 538
B.C.
: Pythagoras
fl. c
. 540; Socrates, 469–399; Plato, 428–349.
151
. Thales c. 600; Anaximander c. 570; Anaximenes c. 500; Anaxagoras c. 460. cf. Bk VIII, 2. For the Seven Sages cf. ch. 5; on the ‘theological’ poets cf. ch. I5n.
152
. Acts 7, 22.
153
. cf. ch. 3.
154
. cf. Hebr. 11,7; 1 Pet. 3,20
155
. Jude 14.
156
. e.g. Enoch; cf. Bk XV, 23.
157
. cf. Bk XVI, 3,
158
. Exod. 18, 21 etc. (added after the list of officers in one MS of Lxx).
159
. cf. Bk VIII, 23. Hermes Trismegistus, a name given by Neoplatonists and other mystical writers to the Egyptian god Thoth, the reputed author of Hellenistic religio-philosophic treatises called
Hermetica
.
160
. cf. ch. 8.
161
. cf. Hor., Ep., 1, 1, 14.
162
. Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics believed in one world; Anaximander and the Epicureans in innumerable worlds. Plato assumed a beginning of the world; Porphyry denied it. The pantheistic Stoics held the world to be eternal; Plato that it would come to an end. The Stoics believed in a divine intelligence controlling the world; while the Epicureans saw only the interplay of chances. Plato believed in the soul’s immortality; Pythagoreans spoke of souls passing into animals. Epicureans taught that the senses must be trusted; the Sceptics of the later Academy that they are never reliable.
163
. cf. Bk VIII, 2n.
164
. ‘The sun is a red-hot stone, bigger than the Peloponnese.’ (Diog. Laert, 2, 8).
165
. cf. Bk VII, 3n.
166
. The Stoa
Poikile
, from which the Stoics took their name.
167
. Aristotle taught in the Lyceum.
168
. The grove of Plato’s Academy and the garden of Epicurus.
169
. Plato, Aristotle, Stoics.
170
. Anaximander, Epicureans.
171
. e.g. Plato.
172
. Porphyry.
173
. Plato and some Stoics.
174
. Pantheistic Stoics.
175
. Stoics.
176
. Epicureans.
177
. e.g. Plato.
178
. Pythagoreans.
179
. Epicureans, cf. Bk VIII, 5n.
180
. Platonists, cf. Bk VIII, 7.
181
. The sceptics of the New Academy, cf. Bk IV, 3on. Platonists, cf. Bk VIII, 7.
182
. cf. Bk XVI, 4n.
183
. 336–323
B.C.
184
. 332
B.C
.
185
. 285–247
B.C
.
186
. The full tide is Vetus
Testamentum Graece iuxta Septuaginta Interpretes
. The legend of the origin of
LXX
is told in the Letter
of Aristeas
(second century
B.C.
) which is paraphrased in Joseph. Ant, 12, 2, 4; 5; cf. Bk xv, 13n.
187
. Aquila; cf. Bk XV, 23n.; Symmachus (late second century) translated the Old Testament into readable Greek (in contrast to Aquila); Theodotion (
fi. c.
180) made a revision of LXX.
188
. The ‘Old Latin Version’, or ‘Versions’, since there were many variants. They were all superseded by Jerome’s Vulgate (‘authorized version’), compiled in 404.
189
. St Augustine is our only authority fot this.
190
. Jon. 3,4; the Hebrew gives 40, the
LXX
gives 3.
191
. Hagg. 2,9.
192
. 2, 7; cf. ch. 35; ch. 48. The Hebrew means ‘desire’;
LXX
has a neuter plural.
193
. Matt. 22,14.
194
. 1 Pet. 2,5.
195
. 332
B.C.
196
. Joseph., Ant., 11, 8, 5.
197
. Joseph, Ant., 12, 3, 3.
198
. The account here is confused. Palestine was part of the empire of the Ptolemies after the Battle of Ipsus, 301
B.C.
Antiochus III, ruler of the Asiatic empire, tried to wrest Coele-Syria from Egypt, but was defeated at Raphia in 217 by Ptolemy IV (Philopator). In 203 the infant Ptolemy V (Epiphanes) succeeded his father. Antiochus saw his chance; Egypt was defeated in 198 and Syria, including Palestine, passed into the Empire of the Seleucids. Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) tried to stamp out Judaism in 168
B.C.
; and this provoked the Maccabean rising. Jerusalem was taken from the Syrians, and the Temple was cleansed and re-dedicated in 164.
199
. Leader of the pro-Syrian party in opposition to the Maccabeans.
200
. Aristobulus I, 103
B.C.
His father, John Hyrcanus, was the first Hasmo-nean king.
201
. Alexander Jannaeus, 102–75
B.C.
He alienated the Pharisees by his military activities.
202
. 75–67
B.C.
Her Jewish name was Salome.
203
. 64
B.C.
204
. ‘Procurator’ was the official name. Josephus varies in his translation ofthe title.
205
. Crassus, in fact, 53
B.C.
206
. 37–4 b.c. An Idumean.
207
. Gen. 49,10.
208
. Mic. 5,2.
209
. Is. 7,14
210
. In
A.D
.70.
211
. Is. 10, 20.
212
. Ps. 69,22.
213
. cf. ch. 23.
214
. Ps. 59, 10f.
215
. Rom. 11,11.
216
. cf. Matt 8,29; Mark 1,24; Luke 4,34.
217
. The
Chronicle
of Eusebius-Jerome; cf. ch. 31.
218
. 1 Tim. 2,5.
219
. cf. Hagg. 2, 7.
220
. In ch. 45.
221
. 1 Pet. 2, 5.
222
. Hagg. 2,9.
223
. 1 Cor. 10,4.
224
. Hagg. 2, 7.
225
. Eph. 1, 4.
226
. Matt. 22, 14.
227
. cf. Matt. 22, 11ff.
228
. cf. Matt. I3, 47ff.
229
. 1 Cor. 15, 28.
230
. Ps. 40, 5.
231
. Matt. 3, 2; 4,17.
232
. Is. 2, 3.
233
. Luke 24, 45ff.
234
. Acts 1, 7f.
235
. Matt. 10, 28.
236
. ‘Babylon’; cf. Bk xvi, 4n.
237
. Rom. 8,28.
238
.
Fs. 94, 19
.
239
. Rom. 12,12.
240
. 2 Tim. 3, 12.
241
. Rom. 8,29.
242
. The notion of ten persecutions is first found in Orosius (7,17). It simplifies a complicated story. Christians were always liable to prosecution as members of an unlicensed sect (not a religio licita), and for refusal to worship the Emperor; but in general the persecutions were local and transitory. Nero’s attack (64) seems to have been confined to Rome, where the Christians were made scapegoats for the great fire; the Revelation apparently refers to persecution under Domitian (81–96) for rejecting Emperor-worship. Trajan, Antoninus and the two Seven were not persecutors, but Maximums Thrax in 235 reversed the tolerant policy of Alexander Severus. The first general persecution throughout the Empire was ordered by Decius (251); Valerian in 257 concentrated his attack on the clergy and the laymen of rank; Aurelian did not disturb the Church. Diocletian showed tolerance until 303, when he ordered the destruction of churches and the burning of Scriptures; this was followed by wholesale bloodshed, mainly due to Galerius and Maximian, which continued after Diocletian’s abdication (305), especially in Syria under Maximinus Daia. Oros-ius ignores the severe persecution sanctioned by Marcus Aurelius in Lyons (177); Christians assumed that only bad Emperors were persecutors.
243
. King Athamansius, in
A.D
. 370 (Oros., 6, 32).
244
. In A.D. 420, under Isdigerdas (Thdt. H.E., 5, 38).
245
. 2 Thess. 2,8.
246
. Acts 1,6f.
247
. The finger-counting of antiquity was a complicated and laborious process.
248
. Ps. 72,8; cf. Bk XVII, 8.
249
. Acts 17, 3of. (The Greek means “by a man wham he appointed, giving an assurance of this by raising…’).
250
. Is. 2,3; cf. ch. 50.
251
. cf. Luke 24,27.
252
. A.D. 398; but 29 + 365 = 394.
253
. Apparently St Augustine corrected his addition; 394 + 30 = 424, and the
City of God
was probably completed in 426.