I. The duration of the third period is most opportunely learned from the passage in Exodus 12:40, where to the whole time of the Patriarchal sojourning, which began with the departure of Abraham from Ur or Haran,[1] and ceased in the migration of the Israelites out of Egypt, are assigned four hundred and thirty years, the half part of which passed before the descent of Jacob into Egypt, but the other two hundred and fifteen years with the seed of Jacob abiding in Egypt.
II. In the former segment of this period, the countenance of the Church was altogether radiant in the families of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and his sons. The fame of Abraham was much celebrated among those nations. At that time God granted many apparitions and revelations to holy Men, to whom He confirmed the hope of the Redeemer and faith in Him; He gave the seal of circumcision to Abraham:[2] He was worshipped publicly through sacrifices and the declaration of His name in stated places. It is uncertain, whether they also consigned anything to writing: at least those things that are attributed to them, of which sort are Sefer Yetzirah of Abraham,[3] the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs,[4] etc., are with good reason numbered among the spurious.
III. Now, various struggles, both external and domestic, exercised the saints. To the external pertain the war of Chedorlaomer with the King of Sodom, wherein Lot, carried off into captivity, was soon delivered by Abraham. To this victor came to meet Melchizedek.[5] The affliction of Lot in Sodom followed, ended by the frightful destruction of those, which nevertheless involved the very wife of Lot, turned into a pillar of salt.[6] I will for the present dismiss the quarrels of the servants of Isaac with the shepherds of Gerar,[7] and also the war that Jacob appears to have waged with the Amorites,[8] to their own places.
IV. The domestic schisms of Lot,[9] Ishmael,[10] and Esau[11] were certain more hurtful to the Church; whence the descended peoples were hostile, with whom the seed of the woman was often to have conflict,[12] the Moabites, Ammonites, Ishmaelites, and Edomites.
V. Idolatry grew be degrees, in such a way that the very houses of the Patriarch did not remain immune to its pollution, as the Teraphim of Rachel show.[13]
VI. In the latter segment of this period, the Church changed location, and, with the remarkable events of the life of Joseph furnishing occasion, concerning which Justinus[14] commemorates things not to be despised, went down into Egypt, with the sons of Israel, totaling about seventy souls;[15] in its neighboring region of Goshen of Arabia it fixed its domicile and exercised itself in the shepherding.[16] In this interval falls the slaughter of the sons of Ephraim by the assault of the men of Gath, the memory of which has been preserved in the Books of the Chronicles.[17] There Israel dwelt until, with God guiding, and with Moses ministering, Israel was led out on the same night on which, with the sacrament of the Passover previously instituted, the same had been eaten.[18]
VII. But, although the Church gradually came to be restricted within the bounds of the Israelite people alone, remnants of it had hitherto been dispersed throughout the other nations, of which matter there is an example in the history of Job.
VIII. Meanwhile, the larger body of the Church in Egypt suffered declension. For, the Polytheism of the Egyptians, with their wisdom, already celebrated at that time, not withstanding, increased to an altogether horrendous degree, with the apotheosis of men being added, and with that most filthy worship of animals promoted more than a little through their hieroglyphic letters. Stained with this blot, the very nation of the Israelites,[19] then by the tyranny of the Pharaohs put to servile works, the monuments of which yet survive in vast ruins, was oppressed with the slaughter of their male children;[20] the nation of Israel God nevertheless avenged by the sending of severe plagues,[21] which the very Gentiles ascribed to a certain Musæus.
IX. Again, it is not able to be expressed, what an ample crop of fables, in which true things are mixed together with false, from these great events has sprung up among the Gentiles. Let there be a comparison between the Sodomites and Lycaon, receiving Jove with hospitality;[22] between Lot and the history of Philemen and Baucis;[23] between the wife of Lot and Niobe;[24] between Abraham and old Hyricus;[25] between Isaac and the immolation of Phrixus;[26] between the stone anointed by Jacob[27] and the Bætyl stones;[28] between Joseph and Hippolytus,[29] Adonis,[30] and others.
[1] See Genesis 11:31, 32; 12:1, 4, 5.
[2] See Genesis 17.
[3] Sefer Yetzirah, traditionally ascribed to Abraham, but was written much later, perhaps the third or fourth centuries AD. It is a work of Jewish mysticism.
[4] The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, traditionally ascribed to the twelve sons of Jacob, was composed much later, reaching its final form in the second century AD.
[5] Genesis 14.
[6] Genesis 19; 2 Peter 2:6-8.
[7] See Genesis 26:20.
[8] See Genesis 48:22.
[9] See Genesis 13:5-12.
[10] See Genesis 21:9-21.
[11] See Genesis 25-27; 32:3.
[12] See Genesis 3:15.
[13] Genesis 31:19, 34, 35; 35:2, 4.
[14] Junianus Justinus was a Roman historian of the third century. His Historia Philippicae et Totius Mundi Origines et Terrae Situs focuses on the kings of Macedon, but has numerous digressions in the deeper recesses of the history of the world.
[15] Genesis 46:26, 27; Exodus 1:5; Deuteronomy 10:22.
[16] Genesis 45:10.
[17] 1 Chronicles 7:20-23.
[18] See Exodus 12.
[19] See Ezekiel 20.
[20] See Exodus 1.
[21] Exodus 7-12.
[22] In Greek mythology, Lycaon, King of Aracadia, when hosting Zeus, killed his son, Nyctimus, cooked him, and served him to Zeus, in order to test the god’s omniscience. Zeus, in a rage, transformed Lycaon into a wolf, killed his offspring, and restored Nyctimus to life.
[23] In Greek mythology, Zeus and Hermes visited Tyana in disguise, asking the townsmen for a place to sleep for the night. They were rejected by all, except poor Baucis and Philemon. When Zeus and Hermes departed from the town, they took Baucis and Philemon with them. Having ascended a mountain, Baucis and Philemon looked back to see their town destroyed by a flood, but their home turned into an ornate temple.
[24] In Greek mythology, Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, ruler of Sipylus, boasted of her fourteen children to Leto, who had only two, Apollo and Artemis. Leto sent Apollo and Artemis to kill Niobe’s children. In grief, Niobe returned to Mount Sipylus, and was turned into stone, weeping perpetually.
[25] In Roman mythology, Jupiter, Mercury, and Neptune visited old Hyricus, a Bœotian peasant, in disguise. Hyricus entertained them hospitably, and the gods promised to grant him a request. Hyricus was a widower and childless, so he asked for a son. The gods instructed him to fill the hide of a sacrificed bull with water, and bury it for nine months. Nine months later, he exhumed the skin, and found a living child inside.
[26] In Greek mythology, Phrixus and Helle were the children of Athamas, king of Bœtia, and Nephele, the goddess of clouds. The pair were hated by Ino, their stepmother, so she conspired to get rid of them. She engineered a famine, and then bribed an oracle to say, that only the sacrifice of Phrixus and Helle would bring relief. Before being sacrificed, Phrixus and Helle were rescued by a flying ram with golden wool, sent by Nephele.
[27] Genesis 28:18, 19: “And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Beth-el (בֵּית־אֵל, house of God): but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.”
[28] A bætyl is a sacred stone, believed to house a god. The most famous of these was the Omphalos of Delphi.
[29] In Greek mythology, Phædra, the wife of King Theseus of Athens, lusts for her stepson, Hippolytus. Hippolytus refuses her advances and flees from her. Phædra accuses Hippolytus of rape, pointing to the sword he left behind. Hippolytus is condemned to death, but dies in an accident before the sentence can be executed.
[30] Adonis, whose name means lord, was considered the ideal of male beauty, and was the lover of Aphrodite and Persephone. He was gored by a wild boar, and died in Aphrodite’s arms. In some versions, Adonis is restored to life by Zeus at the entreaty of Aphrodite.
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