THE WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. EXTANT FRAGMENTS. PART I.--CONTAINING VARIOUS SECTIONS
OF THE WORKS. I.--FROM THE TWO BOOKS ON THE PROMISES
DIONYSIUS
[TRANSLATED BY THE REV. S. D. F. SALMOND, M.A.]
THE WORKS OF DIONYSIUS.
EXTANT FRAGMENTS.
PART I.--CONTAINING VARIOUS SECTIONS OF THE WORKS.
I.--FROM THE TWO BOOKS ON THE PROMISES.(1)
1. But as they produce a certain composition by Nepos,(2) on which they
insist very strongly, as if it demonstrated incontestably that there will be a
(temporal) reign of Christ upon the earth, I have to say, that in many other
respects I accept the opinion of Nepos, and love him at once for his faith, and his
laboriousness, and his patient study in the Scriptures, as also for his great
efforts in psalmody,(3) by which even now many of the brethren are delighted. I
hold the man, too, in deep respect still more, inasmuch as(4) he has gone to
his rest before us. Nevertheless the truth is to be prized and reverenced above
all things else. And while it is indeed proper to praise and approve
ungrudgingly anything that is said aright, it is no less proper to examine and correct
anything which may appear to have been written unsoundly. If he had been present
then himself, and had been stating his opinions orally, it would have been
sufficient to discuss the question together without the use of writing, and to
endeavour to convince the opponents, and carry them along by interrogation and
reply. But the work is published, and is, as it seems to some, of a very persuasive
character; and there are unquestionably some teachers, who hold that the law
and the prophets are of no importance, and who decline to follow the Gospels,
and who depreciate the epistles of the apostles, and who have also made large
promises(5) regarding the doctrine of this composition, as though it were some
great and hidden mystery, and who, at the same time, do not allow that our simpler
brethren have any sublime and elevated conceptions either of our Lord's
appearing in His glory and His true divinity, or of our own resurrection from the
dead, and of our being gathered together to Him, and assimilated to Him, but, on
the contrary, endeavour to lead them to hope(6) for things which are trivial and
corruptible, and only such as what we find at present in the kingdom of God.
And since this is the case, it becomes necessary for us to discuss this subject
with our brother Nepos just as if he were present.
2. After certain other mailers, he adds the following statement:--Being
then in the Arsinoitic(7) prefecture--where, as you are aware, this doctrine was
current long ago, and caused such division, that schisms and apostasies took
place I in whole churches -- I called together the presbyters and the teachers
among the brethren in the villages, and those of the brethren also who wished to
attend were present. I exhorted them to make an investigation into that dogma
in public. Accordingly, when they had brought this book before us, as though it
were a kind of weapon or impregnable battlement, I sat with them for three days
in succession from morning till evening, and attempted to set them right on
the subjects propounded in the composition. Then, too, I was greatly gratified by
observing the constancy of the brethren, and their love of the truth, and
their docility and intelligence, as we proceeded, in an orderly method, and in a
spirit of moderation, to deal with questions, and difficulties, and concessions.
For we took care not to press, in every way and with jealous urgency, opinions
which had once been adopted, even although they might appear to be correct.(1)
Neither did we evade objections alleged by others; but we endeavoured as far as
possible to keep by the subject in hand, and to establish the positions
pertinent to it. Nor, again, were we ashamed to change our opinions, if reason
convinced us, and to acknowledge the fact; but rather with a good conscience, and in
all sincerity, and with open hearts(2) before God, we accepted all that could
be established by the demonstrations and teachings of the Holy Scriptures. And
at last the author and introducer of this doctrine, whose name was Coracion, in
the hearing of all the brethren present, made acknowledgment of his position,
and engaged to us that he would no longer hold by his opinion, nor discuss it,
nor mention it, nor teach it, as he had been completely convinced by the
arguments of those opposed to it. The rest of the brethren, also, who were present,
were delighted with the conference, and with the conciliatory spirit and the
harmony exhibited by all.
3. Then, a little further on, he speaks of the Revelation of John as
follows:--Now some before our time have set aside this book, and repudiated it
entirely, criticising it chapter by chapter, and endeavouring to show it to be
without either sense or reason. They have alleged also that its title is false; for
they deny that John is the author. Nay, further, they hold that it can be no
sort of revelation, because it is covered with so gross and dense a veil of
ignorance. They affirm, therefore, that none of the apostles, nor indeed any of the
saints, nor any person belonging to the Church, could be its author; but that
Cerinthus,(3) and the heretical sect founded by him, and named after him the
Cerinthian sect, being desirous of attaching the authority of a great name to the
fiction propounded by him, prefixed that title to the book. For the doctrine
inculcated by Cerinthus is this: that there will be an earthly reign of Christ ;
and as he was himself a man devoted to the pleasures of the body, and
altogether carnal l in his dispositions, he fancied(4) that that kingdom would consist
in those kinds of gratifications on which his own heart was set,--to wit, in the
delights of the belly, and what comes beneath the belly, that is to say, in
eating and drinking, and marrying, and in other things under the guise of which
he thought he could indulge his appetites with a better grace,(5) such as
festivals, and sacrifices, and the slaying of victims. But I, for my part, could not
venture to set this book aside, for there are many brethren who value it
highly. Yet, having formed an idea of it as a composition exceeding my capacity of
understanding, I regard it as containing a kind of hidden and wonderful
intelligence on the several subjects which come under it. For though I cannot comprehend
it, I still suspect that there is some deeper sense underlying the words. And
I do not measure and judge its expressions by the standard of my own reason,
but, making more allowance for faith, I have simply regarded them as too lofty
for my comprehension; and I do not forthwith reject what I do not understand, but
I am only the more filled with wonder at it, in that I have not been able to
discern its import.(6)
4. After this, he examines the whole book of the Revelation; and having
proved that it cannot possible be understood according to the bald, literal
sense, he proceeds thus:--When the prophet now has completed, so to speak, the whole
prophecy, he pronounces those blessed who should observe it, and names
himself, too, in the number of the same: "For blessed," says he, "is he that keepeth
the words of the prophecy of this book; and I John who saw and heard these
things."(1) That this person was called John, therefore, and that this was the
writing of a John, I do not deny. And I admit further, that it was also the work of
some holy and inspired man. But I could not so easily admit that this was the
apostle, the son of Zebedee, the brother of James, and the same person with him
who wrote the Gospel which bears the title according to John, and the catholic
epistle. But from the character of both, and the forms of expression, and the
whole disposition and execution(2) of the book, I draw the conclusion that the
authorship is not his. For the evangelist nowhere else subjoins his name, and he
never proclaims himself either in the Gospel or in the epistle.
And a little further on he adds:--John, moreover, nowhere gives us the
name, whether as of himself directly (in the first person), or as of another (in
the third person). But the writer of the Revelation puts himself forward at once
in the very beginning, for he says: "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which He
gave to him to show to His servants quickly; and He sent and signified it by
His angel to His servant John, who bare record of the Word of God, and of his
testimony, and of all things that he saw."(3) And then he writes also an epistle,
in which he says: "John to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be unto
you, and peace." The evangelist, on the other hand, has not prefixed his name
even to the catholic epistle; but without any circumlocution, he has commenced
at once with the mystery of the divine revelation itself in these terms: "That
which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our
eyes."(4) And on the ground of such a revelation as that the Lord pronounced
Peter blessed, when He said: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."(5) And
again in the second epistle, which is ascribed to John, the apostle, and in the
third, though they are indeed brief, John is not set before us by name; but we
find simply the anonymous writing, "The elder." This other author, on the
contrary, did not even deem it sufficient to name himself once, and then to proceed
with his narrative; but he takes up his name again, and says: "I John, who also
am your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of
Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the Word of God, and
for the testimony of Jesus Christ."(6) And likewise toward the end he speaks
thus: "Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book; and I
John who saw these things and heard them."(1) That it is a John, then, that
writes these things we must believe, for he himself tells us.
5. What John this is, however, is uncertain. For he has not said, as he
often does in the Gospel, that he is the disciple beloved by the Lord, or the one
that leaned on His bosom, or the brother of James, or one that was privileged
to see and hear the Lord. And surely he would have given us some of these
indications if it had been his purpose to make himself clearly known. But of all
this he offers us nothing; and he only calls himself our brother and companion,
and the witness of Jesus, and one blessed with the seeing and hearing of these
revelations. I am also of opinion that there were many persons of the same name
with John the apostle, who by their love for him, and their admiration and
emulation of him, and their desire to be loved by the Lord as he was loved, were
induced to embrace also the same designation, just as we find many of the children
of the faithful called by the names of Paul and Peter.(7) There is, besides,
another John mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, with the surname Mark, whom
Barnabas and Paul attached to themselves as companion, and of whom again it is
said: "And they had also John to their minister."(8) But whether this is the
one who wrote the Revelation, I could not say. For it is not written that he came
with them into Asia. But the writer says: "Now when Paul and his company
loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia: and John, departing from them,
returned to Jerusalem."(9) I think, therefore, that it was some other one of
those who were in Asia. For it is said that there were two monuments in Ephesus,
and that each of these bears the name of John.
6. And from the ideas, and the expressions, and the collocation of the
same, it may be very reasonably conjectured that this one is distinct from
that.(1) For the Gospel and the Epistle agree with each other, and both commence in
the same way. For the one opens thus, "In the beginning was the Word;" while the
other opens thus, "That which was from the beginning." The one says: "And the
Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we beheld His glory, the glory as
of the Only-begotten of the Father."(2) The other says the same things, with a
slight alteration: "That which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life: and
the life was manifested."(3) For these things are introduced by way of
prelude, and in opposition, as he has shown in the subsequent parts, to those who deny
that the Lord is come in the flesh. For which reason he has also been careful
to add these words: "And that which we have seen we testify, and show unto you
that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us: that
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you."(4) Thus he keeps to himself,
and does not diverge inconsistently from his subjects, but goes through them
all under the same heads and in the same phraseologies, some of which we shall
briefly mention. Thus the attentive reader will find the phrases, "the life,"
"the light," occurring often in both; and also such expressions as fleeing from
darkness, holding the truth, grace, joy, the flesh and the blood of the Lord, the
judgment, the remission of sins, the love of God toward us, the commandment of
love an our side toward each other; as also, that we ought to keep all the
commandments, the conviction of the world, of the devil, of Antichrist, the
promise of the Holy Spirit, the adoption of God, the faith required of us in all
things, the Father and the Son, named as such everywhere. And altogether, through
their whole course, it will be evident that the Gospel and the Epistle are
distinguished by one and the same character of writing. But the Revelation is
totally different, and altogether distinct from this; and I might almost say that it
does not even come near it, or border upon it. Neither does it contain a
syllable in common with these other books. Nay more, the Epistle--for I say nothing
of the Gospel--does not make any mention or evince any notion of the Revelation
and the Revelation, in like manner, gives no note of the Epistle. Whereas Paul
gives some indication of his revelations in his epistles; which revelations,
however, he has not recorded in writing by themselves.
7. And furthermore, on the ground of difference in diction, it is possible
to prove a distinction between the Gospel and the Epistle on the one hand, and
the Revelation on the other. For the former are written not only without
actual error as regards the Greek language, but also with the greatest elegance,
both in their expressions and in their reasonings, and in the whole structure of
their style. They are very far indeed from betraying any barbarism or solecism,
or any sort of vulgarism, in their diction. For, as might be presumed, the
writer possessed the gift of both kinds of discourse,(5) the Lord having bestowed
both these capacities upon him, viz., that of knowledge and that of expression.
That the author of the latter, however, saw a revelation, and received
knowledge and prophecy, I do not deny. Only I perceive that his dialect and language
are not of the exact Greek type, and that he employs barbarous idioms, and in
some places also solecisms. These, however, we are under no necessity of seeking
out at present. And I would not have any one suppose that I have said these
things in the spirit of ridicule; for I have done so only with the purpose of
setting right this matter of the dissimilarity subsisting between these writings.(6)