Freethought & Rationalism Archive

andrewcriddle · 12-15-2005, 03:21 PM

pseudo-Hegesippus' De excidio urbis Hierosolymitanae (On the ruin of the city of Jerusalem) online in translation here http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/index.htm#Hegesippus date c 370 CE provides us with a version of the TF arguably independent of Eusebius.

Quote:

Josephus a writer of histories saying, that there was in that time a wise man, if it is proper however, he said, to call a man the creator of marvelous works, who appeared living to his disciples after three days of his death in accordance with the writings of the prophets, who prophesied both this and innumerable other things full of miracles about him. [p. 164] from which began the community of Christians and penetrated into every tribe of men nor has any nation of the Roman world remained, which was left without worship of him.

However, it has been suggested to me offline that quite apart from the (weak) evidence of allusions by pseudo-Hegesippus to material in Eusebius, the whole idea of a Christian version of history in De excidio urbis Hierosolymitanae presupposes Eusebius' prior efforts in that line and hence from the general nature of his work pseudo-Hegesippus must have known the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius.

I am not convinced, the general form of the work stays close to Josephus' Jewish war with the addition of a substantial amount of Christian Rhetoric. Neither of these particularly resembles Eusebius.

More specifically both Eusebius and pseudo-Hegesippus interpret the fall of Jerusalem in a strongly anti-Jewish way but pseudo-Hegesippus does not use material in Eusebuis that he would have found useful.

Eusebius in Book 3 of the Ecclesiastical History says

Quote:

But the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation, vouchsafed to approved men there before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called Pella. And when those that believed in Christ had come thither from Jerusalem, then, as if the royal city of the Jews and the whole land of Judea were entirely destitute of holy men, the judgment of God at length overtook those who had committed such outrages against Christ and his apostles, and totally destroyed that generation of impious men.

Eusebius seems our earliest surviving witness to this flight to Pella the historicity of which is doubtful. (It may possibly have happened in the 2nd Jewish war under Hadrian rather than in the time of Nero)

However it serves Eusebius' purpose admirably. With the Christian Jews gone the non-Christian Jews can be conquered. It would have served pseudo-Hegesippus' anti-Jewish agenda equally well, but he doesn't mention it. IMO he doesn't mention it because he had not read the Ecclesiastical History

IE pseudo-Hegesippus is a witness to the TF independent of Eusebius

Andrew Criddle

Toto · 12-15-2005, 04:36 PM

Hi Andrew - you addressed the same topic in this thread from last year, Eusebius did not create the TF.

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12-15-2005, 04:36 PM	#2
Toto Contributor Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Los Angeles area Posts: 40,549	Hi Andrew - you addressed the same topic in this thread from last year, Eusebius did not create the TF.

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