YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL
DISCOVERIES
AND THEIR BEARING UPON THE NEW TESTAMENT AND
UPON THE UFE AND TIMES OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH

"I believe in the spade. It has fed the
tribes of mankind. It has furnished them
water, coal, iron and gold. And now it is
giving them truth — historic truth — the mines
of which have never been opened till our
time!'
— Oliver Wendell Holmes.
(London Academy XXV : 422)

A WOMAN TEACHER A GLADIATOR (?)
Prom Dr. W. It. Flinders Petrie's "Hawara rortiaits" (First to Second Century)

NERO AS A YOUTH

A LADY OF THE FIRST OR A rt.N.TTr„„, „
SECOND .CENTURY A GENT™Ail°F THE FIRST °R
SECOND CENTURY
From Thomas Oraf's Collection of Homan -Egyptian Mummy Portraits (First to Second Cent

THE
NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL
DISCOVERIES
AND THEIR BEARING UPON THE NEW
TESTAMENT AND UPON THE LIFE AND
TIMES OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH

By
CAMDEN M. COBERN, D.D., Litt.D.
James M. Thoburn Chair of English Bible and Philosophy of Religion, Allegheny
College; Honorary Secretary for Pennsylvania and Member of the General
Executive Committee (American Branch) of the Egypt
Exploration Fund, etc., etc.

INTRODUCTION BY
EDOUARD NAVILLE, D.C.L., LL.D., F.S.A:
Foreign Associate of the InsHtut de France; Professor of Archeology
in the University of Geneva, Switzerland,

SECOND EDITION, REVISED

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
NEW YORK AND LONDON
1917

Copyright, 1917, by
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
[Printed in the United States of America]
Copyright Under the Articles of the Copyright Convention of the
Pan-American Republics and the United States, August 11, 1910
First Edition Published, May, 1917

DEDICATED TO
MY CO-WORKER AND
BEST CRITIC
ERNESTINE CRAFT COBERN

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION
This book has no competitor, for it is the pioneer
work in this field.
Specialists have written many ponderous volumes
touching limited areas of the general subject, but no
one has previously attempted to give a summary of all
the discoveries in all lands, so far as these in any im
portant way have cast light upon the New Testament
writings or the life of the Primitive Church.
The aim has been to make this work a "corpus" of
all the more fascinating facts and all the most beautiful
and worthy sayings that have floated down to us from
those opulent centuries in which the earliest Church
was trained. The mass of new information comes from
the buried hoards of Greek and Coptic papyri, recently
unearthed; but for the sake of vividness a certain
amount of supplemental material has occasionally been
introduced from the classics and early Fathers, such
additions, however, being carefully marked in the
context or notes.
It is perfectly evident that no one could write of all
these varied discoveries with exhaustive first-hand
knowledge. While the writer has had some experience
in excavation, and has been forced by his college duties
to obtain a somewhat comprehensive knowledge of the
general field and a special knowledge of certain parts
of the field, yet slips of statement and errors of judg
ment are inevitable when one ventures — as in this case
one was necessarily compelled to venture — into domains
where personal, first-hand knowledge was impossible.
[vii]

viii PREFACE
The writer can only hope that it will be clear to
scholars that he has written with a keen desire to state
truthfully the facts, and that in cases where he felt him
self unable to form a personal judgment he has, in
most instances, been able to have direct access to the
best authorities.
Credit for each new fact or conclusion has been
given when possible; yet so much of the material has
been used over and over again in the classroom that
some few references can not be located and some
scholar may thus, wholly unintentionally, fail to get his
proper credit for some original discovery or novel
phrase. It may be added that the forms of personal
address and the occasional emphasis of personal ex
perience, which have proved effective with students,
have been preserved, so far as practicable, in these
published lectures.
It is only because the writer has had rather an ex
ceptional opportunity not only to see in the field the
work of many of the masters in modern excavation, but
has also had their cordial cooperation, that he has been
able to complete satisfactorily this much-needed work.
It will be noticed that many of the texts utilized in
this volume are here translated into English for the
first time, and a number of my, as yet, unedited papyri
have also been used. Dr. Edgar J. Goodspeed of the
University of Chicago has kindly deciphered certain
of the Greek papyri which had proved baffling, and Dr.
H. Hyvernat of the Catholic University of America
has done the same with some of my Coptic texts.
To Professor Naville, who is known in every con
tinent for his original contributions to the science of
Egyptian archeology, I am especially grateful for read-

PREFACE

ix

ing this book in manuscript and for writing the intro
duction to it. Dr. Victor Martin of Geneva, Switzer
land, associate editor of The Greek Papyri in the John
Rylands Library (Vol. II, 1915), also read the entire
work in manuscript and made a number of important
suggestions. Professor Stanley S. Swartley, of the Allegheny
College faculty, has read the entire work as it came
from the press, correcting, so far as was possible, its
faulty English, for which work of love he has my
hearty thanks; these are also due in a very special
way to my honored colleague Professor William A.
Elliott for his constant sympathy and frequent assist
ance in the interpretation of the more difficult papyri.
Of the generosity of the publishers of this work too
much can not be said. I will always remember the
kindness shown by my friend Professor Geo. W. Gil
more, whose breadth and minuteness of learning have
been a constant protection.
The following specialists have read such limited
sections of the proof sheets as most appealed to them,
and in some cases have added invaluable information:
Drs. W. M. Flinders Pctrie, Agnes Smith Lewis, Adolf
Deissmann, A. A. Vaschalde, A. T. Robertson, Wallace
N. Stearns, John R. Crawford and Professor Howard
Crosby Butler.1
This does not mean, however, that these scholars
are in any degree responsible for the general argument
1 1 am indebted to Sir William M. Ramsay and Professor George H.
Richardson for the loan of several photographs which I could not get else
where; to Professor Butler for full permission to use the very valuable
photographs obtained by the American Expedition and the Princeton Ex
pedition to Syria ; and to Houghton Mifflin Company for the photograph
of Rodolfo Lanciani (from Wanderings in the Roman Campagna).
Other illustrations in this book, unless otherwise stated, were ordinarily
photographed by or for the author.

x PREFACE
or for the final form of any section of the work. If
this semi-popular summary of important results,
written primarily for Bible teachers and ministers,
shall be accounted of any special value by technical
scholars, this will be chiefly due to these friends, just
mentioned, who have so generously encouraged the
enterprise. To them belongs the praise; the mistakes
are mine. Camden M. Cobern.
Meadville, Pa., April 19, 1917.

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
The popular favor given to this work has made a
second edition necessary within less than six months of
its original publication.
The author hereby extends his thanks to the scholars
who have pointed out various verbal errors in the pre
vious edition. Such errors are corrected here. Fortu
nately, none of our statements of fact or general
judgments seem at present to need revision. A few
additional new discoveries brought to light during the
present year are referred to in the footnotes. C. M. C.

INTRODUCTION
By Edouard Naville, D.C.L., LL.D., F.S.A.
Foreign Associate of the Institut de France
Professor of Archeology at the University of Geneva,
Switzerland

[xi]

INTRODUCTION
It is most remarkable to see the great changes
which have been brought about in the study of antiquity
by the archeological discoveries made at the end of
last century and the beginning of this.
I need not recall here the discovery of the iEgean
civilization, which has revealed to us that for several
centuries a culture, which originated at Crete, had
ruled over the Eastern Mediterranean. A vast, rich
field has thus been opened to our researches, and we
can now see and often admire the remains of a time,
on the history of which we have to-day certain data.
These data will undoubtedly be increased when its script
is deciphered and when the numerous inscriptions
unearthed no longer remain a sealed book.
These archeological discoveries have entirely changed
the views we had before on Homer, the author to whom
was due the only description preserved of the dawn of
Hellenic culture. We see how faithfully he pictured a
state of things which lasted for centuries, and that
his work can no more be considered as mere fable, as
the product of his imagination. The Homeric poems
are now studied in quite another light, their conformity
with what really existed having been vindicated in
the most remarkable way.
Greek civilization and history have not alone prof
ited by the work of the pick and spade. A great deal
has also been added to our knowledge of Scripture
and of the history of Israel, not so much by the scien
tific exploration of Canaan, which is being carried out
[ xiii 1

xiv THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
with untiring zeal by various societies like those of the
English or the German Funds for the exploration of
Palestine, but chiefly by what has come from outside.
Mesopotamia and the remains of the mighty cities of
Assyria and Babylonia, have helped us considerably
in the understanding and interpretation of some parts
of the Old Testament. But, curiously enough, the
country which has furnished the most valuable docu
ments, the bearing of which on the knowledge of Scrip
ture is not completely realized, is Egypt.
The history of Israel as a nation begins in Egypt,
and the most important discoveries in reference to the
Old Testament have been made in the valley of the
Nile: I refer to the Tel-el- Amarna tablets in Babylo
nian cuneiform, and the Aramaic papyri of the Jewish
colony settled at Elephantine.
But a new and unexpected light has also been shed
on the New Testament by the work of the explorers in
Egypt. The thousands of Greek papyri written before
and in the first centuries of the Christian era, that
vast literature so admirably described by Dr. Cobern,
the greater part of which comes from the old city
of Oxyrhynchus, the present Behnesa — that enormous
collection of documents of all kinds — is a philological
and archeological treasury on which we shall be
able to draw for a better understanding of the sacred
text. Its language will be our dictionary, where
the true sense of many words is recorded. From the
great variety of documents, secular as well as sacred,
letters, legal deeds, contracts, accounts, and others
having a decidedly religious character, we shall derive
a more correct view of the peoples for whom the gos
pels and the epistles of St. Paul were written.

INTRODUCTION xv
For the New Testament there is another country
whose exploration has given first-rate historical evi
dence: Asia Minor, a field of excavation which would
certainly rival Egypt if it were under other than Turk
ish rule, where also Sir William Ramsay's researches
have shown what is still to be expected. If we add to this
manuscripts like the Sinaiticus discovered by Tischen-
dorf last century, and more recently the Freer manu
script and the Syrian Codex found by Mrs. Lewis and
Mrs. Gibson at Sinai, we have the chief bases on which
will rest henceforth the exegesis of the New Testament.
We have to thank Dr. Cobern for having given
us, with a great deal of learning, a vivid account of all
these mines of scholarly research, which are still far
from having been thoroughly worked. Especially their
bearing on the books of the Bible has not been ade
quately shown, the reason being that most Biblical schol
ars are still tied down to the methods of the destructive
criticism. A book of Scripture is taken, a minute
philological analysis is made of it, with often a great
amount of scholarship, but this analysis necessarily
leads to the discovery of apparent inconsistencies, of
disconnections, of repetitions, which have been inter
preted as showing the hands of different writers. The
whole process has been one of disintegration of the
books, resulting in the creation of a great number of
authors, for the existence of whom no historical proofs
whatever can be adduced.
The archeological discoveries, to which we may add
also the help drawn from anthropology (for very often
the difficulties we meet in antiquity are easily solved
by what we hear or see at the present day), have
greatly furthered another method which Sir William

xvi THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Ramsay calls that of the twentieth century, a designa
tion which is not quite correct, since it existed before,
chiefly in France. It is not mainly negative, like much of
the higher criticism, but is marked by "a growing power
of insight and the power of belief that springs there
from." Its main principle consists in replacing a book
amid its environment. For whom was it written?
What was the character of the readers to whom it
was dedicated? Do the new discoveries give us an
insight not only into their material circumstances, but
also into their way of thinking or speaking ? It is obvious
that the surroundings amid which author and readers
move, their conditions of life, their intellectual capaci
ties and their moral condition will rule the language of
the writer, the plan of his book, and the meaning which
he gives to his words.
As I said, let us put a book into its proper environ
ment, where and when it was originated; let us judge
it from what we know of the people who lived at the
time it was brought out, to whom it was probably dedi
cated and who understood it. In this respect it was
an invaluable boon when the readers of the New Testa
ment were put in possession of the thousands of papyri
discovered in Egypt, of this vast literature, part of
which is of the time when the books of the New Testa
ment, gospels and epistles, were written.
The first result which came out of the study of
these documents was to show exactly what was the
language employed, and where we are to look for its
interpretation. According to Dr. Cobern, it is first to
Professor Deissmann that we are indebted for setting
forth clearly the nature and the characteristics of the
language of the New Testament. The language and

INTRODUCTION xvii
style are those of the "vulgar tongue" of the first cen
tury, the vernacular of the home and shop, used by
the middle class and the working man, the Koivf] of
the day, the language of every-day life and not that of
the school. It had spread throughout a considerable
part of Egypt, as we know from the numerous papyri
unearthed in that country.
And this fact agrees remarkably well with the
nature of the books of the New Testament. One may
even say that it was commanded by the doctrine which
these books contained. The gospel was not the sacred
book of a chosen people, like the Hebrews ; it was not a
book written for priests or for the learned, and of
which they alone had a right to know the mysteries.
"Go ye and make disciples of all the nations," said the
Lord to His disciples (Matt. 28: 19). "There is no dis
tinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is
Lord of all" (Rom. 10: 12) ; "The Gentiles are fellow-
heirs and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-par
takers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel"
(Eph. 3:6), says the great apostle of the Gentiles.
The gospel was for all nations and for all condi
tions of men. "The poor have good tidings preached
to them," says the Lord (Luke 7:22). The "small,"
"those of low degree" and the "little ones" were the
first disciples of the gospel, and, as Paul wrote to the
Corinthians, "not many wise after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called." Therefore, the only
language which would be used for preaching the gos
pel, and for the books that contained its doctrine, was
the Koivn, that popular form of the Greek language
which after the conquest of Alexander had spread over
the whole of Western Asia, and particularly in Egypt,

xviii THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
where, owing to the fact of the kings being Greeks, it
had become the idiom of a great part of the population,
the language of trade and of transactions in every-day
life. And this we know from the enormous literature
which has been discovered.
And it is only a small part of what existed in Egypt.
At Tmei el-Amdid in the Delta, the site of the old
Thmuis, I have dug in a series of rooms which con
tained thousands of papyri absolutely carbonized. Here
and there plants had grown in them, finding them a
good soil. One could see that they were Greek; one or
two of them have been rescued. But it was in vain
that I attempted to send some of them to the British
Museum; they arrived there as mere ashes. Certainly,
as regards size, the archives of Thmuis could well
compare with those of Oxyrhynchus.
Greek had become in Egypt a language commonly
used by the middle and lower classes, therefore it is in
these texts that we are now to look for the interpreta
tion of certain words which seem to be peculiar to the
New Testament and were thought to be translations
from Hebrew or Aramaic. The papyri will teach us
their proper sense, and not the elegant Attic prose of
Plato or Isocrates.
But it is not only as regards language that we derive
more information ; we now know better the conditions of
life of the people of that time, their occupations, their
family intercourse and the interests toward which their
thoughts and their activity were daily directed. We
see now that Paul, in his epistles, did not forge new
words for his teaching; he did not invent new expres
sions. He used those with which his contemporaries
were familiar, giving them a Christian sense; for

INTRODUCTION xix
instance, the titles by which the emperor was addrest
are the words applied to God himself, or to Jesus
Christ. Following Deissmann, Dr. Cobern shows in
a very interesting way that the title "Lord" given to
Jesus is seen from the papyri to have had a deeper
meaning than we had ever supposed. Since the title
Ruoiog "Lord" could only be used after Csesar had
been acknowledged as God, and implied, therefore, that
the emperor had been deified, the term Kuqio? 'Ii\aovc,
(Lord Jesus) was a distinct ascription of deity to
Christ, and its use must almost have been accounted
an act of direct antagonism to the claims of the Roman
emperor. The Christians did not go out of the Roman world;
they used and appropriated whatever they could adapt
of it to their belief and to their way of living. In art
they gave new interpretations to old and familiar sym
bols. De Rossi showed this, years ago, in his works on
the catacombs; for instance, the representation of the
Good Shepherd was identical with that of 'EQ,Mfjg
Koiocpooo?; and Orpheus, who attracted even animals
by the harmony of his music, was frequently taken as a
symbol of the attraction which the new preaching
exerted over the hearers.
The holy oracles were communicated, not in a lan
guage miraculously originated or artificially perfect,
"a language of the Holy Ghost," but in a speech which
was in a peculiar and universal sense the language of
the people. This fact, which comes out in such a strik
ing way as we study the papyri, is also the leading
feature of one of the most ancient translations, the
Coptic. One often speaks of the Coptic language. In one sense

xx THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
this expression is not correct ; there is no classic Coptic
like classic Greek; there are only Coptic dialects. Until
a few years ago there were three of them known ; there
is now a fourth, and it is quite possible that the discov
ery of some papyri among ruins which have not yet
been completely explored may reveal a fifth dialect,
because these dialects were originally the local speech
of a certain region. Coptic shows what might have
been suspected, that the spoken language of the people
differed from the book language written in hieroglyphs
or even in demotic.
When the Christian missionaries came to Egypt
they had to do nearly the same as the missionaries of
the present day coming to a country where there is no
writing. They could not use hieroglyphs ; they applied
the Greek alphabet to note what they heard, what was
the common language of the people, and, since the
Greek alphabet was not sufficient to express all the
sounds which struck their ears, they added to it six new
letters. Coptic is the vernacular of the different parts
of Egypt written in Greek characters.
"The language of the people" does not mean a vulgar
speech, incapable of beauty, and choosing in preference
prosy and commonplace expressions. The people's lan
guage, when it is the voice of the heart, the undisguised
utterance of deep feeling, can attain remarkable beauty.
The total absence of artificial ornamentation, the sim
plicity of the descriptions, is precisely what produces
the most vivid picture of a scene, or gives it the strong
est emotional effect. Let us look at the parables — :
how brightly everything comes out in what might often
be called a child's language. Refined art could hardly
appeal more strongly to our intimate feelings than the

INTRODUCTION xxi
few strokes which describe the prodigal son or the
good shepherd.
Dr. Cobern says rightly that Paul's language is
often lifted to an unusual elevation of style, which has
excited the admiration of experts in Greek language
and literature like Von Wilamowitz. Paul's contem
poraries called his letters weighty and strong. For
Paul, unlike the disciples, was a man of education; he
had received a Greek training in the learned city of
Tarsus, and tho he also used the language of the people,
nevertheless in his epistles, in his way of reasoning,
one recognizes that he had been under the influence
of teachers. It is remarkable that the three men in the Bible who
are said to have had the most intense literary activity,
Moses, who wrote the law; Ezra, who revived it after
the captivity; and Paul, who gave a concrete form to
the Christian doctrine — who, it might be said codified
it — were all men who had received a complete educa
tion in the country which they inhabited. Moses was
instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, Ezra
was a ready Mesopotamian scribe, having gone through
the teaching of this class of men, who were the learned
of the country ; besides, he was "the scribe of the words,
of the commandments of the Lord." Paul had not only
received a Greek education at Tarsus, where he was
born, but he was also brought up in Jerusalem at the
feet of Gamaliel. Thus all these were men of the
Hebrew law, and at the same time imbued with the
knowledge and wisdom of the people among whom
they lived.
I can not go over the various fields of archeology
or literature which have a bearing on the New Testa-

xxii THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
ment: the manuscripts, some of which have been dis
covered quite recently; the numerous religious writings
which are contemporary with the beginning of the
Christian Church; and what is properly archeology, the
inscriptions or the monuments found in excavations,
whether these monuments be temples, constructions,
or small objects like coins. This part of archeology is
intimately connected with geography; it implies travel
ing in the country and exploring the spots concerned.
This might be called the practical research, which often
not only modifies, but even upsets the results obtained
in the library from mere literary evidence.
The reader who follows Dr. Cobern in his elaborate
description of all the means supplied to us by arche
ology for a better knowledge of certain epochs of
antiquity can not fail to be struck by the change which
the discoveries have brought about in the methods and
in the ruling principle of historical research. This
change might rather be called a return to sound his
torical principles. History has to rest on documents
such as they are, in their plain sense, and not on theo
ries said to be inferences from those documents and
which are based more or less on preconceived ideas.
At the same time, these documents have to be tested
as much as possible from archeology, from the actual
remains of what the ancients have made, have touched,
or have seen.
Truth will best be reached by the concurrence and
the mutual help both of literary and archeological evi
dence. Considering only what is within the limits of
this book — the New Testament — the recent discoveries
compel us, as we said, to replace the authors of its
different parts in the time when they are said to have

INTRODUCTION xxiii
lived, and among their readers or the hearers to whom
they spoke. This seems to the present writer the best
answer to the radical criticism and the most telling way
of showing how insufficient and often misleading are
its results, which are generally brought forward as
being above discussion.
If we put side by side the gospels, the epistles of
Paul, and the writings which have been discovered of
the first century, we shall find in those "as it were a
new autographic commentary," the explanation of many
expressions showing that "the New Testament wri
tings were not theological treatises, but were mostly
composed in the now technical and rather careless lan
guage of the street and home." This comparative
study has led Dr. Milligan to declare that "in view of
all the new light coming upon the question from recent
discovery, it is safe to conclude that "with the probable
exception of 2 Peter, all our New Testament writings
may now be placed within the first century," tho the
collection called the New Testament may be of much
later date.
This goes a long way to disprove many of the criti
cal theories, attributing parts of a book like the gospel
of John to a later epoch, and cutting it up between
various authors, some of them quite unknown and
mere literary creations.
Archeology has already done a great deal to modify
the ideas or systems based on mere literary or philo
logical evidence. Here we may confidently look for
ward to new discoveries. We can hardly admit that
the soil of Egypt, which has already restored to us
such invaluable treasures, is exhausted. We can not
say what may be recovered from the ruined mounds of

xxiv THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
another Oxyrhynchus. For instance, there is no
impossibility that some day a fortunate explorer, or
perhaps a fellah digging for manure among the decayed
bricks of ruined houses, may come upon a deposit of
papyri in which there will be a copy of the Septuagint
of a time not very remote from that when the transla
tion was made. One may fancy what a prodigious
effect such a find would produce in the studies of the
Old Testament, and especially as regards the radical
higher criticism.
If we think how much light the documents which
we now possess have thrown upon the interpretation
of Scripture, we may well hope that further excava
tions will bring out fresh material and new help for
the understanding of the Holy Books, which are the
spiritual food of a considerable part of mankind.
Edouard Naville.

CONTENTS PAGE
Preface  vii
Introduction  xiii
List of Illustrations  xxxi
PART I
THE GREEK PAPYRI AND OTHER MANUSCRIPTS
STUDIED WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO
THEIR BEARING ON THE NEW
TESTAMENT WRITINGS
I. The Story of Modern Discoveries of Papyri. . . 3
1. The Origin, Nature, and Value of Papyrus Docu
ments  3
2. The Earliest Finds of Greek Papyri Dating from
the Apostolic and Adjoining Centuries ... 6
3. Dr. Deissmann's Epoch-making Discovery Con
cerning the Papyri  30
4. Most Recent Discovery and Publication of New
Material  39
5. A General View of the District Where Most of the
Papyri Were Found  65
(1) The Fayum  65
(2) The Common Life of Some Egyptian Towns
in the First Century of the Christian Era,
and Later  75
Life in Socnopaei Nesus in the Apostolic
Era  75
Life in Oxyrhynchus in the Early Chris
tian Period  88
II. New Light from the Papyri Upon the Language of
the New Testament  98
1. New Light Upon the Origin and Textual Form of
the New Testament  98
[xxv]

xxvi CONTENTS PAGE
2. New Light Upon the Grammar of the New Testa
ment  106
3. New Light Upon the Style of the New Testament . 112
4. New Light Upon the Vocabulary of the New
Testament  119
III. Ancient New Testaments Recently Discovered . 132
1. Greek New Testaments  132
(1) Ancient New Testaments Previously Known 133
(2) Newly Discovered Fragments of Ancient
New Testaments (4th-5th Centuries)
Written Upon Skins and Catalogued by
Gregory  139
(3) Recently Discovered Portions of New Testa
ments (3d-4th Centuries) Written Upon
Papyrus and Catalogued by Gregory and
Kenyon  143
Ancient Papyrus New Testaments Cata
logued by Sir F. G. Kenyon ... 144
(4) Other More Recently Discovered Ancient
New Testaments on Papyri, Parchment or
Vellum Dating from the Third to the Sixth
Centuries  149
An Ancient Fourth or Fifth Century
New Testament Containing the Entire
Four Gospels and Fragments of the
Pauline Epistles. (Washington Codex.
1908-9)  160
Other Fragments of Ancient New Tes
taments — One Written on Pieces of a
Broken Pot  164
(5) Special Importance of the Newly Discovered
New Testament Fragments for Text Criti
cism  166
2. Syriac New Testaments  175
(1) Newly Discovered Syriac New Testament
from the Convent of St. Catherine . . .176
3. Coptic New Testaments  186
4. Ancient New Testaments in Latin and Other Lan
guages  I92
5. A Very Ancient "Harmony of the Gospels'' . . 200

CONTENTS xxvii PAGE
IV. New Light on the New Testament from Primitive
Christian Documents Recently Discovered . 211
1. The Logia, or Newly Discovered "Sayings of Our
Lord"  211
2. New Fragments of Lost Gospels, Acts, Revelations,
etc  219
(1) The Gospel of Peter  219
(2) Revelation of Peter  225
(3) Other Fragments of Importance Recently
Recovered  228
(4) Importance of These Apocryphal Gospels,
Acts, etc  241
3. Some Famous Ancient Documents, Recently Re
covered, which Mention or Use the New Testa
ment  245
(1) Apology of Aristides  245
(2) The Shepherd of Hermas  251
(3) The Ring of Pope Xystus  254
(4) Lost Works of Early Christian Fathers Re
cently Discovered  255
Irenaeus, Apostolic Preaching . . . 255
Origen on the Book of Revelation . . 257
Letters of Ignatius  259
4. The Didache or "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles" 260
5. Libelli  271
6. Ancient Christian Sermons  277
7. Ancient Prayers and Amulets  290
8. Ancient Christian Hymns  3°°
9. Private and Official Letters of Early Christians . 320
10. Liturgical Fragments and Biblical Quotations . . 334

xxviii CONTENTS

PART II

THE MONUMENTS, INSCRIPTIONS, AND OTHER
ANCIENT REMAINS STUDIED WITH ESPECIAL
REFERENCE TO THEIR BEARING ON THE
LIFE AND TIMES OF THE PRIMI
TIVE CHURCH page
I. New Light from Graves and Buried Cities . . .351
1. New Light from the Land of Palestine . . . .351
2. New Light on the First Century from Pompeii. . 373
3. New Light on the First Century from the Roman
Catacombs  383
4. New Light from Christian Cemeteries in Egypt . 402
5. New Light from Second and Third Century Chris
tian Gravestones in Phrygia  412
6. New Light from the Second. Third and Fourth
Century Monuments at Salona, Dalmatia . . 432
7. New Light from Fourth and Fifth Century Chris
tian Basilicas and Sixth Century Christian
Towns Still Standing in the Deserts of Syria. 440
II. New Light from Famous Cities Mentioned in the
New Testament  461
1. Recent Excavations at Ephesus  461
2. Recent Excavations at Athens  482
3. Recent Excavations at Corinth  493
4. Recent Excavations at Rome  502
5. Explorations in Various Galatian Cities . . . 521
(1) Lystra  525
(2) Derbe  526
(3) Iconium  527
(4) Pisidian Antioch  531
6. Side-Lights from Other Cities Visited by St. Paul 541
(1) Tarsus  541
(2) Damascus  544
(3) Philippi  545
(4) Thessalonica  547
(5) Antioch in Syria  549
(6) Cyprus  552

CONTENTS xxix PAGE
(7) Assos  553
(8) Miletus  554
(9) Rhodes  556
(10) Csesarea  556
(11) Crete and Melita  557
(12) Syracuse  557
(13) Puteoli  558
(14) From Puteoli to Rome  56b
7. Side-Lights from Cities Mentioned in the Book of
Revelation or Influential in the Early Church . 561
(1) Ephesus  561
(2) Smyrna  561
(3) Pergamum  563
(4) Thyatira  564
(5) Sardis  565
(6) Philadelphia  . 569
(7) Laodicea  570
8. Other Cities Specially Influential in Early Chris
tianity  ... 571
III. New Documentary and Other Evidence Throwing
Light Upon the Early Christian Centuries . 577
1. The Environment of the Holy Land in the First
Century  577
2. Some Literary Habits of the First Century Illus
trated in the Papyri  582
3. A New View of the First Century from a Re-ex
amination of the Classical Texts in the Light
of New Discoveries  590
4. New Light on the Jewish Literature (non-Biblical)
which Chiefly Influenced the Theological and
Ethical Thought of Palestine in the First Cen
tury  603
5. Intellectual, Social, and Religious Life of the First
and Adjoining Centuries as Seen in the Papyri,
etc  635
Recapitulation  . 670
Scripture Texts, Illustrated  . 687
Index  689

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

A Woman Teacher . .
A Gladiator 
Nero as a Youth ....
A Lady, First or Second Century .
A Gentleman, First or Second Century
Dr. Adolf Deissmann ....
Dr. B. P. Grenfell 
Dr. Caspar Rene Gregory.
Dr. Arthur S. Hunt 
Dr. James Hope Moulton.
Dr. W. M. Flinders Petrie.
Dr. A. T. Robertson 
Dr. Edouard Naville 
Temple of Artemis (Diana), Sardis.
Temple, Pergamum 
Wall-painting on Tomb, Marissa .
Capitol and Propylaeum, Timgad.
Ancient Ruins, Csesarea . .
Columbarium, Beit Jibrin.
Equestrian Statue of Nero
Pompeian Noble 
Emperor Tiberius and a Woman.
Statue of a Child 
Famous Pompeian Banker, Apostolic Age.
Augustus .
Nero 
Vespasian
Titus 
Domitian .
Trajan . . .
Hadrian . .
Marcus Aurelius
Constantine 
Leaf from St. Matthew's- Gospel f xxxi ]

Frontispiece

facing page

32

68

69

136

137

xxxii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS facing page
Coptic Letter  J96

Self-cooker 
Loaf of Bread 
Wall-painting 
Surgical Instruments . .
Lamps and Candelabra.

197

Church, Ruweha 
Church and Baptistry, Kasr Iblisu 
Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus, Umm
is-Surab 

280

Christian Shops, Bazaar, Ba'udeh 
Christian Tavern or Cafe, Serdjilla  \-  281
Christian House, Serdjilla 
Inscription on Gravestone, Csesarea  328

Note About a Hoe 
Letter from Parents to Their Son.

329

O. Marucchi 
Sir William M. Ramsay 
Dr. Rodolfo Lanciani 
Dr. Agnes Smith Lewis 
Giovanni Battista De Rossi. . .
Dr. Margaret Dunlop Gibson.
Melchior De Vogiie 
Dr. J. Rendel Harris 
Prof. Howard Crosby Butler. .

356

Map of Palestine 
Christian Villa, El-Barah 
Christian Houses, Djebel Riha.

:¦}•

Wine Shop or "Saloon," Pompeii 
Bronze Door of Roman Villa, Pompeii.
Wall Picture, Pompeii 

Seated Statue of Tiberius .
Blasphemous Crucifix . . .
Mark of the Beast 
Appian Way 

368 3^9376 377

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxxiii
facing page
Temple of Jupiter (Esculapius?), Spalato.
Golden Gate, Spalato  1  448
Peristyle, Spalato 
Christian Convent, Syria 
Octagonal Church and Restaurant, Mond- 1  449
jeleia 
Christian Tomb, Ruweha 
Christian Tomb, Rebefah 
Christian Tomb, Marata  L  452
Church of St. George, Zorah  ,
Basalt Door of Christian House, Khan Sebil_
Christian Chapel, Kf ellusin  1
Church and Palace, North Syria  1  453
Christian House, Dilloza  J
Paved Road, Ephesus  1
Site of Temple of Diana, Ephesus  1  472
Double Church, Ephesus  J
Library Building, Ephesus  "I
Theater, Ephesus  j"  " ^73

Oldest Pictures of St. Paul and St. Peter. .
St. Paul's Gate, Tarsus 
Picture of St. Paul 
Pictures of St. Peter and St. Paul 
River Cydnus, Tarsus 

492

Temple of Apollo and the Acropolis,]
Corinth  >  493
Excavations, Corinth  J
Seated Statuette of Christ as a Youth  508
Statue of Christ as the Good Shepherd.

:}¦

Head of Statue of Antinoiis. ' 
Chariot Race 
Christian Bas-relief  \-  514
Pagan Priestess
Fragments from Temple, Pergamum  515

xxxiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING page
jravestones from Blaundos  53^
Base of First Statue, Pisidian Antioch ... 537

:::}¦

Tombstone, Altar Form, with Epitaph
Fragment of Jewish Sarcophagus  1
Christian Sarcophagus  J 
Set of Jewish Measures of the First Century  55 J
Christian Church, Sardis 
Temple of Artemis (Diana), Sardis.
Church of St. Simeon Stylites, Kalat-Seman"!
Mosaic from Christian Bath, Serdjilla  J ' * • • ¦ 5 y
Sarcophagus, North Palestine  640
Art Fragments, Ascalon 
Sculptures, Ascalon 

;}  568

;}  64i

PART ONE
THE GREEK PAPYRI AND OTHER
MANUSCRIPTS
TUDIED WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THEIR
lEARING ON THE NEW TESTAMENT WRITINGS

4 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
well as in the oldest Greek and Latin script in exist
ence, while some of the most valued ancient documents
in almost every European language were preserved
upon this imperishable material.
What was the process by which this papyrus paper
was prepared in the days of Moses and the patriarchs,
and in the days of Jesus and the apostles ? It was made
by cutting the white pith of the papyrus into long strips-
which were laid down vertically, over which other
strips were placed horizontally, the two layers being
either pasted together, perhaps with the aid of Nile
water, as Pliny tells us, or else prest together into a
single sheet, which was dried in the sun, hammered
and rolled into flat layers, and then rubbed thoroughly
with some smooth substance until it was ready for use.
The sheets made in this way were then pasted together
to form a roll of any length desired, some specimens
over a hundred feet in length being yet in existence.
The papyrus book (codex) does not come into
use before the first century of our era and does not
become common until two or three centuries later. It
was a direct copy of the parchment or vellum codex
which had been made possible by the new process of
preparing these skins (197-158 B.C.) so that they could
be written upon on both sides. By the third century
of our era these two processes of book-making were
both being used freely, altho, for the finest work,
the vellum codices stood unrivaled.1 Indeed, there has
been nothing equal, even in modern times, to the fine
purple skins written in gold and silver which come to
1 The technical distinction between parchment and vellum is that the
former is made from sheepskin, and the latter from calf. Vellum and
parchment are still used for legal documents in Egypt and elsewhere. ;!*

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 5
us, especially from the third to the sixth centuries.
But while the parchment and vellum manuscripts con
tinued to be used for church Bibles and legal docu
ments for many centuries, some of the latter even ap
pearing as late as the middle ages, yet for the private
New Testaments of the early centuries and for ordinary
letter writing and business purposes the tough but
inexpensive papyrus was almost universally used. The
ordinary size of a papyrus sheet in the days of the
apostles was about five by ten inches, and the ordi
nary grade was often sold in rolls of perhaps twenty
sheets, the price of a sheet being a little more than
twenty-five cents. While the width of the cheaper
papyri was only about six inches, a better quality called
Charta Livia, after the Emperor's wife, reached a
width of eight inches or more; and the highest grade,
called Hieratica (or Augusta, in honor of the Emperor),
ran about nine and a half inches in width. In the days
of Claudius an even better grade was introduced, which
averaged from twelve to eighteen inches wide. It is
doubtful whether any New Testament writer had ever
in his life used the higher grades of papyrus, and it
can be counted absolutely settled that every book of the
New Testament was written upon the medium or poorer
qualities. But in all the years since linen paper came into
common use — in the eighth or ninth century of our
era — it has never been honored as was the humble
papyri of that first century which received, the auto
graphs of the apostles and evangelists as they told
the story of the Man of Nazareth,
"A poor man toiling with the poor."2
*As the reader's eye must not, in a popular work, be burdened with
numerous footnotes, the author desires here, once for all, to record his con-

6 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
2. The Earliest Finds of Greek Papyri Dating
from the Apostolic and Adjoining Centuries
No one discovery for a thousand years has equaled
in importance that of Grenfell and Hunt when, in
1897, they excavated for the Egypt Exploration Fund
the now famous site of Behnesa, the ancient Oxy
rhynchus (situated in the Nile Valley some 120 miles
south of Cairo), and discovered literally tons of Greek
papyri, hundreds of which were written in the lan
guage of the New Testament. When it is remembered,
that no one previous to this time had ever read even,
one autograph manuscript which had been written by'
a scribe of the first century in the language which the
common people of Palestine and Egypt used in that;
era, the sensational nature of this discovery may be
more easily realized.
To be sure, many papyri had been found previous
to this time. The use of this writing material must
have begun in Egypt nearly 4000 B.C., and up to the
time of Alexander the Great it was carried on as a
government monopoly, the ancient scribes of Egypt
being almost as voluminous writers as the scholars
of to-day. These papyri were well known from the
days of the earliest visitors, but had not been counted

stant and inestimable indebtedness in every chapter of the present work, to
the great encyclopedias and Biblical dictionaries. Hereafter, such refer?
ences will be made only in exceptional cases or where differences of
opinion are involved. See for further particulars Encyclopedia Britannica,
"Papyrus," "Manuscripts," "Parchment"; International Standard Bible
Encyclopedia, "Papyrus" ; Milligan's The New Testament Documents, and
Wessely's brilliant summary in the opening section of his Aus der Welt
der Papyri; also Breasted's article, "The Physical Processes of Writing in
the Early Orient and Their Relation ^o the Origin di the Aljihatfet," in
the Ame+iedm Jdurrial of Semitic Languages, 191'6; 249#.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 7
of any great importance. About the middle of the
eighteenth century a number of charred rolls in Greek,
which proved to be of a literary character, were found
during excavations at Herculaneum but were not re
garded as of value.3 In 1778, some Arabs found 40
or 50 papyrus rolls in an earthen pot, and tho most of
these were destroyed, one was brought from Egypt to
Europe; but there was no particular disappointment
when it became known that these documents were so
abundant along the Nile that the natives were using
them for fuel or burning them for their pleasant
fragrance. Who cared what the Ptolemies were writ
ing to their friends or what kind of barbarous Greek
they used? For over forty years nothing more ap
peared in the field of papyrus discovery worth men
tioning, but in 1820, on the site of the Serapeum at
JVJemphis, a group of documents was found dating
from the second century B.C. It was chiefly with the
help and under the inspiration of this discovery that
George Ebers composed his fascinating Egyptian
novels. The next year a book of the Iliad, many centuries
older than any previously seen, was bought near Ele
phantine and brought to England; shortly after
a roll containing the Lycophron and other orations of
Hypereides was discovered; in 1856 the funeral oration
of this celebrated writer was obtained, while in 1855 the
Louvre had acquired a long-lost work by Alcman. By
this time so many Ptolemaic documents had accumulated
that one or two progressive thinkers began to use
them in explanation of some words in the Septuagint
— that most valuable translation of the Old Testament
which was published in Ptolemaic times (250-100 B.C.),
* These papyri are only now being worthily edited and published.

8 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
which the apostles and most other Jews of the first
century used as Sacred Scripture.
The first discovery on a large scale, after papyri
were, seen to be worth preserving, took place at the site
of Arsinoe in 1877, but these were of a non-literary
nature and in a very fragmentary state and were all
late in date, being of the Byzantine time, and there
fore aroused very little interest until long afterward,
when those in the possession of the Archduke Rainer
of Vienna began to be published. As it has been
estimated that there are over a million papyri in this
collection, it goes without saying that many, even yet,
remain unedited. In 1892, on the site of a village
named Socnopaei Nesus, very near to Arsinoe, an
extensive series of documents in much better condition,
dating from the first to the middle of the third cen
tury of our era, was discovered, and found by the
German scholars to be full of interesting material, tho
no one had yet caught the stupendous truth that these
were written in the colloquial language of the first
century, i.e., in Biblical Greek.
In 1890, the famous work of Aristotle on the Con
stitution of Athens was discovered, and the edition of
the text, when published the following year by Dr. F. G.
Kenyon of the British Museum, produced a veritable
sensation. The work had been lost for at least twelve
hundred years and its discovery ranked "as the most
striking event in the history of classical literature for
perhaps the last three centuries" (Kenyon). It had
been considered outside the bounds of possibility that
this much quoted work should ever be recovered in its
original form. It was written from 325-322 B.C., either
by Aristotle's own hand or at least by his orders and

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 9
under his own eye. From classical references scholars
had been sure that it treated of the history and growth
of this most famous of ancient "Constitutions," giving
also the great philosopher's comments on the laws of
his own day as compared with the past, and one of
the fondest hopes, when Herculaneum was excavated,
was the prospect of finding this work or at least some
considerable fragment of it. But this expectation had
not been fulfilled, nor had the monasteries afforded any
new knowledge of this, or indeed any other of the
more important works of classical literature — and then
suddenly this greatest discovery of all was made ! The
text was written on the back of four rolls of papyrus
nearly a foot wide and extending to a length of nearly
nineteen feet, thus giving to scholars the work almost
complete. Its unusual size may be seen from the fact
that its translation, as given by Sir F. G. Kenyon in
1912, covers 116 solid pages.
This precious document was written in several
different hands upon the back of papyri which had
been used for recording the daily accounts of the man
ager of a small Egyptian farm a.d. 78-79. It contained
over 63 chapters, practically complete. The first part
of this noble work consists of 41 chapters treating most
carefully the provisions of the original Constitution of
Athens and the changes through which it had passed.
The second part describes the constitution of Aristotle's
day and its regulations concerning citizenship, train
ing of the youth, functions of the Council (Bovlx\),
archons, military officers, law courts, etc.
To the surprize of classical scholars it was found
that this ancient original document takes a very dif
ferent view of the course of Greek history, particu-

10 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
larly of the legislation of Draco and Solon, from that
which modern critics had favored. In fact, the newly
discovered history, which is absolutely authoritative
for the first quarter of the fourth century B.C., differs
so radically from many modern reconstructions of that
period that, as Sir F. G. Kenyon says, it tends to make
us almost skeptical as to the value of most conjec
tural restorations of historic facts, either in Greek or
in Hebrew history. "So many eminently reasonable
theories and conjectures are scattered to the winds by
this slight addition to the ancient testimonies that con
siderable caution seems to be imposed for the future
alike on the propounding and the accepting of similar
and equally plausible imaginations."4 The museums and
great libraries had by this time begun to realize in
some degree the value of these papyrus documents
which they had previously disregarded. As early as
1839, the British Museum had published a little volume
of 44 papyri, including the Serapeum records found
some twenty years before, and in 1 891 and 1893 other
important volumes followed.
An additional word will perhaps be welcomed con
cerning the unique temple records which had so much
influence in rousing popular attention to these strange
discoveries. These documents were concerned with
the temple of Serapis at Memphis where two girls who
were twins, Thaneas and Thaus, petition through a
friend named Ptolemy for certain rights of which they
had been deprived. Ptolemy was a Macedonian who
lived the life of a recluse in the temple where he had
twice been violently assaulted because he was a Greek
* Aristotle on the Athenian Constitution, transl. by F. G. Kenyon, 1912,
p. xix.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI II
— which reminds us forcibly of the attack upon Tro-
phimus in the temple at Jerusalem which led ultimately
to Paul's arrest and final martyrdom (Acts 21 : 29).
The girls had been accustomed to offer libations to
Isis, Serapis, and Asclepius, for which services they were
paid regularly for six months, after which the account
fell into arrears. When the king and his queen visited
the temple the twins presented a petition to him, but
nothing came of it; and it is suggestive to see how
many petitions were sent before anything was paid,
the minor officials putting the matter off as long
as possible and never, so far as we know, paying in
full. Another volume of British Museum papyri con
tained many magical texts written in gibberish, but
attempting to show how one could succeed in love or
hate and keep good health and beauty under all cir
cumstances; a ring, an emerald, and a beetle play im
portant parts in this magic; and also a boy, who by
looking into a magic bowl was, it seems, able to fore
cast the future just as well as any modern Oriental
fortune teller. The volume also contained spells by
which to control the various deities at favorable hours
during favorable days, and what would seem even
more valuable, prescriptions for cleaning houses of
bugs and fleas and restraining old women from drunk
enness and garrulity.
Among the public accounts was a tax register of
the second century, and among the private documents
the day hook of a farm steward of the first century
by the name of Didymus. These farm records of the
apostolic age discuss weeding, rush-picking, irrigation,
harrowing, dyke-making, and the free distribution of

12 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
beer to laborers. On the back of this document was
written the large and important work on the Consti
tution of Athens, which has previously been described.
The "Classical Texts from the Papyri," edited by Dr. F.
G. Kenyon in 189 1, called especial attention to the newly
discovered poems of Herodas (third century B.C.) and
to the new light which they threw upon our thought
of ancient times. Herodas represented a class of
poetry never seen before except in small fragments.
The newly discovered manuscript, however, contained
seven poems, each one of which threw a flashlight into
that long forgotten and far-off world. Let us try in
a few brief phrases to epitomize a few of these.
1. The Matchmaker or the Go-Between.
This old woman, after complaining of the mud
which "is nearly up to one's thighs," gives extravagant
sympathy to her friend because her husband had been
ten months in Egypt and had never written back: — in
Egypt the land of wealth and wine and of women who
rival in beauty the three goddesses! "Cheer up," she
says in substance, "do not moor your ship with one
anchor alone; consider the famous athlete Gallos and
have a good time while your husband is gone!"
2. The Pander.
This poem tells the story of a stranger who had
come to this man's house and abused one of his girls.
It is worse than Balzac.
3. The School Master.
The mother brings her boy and urges the pedagog
to flog him within an inch of his life, for he is the
"terror of the home." "He associates," she says,
"only with the lowest characters and he will not study
at all. Everything he is told to remember runs through

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 13
him like a sieve. When his teachers or parents scold
him he either runs away or climbs on the roof of a
house and makes faces at them like a monkey and ruins
the tiles of the roof."
It is a pleasure to add that the school-master rises
to the occasion, and uses the cowhide. The poem closes
with a series of howls and promises to be good.
4. A Visit to Asclepius.
This poem is most remarkable for its description of
the wonderful art treasures in the temple. No church
of to-day is as rich in gifts as those ancient heathen
sanctuaries. 5. A Jealous Woman.
In this poem a lady who is evidently in love with
her slave sends him off to receive a thousand lashes
on his back and stomach, because in her jealousy she
thinks he has paid attention to another woman. Be
fore the order can be executed, however, she calls him
back, saying she has decided instead of that to have
him branded on the face with a hot iron. The prob
ability is that she forgave him before the poem con
cluded. Such poems as this open up the social conditions
and the base immorality of the second century of our
era in a rather startling way.
It is noteworthy that this one little volume of British
Museum papyri contained three manuscripts of classical
works hitherto unknown and collations of seven manu
scripts of works already extant, thus representing all"
such papyri at that time in the possession of the British
Museum with the exception of six previously published.
Other museums had, meanwhile, Been taaking some fine
purchases, the most important being the acquisition by

14 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
the Louvre, in 1892, of the greater part of the long-lost
masterpiece of Hypereides, his oration against Athen-
ogenes; which, however, was balanced by the British
Museum's securing four years later the Odes of Bac-
chylides, a contemporary of Pindar. Soon, Berlin was
able to announce another great discovery, The Persae,
a poem of Timotheus of Miletus (446 B.C.), which had
been discovered by Dr. A. Wiedemann in 1902 at Abusir
and sent to the German capital. This was found in a
wood coffin still containing the corpse, together with a
pair of sandals, leather bag, etc. It represented the oldest
book known, antedating the founding of the library of
Alexandria. But we must return to Egypt and watch
some of the leading explorers engaged in the practical
field work which was giving these wondrous treasures to
the European libraries.
Dr. Edouard Naville, that prince of scholars, exca
vating in 1892 under the auspices of the Egypt Ex
ploration Fund, made a most remarkable discovery
when he recovered the carbonized papyri of Thmuis.
The reference which 'my distinguished friend makes to
this discovery in his introduction to this volume
(p. xviii) is entirely too modest.
In a ruined building at this site he found an entire
library of decayed rolls, the burned contents of which al
most choked its chambers.5 Following his lead, Mr. C.
C. Edgar again cleared this building in 1906, tho
the papyrus was of the poorest quality and seemed
completely undecipherable in its decayed and carbon
ized condition, and he obtained little more than an in
teresting collection of clay seals.5" Some other unofficial
* Egypt Exploration Fund, Archeological Report, 1892, pp. 4ff; cf Ahnas
el Medineh, p. 21.
6* Cf. Annates du Service des Antiquite, pp. 154-57.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 15
digging between the above dates yielded only other
bundles of seemingly worthless documents — but it has
just been discovered that even these burned papyri can
be read! Up to 191 5 only about twenty of these docu
ments had ever been deciphered; but in that year the
editors of the Greek papyri, in the John Rylands Library,
Manchester, succeeded in publishing about eighty frag
ments of these carbonized papyri in such a splendid way
that they can now be easily translated. Altho the rolls
were crusht by the weight above them, yet the frag
ments were gummed to cards in such a careful manner
that one side of each document could be examined, tho
the writing on the back was necessarily destroyed.
These documents were written by trained scribes and
treated of many diverse subjects, tho uniformly official
in character. The ruined building which Dr. Naville
discovered was a government office containing the reg
istration files of the district, these files showing the
leases of government lands, apportionments of sur
pluses and deficits in revenue, taxes in money and
grain, and considerable private correspondence. All
date from the last half of the second to the beginning
of the third century and give a valuable picture of the
administration of the district.5"1
Thmuis was the capital of one of the nomes of the
Delta, and reached the zenith of its power under Roman
occupation. The taxation accounts are elaborately clas
sified, being arranged in well-defined divisions and in
dexed with headings and subheadings. The bookkeep
ing is modern in its thoroughness.
"" Petrie made the first great "find" of carbonized papyri at Tanis in
1884. He so carefully wrapt and packed the two baskets full which he
recovered that they reached England with little loss (see Two Hieroglyphic
Papyri from Tanis, 1889).

16 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
A new enthusiasm in papyri research began, how
ever, with the finds of manuscripts by Dr. W. M.
Flinders Petrie in the cemetery at Hawara, 1888-1890,
where he made the spectacular discovery of Ptolemaic
mummies whose faces were covered with casings made
of papyri pasted together. This greatest of all mod
ern explorers appreciated the richness of this find and
invented new ways of separating and restoring the old
fragments, which proved to be some of the most im
portant documents for the history of Greek paleography
ever found, including ancient wills and other legal docu
ments of the third century B.C., but especially several
papyri containing large fragments of the Phaedo and
Laches of Plato, the lost Antiope of Euripides, and
other classical works which filled scholars everywhere
with delight.
Prof. J. P. Mahaffy (The Petrie Papyri) has told
the fascinating story of how Professor Sayce and
himself, during a college vacation in 1890, pored over
the seemingly undecipherable fragments of the torn
and mutilated papyri which Dr. Petrie had sent them,
until finally the Phaedo emerged, then the leaf of a
tragic poem and then the names of Roman emperors
began to appear out of these tattered and dirty scraps
that for over 2,000 years had been hidden in the dust
heap. It was on one of these warm and happy days that
Professor Mahaffy guessed the meaning of the ab
breviation always mysteriously appearing at the be
ginning of all wills:
"Being of sound mind and clear understanding."
The original finding of these papyri in the mummy
cases at Gurob (near the Fayum) was just as strange
and unexpected as any discovery could be. These

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 17
coffins and mummy cases were not very attractive.
The only decoration upon any coffin was a carved
wooden head of marvelous rudeness, almost grotesque,
the nose being simply a long, triangular ridge, while
the eyes were marked with two scars in the board, and
the mouth by another scar. Within these grossly rough
cases were comparatively fine painted cartonnages,
ornamental coverings, made usually of pasteboard. The
separate pieces of the cartonnage were the head-piece
coming down with a spread on the chest; the pectoral
or collar plate, semicircular; the open work on which
were figures of the gods about the breast ; and the foot
case. The earliest heads were tolerably well made of
folds of linen pasted together and molded on a block.
Over the cloth was a coat of stucco painted dark blue,
and often the face was gilt and burnished very skil
fully. In later times, about the era of Ptolemy Phila-
delphus (284-246 B.C.), papyrus was substituted for
cloth, and several layers of Demotic or Greek papyri
were glued together, covered with stucco and painted,
and thus developed into the massive plaster head-pieces
of the Hawara cemetery. In this stage they did not
glue the papyri together but merely soaked them and
plastered them one on the other, trusting to crossing
them and a good coat of plaster and glue to hold them
together. The papyri recovered from the glued cases
were mostly in a bad state, but the cases made with
plain wetting were by far the best source of papyri,
and when a document had been used whole, being
spread out on the breast or down the back, it could
be taken out "none the worse for its burial for over
2,000 years" (Petrie).
Among the other works specially deserving of men-

18 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
tion coming from this site, was a petition of a prisoner
who urges freedom, "in the name of God and of fair
play"; a correspondence of Kleon and Alexander, in
which the latter advises that repairs to a conduit be
paid for by putting an extra tax on salt; a complaint
of Petosiris, a tanner, who declares that Dionysios, "tho
not even an official tax-gatherer," had rushed into his
house and carried off various valuables, including "two
pillows, a Cyprian drinking-cup, and a box of tools";
and the personal narrative of a royal party which had
marched to Ephesus and Laodicea, the writer describ
ing in a most fascinating way how, when they had
arrived at Seleucia, the royal party had been met and
entertained by the magistrates, priests, citizens, and
soldiers, all crowned with garlands!
As the present writer visited Dr. Petrie, both at
Hawara and Gurob, at the critical moment when this
initial and most startling discovery was being made,
he may be pardoned, perhaps, for having dwelt upon it
so long, especially as Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt, who
have won the greatest fame as papyri hunters, were,
in part, trained by Dr. Petrie and it was under his
direction that they went to Oxyrhynchus, he himself
opening the site and leaving it only because the ruins
were not more ancient. As early as 1894 Mr. B. P.
Grenfell had been in Egypt working with Dr. Petrie,
who subsequently obtained from a native dealer
a remarkable papyrus roll over 40 feet in length con
taining the revenue laws of Ptolemy Philadelphus,
which he unrolled and handed to Dr. Grenfell to edit.
Mr. Arthur S. Hunt had also been in Egypt during this
same period, securing papyri for a great English
library. In 1895 these two men, the oldest being but

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 19
26 years of age, joined together in excavations for
papyri in the Fayum and were extraordinarily suc
cessful. But it was in 1897 that the new era of papyri dis
covery began. When, in that year, these two young
scholars started to dig at Oxyrhynchus neither of them
could possibly have dreamed that the most far-reaching
discovery in its bearing upon the New Testament
which had ever been made in Christian history was
about to be accomplished. Nor, indeed, did they
imagine this even after they had begun to uncover
from the afsch (rubbish) of the mounds these masses
of papyri. They found some of these the first day of
their digging at Behnesa, and almost continuously — day
after day, and week after week — these ancient docu
ments were upturned. How many thousands of pa
pyrus scraps these young men took to England the
writer does not know, but so many that it will yet be
a generation before they can all be thoroughly exam
ined.515 When the store boxes, in which these treasures
were packed, came to London from Oxyrhynchus, they
were so heavy that they were weighed by the ton when
billed by the freight agent. In 1897 these men gave
their first official report, having examined at Oxford
the contents of some 1,300 of these documents. This
first volume contained 158 texts, tho four-fifths of the
whole collection had not yet been unpacked, and the
best part of what they had obtained had been left at
the Cairo museum. Perhaps no published work in our
generation ever aroused more curious interest than
this, and the volumes which followed fully sustained
the expectation.
a See Journal of Egyptian Archeology, April, 1914, pp. 82, 91.

20 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
The Greek texts in Vol. I date from 200 B.C. to a.d.
600. They comprise new manuscripts with new and
important readings in a vast number of the classics,
such as Homer, Herodotus, Xenophon, Sophocles, etc.,
a good many new works by authors formerly known,
and some quite important works by authors previously
almost unheard of. The editors were able to publish
a new ode by Pindar, singing the praises of the simple
life, and also a poem by Sappho, beautiful enough to
sustain fully the literary reputation of this remarkable
woman. This first poem of Sappho, written in the
Aeolic dialect and assigned to the third century, com
mences with an invocation to Aphrodite, and is one
of the vain appeals from Sappho to her brother Cha-
raxus, whom she had permanently estranged by her
bitter reproaches because of his devotion to Rhodopis,
a slave at Naucratis, whom he ransomed. Portiorfs
of twenty lines are preserved, of which we quote a few
in translation: "And may he have the will
To me his sister some regard to show,
To assuage the pain he brought, whose cruel blow
My soul did kill,
"Yea, mine, for that ill nam
Whose biting edge, to shun the festal throng
Compelling, ceased awhile; yet back ere long
To goad us came."
We add here a few verses from a more recently
discovered love song of this same famous woman,
which has been put into English verse by Joyce
Kilmer :

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 21
"Unto some a troop of triumphant horsemen,
Or a radiant fleet, or a marching legion,
Is the fairest sight — but to me the fairest
Is my beloved.
"Every lover must understand my wisdom,
For when Helen looked on the whole world's beauty
What she chose as best was a man, her loved one,
Who shamed Troy's honor.
"Then her little child was to her as nothing,
Not her mother's tears nor her father's pleading
Moved her. At Love's word, meekly she surrendered
Unto this stranger."
Other treasures discovered were a new comedy by
Menander, in which he makes the statement which
sounds very modern: "No honest man ever grew rich
quickly"; an interesting work resembling the "Al
manack" of our own Benjamin Franklin, in which were
practical maxims like "Every thing grows old except
the love of gain"; and a new rhetorical treatise whose
author asserts that he is able to give to every speaker
on every subject an epigram which will just fit his needs.
This rhetorician, altho most of his work is gone, leaves
one injunction which might even yet be remembered
with profit in some theological schools: "Do not be
stiff or artificial in your speaking. It is better to show
hesitancy [rather than fluency], for it gives a better
impression when everything does not seem cut and
dried beforehand."
It is also interesting to find here a legal decision
of the second or early part of the third century, in
which the doctor lays claim for immunity for some kind
of public service on the ground of his being a physician,
while the court demands scientific proof that he is a

22 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
physician by having him answer certain technical ques
tions. Another official document (a.d. 173) is "from a
public physician" named Dionysus, who hands in his
coroner's report that Heraclides came to his death by
hanging. There are orders of arrests, denial of money
claims, complaints of robberies made to the police court,
property returns, emancipation papers, official tax lists,
meat bills, nurses' receipts, invitations to dinner, and
everything else connected with the life of the ordinary
citizen of that town in the first, second, third and
fourth centuries of our era. The invitation to dinner
has not been much improved upon by modern society.
It reads: "Chaeremon requests your company at dinner
At the table of the Lord Serapis in the Serapeum
To-morrow, the fifteenth, at nine o'clock."
The wedding invitations are precisely as ours.
Many documents from the guilds of workmen and
trade unions were found. Corporations, and even indi
viduals, were, about the era of St. Paul, found engaged
in business plans which seem strikingly up to date.
For example, an egg-seller (a.d. 32-37) binds himself
under oath not to sell eggs privately at a discount, but
only in the public market at the fixt price.6
Many private letters were published from the or
dinary business men of those early centuries, and some
from slaves and women and even a few from boys. It
was a perfect surprize to find how freely the people
who lived 2,000 years ago were accustomed to express
"This explanation of the text seems to me the most reasonable, altho
such an affidavit may have been required also because of a possible attempt
to avoid taxation or for other reasons.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 23
themselves in this way. Letter writing was not con
fined to rare occasions and important subjects, but
dealt with the most trifling matters of every-day life.
Perhaps the most famous letter published by Gren
fell and Hunt in their first volume was that of little
Theon, who some time in the second or third century
of our era sent a letter to his father, Theon, who had
gone off to Alexandria without taking him along. The
letter is printed out in school-boy fashion instead of
being written in ordinary cursive form, and the spelling
and grammar are quite original: "It was a fine thing
of you not to take me with you to the city!" says the
little fellow immediately after his greeting. "If you
won't take me with you to Alexandria [next time] I
won't write you a letter or speak to you or say good-by
to you." Dr. Deissmann thinks this letter to be very
impertinent; but when we remember the supreme
power which parents had over children at that time —
which must certainly have put outward respect, at least,
at a premium — I am inclined to believe that in this
case father and son were chums and that the boy knew
he could take liberties with such a father without fear.
The spirit of love and mirthfulness crops out when at
the close of his letter he begs his father to send him a
lyre and adds, "If you don't, I won't eat, I won't drink;
there now!"
The greatest treasures revealed in this first publi
cation of the papyri consisted, however, in some Biblical
texts, dating to a period at least a hundred years
earlier than any other known texts of the New Testa
ment, and some "sayings of our Lord," together with
some Christian letters and some certificates of sacrifice
which had evidently been required of persons suspected

24 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
of being Christians. All of these we will consider
later. The question must arise with every one why these
papyri are found only in or near the Fayum in Egypt,
and how perishable papyrus, which is merely the
ancient paper, could be preserved for all these cen
turies without rotting. As to the latter point, the dry
climate of Egypt and the sand, which covers every
dead thing with its protecting shroud, must be credited
with preserving these and many other tender and
delicate objects which would certainly have perished in
any other country. The writer has actually seen
flowers taken from the tomb, where they had been
buried for 3,000 years, still retaining their color, and
in some cases it almost seemed that they still preserved
a little portion of their fragrance. All sorts of cloth,
even the most delicate linens, could remain hidden in
the sand for centuries, or even millenniums, without in
jury; often looking as fresh when taken from the tomb
as when first buried. Papyrus, like paper, is very
easily preserved if it happens to bo buried in a dry
place ; and even when a house is burned, if a great
quantity of paper or papyrus is piled close together,
only the outer sheets are harmed, while the inner
sheets are perfectly safe. And since the ink-makers
for the Pharaohs seem to have been more able or more
honest than most modern dealers, such papyri can very
generally be easily deciphered, tho written two or three
thousand years ago, unless, indeed, the worms have
been attempting to digest the contents of the library,
or the abbreviations and orthography prove too much
for us.
A few remarkable facts not usually known will

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 25
show clearly why the papyri have mostly been recov
ered from a few villages buried in the sand along the
former shore of Lake Moeris in the Egyptian Fayum.
About 1,000 years before the Trojan war a Pharaoh
took advantage of a natural depression in this part of
Egypt and by the construction of several vast dams,
parts of which still remain, he formed an artificial
reservoir nearly one-seventh as large as Lake Erie,
if some critical calculations are correct, making this
the basis of an irrigating project stupendous enough
to startle almost into incredulity our modern engineers ;
tho probably the original purpose of these dams was to
save the country from inundation because of the rise
of the Nile. The fact seems to be that for many years
previous to the reign of Senwosri I, who first began
these improvements, the entire Fayum had been a lake
with only one high ridge or plateau which could be
inhabited. Amenemhat III and the Pharaoh just men
tioned, by means of these great dams and powerful
locks, succeeded in keeping the maximum level con
stantly below that of the towns which were on the
plateau — the same plateau on which the modern capital
of the district, Medinet el Fayum, is now situated. He
also diverted the surplus water from the Fayum, thus
reclaiming considerably more land, establishing in this
district won from the lake a famous summer resort,
where he built splendid monuments, including the
famous Labyrinth, which was really his palace, and the
pyramid of Hawara, which was his tomb. The won
derful colossi at Biahmu, standing on the edge of this
second plateau which he had reclaimed, were really
statues of the king and his wife at the landing-stage of
the lake. The lake continued in this condition even

26 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
down to the days of Herodotus, altho by very little
effort more surplus water might have been kept out and
the inflow of the Bahr Yusuf might have been so regu
lated as to reclaim more land.
During the two centuries, however, between the
visit of Herodotus (cir. 450 b.c.) and the reign of
Ptolemy Philadelphus (cir. 260 B.C.) the Fayum again
became the object of royal attention in order to provide
settlements for Greek veterans. New dykes and
canals were constructed and again the lake shrank in
size, a large number of new villages springing up
along the new lake front.
Still later a third plateau was put above water
and the lake margin again changed, a new line of towns
being built. From the reign of Philadelphus to early
in the third century of our era the prosperity of the
Fayum was at its height, but upon the decline of Egypt
and the destruction of the regular irrigation system this
prosperity suddenly ceased and the desert took posses
sion of the Fayum as nowhere else in Egypt, thus
making this district, because of its stranded villages
buried in the desert, the pre-eminent source of all our
supplies of ancient papyri.7 In the piles of rubbish
(afsch) which often rise to a height of 20 or 30 feet
about these ancient towns, and in the deserted houses
themselves, have been found most of the literary
wealth which has compelled the rewriting of much
ancient history and even the rewriting of our Bible
grammars and lexicons. At Oxyrhynchus, which was
located south of this lake district on the canal upon
which the Fayum depended for its entire water supply,
no documents were found in the ruins of houses, for
7 See especially Fayum Towns and their Papyri, 1900.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 27
every house had completely disappeared. All of these
vast quantities of papyrus scraps came from the rubbish
heaps which are so characteristic of every oriental
town. The desert sand was in this case God's angel
sent to bury these waste papers and preserve them
through the centuries as perfectly as if deposited in the
steel safe of a modern bank.8
When we remember that no autograph letter or
legal document of the first century had ever been seen
until these towns were uncovered, it may be appre
ciated with what thrilling excitement Greek scholars
examined these fragments dug up at Oxyrhynchus and
the towns of the Fayum. Here were found imperial
edicts and tax collector's reports and legal documents
of all kinds. Here was a death notice (a.d. 37), a re
ceipt for bath tax (a.d. 36), a tax on beer (a.d. 61),
and poll-tax receipts from all periods. Here was a
dedication of a banqueting hall (a.d. 69-78), and an
other (a.d. 109), the latter being the dining-hall of
the "elders" (nQEa|3uT8Q(ov) of the Alexandrian cor
poration of weavers. Here were questions to the
oracles written with pathetic eagerness in the same cen
tury in which the Christian teachers were interfering
with heathen magic:
"To Socnopaeus, the Great, Great God. Answer me.
Shall I remain? Shall I meet (him) ? Answer me."
Here were many, many letters. In one package of
"The presence in these rubbish heaps of torn fragments of certain
greatly prized documents, such as the "Holy Scriptures" of the Hebrews
and Christians, may possibly point to some tragedy of persecution (cf.
2 Kings 10:27; Ezra 6: 11; Dan. 2:5). So were the sacred books of the
Hebrews treated during the Maccabean and other persecutions ; and noth
ing pleases a Mohammedan better to-day than to be able to "defile" the
sacred book or worshiping place of a Jew or Christian.

28 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
fourteen all the letters were wholly concerned with the
private affairs of one family, mostly written by Gemel
lus, an old soldier who had reached his sixty-seventh }
year and wrote one letter about the time St. John
was dying (a.d. ioo), in which he gives directions con
cerning the hoeing and plowing, complaining of his
nephew in no measured terms because of his delay in
harvesting. Ten years later, when yy years old, he
writes in a shaking and almost illegible hand to the
same relative, Epagathus, about manuring the land
properly, and scolds him roundly about his mistakes
in caring for the land as he had previously scolded
another young farmer for being cheated in his pur
chase of a bundle of hay which was below weight and
so rotten that it was "no better than dung." In al
most every letter he writes, "Do not neglect these in
structions"; he is evidently quite sure that the modern
generation is quite incapable of farming as well as the
young folk could when he was a boy.9
It makes a Bible student quiver to read the report
of a law suit (a.d. 49) in which Pesouris "in the
seventh year of our sovereign Tiberius Claudius Caesar
picked up from the gutter a boy foundling," or the
petition of Tryphon to the prefect in the same year
when Pesouris, after the above foundling died, tried
to "carry off into slavery" a neighbor's "infant son."
Here are sales, mortgages, registration of cattle, loans,
contracts of apprenticeship, marriages, divorces, eman
cipation of slaves, and all manner of legal documents
from this suddenly recovered first century. Here is
the horoscope of a person born 10 p.m., Sept. 28, a.d.
15; a village scribe (a.d. 37) swears "by Tiberius
' All the above examples are taken from Fayum Towns.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 29
Csesar, son of the deified Jupiter, Liberator Augustus,"
that he does not know of any extortion on the part of
the soldiers; but a dozen years later we have several
papyri concerning the extortions of tax collectors,
bringing vividly to mind the feeling against Matthew
and Zacchaeus.
One young reprobate in this same century laments
the death of his fighting cock, saying: "For his sake
have I been called great in my life and deemed happy
... I am at a loss where to go" — and actually
threatens suicide ! One husband, Sarapion, has a com
plaint lodged against him (a.d. 20-50) by his wife be
cause he has squandered her dowry, ill-treated her, and
left her in poverty; while another husband complains
that his wife Demetrias has left him after stealing
many valuables (a.d. 30-35). One man writes to his
brother (a.d. 22) :
"I am not so much as anointing myself until I hear from you.
. . . Let me hear about our baldheaded friend, how his hair is
growing again on the top. Be sure not to forget."
The letters are about every conceivable subject.
Horus (first century) writes concerning "Lampon, the
mouse-catcher," and Indike writes to a relative con
cerning the bread basket she has sent her, closing her
note with remembrances of friends, just as St. Paul so
often closes his letters :
"Salute my friend Theon and Nicoblus and Dioscurus and
Hermocles who have my best wishes." 10
"All the above from Oxyrhynchus Papyri, parts 1 and 2, 1898-99.

30 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
3. Dr. Deissmann's Epoch-making Discovery
Concerning the Papyri
At first the chief value of the papyri seemed to lie
in the new light which they threw upon the first cen
tury, and in the multitude of ancient classics they had
revealed, and in the Christian fragments of the first
four centuries preserved. But in 1895 Mr. Adolf Deiss
mann, tho not a university professor or even a clergy
man, but a young candidate for the ministry, a privat-
docent at Marburg, published a discovery which he had
made in the examination of the papyri, which is, without
doubt, the greatest single discovery of an interpretative
principle ever made in New Testament archeology.
Deissmann was the first to recognize that these
papyri were written exactly in the language of the
New Testament, and to draw the conclusive inference
that Biblical Greek could not any longer be regarded
as an esoteric, sacred language, or as a language to
any considerable degree Hebraized by its Jewish
authors. How it ought to curb the pride of specialists to find
that the original discovery which opened to the world
the Egyptian language, the Babylonian language, and
the New Testament language, was in each case made,
not by a world-renowned expert, but by a shrewd young
man of good sense and insight unbiased by the tram
mels of scholarly tradition.
It was Deissmann who caught the revolutionary
truth that the gospels were a "people's book" written
in the dialect of the middle classes in the vernacular
of the home and the shop ; written in a style which no
literary man of that day would have permitted him-

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 31
self to use, but which did appeal to the masses. An
examination of the papyri written contemporaneously
with the New Testament proved, according to Deiss
mann, that the New Testament books, with perhaps the
exception of two or three, were written to working men
in the tongue of the working man, the Bible authors
freely using the colloquialisms and even the solecisms
of the market-place. This was a theory which at first
seemed too good to be true. It meant that Wycliffe
only did for England what Matthew and Mark did for
the Roman world. Christianity from its beginning
spoke the tongue of the peasant. Its crooked grammar
and mixed orthography and peculiar syntax, upon
which have been built so many theological castles in
the air, are all found paralleled exactly in the letters
and other familiar documents of that first century.
This common Greek (the xoivrj) was spoken every
where throughout the entire Roman empire, and even
our early church titles, such as "bishop," "presbyter,"
"deacon," etc., were well-known official names used in
the trade unions and other corporations, religious and
civil, of that era. This contention, which seemed at
first utterly unbelievable, has now inside of twenty
years gained the adhesion of almost every great living
Greek scholar and has caused the re-writing of the
New Testament lexicon and grammar.
Deissmann's first work was his Bibelstudien
(1895), followed by his Neue Bibelstudien (1897),
both translated into English in 1901. Dr. Deissmann
— tho fo be sure he was not a "Doctor" then — in his
first volume divided the subject into two parts. In the
first part he gave a "Prolegomena to the Biblical Let
ters and Epistles." He showed first that Paul's writ-

32 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
ings ought not to be called epistles, but letters. An
epistle is literature written for a literary purpose, but
a letter is personal and, however carefully written,
exposes the private feelings and lays bare the heart
beats as no merely literary production could do. He
translated a large number of the new papyri, espe
cially the letters, and showed that the New Testament
collection as a whole, and especially the publication of
the letters of Paul in one package or volume, was in
directly: influenced by the custom in ancient times of
"making just such collections of letters. He showed
by a multitude of examples that the style of Paul's
letters exactly agreed with the style of the letters just
recovered from the first century, and pointed out that
the contents of Paul's writings, especially their con
tradictions or unexplained suggestions, would be
utterly impossible in a worked-out treatise, but were
exactly what must be expected in any real letter.
In the second part of the book he makes his con
tribution to the language of the Greek Bible. He
shows that the Septuagint, which was "translation
Greek," was more stately, but also more clumsy. than
the vernacular represented by the New Testament arid
the papyri. Most of the alleged Hebraisms of the
¦Septuagint were probably merely popular Greek' ex
pressions common to the vernacular. The real lan
guage of the Septuagint was the spoken Greek lan
guage in Egypt under the Ptolemies. This, according
to Deissmann, explains many of the supposed errors of
the Hebrew text as revealed by its Greek translation.
Often when it has been inferred by modern critics that
the Septuagint translators had before them a text
different from our own, it is now seen that they were

Dr. Edouard Naville

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 33
simply striving to make the ordinary Hebrew text in
telligible to the Greek-speaking Egyptians. They often
substituted a colloquial word for a literary term instead
of making a direct translation, and the actual mean
ing of the substituted word can only now be known
since the Egyptian sources have been so strangely
opened to us.
When we come to the New Testament we find that
its quotations from the Septuagint "stand out merely
by the sound." "The Hellenistic Jews spoke Greek,
prayed in Greek, sang psalms in Greek, wrote in Greek,
and produced Greek literature; further, their best
minds thought in Greek." Purely verbal comparison
of terms is always dangerous ; for religious terms espe
cially are always altering and getting a richer or a
poorer content with each generation. Therefore, an
exact quotation may express a different meaning at
different eras, as shown, for example, by the word
"spirit" as used by Paul, Augustine, and Luther. So
"angels," "God," "faith," "flesh," "hell," "judgment,"
"sacrifice" "righteousness," "love," etc., might not
change in form, but might change considerably in cur
rent usage and meaning between the era when the
Septuagint was written and that of the Christian
fathers. For the first time contemporary documents, written
in the language of the early Christian authors and at
the same era, are in our hands; and just as we must
set the printed Septuagint side by side with the Ptole
maic papyri in order to get the exact meanings of the
words used, so we must read the New Testament in the
light of the contemporaneous inscriptions and other
documents. Deissmann also pointed out that as the

34 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
papyri had given a new linguistic meaning to the New
Testament Greek, so the inscriptions in Asia Minor,
Syria, and Egypt had thrown new light on the times,
while both papyri and inscriptions had given a new view
of the theology of the early Christian centuries and of
the spirit of the primitive Church and its thought of the
Bible. The conclusion was that a practical exegesis
of the New Testament was necessary, since the New
Testament writings were not theological treatises but
were mostly composed in the non-technical and rather
careless language of the street and the home. He also
called attention to the curious fact that many of the
titles ascribed to Jesus, such as Saviour (aamjo) and
Son of God (vibg ©sou) were to be found on votive
inscriptions dedicated to heathen gods or to the em
perors. Indeed, it was evident that St. Paul had
selected his honorable adjectives describing Jesus with
special reference to the titles of deity given in that
first century to the Roman emperors, forcing the de
cisive issue that it was not the imperial Caesar but the
imperial Christ who was to receive honor as God.
Deissmann catalogued sixty-seven words from
the New Testament and Septuagint upon which
the papyri threw new light. The word brother
(dSetapoc;) ascribed to a member of the Christian com
munity was exactly the term used for the members of
the Serapeum of Memphis and other religious associa
tions of the first century. The term "writing"
(jQa(pr\) used for the .Old Testament was the common
legal term for a royal decree which could not be altered,
The word "propitiation" could not be used for a person
or propitiatory sacrifice, but in the sense of "propitia
tory gift" ; thus Christ is set forth in view of the cos-

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 35
mos as the "votive gift of the divine love for the salva
tion of men." The strange word (Aoyia) used in 1 Cor.
16: 1, 2 was now found for the first time outside of
the Bible in connection with the "collection" or "tax"
which the labor guilds or the government had a right
to make. The word "little" or "less" 6 [aixqoc; (Mark
15 : 40) refers in the papyri invariably to age, not
stature, so that the question of Jesus me*ans "Can one
add anything to the length of his life?"
So the title "friend" (yihx;), given by Jesus to the
disciples and found so often in the Bible, was a title
of honor given at the court of the Ptolemies to the
highest royal officials — a title correctly translated
"prince" by the Septuagint (Esther 2: 18).
Many of the terms used by St. Paul describing the
atonement were found to be legal terms used in multi
tudes of the papyri; so the particles and prepositions
upon which theologians had relied chiefly in making
many of their minute distinctions, were not used in
this critical sense in the papyri. Several very striking
new interpretations of well-known Bible phrases were
made possible by this study of the papyri. For ex
ample, the. phrase "in the name" of Christ (ei? to
ovofia) received unexpected illumination from the many
inscriptions in which slaves are mentioned as being
bought by the temple "into the name" of a certain
deity, meaning that the slave mentioned now belongs
to God ; so that baptism "into the name" or belief "into
the name" meant, according to an ancient and well-
known sacred formula, that he was thus officially
marked as belonging to God.
Altho Deissmann's revolutionary view, that the New
Testament was written in the common vernacular of

36 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
the first century as contrasted with the literary lan
guage, was at once opposed by the greatest Greek
authority, Friedrich Blass (Grammatik des neutesta*
mentlichen Griechisch, 1896), yet it immediately
gained respect, and after the publication of his Neue
Bibelstudien (1897) it was almost universally received
with favor, and even Blass soon abandoned his opposic
tion. In his hew book Deissmann gave multitudes of
instances from the papyri to prove that a consistent
New Testament orthography ought not to be demanded
since variations in spelling were as common in the
papyri as in the New Testament. He showed more
fully also that the so-called "Hebraisms" of the Bible
could, in almost every instance, be paralleled in the
secular non-Jewish papyri, e.g., "name" (6vo[ia) oc
curring with the meaning of "person"; "Lord's Day"
finding its exact parallel in "Emperor's Day"; "place
of prayer" (nQoazv%r\) being used for heathen assem
blies, etc., etc. Those who had tried to correct the
New Testament text in order to make each passage
conform with every other, supposing that the text had
been mutilated in transmission, were shown to have
made their argument on a false basis. Even edv was
used for av in the papyri as in the New Testament, and
eig and ev were constantly interchangeable. "Presby
ter" was an official title of pagan priests in Egypt, and
so also was the term "prophet." To be "sealed"
(acpQayiQm) (Rom. 15:28), meant in the papyri to be
imperially protected and retained for the imperial use.
Seals were set on sacks of grain to guarantee the
correctness of the contents and there was a mark
(%&Qay\ia), containing the Emperor's name and the
year of his reign, which was necessary upon docu-

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 37
ments relating to buying and selling, and this mark was
technically known as the "seal" (comp. Rev. 13: 16, 17;
14:9, n; 19:20, etc.). It was the credential of the
royal document making it legal. If the "beast" (Rev.
13) refers to the Roman emperor, as most scholars
acknowledge, then we can now in these ancient docu
ments look at the very technical sign referred to by
St. John, as in his vision he sees the imperial stamp
imprest on the forehead or hand. This also gives to
the "number" of the beast a new and vivid meaning.
It would not have been unusual for an apostle thus to
use a local technical symbol, for the papyri prove that
many of the well-known phrases of Scripture are quo
tations of popular formulae; indeed, St. Paul (Gal.
3: 10) makes an intentional change in a quotation from
Deut. 27 : 26, in order to adapt it to a well-known legal
phrase, and this was not an unusual custom.
Many previously rare words having doubtful mean
ings were clearly explained; e.g., the word translated
"spiritual" milk (1 Pet. 2:2) was found in the papyri
with the meaning "unadulterated," and the word trans
lated "the proving" or "proof" of your faith (James
1:3; 1 Pet. 1:7) was seen to have the meaning
"proved," "standard," "genuine" ; so that James 1 : 3
means that true "proved" faith worketh patience, and
1 Pet. 1 : 7 should read "what is genuine in your faith
may be found more precious than gold" — proved gen
uine by fire, unto praise and glory and honor at the
revelation of Jesus Christ.
Such are a few of the many strange and beautiful
suggestions illuminating the meaning of the Bible
phrases which Dr. Deissmann discovered from the
common contemporaneous usage of these words at the

38 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
time when the New Testament was being written. So,
carrying this comparison further, we find that Paul's
famous companion Bar-nabas had a name originally
meaning "Son of Nebo," so that the name was changed
in its ending probably to remove its pagan appearance,
just as Nebo was changed to Nego (Dan. 2:49); so
Manaen (Acts 13: 1) is now seen not to have been
necessarily the "foster brother" of "Herod," but per
haps rather "companion" or playmate, i.e., intimate
friend.11 When Paul says he bears branded on his
body the "stigmata" of the Lord Jesus (Gal. 6: 17), he
refers to a common practise of branding the servants of
a temple with the sacred sign which put them under
the god's protection; and when he speaks of the "large
characters" in which he writes to the church which he
had so roundly criticized (Gal. 6: 11), this may be
"amiable irony" or perhaps may be a distinct act of
respect, since in writing to distinguished persons it is
now seen that the chirography was expected to be
larger than in ordinary writing.12
This large synopsis of these two books of Dr. Deiss-
mann's has been given because of their epoch-making*
importance. It was a stroke of genius rarely surpassed
when this young scholar reached this original conclu
sion so vastly important, bringing as it were a new
autographic commentary upon the Bible out from the
very generation in which the apostles lived, and by one
noble effort interpreting results in such a way that
11 Sir William Ramsay, however, objects to applying the secondary and
official meaning of this term to Manaen, since "foster-brothers," in the
ordinary sense, are often spoken of in the inscriptions.
M Dr. Deissmann in his St. Paul, 1912, p. SO, takes the position that he
wrote in large script because he was awkward and clumsy with the pen,
but I prefer the explanation given above, which, tho not affirmed, was
suggested by Dr. Deissmann's remarks in his earlier work.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 39
those who have followed him have done little more
than supplement his results, notwithstanding the
enormous increase in the material now at the disposal
of Greek scholars.
4. Most Recent Discovery and PuBLrcATioN of
New Material
Dr. Deissmann was limited in his Greek texts almost
wholly to the volumes of the Oxyrhynchus papyri
which we have already described. But, as we have
seen, the publication of those initial volumes by Gren
fell and Hunt hurried on the scholars of all lands to
seek for new treasures out of the rubbish heaps and
to search diligently the museums for manuscripts hith
erto neglected. Good work began in Egypt under the
auspices of all the great European nations, and soon
five collections began to be published of newly found
papyri; but none of the new workers could equal in
success the original explorers who continued their work
at Oxyrhynchus during 1903 and 1906-7. Just as the
century opened (1899- 1900) Grenfell and Hunt had
made a most amazing "find" at Umm el-Baragat, the
ancient Tebtunis, situated in the south of the Fayum.
They had been digging here for papyri, but for many
weeks could find nothing but crocodiles. Crocodiles are
no good substitute for papyri. When Dr. Petrie a few
years before had found a cemetery of sacred crocodiles
near Hawara, there had been some curiosity and pleas
ure in such a novel discovery; but one such cemetery
is surely enough, and the diggers at Tebtunis were
thoroughly disgusted when day after day crocodiles
and nothing but crocodiles appeared. Finally one
workman was so overcome with stupid anger at his dis-

40 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
appointment in finding a baby crocodile in a tomb
which he had hoped might contain a princess robed in
jewels, that he flung the mummy of this crocodile upon
a rock and broke it to pieces — and then the discovery
was made !
The crocodile was stuffed with papyri! It may be
imagined how rapidly the value of these formerly de
spised creatures increased. There was a rush for the
other bodies which had been thrown upon the rubbish
pile and it was found that a very large proportion of
these contained deposits of the most remarkable char
acter. Some, to be sure, were stuffed with reeds or
sticks and merely covered with layers of cloth arranged
in the check pattern recently made so familiar in open
ing the sacred Ibis cemetery at Abydos; but others
had rolls of papyrus stuffed in their mouths, and others
still were wrapt in layer after layer of this most
precious material. If they had been laid to rest clothed
in garments more glorious than those of Solomon,
these sacred animals could not have aroused more
devout admiration on the day of their resurrection
than they did when these young explorers found liter
ary fragments of ancient classics, perfectly preserved,
royal ordinances, petitions, land surveys, contracts and
accounts, and private letters which had formed the
strange shroud of these deities when they were rever
ently laid to rest 2,000 years ago.
It took immense labor to edit these papyri, and
much material gathered by Grenfell and Hunt during
the opening years of the century was not edited till
long afterward; but these young Oxford scholars soon
proved themselves as careful editors as they were
brilliant excavators. In 1900 they published the

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 41
Amherst Papyri, to which we will often refer in the
future, containing, as it does, many Biblical and some
very rare apocryphal texts, perhaps the most important
specimen of the latter being a large fragment of the
Greek recension of the long lost Testament of Heze
kiah, an early Christian work originating near the
close of the first century and giving us most valuable
insight into the worldliness and selfishness of many of
the chief ecclesiastics at that time, as well as of the
growing heresies in the Church, just as 2 Peter and 2
Timothy describe them. Two other non-Biblical texts
in which Bible students have a direct interest, and which
may be mentioned here, are seven papyrus leaves pre
served from a sixth century "The Shepherd of Hermas,"
and an account of the correspondence between Christ
and Abgar, king of Edessa. Down to 1859, the "Shep
herd," influential as it was in early Christianity, had
been known only through translations, but Tischendorf
discovered about one-fourth of this work in connec
tion with the Codex Sinaiticus, and in 1888 Professor
Lambros found twelve leaves more. "The Shepherd of
Hermas" was written in the second century and
vividly shows the life and thought of the Christians in
Rome at that obscure period (a.d. 1 10-140). It was the
earliest Pilgrim's Progress, and had an enormous
vogue. It shows the "Holy Church" under the simili
tude of a noble building in process of erection, and
pictures the great tribulation near at hand as a de
vouring beast. It is a call to repentance and righteous
ness, and makes perfectly plain the duty of the Chris
tian "shepherd" to preach his message faithfully. It
emphasizes Christian experience as strongly as any
Methodist exhorter, and declares in the name of the

42 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Lord that the highest and most spiritual ideal of Chris
tianity is practicable to one who "keeps the Lord in his
heart." Holiness is the command of the holy God
who could not command what man could not obey:
"Believe, therefore, in Him, and fearing Him have self-mastery,
For the fear of the Lord dwelleth in the good desire."
"The Epistles to Abgar" were written about a.d.
200, and while they were plainly apocryphal, yet it
caused deep satisfaction to get an ancient copy of this
influential Syriac document. Eusebius gives this corre
spondence between Christ and Abgar (Hist. Eccles.
i : 13), and as early as the fifth century the portrait of
Christ is mentioned, which, according to the legend, our
Lord presented to the king at his request. The latter
was once supposed to be incredible, as no portraits were
known coming from that era; but the discovery in the
Fayum that oil paintings were very common, even in
middle-class houses of the second century after Christ
relieves the legend of positive absurdity; tho of course
it in no degree establishes its truth. We must be con
tent not to know how Jesus looked. His portrait almost
certainly was never painted. The orthodox Jews of the
first century had a religious objection to pictures; so
its natural origin is as unlikely as its supposed super
natural origin is unbelievable. Yet what a mistake it
was that no one of the artists of Pilate's court was will
ing to take a few minutes from his frivolous and paltry
engagements to paint the face of the youthful claimant
to David's throne and thus seize his one chance to
make his name immortal.121
In 1903 Grenfell and Hunt published another
a" For ancient portraits see Revue Archeologique, V. Ser., Tom. I., 1.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 43
volume of Oxyrhynchus texts, and in 1906 The Hibeh
Papyri, which they had obtained in 1902 from the
Ptolemaic Necropolis at el Hibeh or bought from the
natives there. The latter were obtained from mummy
cartonnages and were all of the third century B.C.
Among the new classical fragments was a gnomic
poem by Epicharmus (b. 540 b.c), in which he gives
a collection of epigrammatic maxims to use on any
occasion or in any assembly, humorously describing
the rascal, gentleman, bully, drunkard, and politician;
also scraps of Sophocles and Euripides, including the
maxim: "Evil communications corrupt good manners"
(Gk. "good character"), quoted by St. Paul (1 Cor.
:S: 33 )> which was here shown probably to have come
originally from Euripides instead of Menander; and a
discourse on music by Hippeas, ridiculing a man who
pretended to be a musical critic tho he had no .musical
ear or voice and tho his musical skill consisted only in
"doing everything worse than any one else!"
Here was also a work discussing the atomic theory
of Democritus, and a book of practical philosophy which
sagely declared that "some men are frugal because
they dislike to spend more than to save." Here also
were packets of legal documents and royal ordinances
and — infinitely more important than either — a fine
edition of Homer's Iliad containing a list of various
and new readings. Perhaps most interesting, if not
most important, was a bundle of ancient letters which
had been cast into the waste-basket and thus preserved.
In this private and semi-official correspondence we find
references to "the horse doctor's tax," a strike on the
part of workmen employed in a stone quarry who were
therefore to be arrested, and many references to the

44 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
government monopoly on oil, the weaving industry, etc.
Because of a monopoly on food products it appears that
the price of grain had been recently considerably
raised. It was proved quite clearly by these discoveries
that the postal registration of that period was very
thoroughly worked out since "the day book in the
registered letter department of a modern post office
can hardly be more methodical and precise."
But meanwhile the British Museum had been ac
cumulating vast quantities of Greek papyri. The earlier
volumes published by the Museum have already been
mentioned; but in 1898, 1907, and 1910, other volumes
of much greater intrinsic value, tho not perhaps contain
ing so much novel material, were published. Many of
these texts will be used later in this work, but we may
now mention a few curious things brought to light
here. Does it not, for example, throw light on the
early Christian era to find Eulogius writing to the
Roman prefect, Abinnseus, asking him to use his in
fluence in Rome to procure him the position of tax
collector ? and to find a servant in Alexandria complain
ing to his master, Athenodorus, that he has been left
without either work or food for two days? The latter
note was written in such haste that it was folded be
fore the ink was dry. It is interesting to notice that
these collections contain several petitions in which the
name of the reigning Emperor is misspelled. It gives
one a strange sensation to see on the back of one of
these petitions the red official stamp of the government
officer who first received it. In another official paper
the temple at Heraclea leases a mill at a voluntary rent
for five years, after which period the rent is to be
120 drachmae annually, a certain amount of produce

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 45
being added. The method of signature shows that these
heathen priests were quite illiterate, tho any broad
inferences from this fact must be drawn with caution,
since in a number of the Christian documents here
after to be mentioned, and especially in those recently
discovered at Syene, the Christian officials show an
equal illiteracy.
The extraordinary value of the texts found in the
volume published by the British Museum in 1898 may
be seen from the fact that it contained over 200 docu
ments dating from the apostolic age (10 B.C. — a.d. 75).
It is almost startling to notice that in the Christian
texts coming from the early centuries abbreviations are
just as common as in secular writings, and especially
for such names as God, Christ, Church, salvation, and
other sacred names which were held in reverence. In
the volume referred to we dare mention among the
more curious things only a fragment of a medical
treatise which seems to relate especially to the opera
tions of dentistry, and a few of the financial papers.
It is enough almost to take away one's breath to
read the specifications connected with the contracts of
the first and the second century made through the
bank of Didymus which was located on the street
Phremei, which was evidently the Wall Street of
Arsinoe at this era. One per cent, a month for quick
loans was not at all unusual, some notes even running
at 18 per cent, and 22 per cent, per annum, and even at
higher rates of interest. Many papyri mention, in very
modern phraseology, burglars, kidnappers, and thieves.
One receipt is for fourteen drachmae which Thaeses
paid as "earnest money" for a part of a house. This
was in the year a.d. 166, and as the purchaser bought

46 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
only one forty-second part of the house it seems at first
sight as if flats were no new thing under the sun; but,
as we will see later, this would be an incorrect inference.
Many events are recorded at special dates running from
Nov. 20, a.d. n, to Mar. 22, a.d. 90; especially inter
esting to Bible students are the bank registrations and
other accounts dated a.d. 17 and 23, during the life
time of our Lord; the sale of an ass's colt a.d. 52; and
a death report in the twelfth year of Nero, September,
a.d. 66. Was St. Paul alive when the latter was
written ?
One of the most important documents published in
this volume established for the first time the regularity
of the Roman census which was connected with the poll
tax during a fourteen-year period, the men being liable
to this poll tax from the age of 14 to 60, and women
from 12 to 60. The earliest census of which any direct
evidence had previously been found dated from the
eighth year of Nero, a.d. 61 ; but by the proof found in
this document of the fourteen-year period the census
was carried back to 9-6 b.c, the birth year of our
Lord, thus explaining the previous puzzle concerning
the enrolment of Quirinius. Previous to this it had
been thought necessary by scholars to affirm either that
this ruler had been several times governor of the
province of Syria, or else to admit an inaccuracy in
St. Luke's account (Luke 2:2); but these new census
reports suggested a better interpretation of the above
text in which the earlier or "first" enrolment is perhaps
referred to rather than the first governorship of
Quirinius. Sir W. M. Ramsay 12a was the first to see the
importance of this new document; but since then a
u* Was Christ born at Bethlehem, 1898.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 47
large number of these tax enrolments have been found,
the earliest yet discovered being in a.d. 20. If, as now
seems fairly certain, Augustus began this system of a
periodic census once in every fourteen years, and if this
is what Luke refers to, we are able for the first time to
reconcile all previous "contradictions" concerning the
date of our Lord's birth — which must now be placed
somewhere between 9 B.C. and 6 B.C. The exact year
can not be named, as such general enrolments would
necessarily be prolonged, especially in the outskirts of
the empire. In order that the reader may see the exact
nature of the edict mentioned in connection with the
journey of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, we append
in full one of these documents :
"Gaius Vibius Maximus, prefect of Egypt, saith: The enrol
ment by household being at hand, it is necessary to notify all who
for any cause soever are outside their homes to return to their
domestic hearths, that they may also accomplish the customary
dispensation of enrolment and continue steadfastly in the hus
bandry that belongeth to them" (A. Deissmann, Light from the
Ancient East, pp. 268-269) .
The next two volumes of British Museum papyri
(1907, 1910) furnish less material concerning the
times in which Bible students are most interested; yet
there is one letter addrest to Demetrius (a.d. 113), and
another in faint ink dated probably in the very year in
which Jesus, as a boy, went up to the Temple; a tax
receipt (a.d. i i ) ; a most novel diploma of membership
in a famous athletic club; a rhetorical composition
dealing with friendship ; a curious Egyptian romance in
demotic written on the back of an official document
dealing with the land revenue; a receipt from a livery
stable keeper; a deed of divorce after less than a year

48 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
of marriage; a number of comic poems and various
legal documents concerning the guild of ironworkers
which supplied iron for the public service, signed by
the president, Aurelius Severus; others from the guild
of bakers, the guild of masons, and from Aurelius
Irenseus, president of the guild of carpenters, etc.
There are also certain orders for wheat guaranteed to
be delivered a.d. 65-66, and a letter considerably earlier
than this from Menon to Hermocrates, complaining
about certain actions of a Jew named Daniel.
The Aphrodite papyri, published by the British
Museum in 1910, consist of several hundreds of docu
ments, all coming from the same village and all writ
ten within twenty years of one another. Altho these
are considerably later than the period in which we are
specially interested, they are of great value since they
give a vivid picture of the conditions in Egypt imme
diately after the Moslem conquest (a.d. 698-722). It is
here strikingly illustrated that altho the Moslems were
exempt from taxation and the Christians heavily taxed
and otherwise handicapped, yet comparatively few
Christians apostatized, and they even succeeded, because
of their superior trustworthiness or cleverness, in re
taining a large number of important posts under the
government, some Christians being employed even in
the governor's household. We refer to this as being
a fair exemplification of what happened in the first
century and as a good parallel to the statements —
which some scholars have found it so difficult to be
lieve — that some even among the first generation of
Christians might have become members of Caesar's
household.13 It is a thrilling indication of the firmness
" Phil. 4 : 22 ; compare especially papyri 1373 and 1447.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 49
and loyalty of these conquered Christians to their divine
Master that even the governor's private secretary
would not use in his official correspondence any of the
distinctive Mohammedan formulae, and it also speaks
well for his recognized efficiency that he was allowed
to do this and keep his position. The office of secretary
was laborious as well as honorable, since official docu
ments were quite generally written in both Greek and
Arabic. One of the greatest libraries of papyri in England,
just made available to scholars, is the John Ryland's
Library in Manchester. There are at least 7,000
MSS. in this collection, the nucleus of which was ob
tained by Mrs. Rylands in 1892 from the late Earl
Spencer, 6,000 additional rolls being purchased nine or
ten years later from the Earl of Crawford. Mr. A. S.
Hunt, of whom we have heard so much, purchased
most of these papyri for Lord Crowford and Mrs.
Rylands in 1892 and later. In 191 1 Dr. Hunt began to
edit the Greek papyri in this collection, the demotic
and Coptic MSS. having been edited by other scholars
earlier. In the first volume, which contained only
literary texts, there were many papyri from the class
ical period, including a very abstruse and learned
astronomical treatise dating from the third century
after Christ, and a treatise on physiology dating from
the first century B.C. The latter deals particularly with
the nervous system of the human body, and it is satis
factory to note that the distinction between motor and
sensory nerves is stated clearly and with almost scien
tific accuracy. A number of medical recipes for va
rious ailments (third century) were also found, in
which the medicine was put up in the form of lozenges

50 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
or pastilles ; there was also a recipe for tooth powder. It
sounds very modern also to find in a political treatise
of the first century B.C., an argument urging that the
army be put in a state of preparedness, and that it be
supported not by sporadic requisitions from the war
office, but by regular levies.
Some of the lyrics brought to light in this publica
tion are very curious; for example, in one second
century poem we have the following lament of a maiden
whose lover has been carried off to fight as a gladiator,
whose release she has not been able to obtain by the
heaviest bribe she could offer.
maiden's lament
"You, it is you I call ! Terrible things are happening to our boy,
They have persuaded him to fight alone with evil beasts.
O Zeus, may my voice reach thee and not be unheard !" 14
One sumptuous papyrus contains a comedy of the
second century, but it is difficult to get any good appre
ciation of the jokes involved if, indeed, it was necessary
to have real wit in these ancient plays. Some of the
"limericks" that have been preserved show no more
humor or novelty than those made in modern times,
as may be seen from the following lines, written in St.
Jerome's day, to a newly wedded couple:
"Bridegroom, the sweet Graces and glory attend thee. . . .
Dear bride, great and abiding joy be thine !"
The classical texts in this volume are particularly
valuable, especially one large vellum book written
about a.d. 300, which contains a considerable part of
Homer's Odyssey (books xi-xxiv). It is written in
brown ink, easily decipherable, and gives a mixed text
" The word for beasts used here is not the same as in 1 Cor. IS : 32.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 51
which does not fall in line with any other manuscript
extant. Its size may be indicated from the fact that it
fills solidly over seventy folio pages in the printed
publication. Far more interesting, however, to ordinary people,
than any of the classical texts are some curious school
boy note-books, or examination papers, coming from the
third and later centuries. Demosthenes "On the
Crown" seems to have been a favorite exercise for the
boys to practise on at that time. In one exercise,
which was probably a primary copy-book, the first line
of this oration is copied over and over again. In an
other of these ancient school-boy papers the student
has written at the end of his assignment:
"Good luck to the writer and to the reader."
Evidently, this little rascal was either on very good
terms with his teacher or else felt reasonably certain,
as it is rumored some modern high-school students do,
that the work done would not be very thoroughly ex
amined. The chief value of this great collection is its re
ligious texts. We will use these constantly in later
chapters of this work, but we may mention, as a matter
of exceptional interest, that among the Samaritan
MSS. there is one very early vellum codex of the
Pentateuch (copied a.d. 1211); among the Syriac
texts there is a vellum codex of the gospels coming
from the sixth century, this being probably the oldest
complete Syriac copy of the four gospels in existence;
there is also a copy of the Nicene Creed dating from
the sixth century. This is the oldest known copy
of this famous creed; but while it does not coincide

52 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
exactly with any other version, it differs only slightly
from these. At the end of this MS. the scribe has
written his own confession of faith:
"This is my creed. With this language I shall approach with
out fear the terrible judgment seat of the Lord Christ in that
dread day when he shall come again in his own glory to judge the
quick and the dead and to reign with the saints for ever and ever,
Amen." From what may be a private book of devotion, dating
from the fifth century, we take this passage:
"Suffer the little children to come unto me; of such is the
kingdom of heaven. On thee do I wait all the day. Remember
thy tender mercies O Lord. . . . Saviour keep me, O Lord, as the
apple of thy eyes. . . . Create in me a clean heart, gracious God,
and save me."
One of the most curious things in the whole collection
is a little papyrus book of magic, coming from the
fourth century, so small that it could have been easily
carried in the pocket. Eight leaves of this book are pre
served, with the string that held them in place yet
unbroken. It is exactly the kind of book which the
Christian Church always repudiated (Acts 19: 19), but
which was very popular with the heathen and, doubt
less, with the more superstitious among the Christians.
It gives the prognostications to be derived from invol
untary twitchings of various parts of the body, and
is almost certainly a part of the celebrated work of
Melampus, thus dating back to the first century.
"If the abdomen quiver, it denotes something good with ad
verse talk. If the right part of the hips quiver, the person will
have grief for the time being, and afterward gladness on his own
account or that of a friend. If both parts of the hips quiver, a
person so affected will stand in the grip of a two-fold trouble. . . .
If the groin of an unmarried person quiver it denotes marriage.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 53
... If the left knee quiver it denotes changes and troubles from
females. ... If a woman's right leg quiver, it denotes loveli
ness; pray and sacrifice to Aphrodite! If a man's right shin
quiver it denotes that he will be very wealthy ; pray to Hermes.
... If the left leg bone quiver, it denotes that he will go on a
long and unexpected journey. ... If the left calf quiver he will
have pain over a woman or a friend; pray to Fortune. ... If the
great toe quiver, it signifies for a slave that he will become a
master and be freed from all pain ; if the fourth toe quiver, he will
be lord of much wealth and many slaves, and a slave will be his
heir," etc.
The second volume of this remarkable work ap
peared in 191 5. 15 As these texts date from the Roman
period or earlier, we shall use them constantly in the
next section of this work, and we shall, therefore, only
now mention an Astrological Dialog (third century),
in which various parts of the body are connected with
the sun, moon, and planets, and signs of the Zodiac — a
fortunerteller's chart, which ought to be read in con
nection with that given above — and a letter of the
second century which, tho containing no Christian
phrase, sounds very Christianlike. The astrological
piece reads in part:
"The Sun is the right eye, the moon the left ; the tongue, smell,
and hearing belong to Mercury ; the viscera to Jupiter ; the chest
to Mars ; the spleen to Venus ; the kidneys to Saturn ; the buttocks
to Libra ; the nails to Capricorn," etc.
The letter referred to was written by two women to
their steward, and is very different from most letters on
similar subjects.168
" Catalog of the Greek Papyri in the John Rylands Library, Manchester,
Vol. II; Ed. by J. de M. Johnson, M.A., Victor Martin, Docteur es Let
tres, Geneve, and Arthur S. Hunt, D. Litt, F.B.A., Prof, of Papyrology in
University of Oxford.
"* Dr. Victor Martin writes me that internal evidence disproves my first
impression that this was a Christian letter.

54 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
"Demariqn and Irene to their dearest Syrus, very many greet
ings. "We know that you are distressed about the deficiency of
water; this has happened not to us only but to many and we
know that nothing has occurred through any fault of yours. We
now know your zeal and attentiveness to the work of the building
and we hope that with God's help (avv 0e<jj) the field will be
sown. . . . We pray for your health."
This volume should not be dismissed without men
tioning the large group of petitions dating from
Euhemeria, a.d. 28-48, and the addition to our knowl
edge concerning taxation in the first century which
other texts, with the editorial comments, have given.
It will be remembered that the first publications
which stimulated critical interest in these papyri were
the earlier volumes of the Oxyrhynchus texts put out
by Grenfell and Hunt. While all this other work,
which we have just narrated, was being accomplished,
these scholars kept sending out, from time to time, ad
ditional volumes from the ruins of this city, each
volume rivaling the last in interest. Between 1908
and 1 91 5 six large volumes appeared, upon which we
shall now draw for certain illustrative material, too in
teresting to be omitted and yet not naturally falling
into our future argument. In all of these volumes
many classical fragments appear; the MSS. often are
written with beautiful care, and accents, breathings,
and marks of quantity and elision occur freely
in some papyri, even as early as the second and third
centuries of our era. Many of these productions, such
as the first or second century Menander, were also
punctuated rhetorically, a high dot representing a long
pause and a low dot a short pause. In the dramas a
change of speakers was sometimes marked by double

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 55
dots. One of these texts, a commentary on Thucydides
written soon after the beginning of the Christian era,
actually contains critical textual notes and exegetical
comments. Some of these ancient literary works occasionally
give to us very curious information, as, for example,
when in some fragments recovered from a new play
of Euripides we read how the women at one time, in
their advocacy of "woman's rights," massacred all the
men of a certain island and seized the government —
and what happened afterward! This newly recovered
work was written just a little before the "Frogs" of
Aristophanes, which was doubtless intended to parody
this play. So, in a little papyrus book of seven leaves,
containing a story by Callimachus of a girl sleeping
with her affianced suitor, we obtain some very good
epigrams, such as "Verily, much knowledge is a griev
ous ill for one who controls not his tongue; how truly
is he a child possest of a knife."
Numbers of legal documents give the formula and
conditions of "adoption," which St. Paul knew so well
and upon which he based some of his rabbinical argu
ments; and numbers of others have to do with the
"making free" of slaves, which was one of the great
apostle's favorite figures, illustrating the way in which
freedom came to the Christian. The customary formula
in such an emancipation read something like this:
"In  year of our Emperor  the most illus
trious Csesar, I  , son (or daughter) of 
my mother, being of the city of  , have set free my
slave  aged  years, of middle height, fair,
having a long face and a scar on the right foot, his mother being
 , for  drachmae of coined silver. I hereby
agree voluntarily and of my own free will and irrevocably to the

56 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
freedom of said  under sanction of Zeus, Earth, and Sun
(the deed being drawn up in the street) and said  can
henceforth have and hold himself to be a free man since I have
here freed him unto this liberty wherewith I have made him free."
(Compare Gal. 5 : 1.) 16
Two articles of apprenticeship also ought to throw
a vivid light upon the era in which •Christianity, the
"religion of the Carpenter," made its successful en
trance into the thought of artizans throughout the
world . apprenticeship to a weaver (a.d. 183)
"Ischrion, son of Heradion and  of Oxyrhynchus and
Heraclas son of Sarapio, also called Leon^  agree with each
other as follows  Thonis, a minor, to be taught the art of
weaving for a period of five years  his stipulated period of
work being every day from sunrise to sunset  For the first
two years and seven months  Heraclas shall pay nothing
for the boy's wages, but for the remaining five months of the third
year he shall pay him twelve drachmae a month, for the fourth
year, sixteen drachmae a month, and for the fifth year twenty-four
drachmae." Each year Heraclas agrees to furnish his apprentice
with a new tunic, which shall the first year cost six
teen drachmae and the following years twenty
drachmae, twenty-four drachmae, twenty-eight
drachmae, and thirty-two drachmae, respectively. The
contract continues:
"The boy shall have twenty holidays in the year on account of
festivals without any deduction from his wages, after the pay
ment of wages begins."
Arrangements are finally made that if through idleness
or ill health he exceed the number of holidays, his
"Greek scholars will notice that I have here imitated in a free way
the redundancy of language shown in the Papyrus Edmondstone Oxyrhyn
chus Papyri, Vol. IV, p. 202. '

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 57
guardian, or master, shall be responsible for his
serving an equal number of extra days beyond
his allotted apprenticeship, feeding him during this
period. Each party is held to this agreement by a fine
of one hundred drachmae to the party abiding by the
contract, "and to the treasury an equal sum."
APPRENTICESHIP TO A SHORTHAND WRITER (A.D. 1 55)
"Panechotes  to Apollonius, writer of shorthand, greeting.
I have placed with you my slave Chaerammon to be taught
the signs which your son Dionysius knows, for a period of two
years  at the salary agreed upon between us, 120 silver
drachmae, not including feast days; of which sum you have re
ceived the first instalment amounting to forty drachmae, and you
will receive the second instalment (forty drachmae) when the boy
has learned the whole system, and the third you will receive at the
end of the period when the boy writes fluently in every respect
and reads faultlessly."
Among the classical texts, new and old, brought
to light in Vol. VIII of the Oxyrhynchus texts, we
ought to mention especially the Meliambi of Cercidas
the Cynic, an author who had previously been represen
ted only by about a dozen lines gleaned from scattered
citations. This large manuscript, dating from the
second century B.C., discusses how the facts of life can
be reconciled with the view that the so-called gods are
at once just and all-powerful. If Zeus is Father, "why
are some of us treated in such a step-fatherly fashion ?"
He ridicules the deities who have neither hearing
nor sight. If they really exist, he says, it ought to be
easy for them to take the "swinish wealth" away from
the "dirty usurer" and give it to the one "who takes
his bite in season and shares his cup with a neighbor."
He utterly repudiates the fictitious gods of the astrol
ogers, preferring himself the three earthly divinities,

58 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Healing, Giving, and Retribution. This poem shows
very well the attitude of the better classes with refer
ence to polytheism and their tendency to agnosticism
at this era. The second poem is on "Love," and Cer-
cidas, like Diogenes, decries marriage and describes
love as the occupation of the idle.
There was also published in this volume an anony
mous satyric drama, formerly unknown, and also a
new commentary on the Iliad (first century B.C.), on
the back of which were medical recipes of the first
century after Christ, including local applications to in
duce sneezing (for good luck) ; an application to cure
leprosy; potions for fever, liver complaint, dropsy, etc.
To men of sedentary habits it may be of interest to
know that anise, opium, and henbane are among the
prescriptions to cure insomnia. A number of wills
are given, one of these showing how a rich man (a.d.
237) was able, by a legal trick, to leave his inheritance
of 200,000 sesterces to his heirs free from the custom
ary income tax of 5 per cent. It looks as if capitalists
have had shrewd lawyers to advise them in every age.
In Vol. IX (1912) there are various new classical
texts, but especially a "Life of Euripides," by
Satyrus (circa 150 B.C.), in which he gives some
spicy gossip concerning the philosopher's relation
with women, saying that at one time the women joined
together and came in a body to mob him. He, how
ever, believes that Euripides has more of the flavor of
life in his poetry than all other writers, as is proved
by this recipe for poetry:
"Take some Sophocles and a little ^Eschylus but put in a
whole Euripides."

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 59
In Vol. X (1914) are published some new texts
of Sappho elsewhere given, some fragments of unknown
comedies, a work of Alcaeus (second century), urging
men to forget their troubles in the wine cup; a critical
literary work (second century), in which an outline
is given of each play of Menander with an appraise
ment of its value; and, finally, a "Chrestomathy"
(second century), in which a historic catalog of the
great men of ancient times is made, including sculptors,
painters, grammarians, soldiers, and inventors.
We have given this extended outline of these latest
Oxyrhynchus "finds" because they were the richest of
all; yet many treasures have been reported by these
and other explorers which well deserve mention, e.g.,
the "Paeans of Pindar" (first or second century) ; a
Greek history "worthy to be compared to that of Hero
dotus"; four comedies (1,300 lines) of Menander; the
Idyls of Theocritus (who was the originator of the
idyl), seven centuries older than any other copy; an
illustrated botanical work, probably by Dioscorides; a
treatise on ethics by the Stoic Hierocles ; a grammatical
work containing among other valuable things a list of
words with their shorthand equivalents; various so-
called "erotic" fragments, a farce and mime of the
early Roman period "which look like survivals of a
local music hall"; a fragment of a book of fables by
Babrino — who is now proved by this to have lived in
the second or first century, not the third; a romance
by Achilles Tatius, who is thus proved to have lived
about a.d. 300, instead of in the fifth or sixth century,
as previously argued by the critics; and a splendid pa
pyrus roll over twelve feet long, containing a large
part of Plato's "Symposium."

60 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Perhaps the only one of these works which would
greatly interest the general reader is the new poem
by Pindar, only small fragments of which had ever
been seen before. As translated by the editor, one
verse of this reads:
"Ere the pains of old age draw nigh let a man clothe his mind
with cheerfulness and be content in due measure, seeing the power
that is set in his house.
"Oh joy ! Now the consummating year and the Hours, children
of Themis, have come to the horse-loving city of Thebes bring
ing Apollo's garlanded feast ;
"May he long crown the generations of the citizens with the
flowers of sobriety and good government "
The most recently published volume of Oxyrhynchus
texts (Vol. XI) reached American subscribers in 191 6;
but even a hasty examination shows that it almost
equals the best of its predecessors in the novelty of its
contents. It contains discoveries made chiefly in
1905-6. Among the classical texts reported is a large
fragment of Thucydides (968 lines), and a romance
from the third century relating the adventures of
Glaucetes who, during a ride, sees the ghost of a youth
who points out where he and a maiden lie buried
after being foully murdered. Such stories were very
popular among the middle classes of the early centuries,
as were also stories of miraculous cures and escapes. A
sailor's chant, in which he prays to the Rhodian winds
for a calm voyage (third century), is probably the re
production of a song so ancient that it may have been
heard, just as we now have it, by Luke, when he and
Paul sailed over these dangerous waters (Acts 21:1):
"I said to the seaward parts that the sea should not be smitten.
Make the ocean obedient to seafarers ! Suddenly a whole tempest

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 61
arises. Shut off the winds and night. Grant that the waters be
smooth !"
But the chief wealth of this volume consists of
three remarkable religious texts, two of which are
heathen and one Christian. The latter papyrus gives
us "one of the most interesting documents concerning
the early Egyptian Church that have been discovered."
It is a calendar of church services at Oxyrhynchus.
Altho this town had suffered a collapse, seemingly, at
the end of the third and in the fourth centuries, it had
begun to recover its lost activity in the fifth century,
and by the sixth century it had become a "veritable
stronghold of Christianity," as this document proves.
This public placard of services, just recovered, gives
the list of meetings to be held at various churches in
the town on Sundays, and festivals during an almost
continuous period of five months, beginning with Oc
tober 21, a.d. 535.
These series of special services were in honor of the
visit of the patriarch — either Timotheus, the patriarch
of Alexandria, or Severus of Antioch, who was, as Dr.
Crum has pointed out, the Monophysite patriarch par
excellence. We know that the bishop of Oxyrhynchus
the year previously was Abba Peter, so that he may
have conducted these "stations," probably celebrating
the eucharist in the churches named. Sixty-two
services were held in twenty-six different churches,
which proves how greatly these buildings had multi
plied since the preceding century, when there were
twelve churches in the town and, as the learned editor
points out, at least one church must have continued
in existence, even during the terrible persecution of
Diocletian. Some of the churches bear names which

62 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
are yet common in Egypt, such as "St. Mary," "St.
Justus," "St. Menas," etc., while Michael, Gabriel,
Jeremiah, and Zacharias also have churches named
after them, and it seems exceedingly modern to read
of the "Church of the Evangelist" (probably St. John),
the "Church of the Baptist" and the South and the
North Church — the last two evidently being named
either from their relative location in the city, or from
the name of the streets on which they were situated.
One name not now common bears a pathetic reference
to the sufferings of this Oxyrhynchus church during
the early persecutions, the "Church of the Martyrs."
In an "Invocation to Isis," preserved from the
second century, we get an original document showing
us, for the first time, with certainty, the words of
ritual or private worship used by an initiate of this
faith. Altho written in the second century, it almost
certainly was composed as early as the first (p. 191).
As the Isis worship was popular in Rome, and even in
the small Italian towns in the apostolic era, it is ab
solutely certain that the faith represented here was
almost as well known to all Christian teachers as that of
Mithra (the most popular religion of all), not only
in Egypt but throughout the Roman world. Isis was
the particular protectress of sailors and travelers, so
that the apostles on all their voyages would hear her
hymns sung or witness the adoration of her worship
ers. She was the special friend of woman, offering
to her a power equal to man's, was joint inventor of
writing with Hermes, and was interested in music and
all learning; but especially, in the popular mind, she
was the goddess of immortality. Outside of Egypt
and Italy, as the editor shows, she was worshiped in

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 63
Arabia, Asia Minor, Cyrene, Crete, Chalcedoii, the
Mgean Islands, Cyprus, and Palestine, and even in
India and Persia. Her worshiper here gives her
"name" in each of these places, thus, perhaps, attempt
ing to teach her universal nature and essential "one
ness," notwithstanding her different names. Her titles
show rather a noble ideal and concept of deity:
"Many-shaped Aphrodite, gentle, affectionate, immortal, ruler,
saviour, almighty, holy, divine, ... by whose command images
and animals of all the gods are worshiped . . . the lady of war
and rule, easily destroying tyrants by trusty counsels."
The lotus was her flower, probably because it was the
symbol of immortality,17 and the cow was her animal.
On the back of this unique papyrus was written a
poem in praise of Imouthes-Asclepius, a deity whose
worship in the early Christian centuries connects
through Hermes with that of Isis. The writer recounts
that he had for a long time wished to translate the
ancient praises of the god but felt himself unworthy;
but having at a certain time been cured of an "ungodly
quartan ague" by seeing the god in a vision, he was
finally constrained to attempt to "recount his marvelous
manifestations, the greatness of his power, the gifts of
his benefits." So he begins his song of praise by
crying: "Assemble hither, ye kindly and good men ; avaunt, ye malig
nant and impious ! Assemble all ye who by serving the god have
been cured of disease !"
And then, most unfortunately, the papyrus breaks off
and the song itself is lost.
" Yet see article "Lotus" in Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics.

64 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
The thousands of papyri from which we have se
lected the above specimens of the non-literary products
of the first and adjoining centuries of the Christian
era are all written in the language of the New Testa
ment, and each shows some turn of expression or pe
culiarity of grammar or vocabulary familiar to the
student of New Testament Greek, or else throws some
unexpected light upon the circumstances surrounding
the early Christians. By selecting these concrete ex
amples of the ancient literature from the overwhelming
mass of material examined, the author has sought to
give the reader a true and clear vision of the new data
upon which scholars are now building and to make it
possible for him to follow, with independent judgment,
the modern conclusions from such data. There has
been no attempt to mention everything that has been
found, but only to disentangle from the disorganized
mass of ancient documents certain typical and certain
strange forms, together with some new illustrative
material, that ought to be useful to Bible students.
It must not be imagined that the above collections
of papyri used by the author exhaust the material
available. We have confined ourselves almost entirely
to discoveries made by English explorers; but, while
these have indeed carried off the chief honors in this
field, a number of great Continental scholars, like
Wilcken and Jouquet, have dug for papyri in Egypt;
and it was Rubensohn, in 1908, who brought to light
at Abusir the only considerable body of Alexandrian
papyri which has ever been found. The learned ex
cavators of the Societa Italiana have also gleaned at
Oxyrhynchus, since 1906, with surprizing success. ¦->.
Since the beginning of the century Berlin, Vienna,

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 65
Florence and Paris, either by excavation or purchase,
have gathered thousands of papyri and published them
in many volumes, which contain some rich fruits of
research ; including many ancient Bible texts, especially
a third century Genesis ; some new orations of Hyper-
eides; a lyric by Timotheus of Miletus (fourth cen
tury) ; and a commentary on the Thesetetus, the oldest
extant literary papyrus in Greek.
Smaller but valuable collections, especially of non-
literary papyri, have been made by the cities and
learned societies of Europe, and by American colleges,
while the celebrated Tebtunis papyri, described above,
are owned by the University of California, and the
great Amherst collection was brought to America by
the late Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan.171

5. A General View of the District Where Most
of the Papyri Were Found
(i) THE FAYUM
The Fayum is a sunken oasis, crossed by several
ridges, situated in the Libyan desert, west of the Nile,
beginning about forty miles S.S.W. of Cairo and ex
tending southward some thirty miles. The district
covered from four hundred to nine hundred square
miles at different eras. In ancient time this depression
was largely occupied by the famous Lake Moeris, the
two chief towns on the lake being Socnopaei Nesus on
""Recent excavations at Theadelphia, Karara, and El-Hibeh have
brought to light few papyri (Revue archeologique, 1915, pp. 181-188 ; Klio,
1914, p. 121). But the discoveries at Kom Ishgau have yielded rich spoil
(Journal of Egyptian Archeology, 1916, pp. 288-293).

66 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
the extreme northwest, and Crocodilopolis (Arsinoe),
the capital city, which was more centrally located.
Oxyrhynchus, which is ordinarily spoken of as a Fayum
town, was really some little distance south of the oasis;
but was doubtless in very close touch with it, as it was
built on the Bahr Yusuf which supplied the Fayum with
water. An enormous mass of papyri has come to us from
these three cities and the adjoining villages, Oxyrhyn
chus being the most important site, not only because of
its location — lying within nine or ten miles of the Nile,
and so close enough to enjoy some of the privileges
of the Nile traffic as well as that of the oasis — but
also because it was an important Christian center, and
from the dust heaps of its ruins most of the Christian
papyri of the early centuries have come.
From the third century before to the third century
after Christ the entire Fayum, as we have seen, was
prosperous; but it then lost its prosperity "as nowhere
else in Egypt," and the desert took possession of this
former fertile district. Beginning with the fourth cen
tury the monks flocked in crowds into this desert dis
trict and soon well-fortified monasteries were found in
many places to which, in time of danger, the people
were accustomed to flee. The stretch of desert sand
from six to fifteen miles in width; which separated the
Fayum from the Nile valley, must have rendered it a
comparatively hidden and secluded retreat. The revolt
of the native Egyptians against the Romans, a.d. 175,
undoubtedly affected the Fayum population, as this
marked the beginning of a rapid agricultural decline
throughout Egypt. It must also have been seriously
affected by the persecutions of the Christians under
Severus (a.d. 202), Decius (a.d. 250), and by the

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 67
famine, panic, and persecution during the reign of Dio
cletian (a.d. 301-303). It is significant that the Coptic
era of the martyrs dates from Diocletian's accession.
The above facts and dates ought to be borne in mind
as one studies the Fayum papyri in their bearing upon
early Christianity.
The architecture of the cities of the Fayum in the
Roman period was not simply inferior to that of Italy,
but was in a marked degree inferior to North African
towns such as Timgad, and to many towns of the
Roman era in Palestine (cf. the author's Recent Ex
plorations in Palestine, pp. yj, 12J). Of the many
Fayum towns which have been dug up, very few cover
ed more than eight or ten acres, the temples were gener
ally quite small and built of brick or native limestone — •
very little resembling the elegant temples of the Delta,
— the ordinary houses were constructed of unbaked
brick one or two stories high, the roofs were made of
1 reeds plastered with mud laid on palm logs, the furni
ture was a negligible quantity, and even cellars were
uncommon (Fayum Towns, pp. 10-16).
The better class of residents was of Greek extrac
tion, and the Greek influence was always strong
because the best land of the province had been
given by the Emperor to his veteran Macedonian sol
diers. Doubtless, the native Egyptians constituted the
mass of the population, however, and many Jews were
to be found; the Greeks and natives intermarried
freely and therefore the Fayum always remained
Egyptian in its customs and tone of thought as con
trasted with the Greek spirit of the Delta.
In the third century the Fayum suffered greater
encroachment from the desert than any other nome in

68 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Egypt. Socnopaei Nesus was the first town to be de
serted. At this point no papyri have been found later
than the third century, while many other towns were
practically abandoned in the fourth century, and even
Karanis and Tebtunis, on the edge of the cultivated dis
trict, shrank to much smaller size (Fayum Towns, pp:
10-16). Oxyrhynchus continued to thrive, but the
papyri suggests that it, too, was seriously affected by
the collapse in trade.
The contrast between the elegance of Alexandrian
life and that of the Fayum was quite noticeable. It is
true that at least one second century papyrus speaks
of a "four-story house" just built in Hermopolis, and
there are a few other evidences of occasional wealthy
but the difference is, nevertheless, very marked in every
era between this country district and the splendid and
luxurious life of the Delta. The collection of Alex
andrian laws contained in the papyri of Dikaiomata,
at Halle, and in others in Berlin, show vividly, as
W'essely has pointed out, the ordinary life of Alexi';;
andria — the Alexandrian waitress who insists on hav
ing a regular "day off" mentioned in her contract, the
Alexandrian widow who goes about destroying all
remembrances of her recently deceased husband, and
the Alexandrian literary man who, in the vast libraries
there, was drawing a good salary from the treasury
of the government. Two centuries before Christ, one
of these scholars had received a salary of as much as
270 drachmae, but it was left for the emperors of the
second century of our era to elevate a mere flattering
rimester to high office in the library and university at
the enormous salary of 200,000 sestertii, and to advance
a favorite soldier, who had no claim to learning, to an

Temple of Artemis (Diana), Sardis

Temple at Pergamum

Wall-painting on Tomb, Marissa,
Palestine (2d Century b.c.)

Capitol and Propylaeum at Timgad,
North Africa

w

n

It- i fa i ,w. -

..*

^

Ancient Ruins at Qesarea
Palestine

Columbarium from Beit Jibrin,
Palestine

some results of excavation at sardis, etc.

THE EMPEROR TIBERIUS AND A WOMAN

A STATUE OF A CHILD

A FAMOUS POMPEIAN
OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE

WORKS OF ART FROM THE FIRST CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 69
-equally influential position in this famous Academy of
Science.18 ¦ ; The best cities of the Fayum seem like pitiable vil
lages when compared with the capital of the Delta, and
the common life of the Fayum and of the towns bor-
,dering it on the Nile appears at best simple and frugal.
There were no great manuf acturies of glass and paper
in the Fayum as in the Delta, almost its sole manufac
ture being the weaving of linen cloth, which was car
ried on in the simplest way in almost all the villages.
Even its coinage was imported, excepting, perhaps,
certain small leaden pieces which may possibly have
been used as money. In the great hoard of coins from
the Constantine era found in 1905, it is suggestive to
note that 1,592 were minted at Alexandria, 1,611 at
Antioch, 845 at Cyzicus, 698 at Constantinople, and
285 at Rome.18a This indicates how "neutral" was
this little island in the desert, no controlling influences
reaching it from any of these political and ecclesiastical
centers. Alexandria always seemed a foreign town to
native Egyptians, and, as a great scholar has recently
pointed out, the terms "Alexandrian" and "Egyptian"
were in some ways antithetical, altho this contrast
must not be prest too far, since the Gospel to the
Egyptians certainly shows the influence of the Alex
andrian philosophy. Yet whatever influence may have
come indirectly from the Delta to the Fayum and to
18 For these and other details given helow I am indebted to Wessely,
Aus der Welt der Papyri, p. 64#.; for much other illustrative material see
my article "Alexandria" in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.
Dr. Petrie writes me that 270 drachmae must be regarded as a small salary
even for teachers, being only equivalent to about $75 in our money, repre
senting, when compared with current prices, a salary equal to about $750
now. ""Fayum Towns, p. 16; American Journal of Archeology, October,
1915, p. 69.

70 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
upper Egypt, it certainly was not controlling. The re
ligious papyri of this region show very little kinship
with the writings of Clement of Alexandria and the
other great Delta theologians ; even the symbols on the
Christian graves, as we shall see later, are very differ
ent. The native Christians of the Fayum were ascetic,
contemplative, and mystical in spirit, and had compara
tively little sympathy with the philosophic, disputatious,
and ambitious churches in Alexandria. The Egyptian
theological controversies which compelled the Council of
Nicsea, a.d. 325, found their leaders and chief battle
ground in the Delta.18b
In both its literary output and in its artistic products
the Fayum also differed widely from the Delta. The
pottery and terra-cotta products, when compared with
those of Alexandria, show a very "low level of achieve
ment." 19 It is perfectly clear that wealth and luxury
must have been a novelty in this district. While,
doubtless, there were some rich men in the Fayum who
owned or at least controlled most of the land and its
products, yet, from the very numerous business and
private documents, it is evident that the trade carried
on was just such as a poor country district would de
mand, and there was ordinarily no such distinction
between classes as was found farther north. This com
parative democracy of spirit is shown from the fact
that even the ordinary fellaheen and slaves can some
times make their voices heard in protest against op
pression. From a certain Hermopolis, for example,
comes a series of documents (third century B.C.) in
which some quarrymen complain of their boss (Sexd-
Mb See W. M. Flinders Petrie, Personal Religion in Egypt, p. 61.
" See Milne in Petrie's History of Egypt, Vol. V, pp. 162#.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 71
toiqxoc;), concerning ApoUonius, saying that they are
much overworked by him, and in response to this petition
these men are given wedges to lighten their labor.
Demetrius, too, who distributed bread to these slaves,
was badly assaulted by them, and altho he complained
concerning this, we find him in prison a month or two
later, a fact suggesting that the slaves may have con
vinced the head manager that he deserved all that they
had given him, and more. Another complaint comes
from the workmen in the copper mines, setting forth
that they have been kept at work for ten months stead
ily without rest, and from certain cavalry soldiers who
petition the strategus, asking that they be given as much
pay as similar troops elsewhere. Not only the transac
tions carried on through the bank of Anubion in Anti-
noopolis (third century a.d.), but also the private ac
counts of Heronimus, who was chief steward of private
properties located in Theadelphia, giving the daily
record of work done, money received, and the payments
to workmen in cash, food, and wine — all impress us with
the conviction that these ancient southern towns were
very much like the small Egyptian villages to-day, in
the same part of Egypt. One pathetic proof of the
poverty of the district is shown by the pawn-broker's
record, in which he gives the value of the hoes, baskets,
shirts, etc., which he had received in pawn. At Her-
mopolis a mill, in the first century, could be leased for
seven months at twelve and a half silver drachmae a
month, and a house and court are given for security
for a loan of 220 drachmae. The poll tax here at this
time was only twelve drachmae, and the pig tax, of
which we hear much, only about two drachmae. The
most famous residence in this town, in the third century

72 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES '
of our era, was that of the Moros brothers. We have
a multitude of business contracts which belong to this
family, from which we learn much of their family life.
These were evidently the aristocrats of the city, tho
Herminus Moros, who comes to view as early as
September 12, a.d. 194, was originally a "boxer" who,
for his prowess, was given at the above date honorary
membership in the athletic club of the city. Some thirty
years later (a.d. 226), two of the Moros boys make a
declaration under oath in court that they have recently
inherited from their uncle two-thirds of a house and
court in Hermopolis. In December of this same year
one of these brothers sells a house and court for 300
drachmae, the actual payment on the property being
delayed, however, until January 12 of the next year —
as we find from the banker's certificate, attached to the
document; July 31, a.d. 227, one of these same brothers
buys one-third of a house from the other, and August
11, a.d. 231, a sister buys this same property from him,
probably in connection with a loan she had made him
of six hundred drachmae some four years before . The
prices of these houses show their inferiority. Abin-
naeus, commander of the camp at Dionysias, on the
southern edge of the Fayum, not far from Oxyrhyn
chus, perhaps occupied the most conspicuous place of
any man well-known to us in this district during the
fourth century of our era. Twenty letters connected
with this military officer are now in Geneva and thirty-
seven more in the British Museum, all of these coming
from the period a.d. 341-351. We shall have something
to say of these letters later, but merely call attention
to them at this time to record the fact that they bear
out our conclusion of the general poverty of the dis-

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI yz
trict and its particularly desolated condition at this era.
One of these letters, for example, speaks in an em
phatic way of the hyenas which had been devastating
the crops, and of the nets which must be used to protect
the growing grain from antelopes.20
Beginning, as we have said, with the early fourth
century, the condition of the farmers and middle classes
kept getting more and more pitiable, and the suffering
population soon fled in multitudes to the religious
houses on the edge of the desert. This section had
never been celebrated for its good order and obser
vance of law, but broils and injustice seem to become
more marked after this date. Several records exist in
which seemingly entire villages, including the priests,
attack each other. As early as the second century
a man accuses his mother of wrongfully appropriating
the property left him by his father and even of assault
ing him, tearing his garments, and offering him phys
ical violence; but in the fourth century many such
cases are recorded, or worse. Syrus reports to the
police that his wife, tho born a free woman, has been
carried off as a slave, together with her children, by
certain parties who entered his house to commit this
crime, beating him when he protested. Even in the
most sacred duties due to the dead, men were proving
themselves to be unmoved either by superstition or
religion, for Melos is forced to complain that altho
he has paid Serapion and Silvanus for removing his
brother's dead body, instead of this they have only
removed his effects. The civil courts were known to
be flagrantly guilty of receiving bribes, but the military
courts were worse, and it became so notorious that men
20 See especially Archiv fiir Papyrusforschung, Wilcken, I, 57-65.

74 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
were getting unjust vengeance upon their enemies in
this way that in a.d. 307 the Prefect of the Oxyrhyn
chus nome was forced to threaten confiscation of prop
erty in the case of any person appealing from the civil
to the military tribunals.
More and more after the second century the Fayum
became isolated from the outside world. It had never
been on the trade route and now it lost its little place
in the route of tourists. Tourists during the first two
centuries of our era came in multitudes from all lands
into the Delta, scratching their names on the Great
Pyramid, gaping at the strange Apis ceremonies at
Memphis, and making votive offerings at Naucratis —
as Herodotus is just proved to have done.21
Doubtless quite often these tourists would visit the
edge of the Fayum to see the Hawara Pyramid and
Labyrinth, and possibly to visit the sacred crocodile
at Arsinoe on their way to the more fashionable "show
places" at Thebes and beyond; but few, even then,
would go, as Germanicus did, to Lake Moeris, and
fewer still would travel into the Fayum.
But toward the end of the second century, because
of internal and external troubles, the general tourist
travel, even in the Delta, stopt abruptly, and even
such occasional visits to the Fayum must have ceased;
while the towns of Upper Egypt, presumably including
Oxyrhynchus, were rendered unsafe for peaceful travel
for a considerable period thereafter because of raids
of tribes dwelling farther up the Nile.22
These facts should be borne in mind in estimating
the value of our later conclusions concerning the proven-
* Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. XXV, 116.
"Cf. J. G. Milne, Journal of Egyptian Archeology, April, 1916, PP-
76-79.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 75
ance of the newly discovered New Testaments and
other papyri touching the life of the early Christians.
(2) THE COMMON LIFE OF SOME EGYPTIAN TOWNS IN
THE FIRST CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN
ERA, AND LATER
Standing to-day among the ruined buildings of any
one of these ancient Egyptian villages, an archeologist
who possesses a spark of the historic imagination ought
to be able, with the help of the many funereal and other
inscriptions, to reconstruct a good portion of the his
tory of the place.
Unfortunately, few students of the ancient past pos
sess this rare gift; yet, confessing our limitations, we
will attempt to give now, not an imaginary picture,
but the real life history of one or two of the most
conspicuous of these Egyptian towns during the first
century of the Christian era.23
Life in Socnopaei Nesus in the Apostolic Era
Socnopaei Nesus is the name of the village with
which we shall first concern ourselves. It is an island
town situated in the northwestern corner of the Fayum,
and represents probably the most populous city of that
most fertile part of Egypt from the first to the third
century. This town, together with Karanis, Philadelphia,
and several others that are well known, were on the
northern border of Lake Moeris, while Alexandrou
"The chief authorities upon which we depend for our facts will be
Dr. Carl Wessely— Aus der Welt der Papyri (1914) ; the Catalog of the
Greek Papyri in John Ry land's Library. Vol. II. (1915); and scattered
texts found among the Greek Papyri in the British Museum, Vol. II.
(1898).

76 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Nesus, Magaidus, and many more were on the southern
border. Oxyrhynchus lay some miles farther south.
Socnopaei Nesus was a town dedicated to the croco
dile-headed god, and boasted a temple so famous that
branch temples were established in various cities, for
example at Arsinoe. The chapel possest a holy of
holies decked with gold, and the statues of the god
were made of the richest metals. The sacrifice and in
cense, the sprinkling of the holy of holies with sacred
water, and the ceremony of lighting the sanctuary
lights were as elaborate as in Herod's temple in Jeru
salem, and the prayers said were doubtless as carefully
prepared. The life of the priests has been opened to
us quite fully. They had no easy life. One class of
priests had to master "an entire division of literature in
order to determine what was ceremonially pure and
impure, while another priestly caste was expected to
know fully the four books of Hermes. The administra
tion of the temple was no small matter. One hundred
and fifty-five annual feast days are mentioned in the
festival calendar of the god, together with the minute
specifications of requirements, financial and otherwise,
for each occasion. The budget of the priests which has
come down to us is of distinct interest. The prophet
of the crocodile-headed god could draw an order upon
the temple treasury for 344 drachmae and have it hon
ored. The total expenditure for a year was over
11,000 drachmae besides 1,200 artabae of wheat, 2,000
measures of oil, and forty jugs of wine. Part of this
expenditure was paid to the Roman government; for
not only was the temple compelled to pay a certain
annual tax because it was a place of worship, but
government officers were constantly making an inven-

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 77
tory of the votive offerings and taxing each small gift,
even down to the silver-plated handles of the temple
censers and the iron pans of the temple kitchen.
But no institution could pay taxes easier than the
temple. As one has said, "If the god is a landowner,
he should also pay taxes" — and the god was a land
owner. The temple of Edfu, as we know, possest
nearly a square mile of fruitful land besides other
revenues from manufactures of all sorts — linen, felt,
etc. So at Socnopaei Nesus the temple had a brewery
which must have been extensive, as the tax amounted
to more than 200 drachmae; while its fishing industry
must have been of considerable value, since the tax
amounted one year to over 120 drachmae, and the right
to pickle fish was taxed additionally. The priestly
lands and houses were also taxed, and that these houses
were the best in the city and situated in the finest loca
tion is perfectly evident from the court records. In
one will a priestess gives to her daughter two "three-
story houses with all their appurtenances" — one of
these being bounded on the north by the house of Gallio
and on the west by the Royal Highway.
The temple offerings were not wholly voluntary.
The people were taxed according to their ability and
sometimes the civil officers took part in collecting the
temple dues. If it had not been for these dues the
temple could not have carried on its work. Even as
it was, the subordinate priests had a hard economic
problem, and were compelled to farm or to train camels
in order to make ends meet. Quarrels among the
priests as well as dishonesty seem to have been com
mon. In one famous trial which took place a.d. 13,
Nestaephis and Satabous accuse each other of stealing

78 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
mortar out of the mill and brick belonging to the
temple, and of manufacturing oil while evading the
tax — Satabous even being accused of stealing the very
lot on which he had built his house. It is difficult to
tell the right and wrong of this legal contest; but we
know that finally Satabous paid to the Roman official
one-third of the value of his property in order to be
left in possession, tho the evidence seemed to show
that he had bought it from a higher priest or prophet
and might not have been personally to blame.
There can be no doubt that in the first century the
priesthood had fallen low in Egypt. There was prob
ably no priest caste, for altho a son usually followed
his father into the priesthood, yet any boy who could
pass the physical and ceremonial examination and pay
the initiation dues could become a priest.23*
The higher priestly offices were purchased from
Rome very much as the Sadducees purchased the priestly
offices in the Jewish temple. The Egyptians were so relig
ious that the priesthood, tho generally quite ignorant,
must have had a strong influence. In all the Fayum towns
the chief streets were named after warriors or gods,
tho Market Street and other familiar modern titles
were common.
A magnificent sacred street nearly a quarter of a
mile long was the peculiar pride, not only of the temple
in Socnopaei Nesus, but of the whole country round
about. Every fourteen years a general house-to-house
canvass was made in the interest of the government
census. One of the census reports taken by Herak-
leides in this town shows 173 males living in his distric*
"'So Wessely; but Grenfell and Hunt are against this.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 79
and the amount of their tax. Among these, four for
eigners appear, three from Italy, and one from India.
There are in this district thirteen men over sixty years
old, who therefore are excused from the tax. But
very few are excused, and the investigation is rigid.
Not only are the manufacturers on this street, and the
private citizens taxed heavily, but a list of slaves and
freedmen is given, each being taxed according to the
social position of his master or mistress. It is notice
able that a difference in the tax rate is made in favor
of Fayum citizens as against those who come from
Rome or Alexandria.
It is interesting to find a Jewish quarter at Socno
paei Nesus in the first century of our era. It has long
been known that many Jews lived in the Delta in Egypt
and recently new traces of these have been found (e.g.,
Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement, 1914,
p. 43) ; but it is now certain that as early as the third
century B.C., there was a Jewish colony in the Fayum
living in a town called Samaria. Even then the Jews
were bankers, tax-gatherers and police-officers, and were
enjoying the special prosperity which had come to them
in Egypt through Alexander's favor. The entire fourth
district in Alexandria was a Jewish quarter, and in
many of the Fayum towns they doubtless had houses
of prayer as at Athribis, and a special ghetto as at
Socnopaei Nesus. It need not surprize us, therefore, to
find that Herakleides, as the inspector of a ward (a.d.
72), devotes an entire section of his report to these
Jews of Socnopaei Nesus. The heading of his official
report — which was issued while "St. John the pres
byter" was still alive — reads as follows:

80 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
"The Report of Herakleides, Inspector of The District of
Apolloiiia Parembole, with Reference to Special Taxation and
Census of the Jews."
He mentions the ages of men, women, and children,
and gives their ancestry back to the third generation.
In each house he gives the list of males of taxable age,
together with the names of the children and women.
Even in the case of children but one year of age, he
gives the names of the mother, father, and grand
fathers. Sample paragraphs from his report read:
"Tryphania, granddaughter of Kales, mother of Dosarion, 61
years of age, exempt from taxation."
"Dosarion, daughter of Jacob and granddaughter of Jacob,
mother of Sambus, wife of Simon ; 22 years of age, etc."
Each family had to pay a little over eight drachmae
as a "home" tax, and added to this was the extra tax
of 15 drachmae for the first registration. The exces
sive pedantry seen in these reports and the fact that
the year of birth, age, and relationship had to be re
peated with the same scrupulous minuteness each year,
prove the severity of the government oversight.
From other neighboring places other equally re
markable reports concerning the Jewish population of
the Apostolic Age have come to us. An ostrakon from
Apollinopolis Magna has along side of such old-fash
ioned Hebrew names as Jacob and Simon certain Greek
appellatives which seem to have been very popular
among the Jews, such as Antipater, Demas, Jason, etc.
Every one will at once recognize these as Bible names.
The most remarkable series of inscriptions which has
appeared from this site23" consists of twenty ostraka con
cerning Jews who lived in the first century, six of whom
fflb Studien sur Paleographie und Papyruskunde von Dr. C. Wessely,
Leipzig, 1913.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 81
were named Jesus, one Didymus and another Theophilus.
It is indeed a startling thing to read these Biblical names
upon inscriptions written during the apostolic age.
Altho the subject matter may not be otherwise interest
ing, nevertheless every Christian must look with vital
interest mingled with surprize at such records as these :
"Sambathion and Jesus ('Iricoug) son of Papias, listed in the
census taken in the twentieth year of the Lord (xov xugiau)
Domitian .... drachmae."
"Census list of a block of houses belonging to  of the
Jews  drachmae."
"Sambathion and Jesus, son of Papias, Jews  year of
our Lord Trajan  drachmae." 23c
But the population of Socnopaei Nesus did not con
sist chiefly of Jews, and we turn to the activities of
these other contemporaries of the apostles with keen
anticipation. Here are the certificate of sale of a house,
November 20, a.d. ii, written in Greek and demotic, and
a few years later the application by four fullers, who are
descendants of the old Persian settlers, for the lease of
a double laundry carried on at Socnopaei Nesus and
Nilopolis by Satabous, 240 drachmae being paid for the
current year. In a.d. 33 Tesenouphis, son of Demas,
makes a loan of money, taking ample security, while at
about the same time (a.d. 14-37), an °ld soldier of the
third legion makes a repayment of a loan, the receipt
for which has been faithfully preserved to us for nearly
two thousand years. In a.d. 28, in the second year of
"Tiberius Csesar 'Sebastus, the god, son of the god,"
a divorce appears in which the decision of the court
280 The surprize at finding these pre-Christian "Jesus" records vanishes
when we remember that the name Jesus is only Joshua in a Greek form
and that Jesus b. Perahyah, who it is said learned magic in Egypt, at the
end of the second century B.C., was one of the most celebrated Jews of his
time.

82 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
is approved by both the parties to the separation, altho
the wife receives, as part of the decree, a house "built
with beams and doors and repeated in three stages," at
the east end of the town on the street Pharaoh; the
husband, Pa-anhuri, seeming to have been glad to
obtain the decree even by paying thus liberally to get
it. In this same year Herieus sells Hisarous two out
of five parts of a two-storied house and court, and a
little later Stotoatis sells Apunchis two of his five shares
in a two-storied house and court, and two out of four
shares of a fallen house, as well as one-twelfth share
in the ownership of a mill. In the former transaction
it is interesting to note that neither woman was able to
write, so that their sons signed the document in their
stead; while in both contracts there is a striking indica
tion that apartment houses and the corporate owner
ship of buildings were not unknown in the apostolic
era. Many other documents prove that flats are not
merely a modern iniquity.233 In the year a.d. 82, Tesen-
ouphis sells to Panephimmis, son of Pame, two-
fifteenths of a house and courtyard, and a month or two
later this same Panephimmis buys from Papeis and
Pasokis one-sixth (or one-tenth) of a house and yard. A
little later (a.d. 71) Thasis sells to her son-in-law one-
fourth part of a two-storied "priest's chamber and
yard."
23,1 The use of modern terminology must not, however, blind the reader
to the radical difference between oriental and western conditions. The
"apartment houses" and "flats" were not buildings erected as investments,
but were undoubtedly communal houses. It is still very common in
Egypt among the better class natives to find the grandfather, father, and
most of the married sons and grandsons living, with their families, in
separate rooms of the same house. So the "branch laundries" must be
visualized as merely a central wash house where the towels of the public
baths from two nearby villages were washed.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 83
The account book of one state granary has been pre
served from the first century B.C., showing the amount
of seed corn loaned on account to small farmers; and
many documents of the first and second century B.C.
show the monopolies upon the sale of woolen goods by
the Crown, as well as upon bricks, eggs, and probably
natron and the public baths. These public baths must
have been an important institution, for in a contract
dated a.d. 42, a man receives 2,000 drachmae to furnish
firewood for one year for the baths connected with the
gymnasium. While the trade guilds were not as com
mon in Roman Africa as in Italy, and while a general
organization by trades and occupations was to be
found in only a few cities of the East, as in Rome and
Pompeii or Philadelphia or Thyatira, yet signs of these
trade unions meet us in many papyri. The earliest
inscription relating to a trade guild was put out by an
association of foreign cooks 23e in Sardinia. These
guilds of almost every trade and profession were prob
ably to be found in every large town of the first century,
organized not so much for self-protection as for social
recreation and enjoyment and to insure to each member
a decent burial. They were not charitable societies nor
mutual benefit insurance associations, tho occasionally
a loan is mentioned in the papyri and mutual aid was
actually given on some occasions. The early Christians
made use of these funeral associations and trade
brotherhoods in order to organize their forces, and it
is for this reason, doubtless, that the Emperor Valerian
made such furious attacks uoon these guilds (a.d. 275 ).21
**• Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, XI, 3078.
"See for further particulars concerning these "Unions," Encyclope
dia of Religion and Ethics, VL, 219#.

84 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
At Socnopaei Nesus, in the first century, we see the
primitive working of this institution. In a.d. 14-37,
e.g., the president and secretary of the guild of weav
ers, acting for the guild, became sureties for five weavers
against whom a court proceeding is pending. The fullers
must have had a large association, for we learn that
the office of superintendent of this industry was farmed
out in this town as the weaving business was farmed
out in Archelais and the manufacture of bricks at
Kerkethoeus, the retailing of oil at Heraclea, the gold
smith's industry at Euhemeria, and bird hunting in an
other district. The weavers, too, must have done a good
business here, for in a badly written and ill-spelled
receipt issued by the "receivers of public clothing"
(a.d. 128), nineteen tunics and five cloaks are men
tioned. These were, we discover, military cloaks
bought for soldiers serving in India, and this was the
tax levied on this town for the support of these local
volunteers. That the weavers could contribute cor-
porately to pay this tax is a new proof that this trade
was here organized into a guild. This receipt reads as
follows :
"We, Dionysius son of Socrates, and the associate collectors of
public clothing for the Guards, have received from the weavers of
the village of Socnopaei Nesus nineteen. . . . tunics . . . and
for the needs of the soldiers serving in India five white cloaks.
The thirteenth year of the Emperor Caesar Trajanus. . . .
(in another hand) Received by Diogenes."
It is evident that taxes are no modern invention.
In the days of Jesus everything and everybody was
taxed. The custom house receipts from Socnopaei
Nesus show that there was a heavy rate upon both
exports and imports, while individual merchants and

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 85
tradesmen of all kinds, as well as the boatmen who
carried the god's images in ceremonial processions,
had to pay heavily for the business. Taxes on land
and farm stock, on goats and pigs of the temple, and
especially on the temple pigeon cotes — in fact upon
every item of wealth or industry — meet us in every pile
of ancient documents excavated. The day book of one
of the revenue officials at Oxyrhynchus has come to us,
and many official reports from Socnopaei Nesus.
A very heavy force of collectors and government
police must have been constantly maintained in every
town. The chief of police had a rank (S/cocoriYog)
equal to the modern "general" or Bey, and his duties
and temptations to "graft" were quite as numerous as
now, as we know from a "politician's drawer" pre
served from the Arsinoite nome and from innumerable
references in many documents. We know, for example
(Greek Papyri in the British Museum, II: cccvi), that
Stotoetis, of Heraclea, August 28, a.d. 145, sold one-
third of his office of tax collector for two years to
Satarnilus for 252 drachmae a year. From the police
records of a neighboring village (Euhemeria) the fol
lowing are selected as typical of the whole :
a.d. 28 — While the wife and mother of Hippalus
were bathing in the public baths, two men and two
women attacked them, beating them badly and stealing
a gold earring, etc.
a.d. 29 — Senthus, identified by a scar on his left
wrist, presents information against Papantos, a former
brewer, for breaking into his house "by way of the beer
shop on the north," and stealing considerable silver, a
clock, shovel, basket of 'bread containing fifty loaves,
two tin drinking-cups, etc.

86 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
a.d. 30 — A woman worker at an oil mill ran off
with the cloak of the manager and forty silver
drachmae — so affirms Hatres, identified by "a scar on
the middle of his forehead."
a.d. 34 — Lysanias is notified of the theft of thirty
bundles of hay which had been "boldly carried away on
donkeys by the thief."
a.d. 36 — Orsenouphis is caught in the act of steal
ing at night five rakes, six hay sickles, fifteen measures
of wool, etc. Another charge in this same year is that
of stealing a pig "worth eight drachmae."
a.d. 37 — A similar charge was made when six
hundred bundles of hay were thus carried off.
a.d. 38 — Ision, slave of Chaeremon, who had loaned
some money to another man, was beaten seriously by
him when he spoke to him of the debt. In this same
year, Dictas complains of Chaeremon, a former brewer
employed by him, who had beaten and robbed Artemi-
dorus, the man put in his place when he had been dis
charged. a.d. 40 — A woman burglar entered a house, beat
the owner's daughter who was at home, tore her purple
tunic, and carried off a hundred drachmae.
Some official documents from Socnopaei Nesus are
bi-lingual (demotic-Greek), and many private letters in
Greek exist, showing that the population was inter
ested in the same things as interest the common people
to-day, and that they were writing freely about these
daily happenings. We give a typical instance dating
between, a.d. 38 and 40 :
Ammonius to his dearest Aphrodisius, greeting.
"I wrote a letter to the herdsman Heracleus that he should
supply you with a donkey, and I bade Ophelion also to supply you

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 87
with another, and to send me the loaves. ... As to the pigs'fod-
der and the rest of the price for the hay, make provision until I
come. Urge your wife from me to look after the pigs, and do you
also take care of the calf. Be sure and send me the loaves and the
relish. . . . Good-by."
A letter written to Ammonius by this same agent
(a.d. 40) shows the intimate relation at this time be
tween employer and employed in these little country
towns. "I will send the donkeys without fail. Please do your utmost
to procure me the unguent of lentils ; do not neglect this last. We
think you have become all at once estranged toward us."
Innumerable private letters, some of them written
in great haste, about the pickling of olives, the pressing
of grapes, the care of children, the building of new
houses, and all the minute details of business have now
come into our hands from men who lived at the very
time when Luke was writing the Acts and while the
other literature of the New Testament was being pro
duced. One man gives an intensely interesting descrip
tion of his trip up the Nile, and another describes the
new house which the carpenters were just finishing. It
must have been an especially fine house for a country
village of that day, for he mentions the "smaller and
larger dining-rooms," and states that the "second water
refrigerator is to be roofed to-morrow." These letters
constantly mention the names of the children of the cor
respondents, and contain many reproaches because of the
failure of their friends to write oftener.
There seems to be no perceptible difference between
the style of the private letters from the first to the
early fourth century, but there are remarks made occa
sionally which throw a brilliant light on the great

88 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
change in financial conditions. The fact that a brother
writing to his sister in the third century remarks that
"everything has risen in price" might not in itself
prove much, but there is convincing corroborative evi-
dence of the truth of this complaint. February 6, a.d.
149, a woman at Socnopaei Nesus wants money so much
that she borrows 1,200 drachmae at 1 per cent, a
month, and at Oxyrhynchus (a.d. 381 ) a man goes
surety for a friend who has borrowed 42,000,000 de
narii. Of course these documents are not in themselves
conclusive, for there are always people in every age
who will give any kind of interest for ready cash, and
so far as borrowing 42,000,000 "shillings" or going
security for the man who has done this, there are some
examples in modern America of even greater extrava
gance and folly. But the cumulative evidence is abso
lutely convincing that the whole district of the Fayum
suffered a serious collapse in the third century, and
that by the early fourth century the money of Egypt,
as elsewhere, had become almost as valueless as the
wild-cat issues of certain banks in America about a
century ago. This may not seem to be a matter of
much concern to the reader, but as we shall see it may
have some little bearing, at least, upon the value of the
New Testament texts which come to us from this district
in the third or fourth century.
Life in Oxyrhynchus in the Early Christian Period
Oxyrhynchus is to us the most important of the old
Egyptian towns, because it is from this site that almost
all of our ancient fragments of the newly discovered;
New Testaments have come. Its life story ought to

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 89
be at least equal in thrilling interest to that found in
the "Anthology of Spoon River."
Oxyrhynchus (Behnesa) was located on the Bahr
Yusuf, the leading canal of the Fayum, about ten miles
from the Nile and about two hundred and sixty miles
from Alexandria. A number of granite columns and
shattered temple altars show the importance of this
city in early times, tho this importance dwindled
greatly in the third century of our era. Indications of
this partial collapse of the business life of the city may
be found in the proportion of the papyri that have come
to us from the various eras, e.g., of the 960 dated texts
published in the eleven volumes of the Oxyrhynchus
papyri, over 740 belong to the first three Christian cen
turies, a trifle less than a hundred certainly belong to
the fourth century ; and of the dated fourth century texts
only twenty come from the seventy-five years following
the Council of Nice (325). In the fifth century the
city began to recover its lost activity, the town and
the desert around it being filled with monks and nuns,
and by the sixth century it seems to have fully regained
its old prosperity and to have been regarded as one of
the leading Christian cities of Egypt.
Oxyrhynchus was a self-governing city, boasting
several "senators" and other civil dignitaries, and was
the chief town of the nome. This did not mean, of
course, that it was ever a large and wealthy city in
the modern or even in the Alexandrian sense; but it
had corn mills and bakeries with a "superintendent of
food supplies" constantly on duty to see that people
could get bread at a moderate price; it must have had
a weekly market and large bazaar, and was probably
in almost all respects very like the modern Medinet

90 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
el-Fayum or any other large Egyptian town that is
away from the ordinary tourist route.
The amusements of the town never ceased at any
era, the gymnastic games even in the fourth century
being vastly popular, the victors being granted special
privileges by the municipality. Doubtless, in Oxyrhyn
chus, just as in Rome, the lower classes were kept in
subjection and made to forget their poverty and their
wrongs by these games provided at senatorial or gov
ernment expense. The placards yet in existence show
that these exercises were regarded as part of the
ancient "tradition" of the place. The excitement inci
dent to such occasions is well illustrated from some
texts of the sixth century when, evidently through the
influence of Christianity, horse racing had taken the
place of the brutal gladiatorial shows. From these
contemporary accounts it is perfectly clear that the
Derby never created more excitement than these races
did. The whole population was divided into two factions,
called the Blues and the Greens, each shouting, and
presumably betting, on their own horses. It is inter
esting to notice that each side had a "starter" and
provided certain funds for maintaining their favorite
stud. The public baths also always continued to be kept
up at some expense, fifty talents of silver being spent
in repairs (a.d. 303), and 10,000 denarii being ex
pended in painting some of these baths a little later
(a.d. 316) ; while twenty years later an additional
wooden bath was built. But, as we have seen, 10,000
denarii at that date did not mean a very large amount
of silver, and other texts show conclusively the com-

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 91
parative poverty of the place. Even the amusements
may not have represented any great extravagance, as
a contract for the hire of two dancing girls by the
president of the town in the third century shows that
they were paid only thirty-six drachmae a day.
The official records and private correspondence in
this city in the first and adjoining centuries are so
personal and minute that one almost feels ashamed to
repeat some of the disclosures of human frailty and
business complications coming from this far-away
country town. One father, in a public placard, thrashes
his son Castor for "riotous living," and warns the com
munity to lend him no money; while a little later Tro-
phimus writes to his father a letter in the most injured
tone because his parent had suggested that he was
"boastful" and was wasting his money on a paramour
instead of sending it home. A mother writing to her
husband about a much-loved boy of quite different
character, says, "It quite upset him for you to go away
and leave him behind." How close it brings us to the
apostolic age to read in these newly discovered papyri
the horoscope of a man born 10 p.m. September 28 (a.d.
15) ; of the hire of a mill (a.d. 17) ; of the bail offered
for a prisoner (a.d. 28) ; of a promise to attend court
(a.d. 59) ; or of a complaint against a husband (a.d. 20-
50), by Syra, who says her husband squandered her
dowry, mistreated her, and finally left her wholly
without support. Zois (a.d. 30) writes about the
bread she has ordered but not received; in another
first century text we find made out in due form the
valuation of a bakery; and it is noteworthy that in
some other business account books, tho not in this, a
method is used much like our own "double entry."

92 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
One man swears "by Csesar" that he does not know of
any extortion on the part of a soldier mentioned; an
other, January 31 (a.d. 52), makes out a deed of sale for
an ass's colt, while a death report is dated the twelfth
year of Nero, September, a.d. 56, and a sale of wheat is
made a.d. 81-96.
It makes one feel that he is touching very closely
the private actions and common gossip of that time to
pick out from a blurred papyrus a whispered secret
concerning Pheros, "contractor for the beer and
nitrate tax," and about Menches, who "bribed" the
village to secure reappointment to his office of royal
scribe ; or to read a private letter from a husband to his
wife, giving directions about his tools and "the old
cushion that is up in the dining-room" ; or to read a love
letter written a.d. 22, in which the wife says, "I am not so
much as anointing myself until I shall hear from you !"
The temple and its services are much in evidenced
When a Roman senator visits a certain temple (first
century) we have a private note from one priest to the
other telling of the sacrifices which must be prepared
for the occasion, and of the "titbits" to be made ready
for the sacred crocodiles. It is evident that the ancient
Egyptians were even ready to exploit their most sacred
religious customs for the sake of the backshish.
Here is a list of articles for sacrifice (second cen
tury.) — a calf, wine, wafers, garlands, cakes, palm
branches, oil, honey, milk; here is also a contract in
which musicians are engaged for a five days' festival
to receive transportation, board, and 140 drachmae; and
here are others where the partners in a pigeon-house
arrange for the division of the dung; and here again
Hermogenes gives an order for a hundred empty jars

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 93
and "the wheel of the machine." Here is a deed of
divorce (a.d. 45) in which both husband and wife are
identified by scars; and several law court records (a.d.
50) in which it is charged that women have been re
ceiving wages for nursing foundlings "picked up from
the dung-hill" after these children had died. It is
noticeable that the men who cared for these cast-off
children are called here "benefactors" (cf. Luke
22:25). That boys were boys nineteen centuries ago is
shown by a contract of apprenticeship dated a.d. 66, in
which Pryphon, who was born a.d. 8, and was a
weaver by trade, binds his son to a neighboring weaver
for a small recompense, with the agreement that if the
boy plays truant he must make up the time and his
father must in addition pay forfeit for each day thus
lost. It throws a vivid light upon the common super
stitions of the day to read as the characteristic ex
pression in many letters:
"Above all I pray that you may be in health, unharmed by
the evil eye."
Several letters mention dreams and their influence,
and one son is represented in a sort of circular letter
as saying to his father:
"I have been deceived by the gods trusting in dreams. All
things are false and your gods with the rest."
From a mass of papyri of the second century we
select for mention as illustrating the conditions of
society at Oxyrhynchus a letter from a man of family
who writes to the lady Didyme, saying:

94 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
"Do not lose heart about the rent, for you will certainly get
it." In a will probated a.d. 123, a mother aged seventy-
eight, leaves all her property to her daughter on condi
tion that she discharge her debts and give her a good
funeral. A registration of paupers (a.d. 149) raises
the question whether there could have been a "poor-
rate" in Roman Egypt by means of which the well-to-
do were forced to contribute to the support of those
lacking means. A complaint against a priest (a.d.
159) charges him with letting his hair grow too long
— not a strange charge, since short hair at this time
must have been commonly considered the mark of a
Christian teacher as contrasted with the usually un
shorn locks of the heathen philosophers.
While the fourth century texts are, as we have
said, few and generally unimportant, some of these
show the terrific financial strain to which the country
was subjected after Diocletian established an imperial
absolutism, blotting out freedom and making the spirit
of militarism rampant. Wessely has pointed out that
while in a.d. 267 a house at Socnopaei Nesus cost
2,000 drachmae, forty years later a mortgage on this
same house was taken for 3,840,000 drachmae; and that
while (a.d. 255) a measure (about a peck) of wheat
cost sixteen drachmae, in a.d. 314 the same amount cost
10,000 drachmae.24*
So at Oxyrhynchus in a.d. 306 a man paid 720,000
denarii (about $120,000) for five hundred pounds of
meat. We transcribe this curious document:
From Ptileminus Thonius, steward of Nigrius, Greeting.
"Measure out to my Brother Dorotheus, who is about to collect
M* Wessely, op. cit., p. 73.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 95
payments on my accounts through Hieronichus for the price of
500 lbs. of meat, 40 artebae of aracus, 72 myriads of denarii"
(Oxyrhynchus Papyri; XI, 367).
Two years later there is a record even more sur
prizing than this, of a man's paying 75,000 denarii for
a hide. The rentals of land about this time went up
to impossible prices, and food became so dear that a
leg of antelope is recorded as having been sold for
50,000 drachmae and four chickens for 30,000
drachmae (Wessely). Altho wages had gone up
correspondingly — grooms receiving from 3,000 to 6,000
drachmae a month, even pedagogs receiving almost
as much — yet conditions were feverish and dangerous,
and fraud, blackmail, and graft were the order of the
day.25 From the first to the middle of the third century
of our era, Oxyrhynchus enjoyed its highest prosper
ity. Even the classics were studied; more fragments
of these ancient works having been found here than
in any other town. The city contained several heathen
temples dedicated to Serapis, Isis, Thoeris, etc.; and a
Caesarium, theater, gymnasium, capitolium, and a few
other municipal buildings, besides several public baths.
There was, without doubt, a Jewish synagog, and there
were also at this time, as recently proved, several
Christian churches, two of which, tho not public
buildings, were important enough to be mentioned in
an ancient official report of city edifices. It is thrilling
to get even this transient glimpse of those early fol
lowers of Jesus as an organized body, having well-
25 In the earlier days respectable teachers would not take wages, but
lived upon the voluntary gifts of their students. One man, mentioned by
Suetonius, boasted that he received 400,000 denarii annually from his
scholars. Vespasian was the first emperor to establish state-paid profes
sorships.

96 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
known meeting-houses in which they conducted wor
ship. Burial associations had official existence at Oxy
rhynchus at least as early as 67 B.C., and the Chris
tians in the first and second centuries of our era may
have organized themselves at times under some such
name, but by the third century their churches were, as
we have seen, well known. These churches must not
be visioned as large and elegant buildings, but rather
as much resembling the oldest Coptic churches of
Cairo, such as Mar Mina or Al-Muallakah.
Oxyrhynchus and the villages of the Fayum had
always been isolated to a degree because of their geo
graphical location; but with the collapse of business in
the Fayum — upon which the trade of Oxyrhynchus
largely depended — this isolation must have become
more marked. It was a long row against the stream
if one ventured the long trip from Old Babylon to
Oxyrhynchus (120 miles), and a three-hour ride by
camel or two by donkey from the Nile to the town. If
he came all the way by camel it could scarcely take him
much less than a week from Old Babylon, and twice as
long coming from Alexandria. It was not likely that
the rich politicians and ecclesiastics of Alexandria
should be much interested in these poor towns in the
Fayum and Upper Egypt, especially after financial
misfortune had befallen them. That intercourse be
tween these two widely separated sections of Egypt
was exceedingly limited is further suggested by the
fact that no native was allowed to go from one dis
trict to another without a permit.26
We leave this discussion for the present with the
final statement that the linguistic, religious, and social
" Greek Papyri of the British Museum, IV., XV.

MODERN DISCOVERIES OF PAPYRI 97
atmosphere of Oxyrhynchus was that of the Fayum,
not that of Alexandria.27 This fact has an important
bearing upon the value of the newly discovered New
Testament texts — but that is another story which must
he told in another chapter.278

" The "Blessed Pachomius" (a.d. 292-346) makes it perfectly clear in
the Paradise of the Holy Fathers that Oxyrhynchus, tho he speaks of
it as "a great city," could not have had a population much above 20,000,
for he says that 5,000 monks lived in the city, and as many more round
about it, and that "the monks are not much fewer in numbers than the
ordinary inhabitants of the city." The poverty of Oxyrhynchus is addi
tionally shown by the few orders to silversmiths as compared with some
other towns (cf. Archiv. fur Papyrusforschung, 1909, p. 382; Hawara
Papyri, No. 68). On the crudity and poverty of the churches in Lower
Egypt and Nubia see Somers Clarke, Christian Antiquities in the Nile
Valley (1912) ; and Geoffrey S. Mileham, Churches in Lower Nubia
(1910). ""Those who wish to keep in close touch with the latest discoveries in this
field should become members of the Egyptian Exploration Fund ($5.00),
and thus receive regularly The Journal of Egyptian Archeology, which is
by far the best publication in English touching these matters. Those who
desire to help the work of exploration and keep informed on this subject
can send their names to Mrs. Marie N. Buckman, secretary of the Egyp
tian Exploration Fund for the United States, 527 Tremont Temple, Bos
ton, Mass., who will furnish literature and further information.

II

NEW LIGHT FROM THE PAPYRI UPON THE
LANGUAGE OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT
i. New Light Upon the Origin and Textual Form
of the New Testament
The writer appeals to Sir F. G. Kenyon, of the
British Museum,1 and to Dr. George Milligan, of the
University of Glasgow,2 for the latest expert judgment
in regard to this. According to these scholars, the new
discoveries have not only made all former results of
Greek paleography out of date, but have really for the
first time established the science on a solid basis.
The old division of manuscripts into uncials and minu
scules is now of little use, the real division being be
tween literary and non-literary manuscripts; the cur
sive script being used in common matters even in the
earliest centuries. While few, if any, dated papyri
come from the first century b.c, great numbers come
from the two centuries preceding and from the first,
second and third centuries after Christ, so that for the
first time undated documents can now be generally as
signed with considerable certainty to their proper
century. The formation of the letters and the character
of the abbreviations and other changes in handwriting
and orthography make it as easy to decide between a
first century and a third century Greek manuscript
1 Textual Criticism of the New Testament, 1912.
' New Testament Documents, 1913.

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 99
as between a sixteenth century and a nineteenth cen
tury English manuscript. The grammar and popular
phraseology show equal changes, so that a new argu
ment inexpressibly strong has suddenly arisen, com
pelling skeptical scholars almost irresistibly to date
the New Testament documents in the first century.
Thus paleography adds its weight to the former strong
internal argument.
In the lifetime of our Lord there was a "wide
spread habit of writing among all classes of the
population," and no doubt the leading facts were writ
ten down and circulated "almost as soon as they
took place" — tho doubtless at first in fragmentary
form — so that probably the first account of the death
of Jesus "must be presumed to be written in the year
he died" (Milligan). As soon as the converts became
so many that the original apostles could not easily
carry authoritative facts personally to all Christian
communities, a need of records would be felt which, be
cause of this general habit of note taking and writing,
could be readily supplied.
We now know exactly how those first records of
the Lord's life looked in the middle of that first cen
tury. They were written on papyrus sheets which
ordinarily measured five by eleven inches, with twenty
sheets usually to the roll, the columns being generally
two or three inches wide with small margins. Mark's
gospel would make a roll about nineteen feet long and
Romans eleven and one-half feet; while 2 Thessa-
lonians could be written in a five column roll fifteen
inches in length. They were written with a reed pen
(CA 3 John 13), with an ink made out of soot
and gum, which was very legible except when "blotted

100 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
out" or "washed out" (cf. Col. 2: 14). The roll was
bound with a thread and sealed (Rev. 5:1), a will
often being sealed seven times and authenticated. For
preservation rolls were fastened together in bundles
and laid in arks or chests, "a practise which enables
us to understand how unsigned rolls laid up in the
same place and dealing with cognate subjects would
come, in some instances, to be joined together as if
they formed parts of one work, while in the case of
others, errors regarding authorship and destination
might readily arise" (Milligan).
The ordinary practise in letter writing was by dic
tation, as is true yet in Palestine and Egypt, tho the
writer might sign his name himself and add a post
script (e.g., 1 Cor. 16:20; Col. 4:18). In emer
gencies almost everybody could write, tho probably
not in such good penmanship as the official letter
writers and in a somewhat different style from what he
would customarily use when simply talking out what
he wanted to say.
It is quite plain that the old argument which would
deny to St. Paul certain letters, believed by the early
Church to be his, because these were written in a dif
ferent style from others, loses most of its force. It
may be remembered just here that St. Jerome ex
plained the stylistic difference between 1 Peter and
2 Peter as a difference in scribes. Doubtless at differ
ent times these amanuenses were allowed different
degrees of liberty in taking the dictation. It is per
fectly clear that there would be great differences in
results if they made only a rough draft of what was to
be said and then carefully rewrote it, or if they took, it
in shorthand — which, however, was not common among

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT ioi
the middle classes — or if they took down the dictation
word for word as spoken.
Certain it is that the papyri were usually written in
one hand and signed in another. What would natural
ly happen can be seen from contemporaneous autograph
letters of the first century, and from the average news
paper report of the modern sermon. This has been
very brilliantly illustrated by Prof. James Hope Moul
ton in his New Light from the Egyptian Rubbish
Heaps (1916), in which he explains the fact that
Ephesians contains more "Semitisms" than any other
letter of St. Paul, by the simple theory that Timothy,
or some other close Hebrew friend, was Paul's scribe
in writing that epistle. Paul, according to this view,
wrote Colossians with his own hand, and then let
Timothy, after hearing it read, turn it into a circular
letter which would be suitable for all the churches of
the valley. Timothy was with Paul as helper, and
"from a child" had been steeped in the sacred writings
(2 Tim. 3: 15), never having been Hellenized as Paul
had. Dr. Moulton believes that it needs only this
very natural supposition to remove entirely this
serious argument against the Pauline authorship of
Ephesians. Dr. Moulton also believes that the papyri prove
tnat such a theory is not far-fetched, for two ancient
letters written upon the same day by different persons
have come to us, which are almost as near alike as
Colossians and Ephesians, one being written by a
wife to her husband, Hephaestion, and the other writ
ten to the same man by his brother — the similar
phrases and sequence of thought being evidently due
to the fact that the wife and her brother-in-law had

io2 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
talked the matter over and then independently written
within a few hours of each other.
So also many of the grammatical mistakes, the
broken constructions and lapses of connection in St.
Paul's letters, as well as the changes of style, seem
to be quite fully and satisfactorily explained by the
ordinary method of letter writing which is now proved
to have existed at that period. A break in the change
of tone in the same letter would naturally occur if the
dictation had been interrupted. It is also now known
that there was generally no punctuation, little if any
separation of words, many abbreviations, and no quo
tation marks in the first century letters — all of which
must be remembered in criticizing the present text.
Even the pastoral epistles, tho greatly differing
in style and language from the other letters of Paul,
are now accepted by many scholars of international
reputation as embodying "genuine Pauline material,
tho showing such an advanced state of ecclesiastical
organization that they may have been put in their
present form after the apostle's death." 3 The new dis
coveries have considerably relieved the defense of the
Pauline authorship of the pastoral epistles, for the
amanuensis may merely have been a man of wider cul
ture and have been left a freer hand than usual.4 At
any rate, the new discoveries show that the Pauline and
other New Testament epistles, if they originated like
similar material of the same era, were probably written
to dictation and always with a definite audience before
the eye of the author and were therefore almost as
'New Testament Documents, p. 85; cf. Bartlett, London Expositor,
1913, p. 347#.
* Milligan, op. cit., p. 103 ; but see against this view Moffatt, Introduc
tion to the Literature of the New Testament, 1914, p. 407.

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 103
much speeches as letters, this speech-form being molded
by contemporary rhetoric and by local and racial
methods of expression and reasoning.
So far as textual criticism is concerned, Dr. Milli
gan is certainly entitled to give an expert opinion, and
he declares that in view of all the new light coming
upon the question from recent discovery it is safe to
conclude that "with the probable exception of 2 Peter all
our New Testament writings may now be placed with
in the first century" (ibid., p. 172). If Professor Har-
nack is right in saying that it is "in the highest degree
probable" that the book of Acts was written "at a time
when St. Paul's trial had not yet come to an end,"5
then he and Dr. Milligan can not be far wrong in plac
ing the composition of the Acts about a.d. 62, and the
synoptic gospels could not have been much later; tho
it was nearly three centuries before all the separated
documents of the New Testament were gathered to
gether as we now have them.6
It is surprizing how few can now be found to de
fend the late dates so popular two generations ago.
The encyclical nature of many of the epistles would
necessitate copies, and even private churches would be
likely to send to other churches any rare apostolic mes
sage which they possest — travel being easy, as is illus
trated from a recently discovered document which shows
that one merchant had journeyed from Asia to Rome
over seventy times. In the main these copies would
probably be made faithfully, tho breaks might occur
and the lacunae afterward restored from memory. It
must be remembered that copies would at first be made
'Date of Acts and Synoptic Gospels, 1911, p. 99.
" The views of other scholars may be noted in Moffatt's Introduction to
the Literature of the New Testament, 1914, p. 213.

io4 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
hurriedly and with no thought of the need of verbal
accuracy, so that a copyist might try in love to remove
what looked like some blemish of language or mean
ing. It must also be remembered that the hardest
usage for a roll would come naturally at the beginning
and end, as is illustrated by the shorter and longer
endings added later to Mark's gospel. This is wholly
in accordance with the facts as observed in the docu
ments preserved to us from the first and following
centuries. Parts of a letter might also be easily dis
placed (as Rom. 16), and different letters from the
same person might be copied into the same roll but
not in chronological order (e.g., 2 Corinthians 10-13).
Papyrus books were not so common in the early
Christian centuries as papyrus rolls. The book repre
sented a more elaborate literary product. It was
always from the pen of some celebrated author or was
made up of a collection of writings gathered together
after these writings had become so sufficiently celebra
ted that a large demand for them had become common.
Parchment was not limited in its source, as papyrus
was, and being stronger and more flexible it came into
use for literary purposes at least as early as the second
century B.C., and by the fourth century of our era had
become popular for the better class of Christian litera
ture. From this century comes one of the most beauti
ful editions of the Apocalypse written on vellum, each
leaf being of miniature proportions.7 One discovery
such as this is quite sufficient to annihilate the eccen
tric theory of Nikolaus Morosow that the book of
Revelation was written as an astrological exercise by
7 Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Vol. VIII, 14.

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 105
John Chrysostom on or about September 30, a.d. 395 ! 8
The new discoveries have enabled us to get to the
original New Testament with more certainty than in
the case of any other ancient book. "For our knowl
edge of Sophocles, for example, we are mainly depen
dent on a single manuscript written about 1,400 years
after the poet's death, and tho in the case of Vergil
we are fortunate in possessing one nearly complete
manuscript belonging to the fourth century, the total
number of Vergilian manuscripts can be numbered
only by hundreds, as compared with thousands in the
case of the New Testament writers." Dr. Milligan
dares to add concerning the New Testament: "We
may take it that in all substantial particulars the
words of the autographs have been recovered." And
Caspar Rene Gregory suggests that the early changes
in the text were no more marked than those introduced
by recent critics, such as Griesbach, Tischendorf,
Tregelles, and Westcott and Hort.9 This does not mean
that there were not varieties of text, marginal glosses,
and "interpolated adscripts" even in sub-apostolic times
— these occur in every classic ;10 but it does mean that all
the mass of new discovery has only made more certain
the antiquity and essential integrity of the New Testa
ment text, as all the great text critics admit.
'Die Offenbarung Johannes, 1912, pp. 100-110.
'Textcritik des Neuen Test., 1909, p. 1,008; see also Milligan, New
Testament Documents, pp. 196-199; also Von Soden, Die Schriften des
Neuen Test., Band I., Abt. IL, passim; Kenyon, Handbook, 1901, chap.
VIII.; Scrivener, Plain Introduction, 1:4-8, 11:259-273; Gregory, Canon
and Text of New Test., pp. 126, 501-508 ; Zahn, Introduction to New Test.,
| pp. 178-194.
" See Rutherford, Fourth Book of Thucydides, pp. xxxi#.

106 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
2. New Light Upon the Grammar of the New
Testament
In the last twenty years New Testament grammar
has become a new study because of the papyri. Even
as early as 1841, Thiersch pointed out the value of the
papyri for the study of the Septuagint.11 Lightfoot, in
1863, saw the advantage which would come to us in
explaining the New Testament if we could have the
letters of ordinary people from that era; but it was
Deissmann who first attempted to examine extensively
the grammar of the New Testament in the light of the
new discoveries of papyri.12 In 1901, Thumb published
a great book on the Koine,12" and five years later Dr.
J. H. Moulton gave to the English-speaking world his
Introduction to the Nezv Testament Greek; but no one
has treated the entire grammatical field in the light of
the new discoveries with such fulness and thoroughness
as A. T. Robertson in his Grammar of the Greek
New Testament in the Light of Historical Research,
1914. The remarkable increase of interest in this field, due
chiefly to the new discoveries, may be seen from the fact
that within the last eight or nine years at least eight
or nine notable Greek grammars have been published.
Some of these deal with the grammar of the papyri
directly;13 others deal with the modern Greek, which
is now seen to be far more closely connected with the
11 De Pentateuchi versione Alexandrina.
"Die sprachl. Erforschung der griech. Bibel, 1898, and Bibelstudien,
1895-1898. a*Die griechische Sprache im Zeitalter des Hellenismus.
"Mayser, Grammatik der griech. Papyri, 1906.

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 107
New Testament language than classical Greek;" still
others deal with the Greek of the Septuagint.14*
The best recent grammars which have to do directly
with the New Testament Greek are named below.15
Innumerable smaller works and important contri
butions on the New Testament in the light of the papyri
have appeared and also several new lexicons.16
This shows the unprecedented interest which has
been aroused by these new discoveries. Without the
Greek learning of the sixteenth century the Reforma
tion could not have been accomplished. Since that day
until now there has never been a revival of Greek
learning equal to that which is stirring the whole
world at the present moment. And the influence of
these discoveries has produced an eager enthusiasm
for Greek grammar and the Greek New Testament,
"Thumb, Handbuch der neu-griech. Volkssprache, 1910; Thumb-
Angus, Hand Book of the Modern Greek Vernacular, 1912.
"* Conybeare and Helbing, Grammatik der Septuaginta, 1907 ; Stock,
Selections from the LXX: a Grammatical Introduction, 1905; Thackeray,
A Grammar of the O.T. in Greek, Vol. 1, 1909.
"Abbott, Johannine Grammar, 1906; Blass, Grammatik des neutest.
Griechisch, 1902; Gerth-Blass, in Ausfuhrliche Grammatik der griechi-
schen Sprache, 1890-1904; Thackeray-Blass, Grammar of the New Testa
ment, 1905 ; Moulton, Grammar of New Testament Greek, Vol. I, Prolego
mena, 1906; Radermacher, Neutest. Grammatik, 1911; A. T. Robertson,
Short Grammar of the Greek New Testament, 1908 (translated into Ital
ian, 1910; French and Dutch, 1911; German, 1912); Brugmann-Thumb,
Griechische Grammatik, 1913; Blass-Debrunner, Grammatik des neutest.
Griechisch, 1913; Robertson, Grammar of the Greek New Testament in
the Light of Historical Research, 1914, (2d ed. 1915).
"Among the latter should be mentioned Nageli, Der Wortschats des
Apostels Paulus, 1905; the Cremer-Kiigel Lexicon of New Testament
Greek, 1912; the revision of Passow's Lexicon by Cronert, 1912; the
supplementary Greek Lexicon by Herwerden, 2 vols., 1910; the great
Greek Lexicon begun at Athens in 1901 ; and Preuschen's Vollstandiges
griechisch-deutsches Handworterbuch, 1908-1910; Souter, A Pocket Lexicon
to the Greek New Testament, 1916. Lexicons are also announced by
Deissmann, and by Moulton and Milligan, the latter of whom have been
publishing for ten years in The Expositor important contributions to Lexi
cography from the Papyri and at this writing have issued Parts I and II of
their exhaustive Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, covering all New
Testament words from Alpha to Delta.

108 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
such as has not been known for four hundred years.
The grammar of the Koine (which was the vernacular
of the first century, spoken and written all over the
civilized world) and the grammar of the New Testa
ment are essentially the same, as the great grammar
ians referred to above have shown.17 There was an
ancient Attic vernacular corresponding to the literary
Attic, and upon this as a base there were deposited va
rious influences from other dialects; yet the Koine was
practically homogeneous, notwithstanding local varia
tions, tho in remote districts it became Doric-colored
or Ionic-colored. So far as phonetics and orthog
raphy are concerned, we find that there were no
settled rules, probably, in the Koine. There never was
a fixt orthography in Greek, and we do not know
certainly how the ancient Attic or the Koine were pro
nounced, tho we can approximate it because the pro
nunciation of the modern Greek vernacular is known.
It is of value to discover that we must not insist too
strongly in Bible study on "hair-splitting differences
hinging on forms which for the scribe of our uncials
had identical value phonetically." 18 As rough breath
ings and the accent came into use only in late Christian
times, our phonetic reconstruction of the ancient tongue
must be by guess. No doubt there were local varia
tions in the pronunciation of the Koine, and as many
Bible manuscripts were written from dictation instead
of from reading, it is natural that there should be much
variation in spelling, even in the earliest New Testament
manuscripts; yet there is a marked difference between
"See also the masterly article by Thumb in The Dictionary of the
Apostolic Church, 1916, on "Hellenistic and Biblical Greek."
"Angus, The Kome, p. 79.

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 109
the papyri of the first and the fourth centuries. Here
we possess a new proof that our fourth century Bible
texts were copied from ancient originals. In the Koine
of the first century, as contrasted with the classical
Greek, old suffixes were dropt and new suffixes
coined, and the number of words compounded by juxta
position greatly increased. The nominativus pendens
is much in evidence. The neuter plural is used with
either a singular or a plural verb. The accusative is
regaining ascendency. The comparative often does
duty for the superlative adjective. The use of the per
sonal pronoun becomes more frequent, but that of the
possessive pronoun decreases. In the verb there is a
marked tendency toward simplification, the two con
jugations blending into one. The cases with preposi
tions are changing. The optative is disappearing. The
instrumental use of ev is common. The future parti
ciple is less frequent. The growth of the passive over
the middle is marked, as is also the later use of parti
ciples. In the vocabulary words from town-life
(the stage, the market-place) come to the front, and
there is a marked increase in the number of diminu
tive forms. Thus we find both in word formation and
accidence, as well as in the vocabulary and orthog
raphy, clear tests by which the age of the texts can
now be discriminated — showing by a new line of argu
ment not possible to our fathers the antiquity of the
originals of the New Testament manuscripts. Pro
fessor Robertson in his great Grammar of the Greek
New Testament in the Light of Historical Research
has pointed out minutely and voluminously these changes
from the classical usage found in the papyri and in the
New Testament. We have used above his authorita-

no THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
tive conclusions and we now venture to borrow from
him further on a most important phase of this subject.
The New Testament writers were once supposed
to have used prepositions so freely because of the
Hebrew and Aramaic, and it was counted equally cer
tain that every preposition had some divine meaning in
the sacred text, so that to interchange one for the
other would amount almost to sacrilege. This old and
well-established opinion has been badly damaged by
the newly discovered facts ; for we find the new prepo
sitions which were supposed to be Semitic used freely
in the vernacular of the early centuries by a. non-
Jewish population, and we fail to find the inflexibility
in the use of such prepositions which the theologians
and grammarians of a generation ago assumed, ano
jtaod, vno and hi are used in the papyri without
exactness of distinction, and vn&Q is often only a color
less "about" or used in the sense of "to" without any
reference to the deeper original meaning.19 The inter
change of sic; and ev is frequent in the papyri, and only
the context can determine whether etc; means "into,"
"unto," "in," "on," or "upon." This, of course, does
not prove that prepositions in the New Testament are
mere synonyms ; but it does suggest that theological con
clusions from such premises must be drawn with care,
since the New Testament was practically the spoken
language of the first century, and minute distinctions
are not to be expected in colloquial use.20 The New
Testament writers used the language common upon the
M Moulton, op. cit., pp. 105, 237.
"¦It should be noted, however, that the New Testament writers are
from the middle class, not the lowest class, and that both Moulton and
Robertson recognize the nice discrimination ordinarily shown in the use
of prepositions by Bible writers. See particularly Robertson, op. cit., pp.
556-557, 885#, 902.

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT in
street, and this language was changing in their very
lifetime; so that we find a new usage of jtsqi, be
ginning in Paul's letter with Philippians.21 So the
weakened use of iva is one of the characteristics of the
Koine and is richly illustrated in the New Testament,
particularly in the writings of St. John.
From the study of the grammar of the Koine it is
perfectly clear that many of the supposed blunders and
solecisms of the New Testament writers and their sup
posed errors in transcription of the text are merely
grammatical forms common among the middle classes
of the first century. This is one of the greatest dis
coveries that have been made. The two genders found
with the same word in Rev. 14: 19 are also found with
this same word in the papyri.22 So Blass needlessly
wished to amend the text in 2 Tim. 2: 14, and both
Blass and Moulton hesitated to accept -av in the present
perfect instead of the usual -am — regarding it as "a
vulgarism due to the occasional lapse of an early
scribe"; but the papyri prove that while these are
loose constructions, they were not uncommon in the
apostolic era and were not marks of an uneducated
person.23 The accuracy and age of the New Testament docu
ments are thus confirmed by the new discoveries in a
striking way; for altho the great New Testament
uncials of the fourth and later centuries were changed
slightly in vocabulary and grammatical idiom to con
form to the customs in those centuries, yet these re
tain the ancient and peculiar forms of the first and
second centuries to such an extent that their origin is
"Robertson, ibid., p. 620.
a Moulton, Prolegomena, p. 60.
B Robertson, ibid., pp. 336, 945.

112 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
now undoubted. It does not need a "redactor" any
longer to explain the different spellings and changes in
orthography, and in every direction these modern
studies have increased the authority of the great uncial
MSS. of the New Testament.24 The textual problem is,
however, complicated somewhat by the fact, now finally
settled, that the earliest Bible texts, near the Con-
stantine era, while essentially the same as our Greek
text, did not fall so constantly into the two general
types which later became universal ("Eastern"
and "Western"); but were rather "neutral" texts
which related the gospel story before the verbal phrase
ology had become stereotyped. It was,, seemingly, only
in later times that the adoration of the "letter" of the
New Testament began. The early Christians were
more interested in repeating the substance of the gospel
story and getting the spirit of the narratives than in
remembering the exact phraseology.
3. New Light Upon the Style of the New
Testament
The style of the New Testament was the style of
the Koine. As Moulton well says: Biblical Greek did
not "lie in a backwater"; it was in the "full stream."
No literary man of the day would have used this local
dialect. The Holy Ghost spoke in the vernacular. The
very grammar and dictionary cry out against men who
would allow the Scriptures to appear in any other form
than that understood by the people.
Each New Testament writer had individual char
acteristics, but, with the exception of Luke, the author
" Moulton, op. cit., pp. 42-38.

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 113
of the Hebrews, and Paul in a few of his epistles, these
were all written in the "vulgar tongue" of the first
century. Mark often uses the "dramatic present" just
as servant girls do now in their talk; but Luke
changed these tenses to suit literary proprieties. Luke
was quite familiar with the Greek Bible (LXX) and
consciously imitated it.25 He was a Gentile and the
most literary of the gospel writers. His vocabulary
illustrates his breadth of culture, for he uses 750
words, very many of which are technical medical terms
not occurring elsewhere in the New Testament in the
same sense (Hobart). While he has a fine command
of the popular diction there is a literary touch about
him not found in the papyri. Blass has even suggested
that his prolog was imitated from the opening of
Dioscorides' great work on materia medica, which he
probably had in his library.26 The author of the Epistle
to the Hebrews shows a quality of studied literary
style above all the other Bible writers. This book was
written by one who, tho he apparently knew no
Hebrew and used only the LXX, was filled with the
Semitic spirit. The vocabulary, like the style, is less
like the vernacular Koine than any book in the New
Testament. Of 87 words which are found in the LXX
and in this book alone in the New Testament, 74 belong
to the ancient literary works and only 13 to the ver
nacular.27 Paul, especially in Romans and Ephesians,
shows at times an almost classic perfection; yet this is
due to intellect and passion rather than to studied
effort. There is not space here to quote in full Pro-
25 Moulton, Prolegomena, p. 131 ; Camp. Bibl. Essays, p. 479.
"Philology of the Gospels, 1898, p. 34.
Robertson, Grammar of New Test, in the Light of Hist. Research, p.
132.

n4 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
f essor Robertson's keen analysis of Paul's style; but
perhaps a few quotations may show him in his relation
to the common language of his day:
"He disclaims classic elegance and calls himself 18ic5tt|c; t$
X6y<j> (2 Cor. 11:6); yet this was in contrast with the false taste of
the Corinthians. But Deissmann (St. Paul, p. 6) goes too far
in making Paul a mere tent-maker devoid of culture. He is
abrupt, paradoxical, bold, antithetical, now like a torrent, now
like a summer brook ; but it is passion, not ignorance nor careless
ness. . . . Paul's style is unhellenic in arrangement, but in
Romans 8 and 1 Cor. 13 he reaches the elevation and dignity of
Plato. . . . The grammar shows little Semitic influence. ... He
is noted for his varied use of the particles and writes with free
dom and accuracy, though his anacolutha are numerous, as in
Gal. 2 : 6-9. He uses prepositions with great frequency and dis
crimination. The genitive is employed by Paul with every variety
of application. The particle appears with great luxuriance and in
all sorts of ways . . . but even in a riot of language his thought
is clear, and Paul often draws a fine point on the turn of a word, or
a tense, or a case. . . . He thinks in Greek, and it is the vernacu
lar xoivr| of a brilliant and well-educated man in touch with the
Greek culture of his time though remaining thoroughly Jewish in
his mental fibre" (pp. 128-131).
"Luke was not an artificial rhetorician nor was Paul a mere
bungler. When Paul's heart was all ablaze with passion, as in
2 Cor., he did pile up participles like boulders on the mountain
side, a sort of volcanic eruption (cf. 2 Cor. 3:8-10; 6:9/;
9: 11 ff.) ; but there is always a path through these participles.
Paul would not let himself be caught in a net of mere grammatical
niceties. If necessary he broke the rule and went on" (Ibid. p.
1 136). It is evident that even Paul, genius as he was and
educated as he must have been, wrote in the common,
middle-class language of his day, lifting it, however,
to an unusual elevation of style and occasionally coin
ing a new word to fit his new and noble thought. Pro
fessor Souter notes three such probable originations on

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 115
the part of Paul, and Moulton notes one, "double-
minded," on the part of James. The other New Testa
ment books are undoubtedly examples of the vernacu
lar, both in grammar, vocabulary, and style, unless it
be the gospel of John. The latter contains Hebraisms
and a mystic cast of thought and expression which are
unusual either in the New Testament or out of it.
Yet in the formal grammar the Greek is "much like
the vernacular," and certain newly discovered Jewish
or early Christian documents, to be mentioned later,
show that its style and theological thought were not
entirely unknown in the first Christian century. The
vernacular, however, both in vocabulary and gram
matical idioms, is "far more in evidence in the Apoca
lypse than in the gospel and epistle" (Robertson). It
is also an interesting fact that the two New Testa
ment authors whose Greek jars upon us most (Rev.,
and 2 Peter) are the very two who are called in the
New Testament "ignorant and unlearned" (Acts
4:i3). The result of the most careful study of the papyri
during the last twenty years in their connection with
the New Testament proves that, while a certain Semitic
influence was felt by the New Testament writers, this
was chiefly due to the Septuagint, since most of the
grammatical forms previously supposed to be distinctly
Semitic are proved by the new discoveries to have
been common to the non-Jewish population of the
apostolic era. Jews would undoubtedly show their
Semitic "birthmarks" — which Deissmann was at first
inclined to forget — especially if they were brought up
in the teaching of the synagog; yet the fact remains
that this Semitic influence affected the thought and

116 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
spirit of their writings more largely than either the
grammar, style, or vocabulary. Dr. C. C. Torrey is
alone among experts in his strong statement that the
spoken Greek of the first century did not "even re
motely" resemble the language in which the gospels
were written; but he is right, I think, in seeing a
Semitic idiom underlying much of the Greek text, tho
this Semitic tinge is probably due more to ancestry and
the Septuagint than to any other causes named by him.28
Nevertheless, the synoptic gospels and Paul's letters are
related more closely in grammer and style to the papyri
of the first and second centuries than either to the
classical Greek or to the Septuagint. Many of Paul's
"jumbled phrases," and the piling up of negatives by
other New Testament writers (e.g., Mark 5:3; John
15: 5; Luke 23: 53; Heb. 13: 5; Rev. 18: 14, etc.) can
not be ascribed any longer to Hebrew influence, but to
the uncouth, unrevised vernacular which was commonly
used by the common people at that era. Luke, tho
a Gentile, used these supposed Semitisms almost as
freely as Matthew.
Even when Mark says "Beware of the scribes"
(12:38), this must not be regarded as a Hebraism,
since in a letter a.d. 41, a man counsels a friend who is
in money difficulties, "Beware of the Jews !" — this evi
dently coming from the pen of an enemy, and being,
so far as the writer knows, the first reference to this
race as money-lenders in the early Christian era.
Generally speaking, the language of the New Testa
ment, like that of the papyri, is the language of life
and not of books ; it is the language of nature, not of
the schools. Clearness is more desired than elegance.
28 Studies in the History of Religions, 1912, pp. 264-317.

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 117
There usually is no effort at rhetorical embellishment.29
The Greek of the New Testament compares with class
ical Greek as the English of Pilgrim's Progress and
Robinson Crusoe compares with the English of
Macaulay and Browning and Emerson. It compares in
style and vocabulary with the papyri as the modern
magazine of the better class compares in style and
vocabulary with the spoken language. This permits
in the Bible writers a beautiful simplicity and an occa
sional sublimity of expression, never found in other
papyri, while excluding the artificiality and affectation
so often present in first century "classics." Instead of
saying bluntly, as has been common of late, that the
New Testament literature was written in the vernacu
lar, it might be more accurate to say with Wellhausen
that in the gospels the spoken Greek became litera
ture.30 The New Testament does not contain the vul
garities common in the papyri, but lifts this spoken
language to a new dignity. No letter even from the
most cultured Roman has been found equaling in
beauty Paul's note written to the owner of the slave
Onesimus, where the play on this man's name — "his
name is Helpful • and he has been helpful to me" —
adds a literary charm to the peculiar Christian teach
ing of the missive.
It may be profitably noted that a comparison of
the New Testament letters with the private correspond
ence of contemporaries recently discovered shows that
St. Paul used the customary polite form which was
universal among the middle classes at that period.
There is an opening address or greeting followed by a
" Robertson, op. cit., pp. 71-74.
80 Einleitung in die drei ersten Evangelien, p. 9.

118 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
thanksgiving and prayer for the one to whom he writes,
followed by the special message which is the subject of
the letter, the whole being closed by salutations and
perhaps a word of prayer. It is now known for the
first time that this current epistolary phraseology was
so common as to be almost stereotyped.
One other point in regard to New Testament style
can only now be fully appreciated. The letters of the
New Testament and of the papyri were usually writ
ten to dictation and therefore must be read aloud to be
best appreciated.30" This is one reason for the vividness
of the New Testament language. Paul expected his
letters to "be read aloud to the brethren" (i Thess.
5:27), and any letter of special interest to be
passed from church to church (Col. 4: 16); this was
without doubt in accordance with the expectation of
other religious teachers at that time. Even when a
private letter was written the writer knew that if he
stated anything of unusual interest the neighbors
would be called in to hear it read, so that even in
private correspondence an audience was in mind. At
the end of a most unimportant private note just dis
covered, the writer, Serapion, says: "Copy my letter
and give it to N. N. Do not forget it. I pray you to
do it well."31
SOa Cf. Milligan, New Test. Documents, p. 103.
™ For a most interesting general discussion of the style of St. Paul and
other writers of the New Testament, see further Jiilicher, Introduction to
the New Testament, pp. 49-51 ; and Jacquier, The History of the Books of
the New Test., pp. 27$.

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 119
4. New Light Upon the Vocabulary of the
New Testament
Of the 5,000 words or more in the Greek New Tes
tament about 3,000 are found in ancient Attic writers.
The remainder are almost all taken from the Koine or
popular language of the first century. Only about
twenty Hebrew words appear in the New Testament,
altho it has not been many years since hundreds of
such words were acknowledged by scholars. These
supposedly Hebrew words have been found, however,
in the non-Jewish papyri and early inscriptions. A few
years ago Professor Kennedy 32 found about 550 words
of a form or used in a manner which he believed to be
peculiar to the New Testament; but to-day Deissmann
and others will admit only about fifty such words.33
Robertson in his Grammar of the Greek New Testa
ment in the Light of Historical Research (1914) gives
a list of some forty words which were supposed to be
"Biblical" until they were found recently in papyri,
and another list of over 150 words which, tho they had
been thought to possess a meaning peculiar to the
Septuagint or the New Testament, have recently been
found in the inscriptions or papyri. Thayer in Hastings'
Dictionary of the Bible 3i gives some twenty-five other
words, common to the New Testament and the vernac
ular, but not found in classic Greek. This all proves
convincingly that "the vocabulary of the New Testa
ment is practically the same as that of the vernacular
in the Roman empire in the first century after Christ"
(Robertson). ™ Sources of New Testament Greek, p. 62.
"Light from the Ancient East, p. 72.
""Language of the New Testament."

120 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Even some slang words were used by the New
Testament writers in order to give force to their state
ments among the "common people." While this was
recognized even before the new discoveries in the case
of certain colloquialisms like cxuMco "worry" (Matt.
9:36) and vnwniat,® (Luke 18:5) — which really
means "punish" in the slang of the prize-ring, as also
the kindred word in 1 Cor. 9 : 27, where Paul speaks
of "giving it to" his body (Expositor, 4:29-35) — yet
the papyri have opened up a large new field where this
popular phraseology can be for the first time fully
appreciated. The abbreviation of personal names, which has
long been recognized in the Bible MSS., finds a con
stant equivalent in the newly discovered papyri, pet
names being as commonly used then as now. Such
examples in the New Testament occur in Tit. 3: 12, 13;
Rom. 16: 7; 8, 14; Rev. 2: 13, etc. It gives a touch of
life seldom connected with the New Testament writings
to think of Apollos (Acts 18:24), Epaphras (Col.
1:7), Cleopas (Luke 24:18), Silas (Acts 15:22),
and Luke (everywhere in Paul's letters), appearing in
this familiar abbreviated form.
It must not be imagined, however, that there is
nothing original in the vocabulary or content of words
in the New Testament. While it is a great surprize to
find that many of the supposed new words in the
New Testament, such as "love-feast," "baptism,"
"Logos," "anathema," "presbyter," "bishop," "church"
(exxh\aia), etc., are used in the papyri without Chris
tian implication, showing that the names of Christian
rites and church officers grew up naturally out of the
existing conditions and were copied from existing

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 121
forms ; yet it is equally clear that many Christian terms,
altho used in the papyri, receive a new technical or
spiritual sense in the Biblical writings. Christianity,
the greatest religious movement which ever affected
civilization, produced also an effect upon language by
the formation of new ideas and the modification of old
ones.34" The New Testament is as different from the papyri
in its charm and spiritual elevation as from the ancient
classics. It used the common language of its day, but
it glorified and spiritualized it. Our latest and great
est New Testament grammarian gives a list of sixty-
five words and phrases which, tho Greek, were the
symbols of quite other than Greek ideas, having in the
New Testament a totally new connotation (Robertson,
op. cit., p. 115). Among these the following well-
known terms are conspicuous: "Charity" or "love,"
"holy," "sanctified," "brother," "recompense," "re
demption," "damnation," "apostle," "kingdom," "bap
tism," "justify," "righteous," "peace," "the Church,"
"elect," "hope," "converted," "gospel," "life," "death,"
"liberty," "priest," "the called," "atonement," "the
world," "fellowship," "ransom," "repentance," "the
Way," "comforter," "faith," "to believe," "the Spirit,"
"spiritual," "stumbling-block," "the flesh," "the cross,"
"conscience," "salvation," "Savior," "humility," "Son
of God," "Son of Man," "adoption," "grace," "natural"
(vs. "spiritual"), etc. To this list others might be
added such as the "Word," "minister," "the parousia,"
"mystery," "eucharist," etc., representing either new
words or old words with a new meaning when found
in the New Testament. It has been well said that these
*" So even Deissmann states, Ency. Bib., article "Papyri."

122 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
words with their new meanings contain in large part
"the history of Christianity."
No one, unless he has had the same experience, can
even imagine the excitement which comes to the student
who, when looking over a mass of blurred and broken
papyri, suddenly catches sight of some well-known
Biblical term. Such excitement came to the writer not
an hour ago, when as he examined certain ancient
scraps which he had recently obtained in the Fayum and
which likely no one had ever glanced at before except
the fellaheen, he caught sight of the word uioflov
("wages"). This word is found three times repeated
by Jesus in the phrase "they have their reward" (Matt.
6:2, 5, 16). Now the verb (djisxco), used here in con
nection with this term, is found scores of times in the
papyri in the sense of "receipt in full." It is a tech
nical expression which Deissmann first recognized as
giving a new and most vivid meaning to the words
of Jesus. He was speaking of the long prayers which
the Pharisees made on the corners of the streets "to be
seen of man," and with quiet irony he says of them:
"Verily they have received in full their reward" — that
is, they need not expect any answer to their prayers
from God, since they pray to be seen of men. They
have "received in full" the answer to their prayer when
men look at them as they pray! Paul also uses this
verb in the same sense (Phil. 4: 18), saying: "I give
you a receipt in full for all things" and "abound" be
cause of your kindness.
Another instance in which the new light cast upon
the exact local meaning of a word has made more
vivid the New Testament text can be found in the
reference to Jesus Christ as having been openly "set

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 123
forth" as crucified before the Galatians (Gal. 3:1);
for in one papyrus a father uses this same term (jiqo-
Yeatprfvai) when he speaks of having "placarded" or
caused a notice "to be posted up," declaring that he
would no longer be responsible for his son's debts see
ing he had squandered his own goods in "riotous liv
ing." 35
Another term long ago explained by Professor
Mahaffy,36 but recently illustrated by the papyri, which
gives a new and important meaning to a Scripture pas
sage is JtaiSaycoYog, translated "school-master" (Gal.
3:24). This well-known individual was not the head
master, but at best an inferior instructor, often being
merely a faithful slave whose chief duty was to bring
his master's sons safely to and from school, guarding
them from mischief on the way. When St. Paul said
the "law was the pedagog" to lead us to Christ, it was
Christ of whom he thought as the true "teacher," the
Old Testament law being only the Father's trusty
servant to bring the world to him. Multitudes of such
suggestions of a more vivid meaning in the original
Bible terms might be mentioned, as for example, when
we find St. Paul counting up the honors and hopes of
his youth and declaring that he counted all these things
which he had given up to be "loss" for Christ (Phil.
3:8). How it strengthens this expression when we
find that a papyrus uses this same word (£nuxa) for
the bones thrown out on the street to the dogs !
Another important term (jiuarriQiov) which occurs
a score of times in the New Testament meets us often
in the papyri. Jesus speaks of "the mystery of the
* The word used is dacOT&uonsvo^, corresponding exactly to that used
in Luke IS : 13.
" Greek Education, p. 29.

124 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
kingdom of God" (Mark 4: 11), and Paul again and
again of "the mystery which was kept secret," "the
wisdom of God in a mystery" (e.g., Rom. 16:25; 1
Cor. 2: 7). We usually think of a mystery as some
thing hidden; but in the New Testament it means
something revealed. It had been "kept secret" and
was still hidden to the world in general; but this mys
tery of God's nature and God's will had now been
"made known" (Eph. 3:3; 6: 19). The full meaning
of these expressions can hardly be understood unless
we bear in mind that the best religious force in the
first century was found in the mystery cults, which
sought to bring the ancient world out of its materialism
and debauchery into a serious consideration of these
"mysteries" of God — the unity of the worshiper with
deity; salvation and the future life. These matters
were absolutely dark to the pagan world in general;
but they were supposed to be revealed to the "initiated."
Paul again and again uses symbols and terms con
nected with these mystic rites. He does not, of course,
accept the doctrine of these heathen fraternities; but
he represents the Christian Church as being also a
mystery-fraternity in which the profoundest secrets of
God are made plain to the initiated through the revela
tion of the head master, Jesus; and the terminology
which he uses was a mystic terminology which the
new discoveries have found in the contemporary mys
tery documents, the meaning of which would be easily
grasped, therefore, by his hearers and readers, most
of whom were accustomed to them. It is to be noted
that ten of the twenty-six times in which this word
"mystery" is used in the New Testament, it is found in
Ephesians and Colossians. These mysteries encour-

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 125
aged purification by lustration, a "new birth," and sac
ramental communion with the deity. Gold tablets
found in tombs in widely separated districts show the
same aspiration on the part of these devotees:
"I am the son of earth and heaven ... I came
from the pure ... I have paid the penalty of unright
eousness ... I have flown out of the weary, sorrow
ful circle of life. . . . Oh, blessed and happy are those
who have put off their mortality and become divine."
Notwithstanding recent criticisms,37 the researches
of Reitzenstein,38 with the enormous mass of docu
ments which he produces, must be accepted as con
clusively proving the close relation between the Pauline
and mystery vocabularies. St. Paul was sensible
enough to use with discretion this point of contact with
the Greek people who had grown up in the atmosphere
of these mystic cults, the nature and process of the
salvation through Jesus the Christ being put in strik
ing contrast with that proclaimed by the Isis or Mithra
mystics. He used the current religious vocabulary to
teach a new doctrine. Salvation and immortality is not
reached by magic or ritual or deification; but by re
generation of the spirit and unity, not with a mythical
personage, but with the living Christ, this "new birth"
leading on to a new life of holiness utterly unknown,
so far as the evidence shows, to initiates of any other
religion.39 Some striking illustrations of New Testament
usages have come from the papyri, thus approving
translations of the New Testament texts which pre
viously had been doubtful. Thus in 1 Cor. 16: 1. a
"'E.g., Kennedy, St. Paul and the Mystery Religions, 1913.
"Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen, 1910.
89 See this point well stated by Kennedy, op. cit., pp. 211-218, 280-299.

126 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
unique Greek word (XoyEicc) was translated "collection";
this same word has recently been found with the same
meaning in some papyri. So also another word
(eMovdro) used by St. Paul when he bids Philemon
"put down to his account" any loss he may have suf
fered at the hands of Onesimus (verse 18), has been
found in several papyri with exactly the same meaning.
When Paul speaks of those who are "unsettling'7 his
converts (Gal. 5:12) he uses a word very common
in the papyri, where a man who is being driven to the
wall in money matters pleads with a creditor, "Do not
upset me"; and in another case a mother complains of
her naughty boy, "He is upsetting me!" (cf. Acts
17:6). An even more impressive illustration of the
new meaning given by the papyri to New Testament
expressions may be found, Mark 6 : 8, where Jesus sent
out his apostles telling them to take "no bread, no
wallet, no money." The wallet mentioned is now seen
not to have been a mere traveling bag, as was formerly
supposed, but almost certainly a beggar's "collecting
bag," such as peripatetic religious teachers were accus
tomed to carry at that time, for it is called by this same
name (jrqoa). Our Lord means to teach that his dis
ciples are to go out as laymen not in any special minis
terial garb or making any special claim of mendicant
piety, but nevertheless dependent for their living upon
those who "receive" the word.40
Deissmann, after a careful study of the papyri,
shows the depth and originality of the term "in Christ
Jesus" as used by Paul. Here we find the mystic in
dwelling of God in man unmistakably and constantly
40 For very many of the above suggestions I am indebted to Deissmann,
as also for those which immediately follow. See Light from the Ancient
East, chapters ii. and iv.

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 127
declared in a sense utterly inscrutable to the
heathen. The title "Lord" as given to Jesus is also now seen
from the papyri to have had a deeper meaning than
we had ever supposed. The fact that the Emperors,
when they became deified, as began to be common in the
first century, were addrest as "God," "Son of God,"
"Lord," "Saviour of the world," etc., , gives a new point
to the common use of these titles for Jesus. For the
first time we possess a new argument for the deity of
Jesus Christ, since the title Kuqioc; "Lord" could be
used only after the Caesar had been acknowledged as
God. We now see that the term Ruoiog, Inao-Oc; (Lord
Jesus) was a distinct ascription of deity to Christ, and
that its use must almost have been accounted an act of
direct antagonism to the claims of the Roman Emperor.
Indeed, the exact phrase by which deity was ascribed to
Jesus — "Great God and Saviour" (Tit. 2: 13; 2 Peter
1 : 1 ) — appears letter for letter in an inscription 2 B.C.,
in which the Emperor is given this title; tho of course
the difference in meaning as read by a Christian and
by a heathen was heaven high. It must not be for
gotten in this connection that 6 Ruoioc; is constantly
used in the Septuagint as a title of God.
St. Paul's confession of our "Lord" Jesus Christ,
like the complemental thought that the worshipers were
"slaves" of the Lord, was understood in its full mean
ing by everybody in the Hellenistic East. This be
comes still clearer if we compare, for instance, St. Paul's
expression, "the table of the Lord" (1 Cor. 10:21),
with the analogous Egyptian expression concerning
their chief deity, "the table of the Lord Serapis," re
cently discovered in a papyrus. So when a number of

128 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
papyri and ostraca recently discovered speak of Nero as
"the Lord," this is exactly synonymous with the inscrip
tions calling him "the God."' This is the reason St. Paul
insists that Jesus Christ is "our only Master and Lord"
(i Cor. 8:5, 6). No one can confess Jesus Christ as
"Lord" (Ruoioc;), but by the Holy Ghost (1 Cor.
I2:3)>" yef every tongue shall "confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord" (Phil. 2:9, 11). This claim of deity
wrapt up in the word explains why Polycarp went
to martyrdom rather than to say "Lord Caesar." "
All of this, as Deissmann shows, throws a brilliant
light upon the adjective, "the Lord's," that is, "belong
ing to the Lord" (xuoiajcog), as used in the New Testa
ment. So ordinarily used, the "Lord's Day" meant
"Emperor's day." So "Christian" (XQiaTiavoc;) meant
originally an imperial slave (Deissmann), or soldier
(Souter), belonging to the divine Christ, just as
"Caesarian" (Kaioapiavog) meant slave or soldier of
the Caesar. In the same way "freedman of the Lord"
(1 Cor. 7:22) corresponds to "freedman of the em
peror" (cf. John 15: 14), and the phrases so common
with the early Christians, "friend of Christ" and "ac
quainted with God," correspond exactly to the words
in the inscriptions "friend of the Emperor" and "ac
quainted with the Emperor." So the Biblical word
used for the ransomed sinner is used for manumitted
slaves. This manumission was always accompanied
by the blood of sacrifice (the law allowed slavery for
debts) ; therefore remission of debts was "blotting out
of the bond" (Col. 2: 14), and this was accomplished
" See Deissmann, op. cit, pp. 355, 360; cf. Moulton, Prolegomena, p. 84#;
Robertson, Grammar, p. 786; J. Weiss, Urchristenthum, p. 330#; Case,
Evolution of Early Christianity, pp. 109-116; 195-239.

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 129
in the first century by marking a cross over the writ
ing (Deissmann, op. cit., pp. 332, 337).
This is only a hint of what the papyri have done for
us in giving new shades of meaning to New Testament
language. To be sure, many of the proper names and
technical terms used in the New Testament are Semitic,
and a number of words common in the gospels, but
rare in the papyri, were evidently derived directly from
the Septuagint; yet as we turn the pages of Moulton
and Milligan's Vocabulary of the Greek Testament
(Parts I and II, 1914-1916), there is not a leaf which
does not show some new light from the papyri on some
well-known Biblical word. For example, selecting in
stances quite at random, Jesus is said not merely to have
been "slain" but actually "murdered" (Acts 10: 39) ; the
men who raised a riot against Silas and Paul at Thessa-
lonica (Acts 17: 5) were not merely lewd fellows of
the baser sort, but "market-place agitators" ; Peter and
John (Acts 4: 13), and Jesus also (John 7: 15), were
actually declared by their calumniators (according to
the common meaning of the word) to be unable to
\ write; John Baptist was not counted worthy to "take
off" his Master's sandals (Matt. 3: 11) ; Paul was not
only beaten "uncondemned" but also "untried" (Acts
16: 37; 22 : 25) ; he is called not simply an architect, but
rather "chief engineer" ( 1 Cor. 3 : 10) ; Mnason was not
an "aged" disciple, but an "original" disciple (Acts
21 : 16) ; Jesus is not called the "captain" but the
"originator" of our salvation (Heb. 2: 10) ; God is not
an "austere" but an "exacting" employer (Luke
19:21); Judas not only "bare" but "bare off" (i.e.,
stole) the "bag" — i.e., as the papyri show, the "money
bag" (John 12: 6) ; Jesus is set forth as an "example"

130 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
in the sense of "sample" or "pattern" (Jude 7) ; Paul's
prayers (Phil. 1:4) become "strong entreaties";
"doubting" (1 Tim. 2: 8) becomes "debating"; "I have
kept the faith" (2 Tim. 4:7) is changed to the very
strong statement, "I have guarded my trust" ; while the
apostle's "thorn" in the flesh becomes a "stake"; tho
the "beam" in the eye of the Pharisaic critic (Matt.
7:3) now becomes the less dangerous but more irrita
ting "splinter."
These changes may seem small, but they are not
inconsequential if they actually give more perfectly the
sense of the inspired Word; and there are many other
changes more significant, e.g., the "immutability" of
God's counsel (Heb. 6: 17) gains strength when we
notice that the word used is the technical term
common in wills which could not be altered; our "calling
and election" is made "legally secure" (2 Peter 1 : 10) ;
and the word spoken to angels is "guaranteed" to us
(Heb. 2:2); the "fruits of the earth" (Matt. 26:29;
Mark 14: 25), the orthography of which was universally
accepted as a blunder of the New Testament manu
scripts, is now attested by a multitude of papyri; while
the injunction, "Let him have thy cloak also" (Matt.
5:40), gets a new force when we find a pawnbroker
disposing of one of these outer garments for 2,700
drachmae of copper ; Thomas Didymus "the twin" (John
11 : 16) appears to us in a new light when we notice the
custom of naming boys "twin" with direct reference to
Castor and Pollux, the patron saints of heathen sailors
in the first century of our era; while the scornful
reference of our Lord to the "vain repetitions" (the
"blather") of the praying hypocrites (Matt. 6:7), be
comes more marked when we notice that this very

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 131
Greek root occurs in the sneering nickname of Demos
thenes as the "babbler" ((MrtaXoc;).
This list could be immeasurably increased, but per
haps we have given a sufficient number of instances to
illustrate the value of the papyri in illuminating the
New Testament vocabulary. Many others will appear
later in the course of the discussion.42
"Greek students who may not feel able to purchase the incomparable
"Vocabulary" of Moulton and Milligan (Hodder & Stoughton, 1914, ff.),
with its detailed references to the papyri, will find it much to their advan
tage to obtain Prof. Alex. Souter's little Pocket Lexicon (Oxford, Claren
don Press, 1916) , which constantly makes use of the new knowledge.

Ill

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS RECENTLY
DISCOVERED
i. Greek New Testaments
The writer was working in London University
when the first sensational discovery was made of a leaf
from a pocket Bible which had been carried by an
Egyptian Christian of the third century. This leaf was
a hundred years older than any other fragment of
Scripture previously known. It was written on poor
papyrus in a fairly good hand and well represented the
New Testaments which were being used by poor men
in the days of the martyrs. The book must originally
have been composed of twenty-four or twenty-five
sheets of papyrus.
Only those who have come personally into close
touch with supremely important discoveries can un
derstand with what eagerness this discolored leaf
was examined by every one interested in the authen
ticity of the New Testament writings. It had been
written generations before the great council of Con-
stantine — was it the same Biblical text as that which
in uninterrupted succession continued to be used from
the fourth century onward ? The whole tone of modern
New Testament criticism was changed for the better
when it was found that, with the exception of a slightly
different spelling of three proper names, David, Zerah,
and Amminadab, and the omission of two articles be
fore proper names, this oldest extant manuscript of
[132I

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 133
the New Testament agreed exactly with the Westcott
and Hort Greek text which formed the basis of our
Revised Version — having even the same abbreviations
and one wrongly placed rough breathing. It looked
as if the Church of the martyrs possest the same New
Testament as our fathers revered.
(i) ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS PREVIOUSLY KNOWN
Previous to this discovery the oldest Greek manu
scripts known to be in existence were those now to be
described.
Codex Sinaiticus.
It was just fifty-two years before this discovery at
Oxyrhynchus that Dr. Constantine Tischendorf dis
covered in the Convent of St. Catharine at Mt. Sinai
this most famous of all manuscripts. The discovery as
he himself told it was most picturesque:
"I perceived in the middle of the great hall a large and wide
basket full of old parchments ; and the librarian who was a man of
information told me that two heaps of papers like this mouldered
by time had been already committed to the flames. What was my
surprise to find amid this heap of papers a considerable number
of sheets of a copy of the Old Testament in Greek which seemed
to me to be one of the most ancient I had ever seen. The
authorities of the Convent allowed me to possess myself of a third
of these parchments or about 45 sheets all the more readily as
they were destined for the fire. But I could not get them to yield
up possession of the remainder." 1
In 1853 a second journey was made, but no further
traces of the treasure of 1844 was found. But on Feb.
7, 1859, having again reached the convent through
the favor of the Emperor of Russia, he was shown a
bulky volume wrapt in a red cloth.
1 Narrative of the Discovery of the Sinaitic Manuscript, 1866, p. 28.

134 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
"I unrolled the cover and discovered to my surprise not only
those very fragments which fifteen years before I had taken out
of the basket, but also other parts of the Old Testament, the New
Testament complete and in addition the Epistle of Barnabas and
a part of the 'Pastor of Hermas.' ... I knew that I held in my
hands the most precious Biblical treasure in existence, a document
whose age and importance exceeded that of all the manuscripts
which I had ever examined during twenty years of study of the
subject. ... On the 27th of September I returned to Cairo.
The monks and archbishops then warmly expressed their thanks
for my jealous efforts in their cause and the following day I re
ceived from them, under the form of a loan, the Sinaitic Bible to
carry to St. Petersburg and there to have it copied as accurately
as possible. I set out for Egypt early in October and on the
19th of November I presented to their Imperial Majesties in the
Winter Palace at Tsarkoe-Selo my rich collection of old Greek,
Syriac, Coptic, Arabic, and other manuscripts in the middle of
which the Sinaitic Bible shone like a icrown." 2
Dr. Tischendorf well considered this discovery
greater than that of the "koh-i-noor of the Queen of
England." The manuscript still remains as, perhaps,
the greatest Biblical treasure of Europe ; tho the present
writer can testify that the monks at Mt. Sinai have no
words too bitter for the man who carried it off. It
should be remembered, however, that the Czar in 1869
sent to the monks of St. Catharine 7,000 rubles and
various decorations in return for this manuscript, and
no written protest against this settlement is known to
exist. This most important manuscript is accepted by all
competent authorities as dating from the fourth cen
tury and is practically complete. It can now be ex
amined by scholars in a photographic edition taken in
St. Petersburg in 1908 by Helen and Kirsopp Lake
with the help of Dr. Kenyon, Dr. Hunt, etc. It is a
'Ibid., pp. 29-35, 40..

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 135
vellum manuscript written in four columns, forty-
eight lines to each page. It contained originally
the entire Bible, and the New Testament is still
complete. Some time between the fifth and seventh
century after Christ the manuscript lay in the library
at Csesarea, which was one of the three great libraries
of the Christian world as early as the third century, the
other two being at Jerusalem and Alexandria. This
library was famous in the day of Eusebius and was used
by St. Jerome (b. a.d. 345), who said that the original
Biblical papyri preserved here were wearing out in his
time and were being recopied in parchment. This
library was probably destroyed by the Arabs a.d. 630,
and it is very likely that this precious manuscript was
at that time carried from Csesarea to Mt. Sinai by
refugees. It was not written by the same scribe as
wrote the Codex Vaticanus, tho they probably belonged
to the same scriptorium; neither was it one of Con-
stantine's copies made for Constantinople. It is pos
sible that it was originally written at Csesarea, tho it is
almost certain that it came from Egypt, probably
Alexandria; its date is between a.d. 340-367, the
earlier year being the more probable date.3 The manu
script is a fine parchment made from the skin of some
rather large animal, perhaps an antelope as Tischen-
dorf suggested. The original text was written by
three or four scribes, a few notes and corrections being
made later.
Codex Vaticanus.
An uncial manuscript of the fourth century, being
practically of the same age as the Codex Sinaiticus,
tho it is now generally held by textual critics to be a
' Codex Sinaiticus, by Helen and Kirsopp Lake, 1911, p. xv.

136 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES'
little older.4 It originally contained the whole Bible,
but is now lacking in the Old Testament, Gen. 1-46, Ps.
105-137, and in the New Testament, Heb. 9: 14 to end;
1 and 2 Timothy; Titus; Philemon and Revelation/. It
was written by three scribes, the text being corrected
by two, one of these being a contemporary of the
original writer, and the other of the tenth or eleventh
century. The latter probably re-inked the manuscript,
unless this was done by a monk of the fifteenth cen
tury. It is first mentioned in the catalog of the Vatican
in 148 1. Pope Sixtus V made it the basis of an edi^
tion of the Greek Old Testament in 1580, thereby de^
termining the "received text" of that portion of the
Bible. Tho used by Rome it was not published to
scholars until 1828-38 (5 vols.), and then very in
accurately. A better edition followed (1868-81), and
new phototypic editions were published 1889-90*: 1905V*!
The manuscript is of parchment,' three columns^ on
each page, and much resembles Codex Alexandrinus
in its form. It was reckoned as the chief authority
among MSS. for the Greek Testament of Westcott and
Hort. It is the best example of the so-called "Neutral"
text, except in the Pauline epistles, where it has a
strong "Western" element.
Codex Alexandrinus.
This is another most famous New Testament manu
script. It contains almost the entire Bible and at the
foot of the first page of Genesis is a note written in
Arabic :
"Made an inalienable gift to the Patriarchal Cell in the City
of Alexandria. Whosoever shall remove it thence shall be ac
cursed and cut off. Written by Athanasius the humble."
'Kenyon, Handbook, 1912, p. 77.

MARCUS AURELIUS
a.d. 161
ROMAN EMPERORS

CONSTANTINE
A.D. 311

Buata more or less recently discovered, of some Eoman Emperors who were in some way vitally connected with
the development of early Christianity

t-c ' *-Xf e '¦¦
li'WtfS t-K—ny fir') ' .

l >v>\4

¦v H r^f'^'^A'^W vf*ic. r;).*C,*V-f/jV.f» .

v rt

r •¦ N "'
. r>JN

-, ,
LEAF FROM ST. MATTHEW'S GOSI'EL (THIRD CENTURY)
From "The Oxyrhynchus Papyri," Part I, Plate 1 (Egypt Exploration Fund)
ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 137
This "humble" scribe was probably the Melchite
patriarch who died a.d. 1308. Another note in Arabic
of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, written back
of the Table of Books, records the fact that the manu
script was written by the martyr Thecla, but this is
probably inaccurate.
The manuscript is on very fine vejlum and consists
of 773 leaves, measuring 12% x 10 inches. The text
is written in double columns and. the opening lines of
each book and also the titles of the Psalms are written
in red. The first letter of each paragraph is enlarged
and stands in the margin. Some of the Greek letters
have Egyptian forms ; quotations • are marked with an
arrow-head in the margin. There are numerous cor
rections generally written- over erasures, , but single
letters are struck out with the pen or marked for omis
sion "with a fine oblique stroke resembling an acute
accent." No accents or breathings occurred in the orig
inal text, tho some were added later.5
This manuscript is an uncial not later than the
"middle or end of the fifth century" (Nestle). It
originally contained the whole of the Old and New
Testaments, including the Psalms of Solomon in the
former and 1 and 2 Clement in the latter; but it has
suffered mutilation in a few places, the beginning of
Matthew's gospel being absent (chaps. 1-24); and also
John 6: 50, 8: 52; 2 Cor. 4: 13, 12: 7. We shall not
describe it further as the new discoveries do not re
quire it, since the codex came to Europe early in the
seventeenth century. It represents essentially the text
of the King James version.
6 Facsimile of the Codex Alexandrinus, 4 vols., pub. by British Museum
1881, with critical introduction by E. Maude Thompson Most of the
above statements were taken from this work.

138 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Codex Bezae (Cantabrigiensis) .
This manuscript is not later than the sixth century
and perhaps considerably earlier. It is a Greek-Latin
manuscript of the New Testament containing 409
leaves, and represents the oldest and best form of the
Western text. It was presented to the University of
Cambridge by Calvin's friend, Theodore Beza, in
1581, having been obtained by him after the sack of
Lyons in 1562. Its early history is doubtful. It never
contained the Old Testament, but contains the Four
Gospels with a few lacunae, the Acts, and the conclud
ing verses (in Latin) of 3 John. At least nine later
hands worked upon it. It is unique among the Biblical
manuscripts. It alone contains the incident of the man
working in the field on the Sabbath day (following
Luke 6:4), to whom Jesus said: "Oh man, if thou
knowest what thou doest, blessed are thou; but if thou
knowest not, thou art cursed and a transgressor of
the law." It alone renders Luke 11:2, "When you pray
use not vain repetitions as the 'others' (Amitoi) do"; and
it also stands alone in a number of other readings and
in certain omissions (e.g., Luke 22: 20; 24: 12, 36, 40,
51). The text of this manuscript differs widely from
any other Greek manuscript, but finds affinities with
the Old Syriac and the Old Latin versions. The varia
tions in the text of the Acts are so frequent that these
have given rise to the theory that this represents a
different edition of the book issued by St. Luke himself
(F. Blass, Nestle, Salmon) ; but such a theory would
not account for similar variants of the Western text
in other Bible books.6 Sir F. G. Kenyon believes that
this and other Western texts represent private rather
" See Kenyon, Handbook, pp. 79, 301.

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 139
than church copies of the Bible, and were, therefore,
written less scrupulously. It was written in two lan
guages, because near Byzantium where it, like other
Greek-Latin texts, probably originated, the inhabitants
spoke Latin, while the invaders spoke Greek. A bi
lingual Bible was, therefore, a necessity for church
services.7 Hoskier and others rank this text above
either the Sinaiticus or the Vatican Codex.7a
Such were all the oldest New Testament MSS. of
the first class known in the world up to the end of the
nineteenth century. Among particularly valuable New
Testament manuscripts of the second class known pre
viously to 1896 might be mentioned the Codex Claro-
montanus for the Pauline epistles; the Codex Laudi-
anus for Acts; the Codex Dublinensis for Matthew's
gospel; the Codex Nitriensis for Luke's gospel, all of
which were of the sixth century. Perhaps particularly
interesting to most readers would be the four silver
lettered purple manuscripts of the Four Gospels, all
made after the pattern of Codex Nitriensis, the first
of which was found in 1879, and the last in 1896, when
182 leaves of these beautiful MSS. came to light.
(2) NEWLY DISCOVERED FRAGMENTS OF ANCIENT NEW
TESTAMENTS (4TH-5TH CENTURIES) WRITTEN
UPON SKINS AND CATALOGUED BY GREGORY
In 1909 Dr. Caspar Rene Gregory, a celebrated
scholar born in America, but since 1889 a professor in
the University of Leipzig,7" catalogued all the known
'See the illuminating statement by Alex. Souter in Journal Theol.
Studies, 6 : 240#.
7a Codex B. and its Allies, H. C. Hoskier, 1914.
76 He was killed in the Great War on April 9, 1917.

140 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
manuscripts of the New Testament in all lands. Among
these, if I count correctly, he listed between thirty-five
and forty fragments of parchment and vellum New
Testaments dating from the fourth to the sixth century,
inclusive; at least sixteen or seventeen of these repre
senting discoveries which had been made within less
than twenty years of the publication of his great work.8
We will now give the most important of these newly
discovered texts, listed by Gregory.
Matthew i : 21 ; 2: 2 (5th or 6th Century) — This text, which
was first published by Grenfell and Hunt (Oxyrhynchus
Papyri, III, No. 401), contains the account of the virgin
birth of Jesus and the visit of the Magi. It is a leaf from a
vellum book, written in very small characters. A letter is
occasionally inserted by mistake and in one case an omitted
letter is placed above the line (2:2); but on the whole it is
well written and agrees with the regular text.
Matthew 6:5, 6, 8, 9, 13-15 (4th Century)— This was first
published in 1901 and gives us the beginning and end of the
Lord's Prayer.
Matthew 7:7, 22; 11:5, 12, 13; 7:47, 54; 14:4, 13, 20;
15:11, 16, 18; 17:2, 24; 18:4, 9; 19:3, io, 17, 25; 20:9;
21:5, 12; 22:7, 15, 24, 32; 23:35; 24:3, 12, 16, 30 (6th
Century) — This is a beautiful purple, gold-letter manuscript
of forty-three leaves, which was found in 1899 at Sinob.
The original text contained pictures .of Herodias asking for
the head of John the Baptist, the feeding of the five thousand,
and also of the four thousand, the healing of the blind man
at Jericho, and the cursing of the fig tree. The text, without
the pictures, is given by Gregory with critical notes.
Matthew 18: 18, 19, 22, 23, 26, 28, 29 (4th or 5th Century)—
This text has recently been published by Wessely. 9 It is a
much broken parchment leaf of thirty-six lines, beautifully
written in narrow columns. There is one misspelled word to
which an observant reader has called attention by writing
" Textkritik des Neuen Testaments, Dritter Band, 1909.
* Griechische und koptische Texte, Inhalt, III, 89, text 24.

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 141
"sic" in the margin. The passage contains a portion of the
parable of the man who owed 10,000 talents ; and some nota
ble expressions stand out in the text, "Whatsoever things ye
shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven" ; "if two of you
shall agree ... it shall be done for them," etc.
Mark 6:28, 29; Luke 2: 1, 8 (4th or 5th Century) — This
text was brought to light in 1899. It tells of the burial of
John the Baptist and the birth of Jesus.
Mark 6: 30b — 41 (6th Century) — This is a vellum fragment
recorded by Deissmann in Die Septuaginta-Papyri und an-
dere altchristliche Fragmente (Heidelberg, 1905). The
eleven verses preserved are marked by thirty variations from
the Textus receptus, in many of which the fragment agrees
with the Westcott and Hort text.9"
Mark 15:29-33-38 (4th Century) — Gregory gives this entire
text with critical notes (op. cit., pp. 73-74), and it has been
re-edited by Wessely in a very beautiful manner (op. cit.,
Ill, No. 186, text 21). It is a parchment leaf
excellently preserved and written on both sides. It con
tains only five verses to a page, so that it must have repre
sented a very small "Diamond Edition" of the New Testa
ment. The word "cross" is so abbreviated as to make the
cross literally appear in the word itself, and this has been
done also in writing the word "crucifixion." The most
curious and interesting reading is the expression put upon
the lips of the priests who mocked Jesus : "He saved others ;
he can save himself." Was the "not" omitted from the last
phrase through mistake or because of the reverence of the
scribe ?
Mark 10:50, 51; 11: 11, 12 (5th or 6th Century)— A leaf
from a vellum book now preserved in the Chicago University.
It agrees with the ordinary Greek text and has no peculiarity
deserving of attention. It tells of the blind man who, cast
ing away his garment, came to Jesus and was healed; and
of our Lord's visit to Bethany.
Luke 12: 15; 13:32; John 8:33, 42 (5th Century)— This
text is of little importance excepting as it represents a volume
8aI am indebted to Prof. Wallace N. Stearns, Fargo College, Fargo,
N. Dak., for this reference.

142 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
in which the four gospels were bound together with Coptic
and Sahidic translations. It closes with the verse in which
Jesus declares, "I proceeded and came from God, neither
have I come of myself, but he sent me."
John 2: 11-22 (4th Century) — First published in Oxyrhyn
chus Papyri, VI, No. 847. It is a vellum leaf practically
entire, containing a dozen verses in a text more closely re
sembling that of the Vatican than of the Sinaiticus. It men
tions the "manifestation of his glory" at Cana of Galilee, and
then describes the equally glorious act of the Messiah in
driving out the money-changers from the worshiping place
of the Gentiles in the temple.
Acts 2:11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20 (5th or 6th Century) — This
important text, first published in 1900 (Amherst Papyri),
is given in full by Gregory with critical notes. It deals with
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the day of Pentecost.
Acts 3:24 — 4:13, 17-20 (4th Century) — This text pre
served in Berlin, gives the end of Peter's speech at Pente
cost and describes the consternation of the rulers at the
"boldness" of these "unlearned and ignorant" men.
Acts 13:28-31 (5th Century)— -First appeared in 1894 in
Studia Sinaitica. It gives a few words from Paul's speech
at Antioch, where he refers to the death and burial of Jesus,
tho Pilate had "found no. cause of death in him."
Acts 24 : 22-26, 27 ; 1 Peter 2 : 22 — 3 : 7 (6th Century)— This
text was first published by Charles Taylor in his Genizeh
Palimpsests, in 1900. It represents fragments taken from a
volume which contained, probably, the entire New Testa
ment. The first quotation represents a portion of Paul's
speech before Felix ; the second begins with Peter's statement
concerning Christ, "who did no sin, neither was guile found
in his mouth," and who "his own self bore our sins in his
body on the tree."
Acts 28: 30— 31 : ia (late 5th Century)— A vellum fragment
¦listed by Deissmann in Die Septuaginta Papyri. It shows a
few minor unimportant variants.911
•"I am indebted to Professor Stearns for this reference.

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 143
Revelation 16: 17-20 (5th Century) — Published in Oxyrhyn
chus Papyri, VI, No. 848. It is a leaf from a vellum book
of remarkably small size, the written surface being only four
inches in height. The text agrees most closely with the
Codex Alexandrinus. It contains a description of the pour
ing forth of the seventh bowl of God's wrath upon the earth.
Dr. Gregory catalogued and briefly criticized the
newly found Washington Codex, to be mentioned later,
and gave a list of a dozen papyri dating from the third
to the sixth century, which list is the basis of later
catalogs. The study of the New Testament has been
splendidly advanced by this notable work.10
(3) RECENTLY DISCOVERED PORTIONS OF NEW TESTA
MENTS (3RD-4TH CENTURIES) WRITTEN
UPON PAPYRUS AND CATALOGUED BY
GREGORY AND KENYON
The startling discovery in 1897 of a leaf from a
papyrus New Testament over sixteen hundred years
old (see above) was followed very rapidly by others,
until Sir F. G. Kenyon, of the British Museum, in his
Hand-book to the Textual Criticism of the New Testa
ment (1912), and Dr. George Milligan, of the Univer
sity of Glasgow, in his New Testament Documents
(1913), could add eight more to the list given by
Gregory (1909), thus cataloging and describing some
fifteen leaves from twelve or thirteen different papyrus
Bibles or lectionaries which were being used by the
early Christians from the third to the sixth century,
and seven or eight fragments from rolls of Scripture
"Gregory's numbers for the texts referred to above are: 071, 01S2,
023, Tt, Evl. 1043, 0149, Tu, 069, Twoi, 0162, 076, 0165, 077, 093,
0163. There are several others among Gregory's texts which probably were
discovered as early as those recorded above; but the writer has not been
able to find proof of this.

144 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
equally early. We give below this remarkable list,
merely classifying the texts differently, and adding
comments of our own.
ANCIENT PAPYRUS NEW TESTAMENTS CATALOGUED BY
SIR F. G. KENYON U
Fragments of Ancient Papyrus Books Containing Portions of
St. Matthew's Gospel.
Matt, i : 1-9, 12, 14-20 (3d Century) — This is the leaf from a
papyrus book referred to above. It is written in capital letters
(uncials). When discovered it was the "oldest known manu
script of any part of the New Testament." In a very clear
way it supports the Eastern text represented by Westcott and
Hort's Greek Testament. It gives the genealogy and birth of
Jesus.Matt. 10:32-37^ 39-42; 11:1-5 (Sth Century) — This gives
us probably the oldest authority for reading ccurov (10:32).
It contains the great discourse of Jesus in which he says, "He
that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of
me," and "He that doth not take his cross and follow after
me is not worthy of me."
Fragments of Ancient Papyrus Books Containing Portions of
St. Luke's Gospel.
Luke 1 : 74-80 ; 5:3-8; 5 : 30 — 6 : 4 (4th Century)— Here in
the midst of the broken text one can still see standing out in
characters written over 1,500 years ago the eternal message
"I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repent
ance."
Luke 7 : 36-44 ; 10 : 38-42 (6th Century) — This is written in
a cursive hand and tells of the Mary who hath "chosen the
good part," and of the woman that was a sinner who broke
the box of ointment over our Lord and ceased not to kiss his
feet.12
"Based on Gregory's list given Die griechischen Handschriften des
Neuen Test. (1908), pp. 45-47, and Textkritik des Neuen Test. (1900-
1909), III., pp. 1084-1092.
12 Both this and the text above are catalogued by Gregory as Liturgies
(Nos. 943, 348), rather than leaves of New Testaments.

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 145
Fragments of Ancient Papyrus Books Containing Portions of
St. John's Gospel.
John 1 : 23-31, 33-41 ; 20: 11-17, 19-25 (3d or 4th Century)—
This is a long and very important text which agrees generally
with the Codex Sinaiticus and in several instances supports it
with readings not found elsewhere. This leaf from one of
the most ancient fragments of the New Testament in exist
ence contains the testimony of John the Baptist to Jesus, and
here in plain Greek, as it was written over 1,500 years ago, we
can read the world-shaking announcement concerning the
Lamb of God "that taketh away the sin of the world," and
also the narrative of the resurrection of Jesus.
John 12: 12-15 (5th or 6th Century) — This text the writer
has not seen and does not know whether it is a roll or a leaf.
At any rate it contains the passage which reads : "Hosannah !
 the king cometh."
John 3 : 14-18, 31, 32 (6th Century) — These texts are written
on fragments of two leaves of a papyrus book which com
menced with St. John's gospel. Tho left undated by Sir
F. G. Kenyon, it is probably to be dated to the sixth century
(see Publicazioni della societa Itaiiana — Pap. greci. V. 1,
No. 3). In verse 18 "in the name" (of the only begotten
Son of God) is twice repeated probably by a copyist's error,
and the last half of verse 31 is wanting. But these slight
scribal errors are forgotten when one sees the statement,
"for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
Son," etc.
Fragment of an Ancient Papyrus Book Containing a Portion of
the Acts of the Apostles.
Acts 4:31-37; 5:2-9; 6:1-6, 8-15 (4th Century)— This is
one of the most important and one of the best preserved of all
the texts given by Drs. Milligan and Kenyon, showing no
break excepting an occasional word at the end of a line.
It was found in 1903 and represents two good leaves from
one of the most ancient New Testaments in existence. It
begins with the statement that the disciples were "all filled
with the Holy Spirit . . . and with great power gave the
apostles their witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,"
continues by giving the story of Ananias and Sapphira and

146 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
the appointing of the seven deacons, and ends with the thrill
ing account of the death of Stephen.
Fragments of Ancient Papyrus Books Containing Portions of the
General Epistles of St. Paul.
Rom. i : 1-7 (Early ¦ 4th Century) — Altho included in
Kenyon's list, this appears in such rude penmanship that
Grenfell and Hunt think it to have been a school-boy's exer
cise, but Deissmann thinks it was a gospel amulet. In any
case, out of that far-distant century we get in the rough
chirography of this peasant the declaration that Christ Jesus
"was declared to be the Son of God with power (YY0YENA-
YNAMEI)by the resurrection of the dead."
Rom. 12: 3-8 (Late 6th or 7th Century) — This passage was
probably copied out in this form to be read in the church.
It contains the famous passage which describes Christians as
members of Christ's body.13
I Cor. 7: 18-8:4; Phil- 3:9-17; 4=2-8 (Second half of 4th
Century) — Two leaves from a papyrus book containing the
Pauline argument that love is greater than knowledge, for
"knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up"; also his
teaching concerning the "power of his resurrection and the
fellowship of his sufferings," and the heroic expression of
the apostle's determination to press on "unto the prize.''
A comma is sometimes used to separate the syllables. To in
dicate long pauses a blank, coronis, or other mark to catch the
eye is used.
I Cor. 1 : 17-20; 6: 13-18; 7: 3, 4, 10-14* (5th Century) — Five
fragments written in large letters declaring : "Christ sent me
not to baptize but to preach the gospel . . . for the word of.
the cross . . . unto us who are saved is the power of God,"
etc.I Cor. 1:25-27; 2:6-8; 3:8-10, 20 (5th Century) — Seven
small fragments very much mutilated but containing those
great passages which speak of "God's wisdom in a mystery,"
"we are God's fellow workers," etc.
13 This is, however, probably a fragment of a lectionary rather than of a
New Testament, as the marks usually used to catch the eye iu public read
ing are still plainly visible.

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 147
Fragment of an Ancient Papyrus Book Containing a Portion of a
Pastoral Epistle.
Titus 1:11-15; 2:3-8 (3d Century)— A leaf from a papy
rus book in which Timothy is urged to show himself an
example not in "uncorruptness" (dcpftopiav), as our A. V.
reads (2:7), but in "freedom from envy" (dqj&ovuxv).
Fragments of Ancient Papyrus Books Containing Portions of
Hebrews.
Heb. 1:1 (3d or 4th Century)— Altho included in the list
of Kenyon and Milligan, this is not properly designated as a
"leaf" from an ancient New Testament, for, altho it is
among the earliest known Biblical fragments, it is really
written on the margin of a letter : "God having of old time
spoken unto our fathers," etc.
Heb. 2 : 14-5 : 5 ; 10 : 8-1 1 : 13 ; 11: 28-12 : 17 (Early 4th Cen
tury) — This is a very large manuscript containing about one-
third of the epistle to the Hebrews. It was written on the
back of a papyrus containing the new epitome of Livy (Oxy
rhynchus Papyri, 4 : 668). Eleven broad columns of the text
remain, filling eight quarto pages when printed. The numbers
on the ancient leaves prove that other books of the New
Testament preceded the book of Hebrews in this very ancient
collection. The text is good, but the spelling is poor. The
form of punctuation used is that of a double point. It con
tains the entire argument concerning the "great salvation"
which had been confirmed by "signs and wonders . . . and
gifts of the Holy Spirit." It is a very valuable contribution
to text criticism.
Heb. 9 : 12-19 (4th Century) — The same system of punctua
tion mentioned above is found here. In the text one reads
about the "blood of Christ" and the "eternal spirit."
Fragment of an Ancient Papyrus Book Containing a Portion of
the Epistle of St. James.
James 2:19-3:9 (Late 3d Century) — This leaf containing
a text in general agreement with that of the Vatican Codex
gives the argument that if a man has faith he must have
works also ; a man's tongue must be pure if his heart is pure.

148 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Fragment of an Ancient Papyrus Book Containing a Portion of
I John.
i John 4: 11-12, 14-17 (4th or 5th Century) — This text has
been carelessly copied, but one can still read : "Behold if God
so loved, we also should love ... the Father hath sent the
Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess
that Jesus is the Son of (God) in him God abideth."
Fragments of an Ancient Papyrus Roll Containing Portions of
the Book of Revelation.
Rev. 1 : 4-7 (4th Century?) — This text is written on the back
of a roll containing the book of Exodus, dating from the third
or fourth century, in which Jesus Christ is spoken of as the
"faithful witness . . . ruler of the kings of the earth . . .
who cleansed us of our sins by his blood." The text is whole
with the exception of two letters. The name Jesus Christ is
abbreviated in rather an unusual way (it) Xe).

The discovery within twenty years of the above
twenty fragments from some twenty different ancient
New Testaments or lectionaries was a wonderful sur
prize, and proved the integrity of the ancient texts in
a manner entirely satisfactory to believers. Sir F. G.
Kenyon omitted, however, from his survey the newly
discovered texts written on parchment and vellum, and
even since the above list of Biblical papyri was tabu
lated by Kenyon and Milligan (1912-13), a few other
equally surprizing discoveries have come to light; so
that the writer is now able to give an additional list
of twenty-eight ancient New Testaments (seventeen on
skin and eleven on papyrus) to supplement the notable
catalogs given above.13*
1M Several of the Papyrus fragments listed by Gregory (such as P' and
P18), are omitted from the above list because they are undated or are
certainly not pieces of New Testaments.

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 149
(4) OTHER MORE RECENTLY DISCOVERED ANCIENT NEW
TESTAMENTS ON PAPYRI, PARCHMENT OR VEL
LUM DATING FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH
CENTURIES."
Fragments of Ancient New Testaments Containing Portions of
St. Matthew's Gospel.
Matt. 6:5, 6, 8, 9, 13-15, 17 (5th or 6th Century)— A vellum
leaf published in Oxyrhynchus Papyri (IX: 1 169). It con
tains the remarks of our Lord concerning prayer: "Thou,
when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having
shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret ; and thy
Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee," etc. This
was evidently a fine Bible, originally measuring over six
inches high by five inches wide. The text is divided into
paragraphs and a new line with an enlarged initial letter com
mences each paragraph.
P. — Matt. 12 : 24-26, 32-33. (5th Century). This papyrus leaf
(Oxyrhynchus Papyri; X : No. 1227) , written in large uncials
by a good penman, follows the Codex Bezae in one variant :
"This (fellow) does not cast out demons but by Beelzeboul
prince of the demons. But knowing their thoughts he said
to them . . whosoever shall speak a word against the Son
of Man (vv xov avoi)), it shall be forgiven him; but whoso
ever speaketh against the Holy Spirit, it shall not," etc.
Fragments of Ancient New Testaments Containing Portions of
St. Luke's Gospel.
Luke 1 : 74 — 2 : 7 (6th Century) — Text published by Wessely
(op. cit., Inhalts II, 191 1, No. 55 B). This is a parchment
leaf on the opposite side of which is Luke 1 : 59-72 in
Coptic. The importance of this bi-lingual text and those
which are to follow is great. It proves that in those early
centuries the Church believed in giving the gospel to the
people in their own language. While on one page the Greek
text was given, on the opposite page a translation of the Greek
into Coptic was given also. The particular Greek text given
here consists of 72 lines, not a word being lost. One syllable
M Examined and catalogued by the author. In order to facilitate quick
reference the texts on papyri are marked P.

150 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
in verse 75 is repeated by mistake and there are two or three
slight errors in spelling; otherwise this ancient text agrees
letter by letter with our modern critical editions. The pas
sage given contains the hymn of Zacharias and tells of the
birth of Jesus, the "dayspring from on high."
Luke 9:59-62; 10: 1-14 (4th or 5th Century) — Greek text
given by Wessely in work cited, No. 185, text 20. This is a
parchment leaf containing over fifty lines very beautifully
written on both sides in remarkably wide columns. It is evi
dently one of the few elegant church Bibles that have come
from this very ancient time. There are a very few trans
positions of words, and in verse 62 a word is left out ; other
wise the text is that of Westcott & Hort almost letter for
letter. This leaf contains the wonderful message of Jesus
concerning the harvest being great but the laborers few; he
sends out his disciples "as lambs in the midst of wolves."
Luke 16:4-12 (6th Century) — Text published by Wessely
(ibid, No. 56 C). This is a parchment leaf containing 63
narrow lines of Greek text in rather a bad state of preserva
tion. The chief variants are found in verse 8, where "sons
of the light" is changed to "son of the light" ; and in verse 11,
where a negative appears before the word "faithful" and the
text reads, "If therefore ye have not been found unfaithful
in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust
the true (riches) ?" The ancient New Testament which con
tained this text contained also a Coptic translation in the same
volume, the text on the back of this leaf being Luke 15 : 27 —
16:3.
Luke 19: 17, 22-24 (5th or 6th Century) — Given by Wessely,
op. cit. No. 188, text 23. This is a well-written parchment
leaf, containing almost all the parable of the pounds. The
only unusual change in the text is a note of insolence, which
appears in verse 20, where, instead of saying "Lord, behold
here is thy pound," by a very slight verbal change the slothful
servant is made to say : "Lord, here is the thing I have kept
laid up in a napkin." This might be a liturgical text so far as
the verses are concerned (Gregory, Textkritik des Neuen
Testaments, 1 : 357) .
Luke 21:30-22:2 (6th Century) — Published by Wessely
(ibid. No. 57 B). This is a parchment leaf, the Greek half

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 151
of which contains 74 lines very well preserved ; on the other
side in Coptic is written Luke 21 : 21-30. Very few mistakes
are to be noted in this text, when the itacisms common in all
ancient manuscripts and a few other misspellings due to mis
pronunciation are not counted. In verse 36 a syllable is
omitted, and in verse 34, after 't|[X8Q(x the word SiiMkooeiv is
inserted. I cannot conjecture why this insertion was made,
and my colleague, Dr. W. A. Elliott, who has given me much
valuable help in this section of my work, is equally at loss.
Luke 22:44-56, 61-63 (4th Century)— Published in Publica-
zioni della Societa Italiana; Papyri greci e latini (II., 124). I
take this to be the same text as was published in this same
work in shorter form a year or two previously, which Schu-
bart dates in first half of fourth century (I, No. 2). This
rather rare manuscript was found at Eshmunen, about 175
miles south of Cairo. Either the scribe had before him an
unusual text, or he is exceedingly careless or he is more par
ticular about giving the exact thought than the exact language
of his copy. In verse 47, instead of writing (^eyousvog) "he
that was called" Judas, he uses the more common form for
the same thought (xcAovjjievo?), and adds to Judas his ordi
nary title "Iscariot," which the New Testament manuscripts
usually omit. In verse 49, instead of saying that those about
Jesus saw "what would follow," he writes "what had fol
lowed"; so in verse 51, "answered" is omitted; and in verse
55, instead of saying when they had kindled a fire they "sat
down together" (ovv), he says they sat "around" it (jteqi).
His spelling is also sometimes rather original. The prob
ability is that the copyist trusted his memory of the text too
fully and, therefore, his text is a little less verbally accurate
than others ; but this speaks well for his previous Bible train
ing. He knew the facts perfectly ; but he was not as careful
as some to write the Greek letters correctly. It looks as if this
scribe did not think of the Bible text as a magical thing. It
was the spirit and meaning that gave it life.
Fragments of Ancient New Testaments Containing Portions of
St. John's Gospel.
John 7 .-3-12 (6th Century) — This is an uncial fragment (pub
lished by Wessely, op. cit. XI, p. 12) written on vellum. The
text shows abbreviations, and the ten verses here preserved

152 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
contain fourteen slight variants from the Textus Receptus,
thus lacking marked agreement with the Westcott and
Hort text.15
P.— John 10: i, 2, 4, 7, 9, 10; 11 : 1-8 ( ?), 45-52 (5th Cen
tury) — In an Akhmim papyrus now at Strassburg Univer
sity, published by Roesch, Bruckstucke des ersten Clemens-
brief es (Strassburg, 1910). This is a bi-lingual codex con
taining also, 1 Clement (1 — 26:2). It was probably a
church reading book. The portions given in Coptic (Akhmi-
mic) are St. John (10: 1 — 12:20; 13: 1,2, 11, 12) ; St. James
(1 : 13 ; 5 : 20). This fragment is badly mutilated only seven
letters of one verse remaining (10: 4), and little more in one
or two other verses, so that it is not very valuable for critical
purposes ; yet a few changes from the ordinary text may be
noted, e.g., interchanges of letters, ph (cp) for th (0), and t
for g, in many places ; o to a, and e to e. It is interesting to
ask whether these changes are not in several instances due to
mispronunciation (cf. ¦& for cp 11:52), rather than to mis
takes of the eye. It seems a mere careless slip of verbal
memory when, instead of the phrase "of strangers they know
not the voice" (10: 5), this scribe writes "they know not the
voice of strangers." In the midst of the broken lines some
good words can be made out: "Verily, verily, I say he that
entereth in through . . . sheepfold . . . but climbeth up . . .
the same is a thief . . . but a stranger [they will not follow]"
(John 10: 1-10). There is given the beautiful story of "that
Mary" who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his
feet with her hair and it was told him. . . . His sister sent
unto him saying, "Lord, behold . . . [this sickness is not
unto] death, but for the glory of God that the Son . . .
might be glorified. Now Jesus loved Mary . . . when he
had heard therefore (that he was sick) he abode two days
where he was." The last section tells how "many of the Jews
which came to Mary and had seen the things which he did, be
lieved on him. Men gathered the chief priests . . . [and
said] if [we let him alone] all men [will believe] and . . .
Caiaphas . . . said, ... it is expedient that [one] man
[should die] for the people." One of the beautiful personal
touches which render the examination of these ancient docu-
18 This reference obtained from Prof. Wallace N. Stearns, of Fargo
College, N. Dakota. ,

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 153
ments so fascinating is found at the close of John (10:45),
where this ancient scribe, or some early reader, over 1,400
years ago, added in the margin "Amen" (P@) after the
statement, "Many . . . believed on him."
John 15:25-27; 16: 1, 2, 21-31 (Late 3rd Century)— This is
a roll (Oxyrhynchus Papyri, X, No. 1228) containing a neu
tral text with the usual abbreviations and no punctuation
marks. It is a long fragment, and as one glances at the Greek
text certain words and phrases stand out clearly, notwith
standing the mutilations of age: "When the Comfforter] is
come . . . from the Father . . . which proceedeth from the
Father [he shall testify] of me . . .ye now therefore have
sorrow . . . your hearts shall rejoice [and your joy] no man
taketh from you. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing
. . . whatsoever ... in my name ... ye shall ask in my
name . . . the Father loveth you because ye . . . have be
lieved that I . . . came forth from the Father ... we
believe," etc. The early Christian who wrote and used this
ancient Bible lived about as near to St. John as we are near
to the boyhood of George Washington.
Fragments of Ancient New Testaments Containing Portions of
the Acts of the Apostles.
Acts 2: 1-5 (6th Century) — Published by Wessely (op. cit.,
Inhalts II, Nq. 59 C). This is another of the bi-lingual New
Testaments and contains Acts 1 : 15-20 in Coptic. The only
difference between this and Bibles of this type formerly
mentioned is that the two languages, instead of being on
different pages, are in parallel collumns on the same page.
The Greek text is the same as the modern critical text with
only a very few trifling changes in spelling and the insertion
of a particle that does not change the meaning in verse 3.
The passage contains the account of the day of Pentecost
when the disciples spoke with tongues and were filled with
the Holy Spirit (nvq).
P. Acts 6: 7-10, 11-15 (5th Century) — Published in Publica-
zioni della Societa Italiana; Papiri greci e latini (II, No. 125).
This large leaf is well preserved, needing restoration of text
in only a very few places. Excepting in verse 9, it follows the
Westcott and Hort text. It is written in uncials, half on one

154 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
side of the leaf and half on the other. It preserves for.
us the trial and death of Stephen, closing with the state
ment that all that sat in the council saw his face as if it were
the face of an angel.
P. Acts 15 : 22-24, 27"32 (6th or 7th Century) — Published by
Wessely (op. cit., Theol. Inhalts, III, No. 190, Text 25).
This is a leaf of a papyrus codex containing 30 lines of elegant
writing, only one broad column to a page. It was probably
a church Bible. This particular fragment tells of the choice
of Barsabas and Silas to go to Antioch with Paul and Barna
bas, and of the famous letter sent by the Jerusalem church
declaring that no burden of the Jewish law was to be laid
upon Gentile Christians. The only notable variant is in verse
22, where, instead of Barsabas, this scribe has written
Barnabas.
Fragments of Ancient New Testaments Containing Portions of
the General Epistles of St. Paul.
P. Romans 1:1-16 (6th or 7th Century) — First published in
191 5 by Grenfell and Hunt (Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Vol. XI,
No. 1354). This is a papyrus leaf from a very large church
Bible which originally must have been at least eleven inches
high by seven inches broad. It is written in red-brown ink,
in an upright script, large and very heavy. It contains the
ordinary text with a very few exceptions, as e.g., in verse 10,
where by a mistake, est! is changed to voted. Some of the
abbreviations are interesting, e.g., Aac for David; jiqos for
jtatooc; ("of the Father"), and (probably) a for jtoarrov
("first"). This passage contains St. Paul's famous declaration,
"I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power qf God."
P. Romans 1 : 27-2 : 2 (5th Century) — Published in Pap. greci
e latini, I, No. 4. This papyrus gives without the variation
of a letter the Westcott and Hort text. It begins with the
last word of verse 27 and ends with the first word in 2 : 2. It
contains St. Paul's terrific indictment against the sinfulness
of the Roman world of the first century, an indictment which
the discoveries have amply vindicated.
P Romans 8: 12-27, 33"39; 9- 1-3, 5"9 (3d Century)— First
published by Grenfell and Hunt in 191 5 (Oxyrhynchus
Papyri, Vol. XI, No. 1356). It is a leaf from a papyrus

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 155
book, the height of which was about four and one-half inches
and the width less than two. It is written in very small char
acters, in an upright, informal hand, and is unpunctuated,
excepting where a paragraph is indicated. The leaf is badly
mutilated, yet from what remains it is clear, as the learned
editors point out, that it is in "general agreement with the
Codex Vaticanus, altho it occasionally corrects its vulgar
spelling. There are occasional interchanges of letters as
e and set with ft and ox with cp. In verse 20 a later hand re
places the ordinary reading, "The creature shall be delivered"
by the new reading, "is delivered." This is probably a mere
freak of memory on the part of the copyist ; yet it is an attrac
tive suggestion that there may be a theological reason for the
present tense here, since elsewhere in the letter (6: 18, 22;
8 : 2) Paul speaks of the freeing process in the past tense.15*
While in the great passage at the end of the eighth chapter
half of the lines are broken, we can yet make out in this oldest
of all Bible texts the precious words : "As many as are led by
the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God . . . children of
God . . ., and if children . . . joint heirs . . . I am per
suaded that neither death . . . nor powers . . . nor height
nor depth . . . shall be able to separate us."
P. 1 Cor. 16:4-7, IO;2 Cor. 5: 18-21; 10: 13, 14; 11:2 (6th
or 7th Century) — This large text of 112 lines was published
by Wessely in 1912 (op. cit., Inhalts III, No. 191, text 26). It
is part of a papyrus book which originally contained the en
tire New Testament or perhaps was confined to Paul's epistles.
The text is beautifully written in narrow parallel columns;
it is essentially intact and agrees exactly with Westcott and
Hort, except in a few cases of poor spelling and one rather
remarkable variant (2 Cor. 11:4). where the adjective "dif
ferent" is omitted : "If he that cometh preacheth another Jesus
. . . or if ye receive a different spirit ... or a gospel which
ye did not accept," etc.
Gal. 2: 5, 6 (5th Century)— This uncial text, which was first
published in 1913 (Pap. greci e Mini, II, No. 118), gives but
the last two words of verse 5, and shows the same defects of
™* I am indebted to Dr. E. J. Goodspeed, of the University of Chicago,
for the suggestion of this possibility.

156 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
transcription as many of the other passages previously given ;
e.g., in verse 6 there is a slight transposition of words.
P. Gal. 3 : 16-24 (Late 5th Century) — Two pages almost
complete of a small parchment leaf (cir. 4^ x 2% in.) with
narrow margins, published in 191 5 (Pap. greci e latini, III,
No. 251). It contains 37 lines, written in straight and accurate
uncials, punctuated by two hands. In two readings it agrees
with the Western text, but otherwise with Westcott and Hort,
except for one or two unimportant verbal mistakes in tran
scription, such as in verse 24, where the perfect tense is used
instead of the present. It contains the great argument of
St. Paul concerning the promise "not of seeds [as of] many;
but as of one ... to thy seed . . . Christ." The covenant
of Abraham cannot be annulled by the law which came cen
turies later; rather the law was our schoolmaster (oraiS-
aycoyo?) to bring us to Christ that by faith we might be
justified. In line eleven "Jesus Christ" is abbreviated to
iv Xv.
Fragments of Ancient New Testaments Containing Portions of
the Epistle of James.
P. James 1 : 10-12, 15-18 (4th Century) — This is a leaf (Oxy
rhynchus Papyri, X, No. 1229), from a papyrus Bible over
1,500 years old. It gives the ordinary Westcott and Hort
text, but has a grossly ungrammatical form in verse 17. The
numbers of the pages marked on the leaf prove that the
ancient book began with the first chapter of James. It prob
ably contained only this one Bible book. The ancient Chris
tians evidently believed in the very modern custom of pub
lishing the New Testament in handy editions. Our text con
trasts the blessedness of the poor with the rich, declares the
man that endureth temptation "shall receive the crown of
life," and points out that every good gift cometh from the
Father of lights, who "of his own will brought us forth by
the word of truth." There is some ornamentation occasionally
attempted, and the height of the leaf was over 7^ inches, so
that this probably was a church Bible, altho the writing is
rather coarse and irregular.
James 1:25-27 (5th Century)— This text was published re
cently by the Italians (Pap. greci e latini, I, No. 5). It agrees

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 157
with the Westcott and Hort text ; the fact that one Greek word
is split into two might, however, suggest that the copyist did
not understand the language very well. The pages have
the numbers 17 and 18 on the margin.
Fragments of Ancient New Testaments Containing Portions of
the First General Epistle of Peter.
1 Peter 2:21-25; 5 : i-S- (6th Century)— This large leaf
was published by Wessely (op. cit., Theol. Inhalts, II, No.
60 B). It represents another of the ancient bi-lingual New
Testaments, the Coptic translation being found on the same
page with the Greek text. There are sixty-seven lines of
Greek well preserved. It is not very carefully written. In
2 : 20 the scribe inserts "and" ; in verse 23 tov tojtov ; in verse
24 he omits "in" ; in 5 : 1 he inserts "the" before elders and
leaves out "therefore" ; in the second verse he not only inter
changes some words but also inserts "according to the will
of God" and "exercising oversight," which the best texts omit ;
and he succeeds also in various places in misspelling several
words. 1 Peter 5:5-13. (4th Century.) — This text was first pub
lished in 1915 (Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Vol. XI, No. 1353).
It is a thin vellum leaf, broken and worm-eaten and very
small, measuring only about five by four inches in size. The
scribe writes in abnormally large characters, thus proving
himself to be untrained at such work. As the page of this
particular leaf was numbered 229, it is evident that the book
was of considerable size. If the New Testament books were
then in the same order as now, this volume probably began
with Romans. In that case this was near the end of the sec
ond volume, the first volume containing the four gospels and
the Acts. The text is decidedly unique, not agreeing with any
of the main authorities, the slight variations being too many
to notice here. There is no change, however, in the exalted
teaching which shines gloriously from the broken sentences
of this very ancient pocket Bible : "Casting all your care upon
him, for he careth for you. . . . The God of all grace who
hath called into his eternal glory in Christ ... to him be
glory forever and ever."

158 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Fragments of Ancient New Testaments Containing Portions of
Revelation.
Rev. 3 : 19, — 4 : 1-2. (4th Century) — This vellum leaf
(Oxyrhynchus Papyri, VIII, No. 1080) represents the ordi
nary critical text, tho there are several minute marginal cor
rections by a second hand — one at least of which (4 : 7) is
incorrectly made. It contains the beautiful words to the
church in Laodicea : "Behold I stand at the door and knock ;
if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in
to him and will sup with him and he with me," etc. This
also contains the curious reading "He that hath hearing be
yond his ears let him hear." The most interesting thing
about this miniature edition of the Bible is that its form
proves conclusively that this volume did not contain all
the New Testament but only the Apocalypse.
P. Rev. 5:5-856: 5-8. (Early 4th Century)— Published Oxy
rhynchus Papyri, X, No. 1230. This is a leaf from a papyrus
book containing no special features. It speaks of the elders
falling before the Lamb, and the opening of the seals. So
far as it goes the text "agrees with the Codex Sinaiticus"
(Hunt). Each line is broken, both at the beginning and the
end. It is interesting to note that 5 is used for eottcx in the
expression "seven spirits of God" (verse 7). The text reads:
c JtVCt tou 0v.
An Ancient Fifth Century New Testament Containing Portions
of All the Four Gospels.
Matt. 3:7-17; 4:23-25; 5: 1-12; 7: 13-25; 10:37-42; Mark
6 : 18-29 J Luke 2 : 1-20 ; 1 1 : 27-32 ; 24 : 36-38 ; John 20 : 1-18,
24-27. — Catalogued by Gregory as W032, and beautifully
edited by Wessely in 191 2 (Griechische und koptische Texte;
Theol. Inhalts, III, No. 184, Text 19). Fragmentary as
these gospels are as here given, they still make ten solid pages
of the Greek text, seventy lines to a page. With but perhaps
one exception to be mentioned later, no greater New Testa
ment discovery, so far as the text is concerned, has been
made since the days of Tischendorf. We have here not
merely a single leaf of an ancient book snatched by the rav
ages of time out of its proper connection, but we possess in
substantial shape a considerable part of the four gospels

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 159
which were bound together into one volume nearly fifteen hun
dred years ago. The manuscript is beautifully written, but
with the same slight variations in spelling, etc., from the
classical forms, which were universal in ancient manuscripts
written by the middle classes in the early Christian centur
ies. The same rather startling abbreviation of the word
"cross" (ct>y) is used which we have seen previously in
other manuscripts, the cross itself being shown in the middle
of the word. The Sermon on the Mount is given with almost
absolute verbal perfection — better than any senior class in
a modern theological seminary would be likely to copy it.
This shows that the copyist knew that portion of the Scrip
ture word for word. In many other places there are slight
variations in spelling and an occasional change in the order
of words, and in one or two cases a change in case, due evi
dently to the copyist reading the sentence and then repeating
it from memory as he wrote it; but in no case is there any
change in doctrine or any contradiction of the gospel facts.
In Matt. 3:7 the scribe uses a synonym for "warned." In
Matt 4 : 24 he repeats a syllable, and in 5 : 2 he by accident
makes a wrong letter and turns it into an ornament ; but the
Beatitudes he knows so well that he writes them correctly
word for word and letter for letter.
In Luke 2:2 the name of the governor Quirinius is mis
spelled, and in verse 1 1 "Christ the Lord" is abbreviated curi
ously. In John 20 : 7 instead of the napkin "that was upon
his head" this copy, by a slight change, reads "which had been
provided for the head"; and in verse 17 the text reads "He
saith" instead of "Jesus saith," while in verse 16 the custom
ary "Rabboni" became "Rabbounei." In still another place
"therefore" is omitted ; in verse 25 a particle is inserted and
in verse 10 the reading is "so they then went back to the dis
ciples." The only variation in sense in any passage is in Matt. 7 : 18,
where instead of writing "neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit," this ancient copyist has written "neither
can a good tree bring forth good fruit." The early Chris
tian's love for his Bible is seen from the fact that instead of
mutilating the text some reader far back in that ancient
world has put in the margin— "sic !"

160 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Many great texts are preserved in this manuscript copy of
the gospels which is over 1,400 years old. In the Matthew
fragments we have the preaching of John the Baptist; the
statement that Jesus was "healing all manner of disease";
the entire list of Beatitudes; the great teaching concerning
the narrow gate and the broad way and the judgment of a
tree by its fruit; and the passage centering in the doctrine,
"He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his
life for my sake shall find it." In the Mark passage we have
the entire story of Herodias and the murder of John the Bap
tist. In the Luke passages we possess the narrative of the
birth of Jesus and the song of the shepherds — which reads
"on earth peace and good will among men"; Christ's state
ment that no sign shall be given to an evil generation, but
"the sign of Jonah"; and the appearance of Jesus to his
disciples after his resurrection saying, "Peace unto you!"
The remnants of John's gospel are even more important, in
cluding the visit of Mary Magdalene and Peter to the sepul
chre on the morning of the resurrection, the meeting of the
Savior with Mary, and finally the refusal of Thomas to be
lieve in the resurrection until Jesus appeared to him person
ally. Our fragment reads :
"And after eight days again his disciples were within, and
Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and
stood in the midst and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith
he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger," etc.
THE MOST VALUABLE OF ALL THE NEWLY
DISCOVERED MANUSCRIPTS
An Ancient Fourth or Fifth Century New Testament Containing
the Entire Four Gospels and Fragments of the Pauline
Epistles. (Washington Codex, 1908-9.) 16
Never since the startling discovery of Tischendorf
has there been greater joy than came to the hearts of
textual critics when Prof. Henry A. Sanders, of the
University of Michigan, announced that Mr. Charles L.
10 While Dr. Gregory briefly mentioned this discovery, it was impossible
properly to estimate it previous to its publication in full with critical notes
in 1912. Cf. New Testament Manuscripts in the Freer Collection, Part I..
1912, by Prof. Henry A. Sanders.

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 161
Freer, of Detroit, Michigan, had obtained in Egypt a
New Testament manuscript which, in its completeness
and age, could rank with the three great MSS. of the
world, being certainly not later than the sixth cen
tury and being probably as old as the Sinaitic Codex.
Not only its venerable antiquity, but the fact that its
readings often sustained the Western (Bezae) text as
against the usually accepted Eastern text added to the
unique value of this discovery, while adding at the same
time to the difficulties of text criticism. It determined
once for all the fact that as early as the third, or per
haps the second century, there were at least two or
three independent types of New Testament texts, all
of these being alike in their statement of essential facts
and doctrine, but differing considerably in their verbal
form. It seemed to settle the question that there
was no settled and stiff form of the New Testa
ment text necessary to orthodoxy at that time, as
came later to be the • case, both with the Greek and
Hebrew Bibles; but that several verbal types existed
peacefully together. This adds greatly to the apolo
getic value of this early document, but complicates the
question concerning the "original" text. The manu
script, which was also accompanied by three others
containing the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, and the
Psalms, was bought by Mr. Freer of an Arab dealer
named AH, in Gizeh, near Cairo, December 19, 1906.
Professor Sanders saw the manuscript for the first time
in October, 1907, and at once recognized its value. The
dealer from whom it was bought first declared that it
had been obtained at Akhmim, but later denied this.
Certainly a very unusual treasure of manuscripts about
1906 was discovered near Akhmim; and Carl Schmidt,

162 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Edgar J. Goodspeed and others feel that it is incredible
to think of two such unique and vast finds of Biblical
manuscripts being made in the same year in two sepa
rate localities, no other such discovery of large Biblical
MSS. having been made for at least half a century.
Professor Sanders, however, is very sure that it was
found among the ruins of some monastery in the Delta,
probably that of the Vinedresser, the site of which was
close to the Third Pyramid, instead of coming, as
Schmidt and others supposed, from the White Monas
tery near Sohag, opposite Akhmim.17
In 1 910 Professor Sanders dated this manuscript
in the fifth century (op. cit., p. 13), but in 1912 he
changed this to the early fifth or second half of the
fourth century, and a little later dated the main part of
the manuscript without any reservation to the fourth
century,18 having the approval of the great expert, Dr.
B. P. Grenfell, in this more mature dating. Granting
this, we have here a manuscript equal in importance to
any now in existence. This would place the writer of
this manuscript as near to the traditional date of Saint
John as we are to the father of John Alden.
Two early owners of the manuscript, as shown by
the notes, lived in the fifth century, and a third owner
in the sixth century. The subscription in diminutive
uncials, written presumably by one of the earliest
owners, but dating from the fifth century, reads:
"Holy Christ, be thou with thy servant Timothy and all of his."
"See on the general controversy Bib. World, 33:201-6; Am. Journal
of Theology, 13: 597-603; IS: 112, 115; Am. Journal of Archeology, XIII.;
Old Test. MSS. in the Freer Collection, Part I, Henry A. Sanders, 1910,
Introduction. Full list of discussions given in Old Test. MSS. in Freer
Collection (1917), p. 1.
M New Test. MSS., Part I., pp. 135-139 ; Facsimile of Wash. MSS., Intro- i
duction, 1913 ; cf. Goodspeed, Freer Gospels, p. 6.

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 163
The manuscript is written on parchment of excel
lent quality, which has, however, suffered exceedingly
from age, wear, and exposure. It is not so elegant as
the Codex Sinaiticus, but was undoubtedly intended for
a magnificent copy. The edges of the leaves are badly
decayed, but the body of the manuscript is well pro
tected by painted board covers, which were put on the
manuscript probably in the ninth century. These cov
ers are very curious, containing pictures of the Evan
gelists, John and Mark, both being represented as
white-haired, and Mark being slightly bald after the
Pauline type. The parchment is mostly made of sheep
skin, tho some goatskin leaves occur. The ink is
dark brown, but that of the first quire of John is
darker. The writing is in one column, 30 lines to a
page. At present there remain 374 pages (187 leaves),
two blank pages appearing at the end of John's gospel.
The usual abbreviations occur and a few unusual ones ;
for example, Kuqioc; (Lord) in Matthew appears in
five different forms (Kg, Ku, Kco, Kv, Ke), each case
receiving its appropriate abbreviation. This name
is always abbreviated when referring to God, other
wise not. Punctuation is rare ; a single dot is regularly
used, a double dot occasionally; phrases are separated
by small blank spaces. "The remarkable variations in
paragraphing in the different parts of the MS. indi
cate quite plainly the care of the scribe in following his
patchwork copy." The scribe actually seems to copy
mistakes in the original parent papyrus, even continu
ing the gross misspelling of certain common words.
The manuscript once contained the whole of the four
gospels in the order Matthew, John, Luke, Mark
(Western order). Two lacunae now occur (John

164 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
14: 25-16: 7; Mark 15: 13-38), caused by the dropping
out of two leaves. "The remainder of the MSS. is so
perfect that there is rarely a letter missing or indis
tinct." That it was much reverenced in the early cen
turies is proved by the blots on it when in ancient time
the tallow dropt from candles while it was being
shown to visitors, or the early saints were studying it.
The peculiar value of this MS. consists in its affilia
tion with the old Latin and Syriac, the so-called West
ern text. The only spectacular reading, however, is
found in an extra passage which follows Mark 16: 14:
And they defended themselves, saying: This world of law
lessness and of unbelief is under Satan, which does not suffer
those unclean things that are under the dominion of spirits to
comprehend the true power of God. On this account reveal thv
righteousness now. They said (these things) to Christ. And Christ
replied to them There has been fulfilled the term of year., of the
authority of Satan, but other dreadful things are drawing nigh
(even to those) for the sake of whom as sinners I was delivered
up to death in order that they might return to the truth and sin
no more ; in order that they might inherit the spiritual and incor
ruptible glory of righteousness which is in heaven, but go . . .
The style of this addendum is so different from the
other portions of Mark's gospel that it seems to the
writer impossible to think of it as an original reading.
It was perhaps a marginal note which came from very
early time and crept into the text.
Other Fragments of Ancient New Testaments — One
Written on Pieces of a Broken Pot
In addition to the above twenty-eight ancient New
Testaments recently discovered — to which must be
added the fourteen MSS. written on skin, catalogued by
Gregory in 1909, and the twenty written on papyrus

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 165
reported by Drs. Kenyon and Milligan in 1912-13 —
multitudes of other Bible texts have come down to us
from the fourth, fifth, sixth, and later centuries, some
of which almost certainly must originally have belonged
to entire gospels, but which are so mutilated that this
can not certainly be proved. There must also be a num
ber of other bi-lingual texts known to scholars — such
as those used by Horner in his study of the Coptic ver
sion of the New Testament, and others reported else
where (e.g., Le Museon N. S., XII: 2, 3; XIII (1912),
pp. 175-365; Jour, of Egypt. Arch., 1917, p. 68). The
writer has not examined these Greek texts and, there
fore, can not describe and estimate them. One of the
most curious collections of these early Bible texts is that
which was made by three poor Christians during the
time of the Arab conquest, the Greek text of the gospels
being written on pieces of broken pottery because they
were unable to afford papyri. Twenty of these ostraca
have come down to us covering Matt. 27: 31, 32; Mark
5:40, 41; 9:17, 18, 22; 15:21; Luke 22:13-15, 16,
40-71; John 1: 1-9, 14-17; 18: 19-25; 19: 15-17." Each
ostracon is numbered, the series being written either
to form "a cheap gospel lectionary ... for private or
public reading consisting of extracts from the gospels
or perhaps even a continuous text" (Lefebvre), or
perhaps by candidates for deacon's orders or by some
monk or school-boy, or possibly by some ignorant
layman, or some "simple woman — some soul forgotten
among the myriads that perish" (Deissmann). If,
indeed, these twenty written scraps represent, as they
may well do, a seventh century copy of the gospels,
they stand for the most unique volume ever writ-
u See further, Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, pp. 49-52.

166 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
ten. A New Testament written on potsherds ! If this
is indeed true, then we ought to have given this the
place of honor in our catalog of newly discovered
ancient New Testaments. Dr. Deissmann publishes one
of these in facsimile, and it gives one a thrill to spell
out of this rough scrawl on a piece of a broken pot
written over twelve centuries ago the words:
"And they all said, Art thou then the Son of God? And he
said unto them, Ye say that I am. And they said, What further
need have we of witness, for we ourselves have heard from . . .
mouth." The unexpectedness of the discovery of valuable
Biblical texts written on broken pottery may be seen
from the fact that up to within a decade and a half no
one ever regarded these potsherds as important, and
excavators as well as the fellaheen had usually thrown
them away as useless rubbish. The first appreciation
of their importance came from Ulrich Wilcken in his
work, Greek Ostraca in Egypt and Nubia, in 1899, fol
lowed by W. E. Crum's Coptic Ostraca, in 1902.

(5) SPECIAL IMPORTANCE OF THE NEWLY DISCOVERED
NEW TESTAMENT FRAGMENTS FOR TEXT CRITICISM21
No one would be likely to deny the importance of
the larger manuscripts such as the last two described
above, but it may seem as if many of the others are
too small to be considered of any special value. This
is a mistake. While Gregory's list, given above, totals
only a little more than one hundred verses, and our own
"This argument was first given by the writer in December, 1915, be
fore the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis at Columbia Univer
sity, and can only be summarized here.

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 167
list is not much larger, yet in Gregory's list thirty
verses from three different New Testaments date from
the fourth century, and in our list over forty verses
come from two New Testaments dating from the third
century (a century earlier than any MSS. known pre
vious to these discoveries) ; while Kenyon's list con
tains some forty verses from three New Testaments of
the third century and several hundreds of verses from
seven or eight other New Testaments dating from the
fourth century.
But it is not the large number of verses discovered,
or even their early date, which alone gives these manu
scripts their remarkable value; but rather the unusual
character of many of these texts and their provenance.
The unique importance of these new discoveries can
be properly apprehended only when one notes that prac
tically all of them came from Egypt, and almost all
from a distant country province, presumably much less
influenced by the official Church texts of Alexandria,
not to speak of Antioch, or Csesarea, or Rome, than if
they had been found in the Delta (see pp. 65-97).
Besides, there is a strong probability that a con
siderable number of these New Testaments were pri
vate property, not official texts — church Bibles written
by church officials with possible ecclesiastical tendencies
— but poor men's Bibles written on poor material by
poor men, who were also poor penmen, for private use.
If this be accepted as true these discoveries ought
almost to mark a new epoch in New Testament criti
cism. Our great codices from which come our A.V.
and R.V., represent church New Testaments written by
trained scribes, and come from great centers of ecclesi
astical influence, but in these earliest texts just de-

168 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
scribed, we, for the first time, can see how the New
Testament of the poor man in a country district differed
from that of the rich man and the priest, and here we
have our first opportunity to see how the primitive New
Testament looked before it became stereotyped into the
authorized versions of the East and the West.
We have previously shown that the Fayum, so in
timately connected with the towns in which most of
these texts were found, was separated in a marked way
from the financial, social, and ecclesiastical centers of
Egypt. The whole district had practically gone to ruin
toward the end of the third century. The villages were
stranded. Even the celebrated Moros brothers lived in
a house that did not cost much more than a camel, and
the poverty of these villages as well as their distance
from Alexandria insured little travel to this devastated
district by any church officials who might have been
interested in the minute orthodoxy of the New Testa
ment text used by the Fayum Christians. The papyri
prove that most of these towns had a bank or two,
and that there were a few three-story houses, cer
tainly a chain of laundries, a number of pawn-brokers'
establishments, and certain other supposedly infallible
signs of civilization, such as easy divorce, monopolies
of farm products and manufactured goods, and loans
at i per cent, a month; but the churches of the third
and fourth centuries in the Fayum were very poor.
Even at Socnopaei Nesus, whose ruins cover forty acres
and which must be ranked as one of the most import
ant and populous of these southern towns, there are
few evidences of luxury and no suggestions up to the
date of its destruction (end of the third century) that
hierarchical authority from Alexandria was dominating

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 169
the Christian population. That the entire Fayum was
isolated from the Delta is shown not only by the fre
quent misspellings of the names of reigning emperors
and by the mistakes in the regnal year, but by the local
dialect used and by the fact that the monks and anchor
ites chose this neighborhood as their hiding-place. That
the church censorship was not very rigid, either here
or in adjacent towns like Oxyrhynchus, is clearly indi
cated by the fact that this was the special home of the
non-canonical gospels. The poverty of the population has
been illustrated in almost every text excavated and is
strikingly shown by multitudes of unmistakable signs,
among which may be noted, in passing, that in all the
papyri there is scarcely a mention of silversmiths, while
even in the fourth century, when the cost of material
had risen to a preposterous height, the "Guild of Cop
persmiths" at Oxyrhynchus could report that the full
value of all their stock remaining on hand at the end
of the month amounted to only 1,000 denarii (Oxy
rhynchus Papyri, I, 85). There are evidently addi
tional reasons, therefore, beyond any previously appre
ciated, why we are compelled to decide that such splen
did volumes as the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex
Vaticanus were not likely to have been produced at
Oxyrhynchus,22 and that such poor New Testaments
as were written there would not have the same ecclesi
astical censorship as might have been exercised at
Alexandria. All of this shows the importance to be attached
especially to the small and worst-written copies of these
ancient New Testaments, which presumably represented
the Bibles of the poor coming from unofficial sources
"Cf. Kirsopp Lake, Codex Sinaiticus, 1911, p. 13.

170 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
(out of a culture which must be ranked, I think, not only
lower than that of Herculaneum, but much lower than
that of Pompeii or Timgad), and which, at least occa
sionally, give us types of New Testament texts differing
both from that which was approved by Constantine and
that which was favored by the Alexandrian scribes.
Very few of these third and fourth century New Testa
ments are well written. While the chirography is usu
ally better than that of ordinary letters and legal docu
ments, yet even some of the wills and deeds and regis
trations of cattle were written more carefully. The
script is coarse and irregular, and the general impres
sion very inferior to that given by any one of our great
uncials or by the scraps of Old Testament texts which
have been preserved from the same period ; while these
rudely written Testaments, almost always with little or
no punctuation or ornamentation, are in striking con
trast to the beautifully engrossed works of Homer and
Plato, Menander and Pindar, the Commentary on the
Iliad, the new History of Greece by Cratippus, and
most of the other classics coming from the same or an
earlier time. They are even surpassed generally by
the uncanonical gospels and the "Sayings of Jesus."
Some of them are written on the poorest kind of mate
rial and several are written on the back of earlier
literary works. It goes without saying that these texts,
besides omissions of words and lines and blunders of
transcription due to the misreading or mispronuncia
tion of words, show the usual grammar of the Koine
and the ordinary mistakes of the non-literary papyri —
interchange of vowels, letters improperly inserted;
above all, misspellings quite equal to any a modern
workingmari would be likely to make. When one

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 171
looks at the crooked grammar, mixed orthography, and
peculiar syntax of these ancient New Testaments, and
notices also that the "readings" in many places are
strikingly independent of the "standard" text, it would
not be strange if he thought, at first glance, that they
could be of no possible importance in text criticism. But
such a decision would be unsound.
Previous to these discoveries all leading textual
critics rested confidently on two or three great manu
scripts representing fundamentally the Eastern text, be
lieving that the Western text (typically represented by
the Bezse Codex) must be considered "foul." But these
new papyri discoveries, as Dr. Turner and other distin
guished Bible critics have fully shown, carry back the
Western text at least to the third century.23 Von Soden
in his massive work has made it perfectly clear, tho his
preference for Western readings may be deprecated,
that as early as the third and perhaps as early as the
second century there were at least three distinct types
of national texts emanating respectively from Pales
tine, Syria, and Egypt. It is not to be supposed, as was
once universally thought, that these various types of
texts grew up through deliberate intention to alter the
original Scriptures.24 Instead of this it now becomes
plain that these are mere local verbal variations of the
Bible story, all giving the same facts but with local
differences which date back probably to apostolic times.
It is evident that the value of these early texts is
9 Of course the standard work in this field is Von Soden's Die Schrif-
ten des neuen Testaments (Berlin, 1902-15; but compare F. C. Burkitt,
Texts and Studies, V. (1899), p. XVIII.).
24 Von Soden affirms that excepting the influence from Tatian's Har
mony of the Gospel, there is no evidence whatever of any extensive altera
tion of the text (cf. Am. Journal of Theology, 1916, p. 410; The Inter
preter, July, 1915). Of course, local changes were not at all uncommon
(cf. J. Rendel Harris, Sidelights dn New Test. Research, pp. 5-60).

172 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
immeasurably increased because they were written be
fore what Von Soden well calls "the mechanical Jewish
dogma of inspiration" had been introduced. There is
no counting of words or letters, and no settled or stiff
form of text such as seemed a little later so necessary
to orthodoxy. Let it again be emphasized that the
earliest of these newly discovered Egyptian New Testa
ments, especially those which by their poor writing and
small size evidently represent private rather than
church Bibles, very generally differ from all the
national texts which became stereotyped as early as the
third century. They represent a really neutral text — •
in a sense different from that in which the Vatican
MS. can be called neutral — a text which has come to
us unexpectedly and which shows us contemporaneous
copies of the kind of New Testaments used by the early
Christians of Egypt in the pre-Constantine era.
It may be thought that I am making too much of
this, as so few of these manuscripts come from the third
century; but it will be remembered that the early fourth
century texts were pre-Constantine, and that even late
fourth century, or early fifth century texts, when writ
ten for private use in this far-away province, would
very naturally represent an older MS., and a text
much less official than if written in Alexandria or Car
thage or Antioch or Rome for church use.
It is true that trained scribes having access to espe
cially fine archetypes had, no doubt, better advantages
for getting at the primitive text and correctly copying
it than these rather ignorant countrymen; yet it is
something to get in these newly discovered fragments
a contemporary check upon our great uncials, being
now able to examine quite a number of the New

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 173
Testaments which were actually in use in Egypt at
least a generation before Constantine's royal influence
was exerted toward text standardization, and even be
fore the Antiochian or Alexandrian revision had ob
tained general acceptance.
Having said this, it must be frankly acknowledged
that nothing very spectacular or strange has been
brought to light in these sixty, or more, new texts. The
results are surprizingly negative. Tho quite a number
of these were in use some time before the Eastern or
Western standard texts became "fixt," yet, as we have
seen, very few variants of importance occur. However,
what could be better than just such a negative result?
Let us once more state the general facts.
No man had ever seen a page from any pre-Con
stantine New Testament previous to these discoveries.
Many supposed that if such Bibles ever came to light
they would be very different from ours. Some skeptics
frankly exprest their opinion that the present New
Testament was either originated by Constantine or
much changed by him. But now these New Testa
ments are in our hands. We now know the kind of
New Testament which the poor Christians of the
martyr period were using and reverencing. It was the
same as ours.25 It is now certain that there was noth-
!B Scholars generally agree that the papyri substantially support the
Westcott and Hort Greek text lying at the basis of our Revised Version.
A few, like Hoskier, strongly disagree with this, believing that they sup
port the Bezae type of text. See the detailed argument in Codex B, and
Its Allies, by H. C. Hoskier, 1914. Certainly the papyri show a pleasing
independence, possibly more in harmony with Von Soden's eclectic text
than with Westcott and Hort's. But this does not involve any material
change; as may be seen by comparing Moffatt's new translation of the New
Testament, which followed the Von Soden text, with the Revised Version.
Since writing this footnote, I am pleased to find this decision confirmed
by Dr. A. Savary, after a careful study of the New Test. Papyri fragments,
Rev. Or. Chret., XVI, 396.

174 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
ing of importance left out by Constantine. There was
nothing put in. There are enough verbal changes
among these many New Testaments from the third
and fourth centuries to prove the independence of the
scribes and their freedom from ecclesiastical censorship,
but not even one very important change in the readings
was found, and no change whatever in the teaching.
The results confirm surprizingly the ancient text as
worked out by the scholarship of the last century.
It must not be forgotten that these very ancient new
MSS. just discovered constitute but a very small pro
portion of the text material which scholars have before
them in determining the Bible text. In addition to
the versions to be mentioned later it may be said —
speaking only of Greek MSS. — that Von Soden in 1902
catalogued 2,328 New Testament manuscripts. Of these
about forty contain in whole or part all the books of
the New Testament. Some 1,716 MSS. contain por
tions of the gospels, 581 of the Acts, 628 of the Pauline
epistles, and 219 of the Apocalypse. The text of no
other ancient book is so certain as that of the New
Testament. While at first sight it might seem strange that so
few third and fourth century Bible texts have come
down to us, yet when we consider the perishable nature
of the papyrus and the comparatively few texts of
any kind which have been uncovered from that far-
distant past, it becomes, as Wessely somewhere exprest
it, a matter contrary to all expectation and almost
"bordering upon the miraculous" that, by some happy
accident, these many fragments of ancient New Testa
ments should have been preserved.25"
"•Sir. F. G. Kenyon in 1903 knew only 109 MSS. of Homer, 11 of
Plato, and 20 of Demosthenes.

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 175
2. Syriac New Testaments
Aramaic was the native language of the Jews in
Palestine in the first century. It has long been noticed
that our Lord, at least in times of excitement, spoke
his native tongue. Dalman and others have made
this perfectly clear.26 It is very likely that all the dis
ciples were not only bi-lingual but also tri-lingual just
as the modern Palestinians are. Syriac was a dialect of
Aramaic and "the first language into which the New
Testament was translated; and as the Greek text itself
was written by men who habitually thought in Syriac,
the early versions in this tongue have a closer affinity
with the original text than those of any other can
possibly have, not excepting the Old Latin" (Agnes
Smith Lewis). While this statement seems to affirm a
too close kinship between the Syriac written at Antioch
and Edessa and the Aramaic spoken by Matthew and
Paul, yet it vividly suggests the value of this ancient
version. Dr. Lewis points out that various Ara
maic phrases embodied in the Greek text, such as "Ep-
phatha," "Talitha cumi," and the last despairing cry
of our Lord on the cross, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabach-
thani," are not translated in the Old Syriac version,
"for the very good reason that they are part of the
text itself." 2r
At the present time over forty manuscripts repre
senting forty different Syriac New Testaments of the
fifth or sixth century are known to exist. These manu
scripts come from widely separated districts, Syria,
Sinai, Mesopotamia, and Armenia. Up to within the
last fifty years scholars have been wholly dependent
"See especially The Words of Jesus, G. H. Dalman (1902) ; and The
Messiah of the Gospels, C A. Briggs (1894).
" The Four Gospels, translated from the Sinaitic Palimpsest, p. xv.

176 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
upon the Peshito, which was a Syriac text of the com
mon type and has been known to European scholars
since 1552 ;28 but in 1842 Cureton discovered another
type of text in a fifth century MS. (published 1852),
and later several other types were found, the last not
able discovery being the Apocalypse of St. John, repre
senting the "Philoxenian" text, written by Polycorpus
(a.d. 508), and published in 1897 by Dr. John Gwynn.
It is now known, especially through the researches of
Dr. F. C. Burkitt, that the Peshito is not "the queen"
of all Syriac versions, as had always been supposed,
but is rather a late type appearing first in a.d. 411 to
take the place of older versions, the most important of
which is represented by Tatian's Diatessaron ("Har
mony"), to be discust later, and by the Sinai gospels
discovered on Mt. Sinai by Mrs. Lewis* in 1892 and
edited by Professor Bensly, etc., in 1894.29 There is
such romantic interest connected with the discovery of
the Sinai gospels that we tell the story in detail.
( I ) NEWLY DISCOVERED SYRIAC NEW TESTAMENT FROM
THE CONVENT OF ST. CATHERINE
It is one of the divinely foreordained synchronisms
of history that the mountain which gave to the Israelites
and, therefore, to all modern nations the "law," should
in these last times have given to the world the gospel.
When St. Sylvia journeyed to Mt. Sinai during the
28 The later copies of the Peshito MSS. number 125 of Gospels, 58 of
Acts and Catholic Epistles, 267 of Pauline Epistles.
M See especially Burkitt, Evangelion da Mepharreske, 2 vols. (1904) ;
Studia Sinaitica, No. VI. ; Text and Studies, VII., 2; Journal of Theol.
Studies, II, 174-185; The Four Gospels in Syriac by R. L. Bensly, etc.,
1894; Palestinian Syriac Lectionary by Lewis and Gibson, 1899. A. Min-
gana believes the Peshito translation to have been made by Christian Jews
in Mesopotamia (Jewish Quar. Rev., January, 1916).

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 177
reign of Theodosius between a.d. 385 and 388, she
speaks of the "little church" which, tho so small, "has
of itself great grace." When this woman traveler
visited the monastery, over 1,500 years before Mrs.
Lewis and Mrs. Gibson made their memorable visit, it
was less than three centuries since John the Apostle
died and she was nearer to the beloved disciple than
we are to Henry VIII. or Luther or Shakespeare. The
manuscripts of the gospels then on Mt. Sinai may have
been translated from the originals.
It was on Mt. Sinai in February, 1892, that Mrs.
Agnes Smith Lewis and her sister, Mrs. Margaret
Gibson, made their sensational discovery. Both of
these twin sisters could speak modern Greek with
fluency, and Mrs. Lewis, who had previously studied
Arabic and Hebrew, made special preparation for this
trip by studying Syriac, and became thoroughly ac
quainted with the oldest Syriac manuscripts at Cam
bridge, thus being providentially prepared for the dis
covery which was made possible only by this recent
study. Having reached Cairo in January, 1892, they
won the good will of the Greek archbishop of Mt. Sinai,
who gave them permission to examine the Sinaitic
library, together with his blessing — even promising
them immunity from the Khamseen winds! We can
not describe their journey across the desert and their
first sight of the Mount of God which, Dean Stanley
has well said, "rises like a huge altar, . . . visible
against the sky in lonely grandeur from end to end of
the whole plain." At length they came in sight of the
massive walls of the stately convent of St. Catherine.
Undoubtedly many unknown manuscripts in Greek,
Slavonic, Syriac, Arabic, and Iberian lie hidden behind

178 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
those walls — do they contain any treasure for these two
adventurous Christian women? The kindness of the
librarian, who can be forgotten by no one of us who
have ever visited this ancient sanctuary, opened every
thing in the convent to their inspection, and on February
8, 1892, they began their work, examining, copying, and
photographing such works as appeared to them espe
cially valuable.
The most ancient of these manuscripts were kept in
dark closets, and the damp leaves, which "had evidently
been unturned for centuries," could often be separated
only by manipulation with the fingers or by the steam
of the kettle. One day in this month of February, as
they were searching through the rare, old, unbound
parchments which had probably not even been looked
at for centuries, they came across a Syriac palimpsest of
358 pages whose leaves were glued together by time
and so old that "the least force used to separate them
made them crumble." The overwriting in this case
bore the date a.d. 778, and proved to be a very enter
taining account of the lives of female saints. The pre
face to this read:
"By the strength of our Lord Jesus the Christ (the Son) of
the Living God, I begin, I the sinner, John the Recluse of Beth-
Mari Kaddisha, to write select narratives about the holy women,
first the writings about the blessed lady Thecla, disciple of Paul
the blessed apostle. Brethren, pray for me."
Later the author treats of the "Blessed Eugenia"
and of Philip her father, of Pelagia the harlot of
Antioch, of the blessed Onesimus, of Theodosia the
virgin, of Theodota the harlot, etc., ending: "Let every
one who reads ... pray for the sinner who wrote it."
The under and more ancient writing was greatly

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 179
blurred, some of the words being wholly obliterated,
yet Mrs. Lewis detected the words "Evangelion,"
"Mathi," "Luca," and jumped to the correct conclusion
that this older writing must be an ancient Syriac text
of the four gospels. They photographed this work
entirely, and left the convent on the eighth of March.
Having reached home, they developed their thousand
photographs and showed them to various scholars^ but
without finding any one who could make out the blurred
writing or saw that it was of any special importance
until Mr. F. C. Burkitt, a young scholar of Cambridge,
took the photographs and showed them to Prof.
R. L. Bensly, who was just finishing a new edition of
the oldest Syriac version of the four gospels (the Cure-
ton). He recognized at once that this was another copy
much like the Cureton, but very much more complete
and probably older. Almost immediately it was
arranged that Professor Bensly, Mr. Burkitt, and Prof.
J. Rendel Harris should accompany the discoverers back
to Sinai where they would accurately transcribe the
manuscript word for word. Arriving at the convent
February 8, 1893, they found to their great delight that
the experienced experts could easily trace the words in
the underwriting, and after forty days of steady labor
they were able to return to England bearing with them
an almost complete copy of this precious document. The
copy was completed in 1895.
We have given long space to a description of this
discovery because of its picturesque interest and its
great and generally unappreciated value. Its import
ance will be recognized as soon as one remembers that
scholars of all schools believe that the Greek Testament
was translated into Syriac — a branch of the language

180 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
used by the Jews of Palestine at the time of our Lord —
at least as early as the middle of the second century of
the Christian era, and that some of the very greatest
scholars, like Merx, of Heidelberg, and Hjelt, of Hel-
singfors, as well as Dr. Lewis, believe that this newly
discovered text is a copy of that primitive Syriac ver
sion which was in use by the Church in Palestine not
later than a.d. 150 — nearer to the crucifixion than we
are to the Revolutionary War. These Syriac gospels
which must have been written in Antioch (Lewis)
within fifty or sixty years of the death of St. John,
being the earliest translation of the four gospels into
any language, were a translation of the earlier Greek
gospels, proving that those four gospels, in almost the
exact form in which we now have them, were then the
accepted standards of the Church. Dr. Lewis points out
forcibly that this Antioch text is older than Tatian and
holds very nearly the same relation to the Greek of
the gospels as the Septuagint does to the Hebrew of
the Old Testament.30 The special thing that makes this
Syriac text so valuable is not the fact that it proves the
existence of these Greek gospels within fifty years of
the apostolic age — no intelligent person denies that
now — but because it gives the version of the New Testa
ment used in Palestine at that early age, being writ
ten in the Eastern branch of the very language which
our Lord and the apostles spoke.
This Syriac text gives us the real Aramaic forms of
names rather than those which have been transferred
into our translation from the original Greek text. Es
pecially is this noticeable in proper names ; e.g., we read
Halfai for Alphseus, Juda Scariota for Judas Iscariot,
* The Old Syriac Gospels, 1910, pp. vi., xiii.

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 181
Cepha for Peter, Ramatha for Aramathea, Beni-Rogschi
for Boanerges, Hannan for Annas, Ain Nun (i.e., the
"fish spring") for Nain, Shiloah for Siloam, Beth Zaita
(i.e., "mount of the house of olives") for Mt. Olivet,
etc. The fact is that these Syriac names, in most cases,
probably represent the local pronunciation better than
the Greek, which was itself a translation or modified
transcription of these native names. Some plays on
language found here may represent the original words
of Jesus ; e.g., John 8 : 34, "He who doeth sin is the
slave of sin." Other changes which may possibly be
due to this thorough acquaintance with the language
spoken by Jesus are: "Blessed . . . who hunger and
thirst for justice"; "We have seen his star from the
East" ; "My yoke is gentle, my burden is small" ; "Put
these sayings in your ears"; "There are not two or
three gathered together in my name and I not with
them"; "You hold the key of the kingdom of heaven
before men; for you neither enter in yourselves, nor
those that are coming do you suffer to enter" ; "This is
my blood, the New Testament" ; "I do that which I have
seen of my Father"; "Let not your heart be troubled.
Believe in God, and in me ye are believing" ; They mur
mured against her "in their teeth" ; "He rolled up the
book"; "Thou art not fifty years old and hath Abraham
seen thee?"; "Now we know that thou knowest all
things and needest not that thou shouldst ask any
man." A discrepancy is removed by having John
18: 13 followed by verse 24; and by omitting "more
than these" and "Thou knowest that I love thee" (John
21: 15-17), and "Father forgive them" (Luke 23: 34).
Judas, not Iscariot, is called in this version Judas
Thomas; but the most striking change in names is

182 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
found in Pilate's question: "Which will ye that I re
lease unto you, Jesus Bar Abba or Jesus that is called
Christ?" — a reading which makes Pilate say, "Which
Jesus will you have, Jesus the son of Abba (i.e., the
malefactor) or Jesus the king?" This may really repre
sent an original reading; yet if so I can hardly think it
would have been omitted without cause from our other
manuscripts and versions, and therefore it seems rather
to be a sign that this text, old as it is, is not as old or pure
as that of the great Greek manuscripts from which our
English translation was made. Indeed, there are many
indications amounting to proof that the Syriac reading
is a later explanation or paraphrase of the Greek text.
When the Greek text says "good" fish, the Syriac says
"very good"; when the Greek says "sick," the Syriac
says "very sick"; when the Greek says "Not I, Lord,"
the Syriac says "Not I surely, Lord" ; when the Greek
says "two mites which make a farthing," the Syriac says
"two mites which make two farthings, which make an
eighth"; when the Greek says that the woman "wet"
his feet with her tears, the Syriac says "bathed" ; when
the Greek says, "Thou hast nothing to draw with," the
Syriac says "not even a pitcher"; when the Greek has
simply "Master," the Syriac almost always has "Our
Master." On the other hand, Lazarus is called a "poor
man," not a "beggar," and "son" is omitted in Abra
ham's reply (Luke 16:25); in Luke 17: 10 we read
"servants" instead of "unprofitable servants," and in
Luke 19:22 "fruitless" not "wicked" servant; and in
John 3 : 13 the Son of Man, not "in" but "from"
heaven. Certain other interesting readings are "If (two of
you) shall agree upon earth about everything"; Anna

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 183
was "seven days with a husband after her virginity";
Joseph went to Bethlehem with his "wife" (Luke 2:5);
"And all the people and the publicans that heard justi
fied themselves to God" (Luke 7:29); "Thou shalt
have glory"; "Love your enemies . . . and do
not cease hope of men" ; "The disciple is not perfect as
his master in teaching"; "The Pharisees derided him
because they loved silver"; "Rebuke the disciples that
they shout not" ; "They that have authority and do good
are called benefactors"; "Woe to us, what hath be
fallen us ! woe to us for our sins" ; "That which is born
of the spirit is spirit, because God is a living Spirit";
"I was blind and because of him, lo! I see"; "I am
the vine of truth"; "Peter warmed himself, for it was
freezing"; "Peter cast himself into the lake and was
swimming"; "Feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my
flock." It is plain from this that, altho the Syriac form
is beautiful, it can hardly be the primitive text, for in
that case there could be no explanation of the change
into the present text. On the other hand, in many cases
certain variations in the Syriac seem to make it certain
that this was derived from our Greek text; e.g., Luke
4 : 29, where the people of Nazareth took Jesus to the
brow of the hill that they might "throw him down
headlong," the Syriac text has so that they might "hang
him," which is plainly a misreading of the Greek word.
So in John 11: 31, where the Greek says Mary "rose
up quickly," the Syriac says she was "amazed," which
is almost certainly a misreading, as the two Greek
words are very nearly alike. It also seems to me prob
able that the curious reading, "and seven days only was
she with a husband" (Luke 2: 36), may be due to a
scribe's blunder, who perhaps mistook etog "year" for

184 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES •
eti "yet" and guesses at the meaning "seven (days)
only." 31
Having now seen that old as this text is, it is not as
pure or old as the Greek text, we are ready to look
steadily and intelligently at what is supposed to be a
very unorthodox reading: "Joseph to whom was be
trothed Mary the Virgin begat Jesus who is called the
Christ." "And she bore to him a son, and he called
his name Jesus" (Matt. 1:16). In considering this
it must be remembered that our Lord was legally and
socially the son of Joseph, and that this fact is indeed
the only logical ground for the incorporation of Joseph's
genealogy in the evangelist's narrative. The editor of
this text also points out that the word "begat" is used
here in a purely conventional sense, for in the eighth
verse we have it stated that Joram begat his own great
grandson, and in the twelfth verse the childless Jech-
oniah is said to have "begat" Shealtiel. The Christian
system does not hang upon the miraculous birth of
Jesus, altho certain metaphysical and theological con
clusions may seem to require it; but it must be added,
nevertheless, in all fairness, that there is even in this new
Syriac text the usual distinct statement that the birth of
Jesus was supernatural (Matt, i: 18-20). These Syriac
gospels are not rivals of our Greek texts any more than
a very early French translation of Shakespeare would
be a rival of the English text of Shakespeare, but they
do offer a new proof of the remarkable integrity of our
Greek text. These Syriac translations, dating back al-
81 See especially The Four Gospels Transcribed from the Sinaitic Pa
limpsest, Agnes Smith Lewis, 1894 ; The Four Gospels in Syriac, by R. L.
Bensly, J. Rendel Harris, F. Crawford Burkitt, with an Introduction by
Agnes Smith Lewis, 1894 ; Some Pages of the Four Gospels Retranscribed
from the Sinaitic Palimpsest, 1896; and The Old Syriac Gospels, 1910,
by Agnes Smith Lewis, D.D., LL.D.

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 185
most if not quite to apostolic times, are translations of
our four gospels, and contain not a single extract from
the gospel of Peter or any other private memorandum
of events. Even the mistakes of this text, as we have
seen, prove the existence of the earlier authoritative
Greek texts. In this Syriac version, Mt. Sinai has
given us a new proof of the age and integrity of the
Greek originals.
Dr.' Agnes Smith Lewis has made five trips to Mt.
Sinai since the discovery mentioned above, and has
made several other "finds" of especial interest. Among
these we should probably give first place to the frag
ments of a beautiful sixth century Palestine (Syriac)
text of the four gospels and Pauline epistles obtained on
her sixth visit in I9i5.31a This discovery consisted of
eighty-nine leaves of a palimpsest, the upper script
mostly dating from the ninth century; but part of the
Syriac text, according to Mr. G. Margoliouth, dates
from the sixth century. The Greek underwriting,
according to Noldeke, represents a Palestine Syriac
version originating in the fourth century (ZDMG,
XII, 525), tho Dr. Burkitt would date it two centuries
later (Journal of Theological Studies, II, 183). This
Syriac text, according to the learned editor, was not a
lectionary, but a translation from the Greek New Testa
ment, and contains: Matt., chaps. 24, 25, 27; Acts,
chaps. 19, 20, 24, 27; Romans, chaps. 4, 5, 7, 9, 10;
1 Cor., chaps. 3, 4, 13-16, and scattered portions of
2 Corinthians, Galatians, Colossians, Thessalonians,
2 Peter and 1 John.31b One of the most interesting of
Dr. Lewis's recent discoveries is that of a "Harmony
of the Gospels," containing Matt. 5:3°-375 6:1-2;
*" See Hore Semitice, No. VIII., Codex Climaci Rescriptus, 1906.
,,b The writer has not been able as yet to get access to this Greek text.

186 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
8: 8-17, 20, 21; 9: 7-13, 36; 10: 5; John 12: 1-3, 6, 9,
14, 15-18; 20:19, 20, 25, 28-31; 21:1, 2.31c This
"Harmony" is now in Dr. C. R. Gregory's care in Ber
lin for examination, and the writer, because of the war,
has not been able to learn anything further concerning
this text either from Dr. Lewis or Dr. Gregory. 31cc
3. Coptic New Testaments
In 1883, nine thousand leaves of Coptic manuscripts
were discovered in the White Monastery between
Assiut and Thebes, 250 miles south of Cairo. Among
these leaves were some of the oldest and most valuable
Coptic Bibles ever seen. The first Coptic manuscript
of any considerable part of the Bible reached the
British Museum in 1896; by 1905 the Museum possest
fifty-nine fragments of Coptic Old Testaments and
eighty-three pieces of as many Coptic New Testaments,
and it has been gathering such manuscripts ever since.3"
There are at least five or six Coptic dialects now
known to scholars, but they fall into three general
divisions: the Sahidic, which was the dialect of Upper
Egypt; the Bohairic, the dialect of Lower Egypt;
and Middle Eygptian, the dialect of Akhmim and the
Fayum. Of these the Bohairic is the most literary and
artificial, being still used in the ritual of the Coptic
church. All of these various dialects are well represen
ted in late manuscripts of the New Testament ; but for-
** See Hora Semitice Climaci 5.
aico See note 7b, p. 139.
"d Catalog of Coptic MSS. in the British Museum, 1905, and for a
further list of extant Coptic Biblical texts see especially Hyvernat, Catholic
Encyclopedia, Index Vol., articles, "Coptic Literature" and "Versions of
Bible, Coptic"; Revue Biblique, 1896-7, and Muskon XIII., 275-362; XV.,
49; Chabot in Journal des Savants, X., 174^., and Schleifer, in Revue Cri
tique XLIX.

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 187
tunately the Sahidic, which was probably the earliest and
most important in Scripture translation, is represented in
a great number of New Testament MSS., many of which
go back to the fourth and fifth centuries. In 1904 a
good edition of many fragments, with forty full-page
collotype specimens, was issued at Rome by P. J.
Balestri, O.S.A., and in 191 1 an almost exhaustive edi
tion of all these Sahidic texts was published by Oxford
University. Altho this latter work did not include some
valuable material from the Rainer collection, later pub
lished by Wessely,32 it was an enormous work in which
751 MSS., mostly dating from the fourth to the eighth
century, were collated with the Greek, Old Syriac, Old
Latin, etc., and all important variants noted.
Of these fragments of 751 Coptic New Testaments
only one "appears to have suffered any systematic cor
rection," even the MSS. as late as the tenth or twelfth
century showing very few variants.33 All the frag
ments omit the story of the woman taken in adultery
(John 7: 53 — 8: 11), as do all the oldest Greek texts.
While the texts in general showed a Western influence
they were, in fact, "neutral" in tendency, thus indicating
their translation from very early Greek originals. The
distinguished author recognizes that the history of the
Egyptian Church begins with the accession of Deme
trius to the Patriarchate in a.d. 188, and expresses his
conviction that this Coptic version arose in Egypt as
early as the second century, probably about a.d. 150.3*
ffl Studien sur Pal'dographie und Papyruskunde, IX.-XII.
sa Coptic Versions of the New Test, in the Southern Dialect, 3 vols.,
Oxford, 1911, Vol. I., p. 374.
MIbid., pp. 398, 399; a second century date is accepted also by Hyver-
nat, Revue Biblique, 1897, pp. 67#.; and Kenyon, Textual Criticism of the
New Testament; all of these vs. Hastings, Diet, of Bible;^ Ency.
Brit., and Ency. Bib. Leipoldt dates the completion of the version A.D.
350, Gesch. der christlichen Literatur, VII., 2, Leipzig, 1907, pp. 139#.

188 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
It is evident that as a confirmation of the authenticity
of the present Greek text of the New Testament, these
most recent researches into a language which no text-
critic of the last century was able to explore, have proved
very satisfactory. While the Bohairic version has not
previously been counted so important as the Sahidic,
yet the multitude of new discoveries has permitted prac
tically the entire new Testament to be reproduced in
this dialect.341 A new manuscript of great value has just
been discovered containing a large part of the Four Gos
pels. It is much older than any previously known gospel
manuscript in this dialect, the earliest previously known
being the Curzon Catena, dated a.d. 889. The newly
found Bohairic gospels, thought by some to represent an
older text than even the Vatican manuscript, contains
Matthew and John and a good part of Mark; and, in
Sahidic, all of St. Paul's epistles and those of Peter
and John. This discovery is from all points of view,
"Biblical, critical, paleographic and artistic ... by far
the most important event of recent years."35 Hoskier
even believes that the writer of the Sinaitic' MS. had
before him several ancient texts, of which the Bohairic
was one. This shows, at least, the new and great im
portance of this newly found version.
The Fayumic version is not represented by any
such enormous collections of ancient fragments; yet a
sufficient number of these have been obtained to show
that the dialect of this district had been used as a
medium for New Testament translation very early in
M* The Coptic Version of the New Testament in the Northern Dialect,
by George Horner, 4 vols., 1898-1905.
86 Journal des Savants, X., 179.

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 189
the Christian history.36 The first text was brought to
the British Museum in 1879, and dates probably from
the sixth century. This version is of special impor
tance because our earliest Greek fragments were found
in the Fayum (see pp. 166-173). The study of the
Akhmimic dialect of the New Testament has been
pushed forward greatly during the last fifteen years.
Among the discoveries, high rank must be given to the
entire papyrus book containing the Proverbs of Solo
mon and to the important fragment of a book contain
ing a portion of the gospel of St. John in Greek and
Akhmimic. The Greek text of the latter we have
already commented upon (p. 152). The Coptic con
tains St. John 10: 1 — 12:20; 13: 1, 2, 11, 12; James
1: 13— 5:20.37
The famous parchment codex of the twelve lesser
prophets in the Rainer collection is still unfortunately
unpublished at this writing, but a sufficient number of
New Testament scraps have been found to make
this dialect, which flourished midway between the Delta
and ancient Thebes, of considerable interest, tho not
of great textual value.38
The recent discovery of a very ancient copy of the
book of Acts and book of Revelation in Sahidic, the text
of which has just been published to the world by the
British Museum (ed. by Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge, 1912),
may well close our review of these Coptic New Testa:
ments. This codex of Acts, which was discovered in
88 See E. Chassinat, Butt, de I'Inst. Franc, d'arch. au Caire II. ; Frag-
menta Bassurica, I.-IIL; especially Wessely, Sitzungsberichte der kais.
Aked. der Wissensch. in Wien. philos. hist. Klasse, Vol. 158 and Joseph
David, Revue Biblique, 1910.
87 Roesch, Bruchstiicke des ersten Clemens-Brief es, Strassburg, 1910.
88 See Lacau, Bulletin de I'Inst. franqaise d'arch. orient, VIII. (Cairo,
.911).

iqo THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
1 90 1, and which must be dated, according to the editor,
not later than the middle of the fourth century, marks
a distinct advance by putting in our hands "the oldest
known copy of any translation of any considerable por
tion of the Greek Bible."39 This translation is* in fact,
as old as our oldest large Greek MSS., and fortunately,
with the exception of a few mutilated verses, the only
portions of the manuscript absent are chapters 24: 17 —
26: 31 ; 27: 7, 8, 9, 18, 19, 20, 28, 29. It is well written in
a good hand, tho there are many mistakes in spelling
and omissions of entire lines, due either to the careless
ness of the writer or "because he was copying from
an old and partly obliterated text." He evidently did
not understand always what he was writing, as he
copied "destruction" for "healing" (Acts 2:6); "thy
disciples" for "thy sins" (22: 16), etc. In a few pas
sages the readings differ from the later MSS. of the
Sahidic versions ; e.g., "God of our fathers" instead of
"God of Glory" (Acts 7:2); "the voice answered" in
stead of "the voice was against me" (11:5). Often
the readings are more correct than those of the later
texts. A little sermon at the end of the Acts in cursive
script written about the middle of the fourth century
contains some remarks which it might be profitable to
repeat :
"Why do ye commit sin ? Ye add sin to your sin, ye make to
be) wroth the Lord God who hath created you. Love not the
world nor the things which are in the world, for the glory of the
world belongeth to the devil and the destruction thereof ... for
many times the devil wisheth to prevent the sun from rising on
the earth ... he wisheth to swallow up men ... for this reason
God hath showed compassion on us in sending (!) his Son into
"Wessely, however, dates his Sahidic Acts (ii-xxvi.) to cir. a.d. 400
(Museon XV, 40).

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 191
the world that he might deliver us. . . . Fasting is nothing and
God did not ordain it, and (those who practise it) [i.e., as a sav
ing ordinance] make themselves strangers to the covenant of
God.s9a There are a few very interesting readings :
Acts 8 : 10— "This is the great power of God" (or) "This man
is the great one of the power of God."
10:36 — "For his word he sent it to the children of Israel.
He preached peace by Jesus the Christ. This is the Lord of
everyone." 1 1 : 20 — "And having come to Antioch they spoke with the
Greeks ; they preached the Lord Jesus."
16: 13 — "On the day of that Sabbath we came out outside the
gate on the river to a place wherein we might pray."
18 : 5 — "Paul was persevering in the word ; he was testifying
to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ."
20: 28 — "Church of the Lord which he hath acquired through
his own blood."
21 : ifj — "The disciples who were in Qesarea took us to an
old disciple a Cyprian, Mnason, that we might sojourn with
him." The Codex of the Apocalypse published with the
Acts is almost equally important, and the various read
ings equally curious, e.g.:
Rev. 9 : 20 — "The demons of gold and silver."
11 : 18 — "To judge the living and the dead."
13 : 18 — "He who hath understanding, let him count the num
ber of the name of the beast ; for it is the number of a name ; it
maketh 600, 6, 60."
"" Dr. A. A. Vaschalde, of the Catholic University of America, calls my
attention to the fact that this translation is not critically exact. "Sin"
(fourth word from* end of first line) should be "sins"; "wisheth" (fifth
line) should be, "wished" ; "he wisheth" (sixth line) should be "wishing" ;
while instead of "and the destruction thereof" (fourth line) we should
read (following "world"), "and its dissoluteness"; while the passage be
ginning, "Fasting is nothing" may be omitted, as the text is badly mutilated
here and Budge's interpretation somewhat uncertain.

192 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
17 : 5 — "There was a name of mystery written upon her fore
head." *»>
It should be noted that this great codex was not
used as a service book, but was the property of some
private individual, perhaps a monk. It had been used
till it was nearly worn out and the back of it had to
be strengthened. This discovery brings another proof that the Coptic
version must hereafter be reckoned with as one of the
important authorities for the text of the New Testa
ment.
4. Ancient New Testaments in Latin and Other
Languages 40
The Latin versions of the Scriptures can be traced
back into the second century, altho, naturally, no
second century copies of this translation now exist.
We know, however, that the martyrs at Carthage in the
year a.d. 180, had in their case of Latin rolls the
SBb Dr. Vaschalde in a personal letter points out some critical corrections
to these renderings of Dr. Budge. Acts 8 : 10, the second rendering "is cer
tainly false," and the first is in complete harmony with the Greek. Acts
10:36, 11:20, 20:28 agree with the Greek. Acts 16:13, read "on the
day of the Sabbaths" ; Act 18 : 5, translate : "Paul was persevering in the
word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ." Acts 21 : 16 should be
translated "... the disciples, who were in Caesarea; they took us to an
old disciple, etc." Dr. Vaschalde points out that none of the readings in
Revelation, (excepting perhaps 11 : 18) are peculiar to this codex, the same
readings being found in Goussen's or Wessely's texts. That is, these read
ings, while they may be peculiar to the Sahidic Version, are not peculiar to
Budge's Codex. "It must also be borne in mind that the Sahidic version is,
as a rule, not as literal as the Bohairic."
"Almost all of these new discoveries have been made in monasteries.
The Egyptian papyri have yielded comparatively little Latin material, altho
Wessely has recently given fifty examples of Roman script (three from the
first century and six from the second), and has described in a fascinating
way the peculiarities of the early Latin script at the time when Vergil and
Horace were writing. One of the most interesting secular documents is
a bundle of letters dated 21-18 B.c. by Macedo, a citizen of the Fayum
(Aus der Welt der Papyri, pp. 45#.).

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 193
"Epistle of Paul, the just man." Cyprian, also, in the
middle of the third century, quotes the Latin text of
the New Testament constantly. By the middle of the
fourth century so many different translations of the
Greek text had already appeared that the Latin MSS.
exhibited a most confusing variety of text, and this
lasted till Jerome's version (a. d. 384-400) supplemented
all others.41 Within the last two decades the Latin versions have
advanced to a place of primary importance in determin
ing the original text of the New Testament. It has
long been acknowledged by textual critics that the Vul
gate of Jerome represented in many places a better text
than our Authorized Version; for in the year 161 1 no
scholar was able to consult such ancient Greek texts as
Jerome used in the fourth century. Jerome attempted
to produce a critical edition, and did the work well so
far as the gospels were concerned, altho not so well in
the epistles. There now exist some 8,000 MSS. follow
ing Jerome's revision. These prove that Jerome's trans
lation was much modified by later revisers, especially
from the ninth to the twelfth centuries; the original
Vulgate being quite different from the authorized edi
tion of this text, put out by Pope Clement VIII in
1592. This edition was declared by edict to be superior
to the Greek originals and was used later as the basis
of the Douay (Roman Catholic) New Testament.
The oldest manuscript representing Jerome's ver
sion of the New Testament was discovered in 1907.
It was bound up with a collection of shorthand symbols
(tenth century) and a number of short prayers (sev
enth century) ; but it dates from the sixth century,
41 F. C. Burkitt in Ency. Biblica, IV., 5008-10.

194 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
being thus the oldest large Latin Bible text now in
the British Museum. It is a vellum leaf which was
once the sixth leaf of an uncial Latin New Testament,
in which the gospels were written in their present
order. The leaf contains Mark 16: 15-20, represent
ing in general the Vulgate text, and on the opposite
side of the leaf are two ecclesiastical lections of the
eighth and ninth centuries, containing John 14:7-14;
Luke 24 : 49-53. There are a few curious readings, the
most interesting being Mark 16: 17, where "uelute
apostoli" is added to the regular text, thus limiting
miraculous signs to such disciples as have the same
kind of faith as had the apostles.42
The recent study of Jerome's translation has been
valuable; but previous to Jerome there had been sev
eral other translations or recensions of the New Testa
ment into Latin, and in recent years scholars have been
able for the first time to get back with considerable
certainty to those texts which antedate the original
Vulgate. Fragments of at least eighteen manuscripts
of the Old Latin gospels still exist, five of which are
of the fourth or fifth century. The advantage of this
is incalculable, since the tendency after Jerome was
toward an unhealthy uniformity of Latin text. The
fine faithfulness of the early Latin copyists makes even
short quotations or broken manuscripts of unusual
value. The general conclusion of an examination of
all the evidence gathered from these hundreds of Latin
New Testaments in Africa and Europe, and from the
quotations made by the early Fathers of the Latin
Church, is to confirm the authority of our present
42 Described in Jour, of Theol. Studies, XIII., 369-371. For the changes
in the Vulgate text of St. Paul's epistles, see Revue Biblique, 1915, pp.
358-392,

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 195
Greek text, which we have already seen to lie at the
basis of the Coptic and Syriac translations. Such is
the settled conclusion of Biblical science.
A young English scholar, however, Mr. E. S.
Buchanan, has recently been attempting a quixotic at
tack upon the Greek manuscripts, affirming that they
were all wilfully changed in the second or the third cen
tury and that the Latin manuscripts are far more trust
worthy. This claim would not be worthy of attention
here were it not that a few reputable American maga
zines have seemingly sanctioned this theory, supposing
it in some way to be a "defense of orthodoxy." In
stead of favoring orthodoxy it leads directly to out-
and-out textual skepticism. Fortunately, it is diamet
rically opposed to all legitimate conclusions from the
many text discoveries of the last quarter of a century.
No one doubts that we possess twentyfold more Greek
than Latin manuscripts dating from the early cen
turies. Of the 2,369 Latin manuscripts catalogued by
Gregory less than half a dozen date as early as the
sixth century. No one doubts that the Latin manu
scripts were derived from Greek originals. The Latin
manuscripts from which Mr. Buchanan obtains these
unique readings — which he believes to be primitive —
are late manuscripts dating from the sixth to the tenth
century.43 It is a mere speculative decision on his
part that these new readings are primitive, and in most
cases his decisions are opposed by other textual
scholars. Mr. Buchanan's basal claim is that the copyists
in the second or third century changed the original
" Mr. Buchanan dates two of the manuscripts he edits early in the fifth
century, but those from which he obtains his most sensational variants
date from the eighth to the tenth century.

196 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
text in the interests of the "hierarchy" against the
virgin birth and the deity of Jesus, and the personality
of the Holy Spirit; but this is against all historical
perspective. The Christian theologians of that era
were zealously accepting these doctrines. To suppose
that anybody could have introduced at that era changes
against the cherished beliefs of the Church and had
them universally accepted is simply preposterous. A
church of heretics and fraudulent deceivers would have
to take the place of the Church of the martyrs in order
to give Mr. Buchanan's theory an a priori standing.
But even if the possibility of changes so vital as these
was acknowledged, it would yet be absolutely incredible
that such particular changes as many of those which
he mentions could be primitive. It is easy to see how
such readings could arise at a comparatively late era
on the basis of the present Greek text, but impossible
to explain how the present Greek text could have arisen
from such an original text as Mr. Buchanan's theory
presupposes. It is .also impossible to imagine original
readings of the following nature dropping absolutely
out of sight in the primitive Church:
"And they were astonished at the teachings of the Holy Spirit,
for the word of the Lord Jesus was powerful" (Mark 4: 24).
"Judge not your brethren and ye shall not be judged" (Luke
6:37)- "Holy Father which art in heaven : Give us to-day for bread
the Word of God from heaven" (Luke 11 : 2,3).
"In him was the life of God, which is the light of men" (John
1:4). "No man can come unto me except the Father which sent me
and the Holy Spirit draw him" (John 6:44).
"He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall
have the eternal light of the life of God" (John 8: 12).
"If thou art God, tell us plainly" (John 10: 24).

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COPTIC LETTER (6th Century ?)
From an unpublished papyrus obtained in Egypt by the author

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SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS LAMPS AND CANDELABRA
RELICS FROM THE APOSTOLIC AGF. rist fWiirv.
ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 197
"Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the
Son of God may be glorified" (John 13 : 14).
"And the word which ye hear is not man's, but the Father's
which sent me" (John 14: 24).
"These things have been written that ye may believe that Jesus
Christ is Son of Man and Son of God, and have life eternal in
his name" (John 2o:3i).43a
One might hope that a few of the readings in these
Latin manuscripts shall prove to be primitive, such as:
"John did baptize in the wilderness and preach repentance for
the remission of sins" (Mark 1:4).
"No prophet is acceptable in David's country" (Luke 4:24).
"Do good to them that curse you" (Luke 6: 28).
"I have sinned against heaven and ... am not worthy to be
thy servant" (Luke 15:21).
"Except a man be born of the Spirit, he can not enter the
kingdom of God" (John 3:5).
But while the above texts appeal to us as possibly
defensible primitive readings, according to the proper
canons of criticism, yet this does not prove that they
were primitive. It is only by an exhaustive examina
tion of the manuscript testimony that such matters
can be decided. It is perfectly clear, however, accord
ing to every canon of criticism, that such a reading as
the following could not be primitive:
"I say unto thee, upon this rock shall be built by the Holy
Spirit his disciples."— Matt. 16: 18:
Mr. Buchanan finds this reading in a Spanish manu
script from the library of the late J.. P. Morgan. It
is a very handsome manuscript containing no richly
colored miniatures and was copied, in . the tenth cen
tury, tho it dates back to the Presbyter Beatus who
lived in the eighth century. It is evident that Beatus
"' These instances have all been taken from the Irish Codex Harleianus,
edited by E. S. Buchanan, M.A., B.Sc, 1914.

198 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
was rather a remarkable man, for his comments writ
ten in the text are noteworthy: "Christians are called
after Christ; therefore, the Lord said, 'Upon this rock
shall be built by the Holy Spirit his disciples,' " and
"This is the first church that was founded at the first
by the Spirit upon the rock, Christ"; but to imagine
that such a comment represents a primitive reading
which has been dropt out in some miraculous or fraudu
lent way from the Greek text and from all versions
excepting this one very late and very gorgeous copy,
is to allow one's credulity to take the place of reason.41
Text critics are eager to welcome any new reading
with a fair probability of truth behind it, but in the
interest of solid learning such hasty conclusions as
those noticed above are much to be regretted. What
ever may be the outcome of the contention by Merx,
Hoskier, Von Soden and others that the Western text*
including also the old Latin Syriac, and Coptic Versions,
must be given more prominence than has ordinarily been
given it by text critics, no such argument as the
above can seriously assist this claim. The new dis
coveries prove that the Alexandrian critics did not
even form a new standard text of Homer, as was once
supposed certain — the earliest texts being "substan
tially identical" with the very late texts — and every
great text critic now believes that the variations of
text, either in the classics or in the New Testament,
are due, not chiefly to wilful corruption, but to ig
norance.45 Ignorant as the scribes were who wrote
some of the Greek minuscules, few of them can be
44 Bibliotheca Sacra, Oct., 1915; The Early Revisers of the Gospel, E. S.
Buchanan, 1915; Search for the Original Words of the Gospel., Dec, 1914;
Sacred Latin Texts, Vols. I.-II., V. ; cf. Jour, of Theol. Studies, 1917, p. 171.
45 Cf. F. G. Kenyon, in Proceedings of Brit. Acad., 1903-4, pp. 139-293.

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 199
compared in this respect with the Latin scribes. In the
Codex Laudianus, "church" and "elder" are each spelled
in four different ways, and in the Codex Corbeiensis
Paul is spelled "paulus," "laulus," "paus," "populus."
While we have thus frankly criticized some of the
sensational conclusions of Mr. Buchanan, we do not
fail to recognize the value of his textual work and of
the new viewpoint which would magnify the importance
of the old Latin readings. If, further, he shall be
proved right in his belief that the gospel of Mark was
written originally in Latin, this will give to the study
of the Latin manuscripts, especially to the gospel of
Mark, a new interest. Mark was- anciently called the
"interpreter" (i.e., "secretary" or "dragoman") of
Peter ; and if this gospel were written in Rome it would
naturally be put in the vernacular. The native people
were undoubtedly talking Latin. It is said that even
Cicero did not know Greek until he was over sixty
years of age. At any rate, Mark has a Latin back
ground; and as there are forty Latin names of persons
and places and thirty other Latin terms, military,
judicial, and domestic found in the New Testament
(Robertson), all Bible students may well be interested
in every new discovery or new theory connected with
the Latin manuscripts. If Mark's gospel were written
originally in two languages (either Greek and Aramaic
or Greek and Latin), the double ending of the sixteenth
chapter might also be more easily explained.46
A considerable number of other Biblical manuscripts
have recently been brought to light, written in Arabic,
Armenian, Ethiopic, and other languages, but these have
" Cf. Swete, Gospel according to St. Mark, pp. xxiv., xlvii.; Sal
mon, Introduction to the New Testament, p. 151.

200 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
added comparatively little to our knowledge of the Bible
text. We may mention, however, a rather surprizing
discovery which Dr. J. Rendel Harris (following
Preuschen) has just made in an Armenian version of
the Acts of the Apostles. He believes that he has found
there the name of the author. This not only assists to
settle the old controversy concerning the correct spell
ing of Luke's name, but has at least some little bear
ing on certain more important questions concerning
that much discust work. Scholarship has gradually
come to see that the "we" sections of the Acts can
not be detached from the rest of the book. In lan
guage, style, atmosphere, and outlook the book is a
unity. Dr. Harris has convincingly shown that the
Western text differed from the ordinary text just as
widely in the far East as in the near West and now,
in a second century Armenian commentary, he has
found this unique reading: "But [I], Luke (Aowiog),
and those who were with me, went on board."
5. A Very Ancient "Harmony of the Gospels"
Tatian, who was an eastern Syrian rhetorician of
Greek education born about a.d. no — some six or
eight years after the traditional date of St. John's
death, — was an independent thinker. Before his con
version to Christianity he had studied all the learning
of the Greeks and was dissatisfied with it. He says:
"While I was giving my most earnest attention to the
matter" (the discovery of truth), "I happened to meet
with certain barbaric writings too old to be compared
with the opinions of the Greeks and too divine to be
compared with their errors" (i.e., the Old Testament
Scriptures). "I was led to put faith in these by the

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 201
unpretending cast of the language, the inartificial char
acter of the writers, the foreknowledge displayed of
future events, the excellent quality of the precepts, and
the declaration of the government of the universe as
centered in one being." 47
At Rome he met Justin, "the martyr," and was
converted to Christianity. Justin was a great man.
He had been a pagan philosopher, but had met with
Christianity and it had conquered him; he had trav
eled all over the civilized world and personally knew
the men who had known the apostles. Tatian studied
with this man and perhaps saw him, with six other
Christians, beheaded in Rome a.d. 166. Thus Tatian
became a Christian philosopher, and wrote various
philosophical treatises against the Greeks. Philosophic
discussion, however, is not always a good thing for
every man, and very soon Tatian was drawn away
from the simplicity of the gospel. He was led in
these discussions to feel so keenly the difficulty of
acknowledging Christ's humanity while claiming his
divinity that he finally gave up the doctrine that Christ
was human, declaring that his human body was but
an appearance and that only his divinity was real. In
connection with this heresy he taught also that the.
body was an evil thing and everything was evil that
gave it pleasure. He became, therefore, an ascetic of
a pronounced type, abstaining from all luxurious food
and abhorring marriage. He also followed Marcion in
distinguishing the Demiurge from the God of the Old
Testament; he followed Valentine in his theory of
eons, and propounded one or two original unorthodox
theories of his own, such as his denial of the salva-
" Address to the Greeks, chaps. 29-30.

202 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
bility of Adam. By the time he died (a.d. 172) he was
regarded by the Church as a dangerous heretic and
was banished, but it was probably before he fell so
far from orthodoxy and yet after he began to scruple
concerning the true humanity of the Christ that he
wrote his Diatessaron.iS
This Diatessaron or "Harmony of the Four Gos
pels" was an attempt to weave everything in all the
gospels into one continuous narrative. It was a diffi
cult task but a very worthy one, and it made a serious
impression upon the early Church. Undoubtedly it re
ceived criticism, for it was a new and advanced plan
for Bible study — and all such plans are criticized — but
it nevertheless became so popular that by the third
century it was being read in some churches (notably
at Edessa) instead of the four gospels at the regular
church services. This continued to be such a common
custom that when Ephraem Syrus, in the fourth cen
tury, wrote his commentary on the gospels, he actually
took this "Harmony" as the text on which he based
his comments.49 But when the Peshito was issued,
probably by Rabbula the bishop of Edessa, as the
"Authorized Version" of the Syrian Church (a.d. 411-
435), a crusade began against this Harmony of Tatian,
and proved so successful that soon not only had the
public use of the work ceased in the Church, but it
almost disappeared from private circulation, altho it
was occasionally read as late as the middle ages.
The unusual importance of this work may be
[judged from the fact that certainly the Peshito (fifth
century) and perhaps even the Old Syriac translation
48 Some time between a.d. 153-170, according to Nestle in Hastings, Diet.
of Bible, IV., 646.
"Diet, of Bible, Extra Vol., p. 452; Studia Biblica, III, 132#.

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 203
(cir. a.d. 175) had been influenced by it; yet unfor
tunately the original work was entirely lost and all that
remained of it were a few quotations in certain early
writings. However, an Armenian translation of a
commentary by Ephraem Syrus, who had used the
work, one imperfect fourteenth century Arabic MS.
which purported to be a translation of the Diatessaron,
and a Latin codex (Fuldensis) of the sixth century,
which was thought by some to be a translation of it,
were recovered. Notwithstanding the unsatisfactory
data, Professor Zahn, in 1881, gathered all the evi
dence available and attempted to reconstruct the orig
inal text — an attempt which was proved to be bril
liantly successful by the discovery of another older and
better Arabic text which was published by Ciasca with
a Latin translation, in 1888, in honor of the jubilee
of Pope Leo XIII. While this Arabic MS. was only
of the eleventh century, it translated a Syriac text
written in the ninth century and showed far less con
formity to the orthodox Syriac version than any
manuscript previously known. While, of course, a
late manuscript such as this could be of no value in
settling by its readings the ancient text, yet wherever
this manuscript could be tested by ancient quotations
it proved its trustworthiness. Its independence was
shown by the omission of the last twelve verses of
Mark omitted in the oldest Greek MSS., and also by
the omission of Luke 22 : 43, 44 (the bloody sweat)
and 23:34 (the prayer on the cross), which it was
known Tatian had omitted from his "Harmony," tho
there was in general a verbal harmonization with the
accepted Syriac text.
Only a short time before this discovery, a cele-

204 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
brated foreign critic had declared that if this lost work
were ever recovered, it would be seen that Tatian's
gospels were not at all our gospels, but very different
records, since at that early date (a.d. 160-170) our
gospels, as we now have them, with their accounts of
miracles and assertion of our Lord's deity and other
supernaturalisms, were probably not received as au
thoritative, even if they were then in existence. The
scientific recovery of what is essentially the ancient
form of this "oldest life of Christ," compiled from the
four gospels, has sufficiently answered such skepticism;
and it is a source of considerable gratification that we
now possess several English translations of this newly
discovered manuscript, one of the best of which is
that by Rev. J. Hamlyn Hill, of Cambridge, whose work
we shall use freely in the comparisons about to be
made.50 In appreciating the value of this new discovery it
must be borne in mind that Syriac was Tatian's native
language and the first language into which our gospels
were ever translated, and that scholars generally be
lieve that this translation of our gospels from Greek
into Syriac had probably been made either before the
Apostle John died or, at farthest, within two genera
tions afterward.51 Does, therefore, this Tatian manu-
80 Earliest Life of Christ, Edinburgh, 1894.
."Jam accepting here provisionally the ordinary dating of St. John's
death (cir. a.d. 100-105), tho it must be admitted that modern scholarship
has. made this dating quite insecure. See e.g., Moffatt, Introduction to the
Literature of the New Testament, pp. 602-619. Yet the names of great
scholars can still be cited who do not accept the popular modern position.
Besides Harnack, Drummond, Stanton, Workman, Lepin, Abbott, J, H.
Bernard, and J. Armitage Robinson quoted by Moffat (op. cit, p. 605),
add the strong arguments for the old view offered by Zahn, Introduction
to the New Testament, 1909, III., 178-194 ; Peake, Critical Introduction to
the New Testament, 1913, pp. 136-151 ; and for a non-committal position
Sanday, .Criticism .of the Fourth Gospel, 1905, pp. 108, ZSlff.; and Swete,
Apocalypse of St. John, 1907, pp. clxxv.-clxxxv.

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 205
script make known to us different gospels from those
reported to us by the evangelists ; gospels in a formative
state out of which the gospels which the Church now
accepts were evolved toward the end of the second
century? Not at all. That was the theory woven with
great ingenuity and learning upon German and French
spindles some few years ago; but the theory is already
dead and buried. This is not a "patchwork," as one
learned scholar called it, made up of various primi
tive traditions very different from our own ; but is an
amalgamation of our four gospels and of our four
gospels only, with not one sentence taken from any
"Gospel of Peter" or any other apocryphal gospel
however ancient or however interesting.52 If this
eleventh century Arabic text, made from a ninth
century Syriac MS., represents truly the original
Syriac text of Tatian, as scholars now seem generally
to acknowledge,53 it discovers to us the text of the
gospels which over 1,700 years ago was accepted both
by the orthodox and the heterodox churches. It is
impossible to attempt here a comparison of this text
with the ancient Syriac version (the Peshito) and the
Greek text. It may be said in general terms that this
Arabic translation (representing Tatian's Syriac) does
not fundamentally differ from our present Greek text
much more than the German or French Testament
differs from it. There are, however, a few peculiar
readings; e.g., "No man hath seen God at any time;
the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the
42 So Gregory distinctly affirms, Canon and Text of New Testament,
1907, p. 128; as to Tatian's manner of using the Gospel material see the
remarkably clear and thorough examination by A. A. Hobson in Univ. of
Chicago's Hist, and Linguistic Studies, 2d Series Vol. I., 841.
B E.g., Hist, and Linguistic Studies, 2d Series, Vol. I, Univ. of Chicago,
1909, p. 21.6.

206 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Father, he has declared him"; "Glory to God in the
highest and on earth peace, good hope to men";
"Strain out a gnat and adorn a camel," etc. Instead of
"pray and not faint" this version reads "pray and be
not slothful." On the Mount of Transfiguration in
stead of the remark: "They saw no man save Jesus
only," this version reads : "They saw Jesus even as he
was." When Jesus said to the young man "sell all"
this version adds, "at this word the young man
frowned." Instead of "a hundredfold" this version
writes "twice as many." In Gethsemane, instead of
"sweating great drops of blood" this version declares
it was "a stream of blood"; and when Jesus says to
Cephas, "thou shalt catch men," this version adds,
"thou shalt be catching men unto life."
In almost all of these readings the text of Tatian
follows that of the Old Syriac, but there are some terms
of expression peculiar to himself; e.g., "He that hath
received this witness hath set his seal to this, that he
is truly God"; "Forgive and ye shall be forgiven, re
lease and ye shall be released" ; "And many envied him
and did not apply their mind to him"; "Even so your
Father which is in the heavens willeth not that any
one of these little ones should perish, whom, after err
ing, he calleth to repent"; "That which is exalted
among men is small in the sight of God" ; "Spitting on
his own fingers, he put them on the blind man and
healed him," etc. The greatest changes are a few
vivid touches at the trial and crucifixion peculiar to
this text. When Jesus "went out, Simon Cephas
was standing in the outer court warming himself,"
and going to Calvary "Jesus went on with his cross
behind him." The title was written on a "tablet" and

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 207
nailed to the cross, and the chief priests and scribes
"mocked him and laughed to each other saying, The
Saviour of others can not save himself."
Such are the most striking of all the differences
between this version of the gospels and ours — a
scarcely greater difference, so far as fundamental state
ment of doctrine or fact is concerned, than between the
A. V. and the R. V. or between the French and the
English Testaments. It ought, perhaps, to be empha
sized once more that there is no evidence whatever
that Tatian intended his compendium to supersede the
four gospels. It seems rather intended to have been
a companion to the four gospels, just as our modern
harmonies are. This discovery proves once more the
care of the gospel text taken by those early Christians
who lived within fifty years of the apostolic age.54
Justin Martyr, the teacher of Tatian, received many
accounts from the aged men concerning Jesus and his
life, which he regarded as being absolutely reliable —
the names of the thieves on the cross, various people
who had been healed, etc., — and Tatian no doubt be
lieved these things, too; but he did not put in one
single item of that kind. He stuck close to the thought
of the original Greek, which he evidently regarded as
the authoritative inspired original, and was so anxious
not "to omit the slightest comment of any one evan
gelist unless it was substantially preserved in the words
of another" that often he has been led into undue
repetition "by placing one after the other passages of
different evangelists that vary but little from one an
other."
"E.g., see Hastings, Diet, of Bible, V., 452; A. A. Hobson, Diatessaron
of Tatian and the Synoptic Problems, p. 80; Milligan, New Test. Docu
ments, p. 219.

208 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
There were no brilliant "patchwork" additions by
the heretical editor. The worst that Tatian did was to
omit from his "Harmony" the genealogies of Jesus
and other references that "show our Lord to have been
born of the seed of David according to the flesh"; yet
the book and its author were anathematized. The
early Church would not sanction even an abridged
edition, much less a mutilated edition of the authori
tative historical records. The discovery of this docu
ment, and its acceptance by scholars as representing
the ancient Syriac text, also buries the theory so
popular a few generations ago that the miracles of
the gospels were an addendum to the original un-
miraculous narrative of the Lord's life. This, dis
covery makes still more certain, what was sufficiently
proved before, that the "memoirs of the apostles,"
which Justin says "contained all things concerning our
Saviour Jesus Christ," and were read together with the
writings of the prophets in the weekly services of the
Christians, were our four gospels and none other;
since Tatian, the heretical disciple of Justin, uses these
and none other as the authoritative and the only au
thoritative historical and biographical documents of
the Christian Church. Already, only two generations
after the death of the last apostle, these four gospels
(just these four and no others), altho written in differ
ent countries by different persons and at different
times, had been so long recognized as Christian Scrip
tures that they could be used in combination both by
heretic and orthodox as the complete and authoritative
record of the events related in them. Thus the most
scholarly and weighty arguments ever formulated

ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENTS DISCOVERED 209
against the Christian faith55 have been rendered ob
solete.56 In completing our survey of the discoveries in this
most important field of textual criticism we are imprest
with the complete and thorough way in which the radi
cal theories of a century ago have been disproved. The
text of the New Testament is now fixt more certainly
than that of any ancient book. Not even one discovery
has been opposed to the overwhelming testimony re
garding the antiquity of the text, while the general
purity of the text has been established by a mass of
evidence a hundredfold greater than that which can
be marshalled for any ancient classic. Ninety years
ago, when Home published his Introduction, about
550 MSS. of the New Testament had been collated by
scholars; a little over thirty years ago, when West
cott and Hort brought out their epoch-making Greek
text, some 1,700 MSS. were ready for their use; to-day
over 4,200 Greek MSS. have been collated, and they all
confirm the integrity and purity of the New Testament
text. The importance of the new discoveries may be vividly
appreciated by remembering that 300 years ago, when
the King James' version was made, probably not one
MS. dating as far back as the sixth century was avail
able for purposes of textual criticism; even when the
Revised Version was issued less than a dozen such
MSS. were known; but between the years 1900-1912 we
find that twelve manuscripts written in uncial form and
K I refer to the brilliant arguments of Baur and Strauss.
MFor literature on Tatian's Diatessaron see especially Hastings, Diet.
of Bible IV., 648; Ency. Brit., Ill, 882; XXVI, 312; for the story of
Zahn's most brilliant restoration of the text see Hist, and Linguistic
Studies, Univ. of Chicago, 1909.

210 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
of very great importance were discovered, ten of these
containing substantial parts of the New Testament
and two of them containing complete copies of the four
gospels; while many fragments of texts containing the
Acts, Catholic epistles and Pauline epistles were found,
500 different Bible texts having been discovered dur
ing that brief period.57
In addition to these Greek texts hundreds of manu
scripts in many languages, Coptic, Syriac, Latin, etc.,
have been collated, representing very ancient transla
tions of the Greek New Testament — some of these
being practically as near to St. John as we are to
Shakespeare — and these also confirm the integrity of
the text. A vast number of these ancient translations,
especially in Syriac and Coptic, have been recently
discovered. Of the old or Curetonian Syriac our
knowledge is due entirely to quite recent discoveries,
as "little more than fifty years ago its very existence
was unknown" (Kenyon). Until very recently, no MS.
of the Memphitic or Bohairic text older than a.d. 1173
was known to exist; while the Thebaic or Sahidic was
not known until the end of the eighteenth century.
We now possess sufficient fragmentary texts, many of
them from the fifth or fourth century, to "compose a
nearly complete New Testament."
It is not, therefore, an exaggeration to say that the
original text of the New Testament is now fixt at least
as certainly as the text of some of Shakespeare's plays.

" See Kenyon's Handbook, 1901, compared with list given in the same
Handbook in 1912.

IV
NEW LIGHT ON THE NEW TESTAMENT
FROM PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCU
MENTS RECENTLY DISCOVERED
I. The Logia, or Newly Discovered "Sayings of
Our Lord"
Up to our day the oldest documents of Christianity
were the Holy Writings, the MSS. of which dated from
the fourth, fifth, sixth or later centuries, at a time when
Christianity had become victorious. Not one scrap
of Christian writing was known from any pen previous
to the Constantine era, and not one smallest fragment
of the Holy Scriptures or other literary or private
Christian memoranda had survived in its original form
nor any autographic account of any act relating to the
early Christians.1
Most wonderful seemed the discovery of Grenfell
and Hunt when, in 1896, they dug up at Oxyrhynchus
a collection of "Sayings of Jesus" dating from the
third century of our era and purporting to come from
the lips of our Lord himself. No one had doubted
that Jesus had uttered many words worthy of memory
which had not been recorded in the brief memoranda
contained in our gospels. St. Paul had quoted one
such sentence, "It is more blessed to give than to re
ceive" (Acts 20: 35), and Clement of Alexandria, writ
ing at a time when the early Church still possest a
living memory of the apostolic era, had quoted several
sayings of Jesus which were most striking: "Be ye
'For a most vivid statement of these facts see Wessely, Les Plus
Anciens Monuments du Christianisme Hcrits sur Papyrus, p. 99.
211

212 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
trustworthy money changers"; "Ask great things and
the small shall be added to you"; "He that wonders
(i.e., with reverent faith) shall reign, and he that
reigns shall be made to rest." In the Codex Bezae,
too, Jesus was represented as saying to a man working
on the Sabbath day, "Oh man, if thou knowest what
thou doest, then blessed art thou; but if thou knowest
not, then art thou accursed."2
When it is remembered that in all the sixteen cen
turies since Clement there have not been two sayings
a century originated by all the thinkers of the earth
worthy to be placed alongside the golden sentences of
Jesus, it becomes possible (and perhaps more than
possible) that several of the above sayings represent
a correct memory of the early Christian Church, thus
giving to us veritable utterances of our Lord himself.
This is even more probable when we consider the
"logia" discovered recently.
The papyrus leaf first published in 1897 contained
seven or eight sayings, as follows :
1. ". . . And then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote
that is in thy brother's eye."
2. "Jesus saith, Except ye fast to the world, ye shall in no
wise find the kingdom of God ; and except ye make the sabbath a
real sabbath, ye shall not see the Father.''
3. "Jesus saith, I stood in the midst of the world, and in the
flesh was I seen of them ; and I found all men drunken, and none
found I athirst among them, and my soul grieveth over the sons
of men, because they are blind in their hearts and see not ..."
4. ". . . poverty ..."
5. "Jesus saith, Wherever there are two, they are not without
God; and wherever there is one alone, I say, I am with him.
Raise the stone, and there thou shalt find me; cleave the wood,
and there am I."
' For a full list of these "sayings" quoted by ancient authors see J. H.
Ropes' "Agrapha," in Hastings, Diet, of Bible, V: 343-352. ¦

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 213
6. "Jesus saith, A prophet is not acceptable in his own country,
neither doth a physician work cures upon them that know him."
7. "Jesus saith, A city built upon the top of a high hill and
established can neither fall nor be hid."
8. "Jesus saith, Thou hearest with one ear (but the other ear
hast thou closed)."
The saying which seems hardest here is the one
which was originally translated "Except ye sabbatize
the sabbath, ye shall not see the Father." If this had
really meant that no man could see the Father and enter
the kingdom of God without observing fast days and
keeping the Jewish Sabbath (Bodman, Bacon, James,
etc.), then the idea must have been given up that Jesus
ever uttered these words. But Prof. J. Rendel Harris of
Cambridge and Prof. Adolph Harnack of Berlin, soon
after the discovery, indubitably proved that these words
were to be taken figuratively, not literally. They gave
many instances in the writings of the early fathers in
which this form of mystical or symbolic language was
used. To "fast to the world" meant, in the early Church,
to abstain from worldly lusts and to deny sensual ap
petites (Clement). By such a fast men died to the
world and thus became able to enter the kingdom of
God and partake of heavenly food (cf. Isa. 18:6).
Both Professor Harris and Professor Harnack quoted
the words of Justin Martyr: "If there is an adulterer
let him repent, and thus he has sabbatized the true
and delightsome Sabbath of God." In this passage the
very expression was used which is found in the new
text; so that the teaching became plain, and it is now
universally accepted that the injunction to "sabbatize
the sabbath" did not mean that one must keep the
seventh day of the week as his rest day, but that he
must keep himself pure in heart and in act. The right

214 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
way of keeping the sabbath was determined not by
the clock or by the almanac, but by the soul.
When properly understood, this new "saying" seems
an eternal word, a word for all time, and is in beautiful
harmony with the teachings of Jesus recorded in the
gospels. It is true that Professor Harnack thinks that
Jesus would not have antagonized his countrymen by
using this expression, virtually telling them that with
all their strict Sabbatarianism they were not really keep
ing the Sabbath ; but this objection loses its force when
we remember that the gospels are full of this criticism
of outward sanctimoniousness without the inward spirit
of holiness. He who spoke so strongly to hypocrites,
scrupulous in their regard of outside observances while
inwardly full of corruption, would not have hesitated
to call those who claimed to be sabbath keepers "sab
bath breakers," unless they kept the day of rest "in
the spirit." These words seem to the writer a true
message from the lips of our Lord, a message never
more needed than in this age of sabbath desecration
and worldliness.
In regard to the third saying, Professor Harnack
in a burst of enthusiasm cries out: "We receive this
beautiful word with thanks"; for in this logion Jesus
speaks as a divine being who, tho he was a Son,
"in the flesh," was not to be confounded with the "sons
of men" over whom he grieved. This is very like an
expression often found in John's gospel. It is a sig
nificant thing that in all these new discoveries the
nearer we get to the lifetime of Jesus the more confi
dently is his deity presupposed in every word that
reaches us from those martyr centuries. How like
Jesus also are these tender words: "My soul grieveth

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 215
over the sons of men, because they are blind in their
heart." The blind heart — that is the worst thing ! One
other figure used here recalls St. John's gospel: "I
found all men drunken and none found I athirst among
them" (cf. John 7: 35; Matt. 5:6). Men had so lost
the natural appetites of the children of God that they
did not even desire the pure water of life. The world
was drunk without even a thirst for holy things ! 3
In February, 1903, Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt re
turned to Oxyrhynchus, and "by a curious stroke of
good fortune" their second excavations were, like the
first, signalized by the discovery of another fragment
from a collection of "Sayings of Jesus." These sayings
were prefaced by the statement:
"These are the (wonderful) words which Jesus the living
(Lord) spake to . . . and Thomas; and he said unto (them),
everyone that harkens to these words shall never taste of death."
The translation of the newly found sayings, as given
by Grenfell and Hunt, runs as follows : 4
1. "Jesus saith, Let not him who seeks . . . cease until he
finds, and when he finds he shall be astonished ; astonished he shall
reach the kingdom, and having reached the kingdom, he shall
rest." 2. "Jesus saith, (Ye ask[ ?] who are those) that draw us (to the
kingdom if) the kingdom is in heaven? . . . the fowls of the
air and all beasts that are under the earth or upon the earth and
the fishes of the sea, (these are they which draw) you; and the
kingdom of heaven is within you, and whosoever shall know him
self shall find it. (Strive therefore) to know yourselves, and ye
shall be aware that ye are the sons of the (Almighty?) Father;
'We have used in this review: Grenfell and Hunt, AOTIA IHCOY,
the editio princeps, June, 1897; Harnack, "Ueber die jungst entdeckten
Spriiche Jesu" ; Lock and Sanday, "Two Lectures on the Sayings of
Jesus"; Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Pt. I, pp. 1-3.
'"New Sayings of Jesus," 1903; Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Vol. IV, 1904.

216 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
(and?) ye shall know that ye are in (the city of God?) and ye are
(the city?)."5
3. "Jesus saith, A man shall not hesitate ... to ask con
cerning his place (in the kingdom. Ye shall, know) that many that
are first shall be last, and the last first, and (they shall have eternal
life?)." 4. "Jesus saith, Everything that is not before thy face and that
which is hidden from thee shall be revealed to thee. For there
is nothing hidden which shall not be made manifest ; nor buried,
which shall not be raised."
5. "His disciples question him and say, How shall we fast and
how shall we (pray?) . . . and what (commandment) shall
we keep . . . ? Jesus saith ... do not ... of truth . . .
blessed is he."
The discoverers declare that these forty-two Greek
lines which were found on the back of a survey list
of various pieces of land at Oxyrhynchus can hardly
be later than a.d. 300. These may, indeed, be the begin
ning of the collection which later on included the first
found logia, yet these words do not seem as striking
as those of the former series. Of the first saying, the
latter part had been quoted by Clement of Alexandria
from the Gospel of the Hebrews, and many scholars
believe that we have here an excerpt from that gospel ;
tho Professor Harnack thinks it came from the
Gospel according to the Egyptians, and still others be
lieve that they came from the Gospel of Thomas. Most
scholars, however (Sanday, Swete, Rendel Harris,
Lock, Heinrici, etc.), believe that both of these sets
of "sayings" represent an independent collection, being
possibly one of the earliest attempts to write in con
nected form an account of the teaching of Jesus (and
therefore dating back into the first century) ; or else
6 See an attempt to reconstruct the text differently in this and the follow
ing "saying" in Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 439.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 217
originating very early in the second century, being
composed under conditions of thought which had been
created by the canonical gospels. The fact that the
additions found in these "sayings" were evidently not
made in, the interests of any sect or heresy is an indica
tion that they contain genuine first century material.
A word may be added with reference to the mean
ing of some of the sayings most recently discovered. The
first (cf. Matt. 6:33; 7:7; 13:44; Luke 5:9; 11:9)
emphasizes the strenuous effort needed to attain the
kingdom. Harnack points out that "astonishment" is to
be thought of as a sign of joy, not of fear. The parallel
to the second saying is found in Luke 17: 21, and the
meaning is that, tho the divine element in the world be
gins in the lower stages of animal creation, yet it rises
to the highest stage in man, who has within him the
kingdom of heaven; self-knowledge, when profound
enough, brings God-knowledge. The third saying
(cf. Mark 10:31) emphasizes the fact that the stand
ard of values in heaven differs from the earthly
standard. In the fourth saying the revelation of all
hidden things in the future is affirmed (cf. Matt. 10:
26; Mark 4:22; Luke 12:2). The question in the
fifth saying concerning the keeping of Jewish ordinances
(cf. Matt. 19: 16-22) may be compared with the second
saying in the earlier collection commented upon above.
The logia found in 1897 were in the form of a
handsomely written book; those discovered in 1903 are
in roll form, written on the back of a trivial document.
In the earlier collection no direct parallel with John's
or Mark's gospel could be traced; but this collection
has a distinctly mystical and Johannine character, while
the third and fourth sayings have closer connections

218 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
with St. Mark than with St. Luke.6 It can be safely
inferred from the correspondence with John's gospel:
"that the editor of the collection lived in an atmosphere
of thought influenced by those speculative ideas in early
Christianity which found their highest expression in
the Fourth Gospel" (ibid., p. 14).
The very latest date for either collection would be
a.d. 140, tho, according to the learned editors, it prob
ably dates from the first century. Sir F. G. Kenyon
thinks this may be a collection which St. Luke himself
used.7 Professor Petrie suggests that these sayings, like
the Memorabilia of Socrates, might naturally grow up
during the lifetime of the great teacher. The Sermon
on the Mount may have been originally a collection of
sayings codifying the chief tenets of the "Way" in
thirty clear statements taken down by Matthew, the one
handiest with the pen, long before any elaborate history
was needed.8
Several other isolated "sayings" of Jesus, of perhaps
even an earlier date, have been found in mutilated Greek
papyri which may have originally contained a collec
tion of such words.9 There is also one new "saying"
which sounds good enough to represent a true tradi
tion in Cod. C. of the Palestine Syriac Lectionary:
"Men must give an account of every good word which
they shall not speak." Another new "saying" in a
Coptic fragment published by Jacoby, in 1900, is more
doubtful: "I have revealed to you all my glory and I
have told you all its power and the mystery of your
apostleship." We do not mention here the sayings
' Grenfell and Hunt, op. cit., p. 11.
' Bible and Ancient Monuments, p. xvi.
"Atheneum, Sept. 27, 1897.
' See, e.g., Wessely, in Zeitschrift fur Kath. Theologie, xi : 507-515.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 219
of Jesus found in Mohammedan literature, altho some •
of these are quite suggestive, as: "Leave the world
and meditate over death. To a believer, death comes
with good which has no evil after it, but to a wicked
man it comes with an evil which has no good after it."
The chief value of these newly discovered "sayings"
is that they show the links between the canonic and
uncanonic gospels and the relationship of both to the
main current of orthodox Christianity. It has an im
portant bearing on the question of sources used in the
synoptic gospels and indicates that the mystic elements
in early records of Christ's sayings may have been
more general and less peculiarly Johannine than
hitherto supposed. It may be well to add that these
same mystic and speculative elements are found in an
even greater degree in the newly discovered Odes of
Solomon, published from a Syriac version by J. Rendel
Harris in 1909, which turns out to be a book of Chris
tian songs from the early years of the second century,
incorporating Jewish mystical phraseology from the
first century a.d., some of which is remarkably similar
to that used by the fourth evangelist. This will be
discust later.
2. New Fragments of Lost Gospels, Acts,
Revelations, etc
(i) the gospel of peter
In 1885, a long fragment of the Gospel and of the
Apocalypse of Peter was discovered at Akhmim in
Upper Egypt, which was published by Bouriant in
1892, and subsequently by Lods, Robinson, Harnack,
and other scholars. This created a marked sensation
because it was the first to be found in modern times

220 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
• of the multitude of apocryphal gospels known to have
existed in the early centuries of the Christian era.
The manuscript dates from about a.d. 400, but the text
from which the manuscript was copied was much older.
All scholars agree that this "Gospel" was written a
good while before a.d. 190, for by that date it was so
well established in one city that Serapion, who was
bishop of Antioch (a.d. 190-203), could write:
"We brethren receive Peter and the other apostles even as
Christ; but the writings that go falsely by their names we reject
knowing that such things as these we never received '. . .
(though) most of it [the Gospel of Peter] belonged to the right
teaching of the Saviour, but some things were additions." (Euse-
bius, Ecclesiastical History, VI, 12.)
This "Gospel" must be dated then almost certainly
as early as the first half of the second century; while
some scholars, as Dr. Moulton of Cambridge Uni
versity, would put it a generation before the close of
the first century. The little parchment book on which
this gospel is written contains also fragments of the
Book of Enoch, which is pre-Christian and is quoted
by St. Jude ; and also the Apocalypse of Peter, the com
position of which may go back almost to the end of
the first century of our era. The "Gospel according
to Peter" begins the book. It reads:
1. "But of the Jews none washed his hands, neither Herod
nor any one of his judges, and when they wished to wash them,
Pilate rose up. And then Herod the king commandeth that the
Lord be taken, saying to them, What things soever I commanded
you to do unto him, do.
2. "And there was come there Joseph the friend of Pilate and
of the Lord ; and knowing that they were about to crucify him,
he came to Pilate and asked the body of the Lord for burial. And
Pilate sent to Herod and asked his body. And Herod said,
Brother Pilate, even if no one had asked him,, we should have
buried him ; since indeed the sabbath draweth on : for it is written

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 221
in the law that the sun go not down on him that is put to death on
the day before the unleavened bread, which is their feast.
3. "And they took the Lord and pushed him as they ran and
said, Let us drag away the Son of God, having obtained power
over him. And they clothed him with purple, and set him on the
seat of judgment, saying, Judge righteously, O king of Israel.
And one of them brought a crown of thorns and put it on the
head of the Lord. And others stood and spat in his eyes. And
others smote his cheeks; others pricked him with a reed; and
some scourged him saying, With this honor let us honor the Son
of God. 4. "And they brought two malefactors and they crucified the
Lord between them. But he held his peace, as in no wise having
pain. And when they had raised the cross they wrote upon it,
This is the king of Israel. And having set his garments before
him, they parted them among them, and cast a lot for them. And
one of those malefactors reproached them, saying, We have suf
fered thus for the evils that we have done, but this man, having
become the Saviour of men, what wrong hath he done to you?
And they being angered at him commanded that his legs should
not be broken, that he might die in torment.
5. "And it was noon and darkness covered all Judea and they
were troubled and distressed lest the sun was going down, since
he yet lived : (for) it is written for them that the sun go not down
on him that is put to death. And one of them said, Give him to
drink gall with vinegar ; and they mixed, and gave him to drink,
and fulfilled all things, and accomplished their sins against their
own heads.
"And many went about with lamps supposing that it was night
and fell down. And the Lord cried out saying, My power, my
power, thou hast forsaken me. And when he had said it, he was
taken up. And in that hour the veil of the temple was rent in
twain. 6. "And then they drew out the nails from the hands of the
Lord, and laid him upon the earth, and the earth all quaked, and
great fear arose. Then the sun shone, and it was found the ninth
hour : and the Jews rejoiced and gave his body to Joseph that he
might bury it, since he had seen what good things he had done.
And he took the Lord and washed him and wrapped him in a
linen cloth and brought him to his own tomb, which was called
the Garden of Joseph."

222 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
In the seventh section the people and priests lament,
saying, "Woe for our sins," and later charge the disci
ples of Jesus with "wishing to set fire to the temple."
In the eighth section the scribes and Pharisees and
elders ask a guard:
"And Pilate gave them Petronius the centurion with soldiers to
watch the tomb. And the elders and scribes came with them to the
sepulcher, and having rolled a great stone, along with the cen
turion and the soldiers they altogether who were there set it at
the door of the sepulcher, and they put upon it seven seals ; and
they pitched a tent there and kept watch."
Section nine describes the resurrection heralded by
a great voice in the heaven, and "two men descending
thence with great light and approaching the tomb.
And that stone which was put at the door rolled away
of itself and departed to one side; and the tomb was
opened and both the young men entered in."
The tenth section reads:
"When therefore the soldiers saw it, they awakened the cen
turion and the elders, for they too were hard by keeping watch ;
and as they declared what things they had seen, again they see
coming forth from the tomb three men, and the two supporting the
one, and a cross following them. And of the two the head reached
unto the heaven but the head of him that was led by them over
passed the heavens. And they heard a voice from the heavens
saying, Hast thou preached to them that sleep? And an answer
was heard from the cross, Yea."
Section eleven tells of the report of the centurion
to Pilate, and Pilate's confession, "Truly he was the
Son of God ... I am pure from the blood of the
Son of God." The leaders of the Jews also beseech
Pilate to command the soldiers to say nothing of the
things which they had seen, "for it is better for us to
incur the greatest debt of sin before God, and not

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 223
to fall into the hands of the people of the Jews and to
be stoned." The twelfth and thirteenth sections tell of the
women coming secretly to the tomb fearing lest the
Jews should see them, and finding to their surprize that
the stone was rolled away. They see an angel in the
midst of the tomb, who tells them of the resurrection.
"For he is risen and gone away thither whence he was
sent." The gospel ends with the fourteenth section:
"Now it was the last day of the unleavened bread, and many
went forth returning to their homes, as the feast was ended. But
we the twelve disciples of the Lord wept and were grieved: and
each one, grieving for that which was come to pass, departed to
his home. But I, Simeon Peter, and Andrew my brother took
our nets and went away to the sea ; and there was with us Levi
the son of Alphseus whom the Lord . . . " 10
In considering the above account, the hatred of the
writer for the Jews is constantly in evidence. Pilate is
exonerated. The Jews must bear all the blame. He is
also a heretic, for he is not willing to admit the hu
manity of Jesus who (sec. 4) could not suffer pain
until (sec. 5) the "power" (the divine Christ) finally
left the human Jesus upon the cross. Considering that
this probably represents the earliest of all known apoc
ryphal gospels, it is suggestive to note that it has be
neath it every one of our four gospels, in some places
referring to particulars only found in John's gospel,
and in other places depending definitely upon Matthew,
or Mark, or Luke. This is but a fragment of the
gospel, and deals only with the death of Jesus; yet it
gives testimony to the fact that Jesus lived, was brought
"The above translation is given from "The Gospel According to Peter,"
by J. A. Robinson, 1892.

224 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
to death by the Jews on a Friday, was tried before
Herod and Pilate; it tells of the purple robe and crown
of thorns and that he was spit upon and smitten on
the cheek; it gives the names of several disciples, and
says there were twelve in all; it declares that he was
crucified between two malefactors, one of whom re
pented; it gives the title on the cross and the time of
the death ; it tells of the parting of garments, the drink
ing of gall and vinegar, the cry on the cross, the rend
ing of the temple veil, and the darkness that was over
all the earth; it reports the begging of the body by
Joseph, who wrapt it in linen clothes and laid it in
his own tomb, and of the guard asked of Pilate by the
scribes and Pharisees for three days; it describes the
rolling away of the stone, the resurrection of Jesus,
the flight of the soldiers, the visit of Mary Magdalene
and other women, and the questions and answers of
the angels. These are a few of the many facts to
which this little independent fragment, not a part of
the Bible, testifies. It also emphasizes in a most
marked way the deity of Christ. This author, who
may have actually been a contemporary of St. John,
or at least lived as near the apostolic age as we do to the
age of Abraham Lincoln, believed so fully in the deity
of Christ that he almost or quite denied his humanity.
This oldest non-Biblical account of Christ's life in
Greek does not contain nearly so many grotesque im
becilities as the later apocryphal gospels. Many of
these fill up the boyhood of Jesus with silly miracles,
He can carry water in a cloak; he helps his father
in the carpenter shop by stretching timber to the
proper length with his bare hand; he plants one grain
of wheat and threshes eight hundred bushels ; he makes

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 225
birds out of clay, and by clapping his hands gives life to
them; when a boy runs against him on the street Jesus
becomes angry and curses him, whereupon he immedi
ately falls down dead ; and when the dead boy's parents
complain they become blind. Things almost as foolish
as this are to be found in all the apocryphal gospels,
and even in this earliest one is the fanciful statement
about the cross walking and talking, and about Christ
coming out of the tomb so tall that his head was above
the clouds. How it would have destroyed the dignity
of the solemn narratives to which we have been ac
customed if any such grotesque incident had crept into
our gospels. (2) THE REVELATION OF PETER
In the same year in which the Gospel of Peter was
found and in the same book in which it was recorded,
the Revelation of Peter came to light. This is a docu
ment constantly mentioned in early writings; yet only
eight lines from this famous ancient treatise had been
known to scholars previous to this discovery. It had
such an enormous influence in early times that it dis
tinctly affected the Sibylline oracles and the Apocalypse
of Paul, and even influenced through the latter the
Divina Commedia of Dante; yet no scholar in modern
times had ever read it. As translated and paragraphed
by Montague Rhodes James" this document begins
as follows:
1. "Many of them will be false prophets and will teach ways
and various doctrines of perdition : and they will be sons of per
dition. And then will God come unto my faithful ones that are
hungering and thirsting and suffering oppression and proving
their own souls in this life; and he will judge the sons of lawless
ness." 11 Revelation of Peter, 1892.

226 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
The second and third paragraphs tell of the Lord
and his disciples going to the mountain to pray. The
disciples besought the Lord that he show them one of
the righteous brethren that had departed from the
world, so that they might see what form the dead took
in the future life. While they prayed, two of these
departed saints stood before them, "their bodies whiter
than any snow and redder than any rose . . . and their
shoulders like a wreath woven of spikenard and bright
flowers, and their raiment so bright that they could not
be looked upon."
In paragraphs four and five the Lord showed to
the disciples the other world "blooming with unfading
flowers . . . and the dwellers in that place clad in the
raiment of angels of light."
The remainder of this "Revelation" (paragraphs
7-20) had to do with a vision of the place of the
damned. We offer a few quotations:
"And there were some there hanging by their tongues, and
these were they that blaspheme the way of righteousness: and
there was beneath them fire, flaming and tormenting them."
"And there were also women hung by their hair over that mire
that bubbled up : and these were they that adorned themselves for
adultery: and the men that had been joined with them in the
defilement of adultery were hanging by their feet, and had their
heads in the mire : and all were saying, We believed not that we
should come into this place."
"And I saw the murderers . . . and there were set upon
them worms as it were clouds of darkness. And the souls of
them that had been murdered were standing and looking upon
the punishment of those murderers and saying, O God, righteous
is their judgment."
"And hard by that place I saw another narrow place wherein
the gore and the filth of them that were tormented ran down and
became as it were a lake there. And there sat women having the
gore up to their throats . . . and these were they that destroyed
their children and caused abortion.''

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 227
"And there were other men and women on fire up to their
middle and cast into a dark place and scourged by evil spirits
and having their entrails devoured by worms that rested not : and
these were they that persecuted the righteous and delivered them
up." "And hard by them again were women and men gnawing their
lips and being tormented and receiving red hot iron upon their
eyes: and these were they that had blasphemed and spoken evil
of the way of righteousness ..."
"And in a certain other place were pebbles sharper than swords
or than any spit, red hot, and women and men clad in filthy rags
were rolling upon them in torment: and these were the wealthy
that had trusted in their wealth and had not had pity upon orphans
and widows."
"And in another great lake full of pitch and blood and boiling
mire stood men and women up to their knees: and these were
they that lent money and demanded interest on interest."
"And others again . . . women and men were burning and
turning themselves and being roasted : and these were they that had
forsaken the - v qf God."
This apocalypse naturally falls into three parts.
The first is the eschatological discourse ; the second, the
vision of Paradise; the third, the inferno. The first
is doubtless intended to recall Matt. 24 : 24 and Mark
13:22, and is supposed to be the concluding lines of
a speech of our Lord concerning the end of the world;
but it also contains a strong resemblance to the second
epistle of Peter, a dozen distinct resemblances to this
epistle being detected in this and the following para
graphs. Perhaps the greatest importance of these non-
canonical visions of heaven and hell is found in the
contrast they offer to the reticent statements of the
canonical gospels. This new discovery shows very
clearly how even the earliest Christians were accus
tomed in their sermons to picture the future world.
It also shows how many of our popular notions are

228 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
ultimately derived, not from Holy Scriptures, but from
the early apocryphal literature.
(3) OTHER FRAGMENTS OF IMPORTANCE RECENTLY
RECOVERED
A very much more important discovery was made
in 1903 by Grenfell and Hunt in this same town of
Oxyrhynchus.12 It is a fragment of a lost gospel, the
manuscript of which dates from the third century, the
very words of which recall vividly the language of our
own gospels. It reads:
"Take no thought from morning until evening nor from eve
ning until morning, either for your food what ye shall eat or for
your raiment what ye shall put on. Ye are far better than the
lillies which grow but spin not. Having one garment what do
ye (lack)? . . .Who could add to your stature? He himself
will give you your garment. His disciples say unto him, When
wilt thou be manifest unto us and when shall we see thee? He
saith, When ye shall be stripped and not be ashamed ... He
said, The key of knowledge ye hid; ye entered not in yourselves
and to them that were entering in ye opened not."
Even Zahn looks with some favor on the genuine
ness of this fragment which, as Grenfell and Hunt be
lieve, originated earlier than the middle of the second
century and is taken from a narrative "which followed
more or less closely the version of the teaching of
Jesus given by Matthew and Luke."
In December, 1905, a fragment of another lost
gospel was unearthed at Oxyrhynchus, consisting of
a single vellum leaf practically complete except at one
of the lower corners. The leaf was from a book so
small that its written surface only slightly exceeded two
inches square. On the two pages which we possess are
forty-five lines in very small capital letters, the form of
12 Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Vol. IV, pp. 23-28.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 229
which indicates a fourth century date. The bulk of
the fragment is concerned with a conversation which
takes place in the Temple at Jerusalem, between Jesus
and a chief priest. The episode, which is of a dramatic
character, is preserved almost complete, and in the
translation given by Grenfell and Hunt reads as fol
lows: "... before he does wrong makes all manner of subtle ex
cuse. But give heed lest ye also suffer the same things as they ;
for the evil-doers among men receive their reward not among the
living only, but also await punishment and much torment. And he
took them and brought them into the very place of purification,
and was walking in the temple. And a certain Pharisee, a chief
priest, whose name was Levi, met them and said to the Saviour,
Who gave thee leave to walk in this place of purification and to
see these holy vessels, when thou hast not washed nor yet have thy
disciples bathed their feet ? But defiled thou hast walked in this
temple, which is a pure place, wherein no other man walks except
he has washed himself and changed his garments, neither does he
venture to see these holy vessels.
"And the Saviour straightway stood still with his disciples and
answered him, Art thou then being here in the temple clean ? He
saith unto him, I am clean ; for I washed in the pool of David,
and having descended by one staircase I ascended by another,
and I put on white and clean garments, and then I came and looked
upon these holy words. The Saviour answered and said unto
him, Woe, ye blind who see not. Thou hast washed in these run
ning waters wherein dogs and swine have been cast night and day,
and hast cleansed and wiped the outside skin, which also the har
lots and flute girls anoint and wash and wipe and beautify for the
lust of men ; but within they are full of scorpions and all wicked
ness. But I and my disciples who thou sayest have not bathed
(fcPamxioftai) have been dipped (Pepd[i|xe'&a) in the waters of
eternal life, which come from . . . But woe unto thee . . ."13
"Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Vol. V, No. 840. Note here the metaphorical
meaning of Bajrri£a> "baptize" (cf. Mark 10:38), which has been also
noticed in several other papyri. It may be added that the papyri have
shown that where the phrase "baptized into" occurs (e.g., Acts. 9 : 16 ; 19 : 5 ;
Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27) that the person baptized becomes the property of
the divine person indicated (Souter).

230 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
The contrast of external bathing with inward purity
here is very like many words of Jesus found in our
own gospels (cf. Matt. 15: 1-20; Mark 7: 1-23). The
statement that no one could enter the temple without
being previously cleansed ritually is sustained by Jo
sephus, and the necessity of putting on white garments
is in accordance with the regulations for priests de
scribed in the Mishna; but nothing is known about the
"place of purification" or the "pool of David" within
the temple, while the statements concerning dogs and
swine being cast into the "pool of David" seems to be
a mere rhetorical invention; and it seems impossible
that the "sacred vessels" would be visible from the
place where Jesus is represented as standing. "So
great, indeed, are the divergencies between this account
and the extant and, no doubt, well-informed authorities,
with regard to the topography and ritual of the temple,
that it is hardly impossible to avoid the conclusion that
much of the local color is due to the imagination of the
author, who was aiming chiefly at dramatic effect and
was not really well acquainted with the temple. But
if the inaccuracy of the fragment in this important
respect is admitted, the historical character of the
whole episode breaks down and it is probably to be re
garded as an apocryphal elaboration of Matt. 15: 1-20
and Mark 7: 1-23. In these circumstances the gospel
to which the fragment belongs can hardly have been
composed before the middle of the second century, after
the four canonical gospels had come to be exclusively
used in most churches — a process which was complete
by the end of the second century." " It was probably
written in the second century, for altho the style is
* Harnack, Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur, II, p. 699,

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 231
more redundant than that of the New Testament, the
author "is more successful in catching something of the
genuine ring than many of the authors of [the later]
apocryphal gospels."
In 1903, the Cairo Museum published in the Cata
logue general des Anfiquites, No. 10735, a. small uncial
(sixth or seventh century) of ten lines which is con
cerned with the annunciation and flight into Egypt;
and in 1906, Wessely, in "Les plus ancients monu
ments du Christianisme" (No. 20), published another
fragment of a similar nature; while in 191 1 Dr. Hunt
edited a small fragment of what may have been a
Gnostic gospel (Oxyrhynchus Papyri, viii. 1081). It
is a leaf from a book dating from the early part of
the fourth century, and its chief value consists in one
new "Saying of our Lord" which emphasizes the inner
insight needed to understand the gospel:
"He who hath hearing beyond his ears let him hear."
Following this logion the gospel continues:
"Everything that is born of corruption perisheth . . . but
that which is born of incorruption abideth incorruptible . . .
The disciples ask him, How then can we find faith ? The Saviour
saith, If you pass from the things that are hidden and into the
light of the things that are seen, the effluence of conception will of
itself show you faith .- . . He who hath ears to hear let him
hear. The Lord of all is not the Father but the Fore
father ..."
Another uncanonical gospel, found on the leaves
of a papyrus book (fourth century) was published by
Grenfell and Hunt in 1914,15 but the text is too imper
fect to build upon it with confidence.
In 191 5, Grenfell and Hunt published a fragment
from still another of these uncanonical gospels. In
15 Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Vol. X, cf. Greek Papyri, No. 10735.

232 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
this papyrus, which dates from the fifth century, the
disciples say to our Lord:
"Jesus, what cure is possible for the sick? And he saith to
them, I gave olive oil and . . . myrrh to them that believe on the
(name) of the Father, and the Holy Spirit, and the Son." 16
Another fragment found connected with the last shows
that even angels were supposed to be sick at times,
and to need the divine help supplemented by medicine.
"The angels of the Lord rose up to (mid-) heaven suffering in
their eyes . . . The Lord said Why have ye come up, ye holy
and all-pure ones ?
"Iao Sabaoth, we have come up to receive healing, for thou art
powerful and strong."
It is suggestive to notice how the early Egyptian
Christians sought in the worship of Christ the bodily
healings which were supposed often to occur in the
pagan temples of Isis and Serapion."
Still another Coptic fragment published by Julius
Boehmer, in 1903,"* has been called a parallel to the
parable of the Good Samaritan. It describes our Lord
and his disciples walking in the country and finding a
mule falling under its burden while its master was still
beating it:
"And Jesus . . . said, Man, why dost thou beat thy animal ?
Seest thou not that it is too weak for its burden . . . ? But the
man answered and said, What is that to you? I can beat it as
much as I please, since it is my property and I bought it for a good
sum of money . . . But the Lord said, Do you not see how it
bleeds, and hear you not how it laments and cries? But they
(the disciples) answered and said, Nay, Lord, we hear not that it
laments and cries, and the Lord was sad and exclaimed, Woe to
18 Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Vol. XI, No. 1384.
"See Mary Hamilton, Incubation, London, 1906, for cases of healing
in heathen temples.
"* Neutest. Parallelen und Verwandtes aus altchristl. Literatur.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 233
you that you hear not how it cries to the Creator in heaven, and
cries for mercy. But three times woe to him, of whom it com
plains and cries in its distress. And he came forth and touched
the animal. And it arose and its wounds were healed. And Jesus
said to the man, Now, go on and beat it no more, that you also
may find mercy." 18
Some important fragments of two apocryphal "Acts
of the Apostles" have also been found at Oxyrhynchus,19
both dating from the fourth century, the earliest of
these (No. 849) is a single leaf from a vellum codex
of the "Acts of Peter," the two pages being numbered
167 and 168, respectively. Our fragment belongs to
the portion of the Acts concerned with Simon Magus,
and represents an original second century manuscript:
"... (the youths having examined his nostrils to see)
whether indeed he was really dead, and seeing that he was in
truth a corpse, consoled the old woman saying, If indeed you
wish, mother, and trust in the God of Peter, we will lift him up
and carry him thither in order that Peter may raise him and
restore him to you. While they were thus speaking the prefect
looking intently at Peter (said), Behold, Peter, my servant lies
dead who was a favorite of the king himself, and I did not
spare him although I have with me other youths, but because
I desired to try you and the God whom you preach whether ye.
are indeed true, I wished him to die. And Peter said, God is
not to be tried or proved, Agrippa, but when he is entreated, he
hearkens to those who are worthy. But since now ..."
The second fragment (No. 850) was a leaf from
the "Acts of John," giving an incident which is of a
type very familiar in apocryphal Acts. The apostle is
"This translation is taken from Bernard Pick's Paralipomena, 1908.
For a convenient survey of the literature in general see Encyclopedia of
Religion and Ethics, vi., 346#. For Coptic gospels, where hundreds of
Scripture texts are quoted, see Texts and Studies, Vol. IV; and for a
Coptic "Apocalypse of Paul," etc., see Budge, Coptic Texts, 1915.
u Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Vol. VI, 1908.

234 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
represented visiting the brethren apparently at a village
near Ephesus, but his passage is barred by a demon
in the form of a soldier. Rebuked by John, the demon
vanishes and, on reaching his destination, the apostle
exhorts the brethren to worship and joins with them
in prayer. The back of the leaf represents a more
obscure incident in which a person called Zeuxis had
just tried to hang himself, but had been miraculously
saved by St. John. There is also some question about
the eucharist which is obscure. In reading this it may
be remembered that the composition of the original
Acts of John is assigned by all critics to the second
century. When our fragment is compared with other
previously known portions of the Acts of John, it, like
the Acts of Peter, agrees with them so closely as to
show that even these apocryphal works "have not
undergone any serious amount of revision" (Hunt).
It is noticeable that the proconsul in this account ad
dresses St. John as the "servant of the unnameable
One," and that John prays : "O Jesus, Comforter . . .
We praise thee and worship thee and give thanks
to thee." The narrative then continues:
"After a few days had passed John went forth with several
brethren to . . . and wished to cross a bridge under which a
. . . river was flowing. And as John was on his way to the
brethren a certain . . . clothed in the fashion of a soldier ap
proached him, and standing before his face, said, John if thou
(advancest) thou shall straightway engage me in combat. And
John said, The Lord shall quench thy threat and thy wrath and
thy offence, and behold the other vanished. John then having
come to those whom he was visiting and found them gathered to
gether spake, Let us rise up, my brethren, and bow our knees be
fore the Lord, who has made of none effect the unseen activity of
even the great (enemy?) ... he bowed his knees with them

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 235
In another papyrus codex of an apocryphal "Acts"
(fourth century) occurs a notable sentence:
"O, Lord Prefect, this man is not a magician but perhaps his
god is great." 20
A particularly curious apocalyptic work dating from
the second century, representing another type of com
position, is the Testament of Abraham?1 Abraham is
represented as going to heaven's gate from which he
saw two ways, narrow and broad, and two gates, nar
row and broad. He sees Adam laughing and weeping,
but weeping far more than he laughed, for only one
soul in seven of all the human race was being saved.
He saw the angels beating the lost with "fiery thongs,"
and saw the scales on which souls were weighed be-
for the judge, Abel (cf. Gen. 4: 10; Heb. 12: 24), any
soul against which was registered one truly good deed
being saved.
This is the first apocalypse in which occurs the idea
of the weighing of good and evil deeds, tho this is
common in Egyptian documents and is found also in
Mohammedan eschatology. The author of this work
paints death as having seven dragon heads and four
teen faces, among which are fire, darkness, viper, lion,
snake, fiery sword, etc.
The Greek Apocalypse of Baruch (3 Baruch) was
found in 1896, tho a less complete Slavonic version had
been published in 1886. It belongs to the second cen
tury of our era, the Jewish original having been worked
over by a Christian editor about a.d. 136. The motive
of the work is to bring Jews and Ebionites to baptism.
It is full of symbolism and pictures. In the extract to be
" Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Vol. VI, 19.
*Texts and Studies, Vol. II, No. 2, by J. Armitage Robinson.

236 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
given, the angels with full baskets represent Christians ;
those with half- full baskets, half-converted Jews; those
with empty baskets, opposing Jews :
"And as I was conversing with them, behold, angels came bear
ing baskets full of flowers. And they gave thern to Michael. And
I asked the angel, Lord, who art these and what are the things
brought hither from beside them? And he said to me, These are
angels who are over the righteous. And the archangels took the
baskets and emptied them into the vessel. And the angel said to
me, These flowers are the merits of the righteous. And I saw
other angels bearing baskets which were (neither) empty nor full.
And they began to lament and did not venture to draw near, be
cause they had not the prizes complete. And Michael cried and
said, Come hither also, ye angels; bring what ye have brought.
And Michael was exceedingly grieved, and the angel which was
with me, because they did not fill. the vessel."
"And in that very hour Michael descended and the gate was
opened and he brought oil. And as for the angels which brought
the baskets which were full, he filled them with oil, saying, Take
it away, rewardtour friends an hundredfold, and those who have
laboriously wrought good works. For those who sowed vir
tuously, also reap virtuously, And he said to those bringing the
half empty baskets, Come hither, ye also, take away the reward
according as ye brought, and deliver it to the sons of men" (XV).
"And turning he said to those who brought nothing, Thus
saith the Lord, be not sad of countenance, and weep not, nor let
the sons of men alone. But since they angered me and their
works, go and make them envious and angry and provoked against
a people that is no people, a people that has no understanding
. . . punish them severely with the sword and with death, and
their children with demons. For they did not hearken to my
voice . . . but were despisers of my commandments, and in
solent towards the priests who proclaimed my words to them."
The "Acts of Paul" was discovered by the Germans.
In 1896 Dr. Reinhardt procured at Akhmim a papyrus
codex which turned out to be the "Acts of Paul," a book
so highly reputed in the ancient Church that many, in
the fourth century, supposed that it ought to have a place

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 237
in the New Testament. The book originated some
where between a.d. 160 and 200. Prof. Carl Schmidt
of Heidelberg, after laborious study, succeeded in trans
lating it in 1904, but as this translation is too long and
too complicated to be quoted here, we will merely give
an abbreviation of Dr. Goodspeed's fine summary of
some of the chief events depicted in this remarkable
manuscript.22 The curtain rises at Pisidian Antioch. Paul restores
to life a Jewish boy, and this leads to the conversion of
the boy's parents, but the populace becomes incensed
and drives Paul from the town.
Paul reaches Iconium. Here he meets Thecla and
leads her to conversion. The story romantically re
lates this conversion, Thecla's refusal to marry her
betrothed, her persecution, baptism, miraculous escapes,
her visit to Paul at Myra, her final retirement to
Seleucia, and her death there. This chapter, giving the
"Acts of Paul and Thecla," was the most popular of
all the narratives, and was widely published in ancient
times as a separate tract.23
Paul cures various persons at Myra and Tyre and
suffers great persecution at Sidon, where he is im
prisoned in the temple of Apollo, which collapses
miraculously in the night.
The apostle has some adventures in certain mines,
and then is imprisoned, probably at Ephesus, and later
at Philippi. At the latter city he receives from the
Corinthians a letter reporting that two false teachers,
"See Biblical World, December, 1915.
"The actual existence and martyrdom of Thecla has just been corrobor
ated by a first century inscription set up in remembrance "of the martyr
Thecla" recently found at the church of St. Menas in N. Cyprus (Am.
Journal of Archeology, 1915, p. 489).

238 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Simon and Cleobius, are disturbing the church, and
writes to them the letter which is received as genuine
in many ancient Syrian and Armenian churches. From
Philippi he goes to Rome, where he is beheaded under
Nero, but afterward reappears.
The above represent some of the most important
of the early apocryphal stories in Greek which have
recently been discovered; however, very many of these
early writings in Coptic have been found in Egypt.
Among these one of the most interesting happens to
be the most famous of all the ancient "Acts," the Book
of the Resurrection, attributed to the Apostle Bartholo
mew, recently printed by the trustees of the British
Museum. It describes the descent of Jesus into hell;
the conquest of death; the defeat of the devil; the
destruction of the gates, bolts, and bars of hell; the
extinction of its fires; the overthrow of its blazing
cauldrons; the liberation of Adam and Eve and all the
children of men; the final condemnation of Judas
Iscariot; the ascent from hell of the Lord Jesus; his
resurrection; his enthronement at the right hand of
the Father in his tabernacle of light in the seventh
heaven; and the reconciliation of God with Adam and
his sons.
The whole Apocryphon exhibits strong Egyptian
(Gnostic) influence, and professes to give the actual
words of the divine unknown language in which Jesus
and the Virgin Mary spoke to each other. The first
four or five leaves of the manuscript are wanting.
These no doubt contained, in addition to the title of the
work, a description of the Crucifixion of the Savior.
The manuscript continues:
"Now when they had crucified the Saviour they laid him in a

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 239
tomb, (and) he arose from the dead upon the third day, (and) he
carried the soul of the holy man Apa Anania with him into heaven
forthwith, and he ate and drank with our Saviour at the table of
his kingdom. And Joseph of Arimathea made ready for burial
the body of the Son of God, and when large quantities of most
precious scents and unguents had been poured out upon it, he laid it
in a new sepulcher; then Death came into Amente (the grave)
saying, Where is this soul which hath come forth from the body
newly ? It hath not been brought unto me to Amente. For behold
I have sought for it for two days but have not found it. What
then is (the meaning of) this mighty and wonderful thing? I
know not, neither do I know what is (the meaning of) this terrible
disturbance (which taketh place) this day. The whole world and
everything which is therein is in a state of violent commotion.
Never before have I known anything like unto this. And Death
called his minister, and said unto him : Let us go into every place,
and see if we can find this newly dead body, and this new soul
which hath hidden itself ; for I know not whither it hath departed.
"Then Death came into the tomb of the Savior and he found it
lighted up with the light of life and he went into the back of the
tomb and seated himself there with his ministers. Now Abbaton,
who is Death, and Gaios and Tryphon and Ophiath and Phthinon
and Sotomis and Komphion, who are the six sons of Death,
wriggled into the tomb of the son of God on their faces in the
form of serpents ( ?), wriggling in with their great chief in very
truth. These robbers and evil-doers were lying in wait for the
moment wherein the Saviour would go down into Amente, so that
they might enter with him and know what it was that he would do.
"And the Saviour made himself manifest unto them in the form
of a dead body in the hinder part of the tomb ; he was lying upon
the ground in their midst — now it was the second day that he was
in the heart of the earth, and there was a napkin bound around his
face, and another one bound around his head. And Death said
unto his son, the pestilence, Hath this soul which hath died re
cently been brought unto thee, Amente ? Show me, for I am dis
turbed greatly by this terrible quaking, and I do not know what
hath happened this day. . . . The hours have been shortened,
the nights have been put out of course . . . Gehenna has gone
cold . . . Thou hast disturbed me exceedingly, me who am wont
to destroy everything (hast thou) destroyed. . . .

240 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
"Then Jesus removed the napkin which was on his face, and
he looked in the face of Death, and laughed at him."
The text then recounts how disturbed Death was as
he looked on the Saviour, falling down upon the earth
with his six sons, and acknowledging him to be "First
born of the Father, the Holy Lamb." It tells how
Jesus went down again into Amente, breaking in pieces
the doors, smashing their bolts, and dragging away
and destroying the door-posts and frames, and ex
tinguishing the fires, putting in fetters the "shameless
one." It closes by an address to Judas:
"Tell me Judas, in what way didst thou profit by betraying me ?
Assuredly I only endured sufferings of all kinds in order to fulfill
(the will) of my Father, and to redeem (and sat free) my creatures
which I had fashioned. As for thee, woe be unto thee with two
fold woes."
With this -ought to be compared the recently dis
covered Conflict of Severus, which, however, contains
more Scripture quotations. Severus is armed with the
"Four Holy Gospels" as David with the four stones,
and could cast out devils by merely saying: "The Lord
rebuke thee." In the triumph at its end "hell"
(Amente) was destroyed; paradise was laid open and
the tree of life was revealed; the heavens became the
world, the world became heaven ; God became man ;
man became God. A final, prophecy is that "Severus
shall cut off the head of Satan." 2i This curious work
contains the following elaborate declaration of faith :
"We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Saviour Lord, with the Holy
Lord, three substances abiding and perfect, three substances equal,
undivided in glory and splendor, one likeness, one essence, one
power and one worship, one faith ; so is it meet for believers to
believe." "Patrologia Orientalis, Tome iv, Fascicule 6; Edgar J. Goodspeed,
Conflict of Severus, 1907.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 241
Various other Coptic stories have been even more
recently discovered, among which may specially be
mentioned an apocryphal Acts, in which Andrew plays
an important part.25 In all of these texts hundreds of
Scripture passages are quoted or paraphrased. In the
above we have been able to give only a mere sugges
tion of the wealth of new material recently brought to
light.26 Among the Syriac apocryphal works perhaps the
most important is that which includes Mara's testimony
to Christ, first translated in 1872, which Harnack
dates soon after a.d. 165. It is a letter written to
Marcus Aurelius by Mara, in which he asks what
benefit the Jews received by the murder of their "wise
king," seeing that from that very time their kingdom
was driven away from them, "yet the wjse king did
not die because of the new laws which he enacted."
(4) IMPORTANCE OF THESE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS,
ACTS, ETC.
Certain reflections must occur to every one who
reads these strange narratives coming out of the early
centuries so near to the time of Jesus.
°° Crum, Anecdota Oxoniensia, 1913, No. 14.
"See, for example, the exhaustive article, "Gnostic Apocrypha" in
Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics; and "Acts (Apocryphal)" in the
Dictionary of the Apostolic Church; and "Apocryphal Acts," International
Standard Bible Dictionary.
""Quoted with the correspondence of Abgarus and the sentence of
Pontius Pilate, letters of Pilate to Claudius, and all other apocryphal
literature known at the time of the book's issue by Bernard Pick, Extra-
canonical Life of Christ, 1903; Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, etc,
1909. See also on Christian apocryphal literature in general Encyclopedia
Britannica, ii, 169-182 ; Hastings, Dictionary of the Apostolic Church, i.
478-506; Ante-Nkene Fathers, Am. ed. Vol. VIII; and for a more popular
treatise, J. DeQuincey Donehoo, Apocryphal and Legendary Life of Christ,
1903.

242 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES '
First, every unprejudiced mind must be imprest
with the fact that the canonical gospel narratives differ
almost as much from these nearly contemporaneous
documents as Jesus differed from other men. The
difference is that between a religious history and a
religious novel.
Secondly, all of these apocryphal narratives are
demonstrably later, most of them centuries later, than
our four gospels, and rest upon the written or oral
gospel teaching as their basis. They contain no new
essentials ; they are simply additions to the accounts in
our gospels and assume the history recounted there.
They give incidental testimony to the great leading
facts affirmed by the four gospels and take for granted
the teaching and doctrines of the New Testament.
They witness to the existence of our gospels by multi
tudes of quotations more or less exact; they witness to
the facts of the gospels by their presuppositions; they
witness to the truth and inspiration of our gospels by
their differences in content and style. In the twenty
or more so called gospels referred to in early Christian
writings, some of which have now been recovered,
there is not one new parable or beatitude, and very few
new sentences worthy to be placed by the side of these
plain narratives written by the fishermen and other
"ignorant and unlearned" disciples from Galilee.
Third, these new discoveries suggest that most of
the so-called "false" gospels were not wilful falsifica
tions. They may well have been written by men who
trusted to the memory of aged people who had actually
heard Jesus speak or had listened to sermons from the
apostles or their successors. Some of the statements
which are seemingly most ridiculous may have arisen

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 243
from an honest misunderstanding of the pictorial or
allegorical language in which the events were described.
No one can think of the Coptic description of the
resurrection quoted above as being accepted by any one
as a literal account. The author of it accepted the
gospels as authoritative. The sermons of the Copts,
even to this day, when uttered by men of eloquence and
passion, are full of these same vivid allegorical pictures.
Native Egyptians do not think or speak abstractly.
Fourth, these discoveries illustrate the material
which existed in considerable quantities before our
gospels were written and were used by St. Luke (Luke
1:1). Men talked as much and wrote almost as freely in
the first century as now. The words and acts of Jesus
made a great stir, and therefore hundreds of people
either took notes on the spot, or in after years talked
with those who had seen the events. Local incidents
were remembered best and were naturally exaggerated.
Let the facts of the gospel narratives be granted, and
it is perfectly easy to see how in later years not only
notes from private diaries would become important but
anecdotes would be told of Jesus not always having a
historical basis, and that popular sayings would
naturally be attributed to him. Would not the grand
sons of the man who was born blind or who had been
healed of a withered hand tell about this? Justin
Martyr and others may have had good authority when
they gave the names of these men and told their trade,
and gave also the names of the two thieves on the cross,
and of the centurion who had charge of the crucifixion,
and of the soldier who pierced the side of Jesus. It is
not incredible that the Gospel of Nicodemus may repre
sent a valid tradition when it declares that Pilate

244 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
"swore by the sun" that he found no fault in him, and
that at the trial not only Nicodemus but one of the
lepers that Jesus had healed, and even a woman
(Bernice) and several friends of Jesus, offered their
testimony. When Clement of Alexandria quotes Jesus
as saying, "Ask great things, and the small shall be
added unto you"; when Origen quotes him as saying,
"For those that are infirm was I infirm, and for those
that hungered did I hunger, and for those that did
thirst did I thirst"; when the Gospel of the Hebrews
puts in his lips the words, "Never be joyful except
when ye have looked upon your brother with love";
when the Acts of Philip reports him as saying, "If you
do not make your low things high and your crooked
things straight, ye shall not enter into my kingdom,"
and, again, "He who longs to be rich is like a man who
drinks sea water; the more he drinks the more thirsty
he becomes, and never leaves off drinking until he
perishes"; these may represent, possibly, valid his
torical memories carried down by oral tradition from
the earliest times.
Fifth, it may be well to add that these apocryphal
gospels never were rivals of our four gospels. The
new discoveries emphasize the fact that our four
gospels were the only gospels ever accepted universally
by the early Church, being counted authoritative by
Christians, heretics, Jews, and heathen. The discovery
of these apocryphal writings only confirms the good
judgment of the early Church which set apart these
calm, candid, judicious documents as distinctively "Holy
Writings" as distinguished from all others. As early
as the second century they were accepted as par ex
cellence the authoritative memoirs and stood without

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 245
rivals (Harnack). Nevertheless, supplemental narra
tives continued to be used in local churches and were
sometimes quoted by these churches or their ministers
in their controversies with the heathen and the Jews.
3. Some Famous Ancient Documents, Recently
Recovered, which Mention or Use the
New Testament
( i ) the apology of aristides
It was in the spring of 1889 that Mr. J. Rendel
Harris, later of Cambridge University, after spending
several days in one of the libraries of the Convent of St.
Catherine, looking over the ancient Greek manuscripts
which were thrown indiscriminately into large chests,
was taken one morning by Galaktion, the librarian,
into another part of the convent, where a door closed by
a large rusty padlock was thrown open and a narrow
room was reached, the walls of which were lined with
oriental books in the Syriac, Arabic, and Iberian lan
guages. Here he found a Syriac translation of the
long-lost Apology of Aristides, which previously had
been known only by an Armenian fragment published
in 1878." While the Syriac manuscript is only of the seventh
century, this new discovery represents a text which in
its substance, according to all scholars, dates to the
second century. Professors Harris and Harnack be
lieve this "Apology" or argument for Christianity to
have been presented to the Emperor Antoninus Pius,
who reigned a.d. 138-161; but Dr. J. Armitage Robin-
5,7 For other details see The Newly Recovered Apology of Aristides, by
Helen B. Harris, pp. 8-25. At the time of this discovery Professor Harris
was connected with Haverford College, Pa.

246 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
son accepts the claim made in the "Apology" itself
(which is confirmed by the Armenian version), that
it was addrest to the Emperor Hadrian who reigned
a.d. 1 17-138. If the latter be correct, this earliest
extant argument for Christianity came into existence
within a short generation of the apostolic age, and its
author must have been a boy when the Apostle John
died. If the later date is accepted it would have been
written about as far from the death of St. John as we
are from the Lincoln-Douglas debates (see p. 204, note
51). All agree that in either case the "Apology" was
probably written somewhere between a.d. 124 and 140.
Aristides was a philosopher of Athens, and he is
mentioned by Eusebius as a contemporary of Quadratus,
who lived so near to the lifetime of Christ that he
declares some who had been healed by the Savior "lived
on to our own times." 28
"Aristides the philosopher is a Christian who has
preserved the philosophic manner and probably the
philosophic dress with a view to future service in the
gospel. It seems to have been the practise of not a
few of the famous second century Christians to attract
an audience in this way. Justin certainly did so, and
almost as surely Tatian; and if these why not Aris
tides?" (Harris.) The settled condition of the Christian
faith at this era is seen from the way Aristides marshals
his argument. "He talks of angels as tho all men knew
them, dashes through the dogmatic statements of the
Church as tho they were perfectly familiar, and with
out a word of preliminary explanation of terms, makes
a peroration of the impending judgment day." Dr.
Harris in a most ingenious way has restored from this
" Hist. Eccl, IV., 3.

PRIMITD/E CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 247
document a part of the creed of the Christian Church
of that era.29
"We believe in one God, Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth :
And in Jesus Christ his Son
Born of the Virgin Mary
......
He was pierced by the Jews :
He died and was1 buried :
The third day he rose again ;
He ascended into Heaven ;
He is about to come to judge

The "Apology" opens:
"I, O king, by the grace of God came into this world; and
having contemplated the earth and the heavens and the seas and
beheld the sun and the rest of the orderly creation, I was amazed
at the arrangement of the world; and I comprehended that the
world and all that is therein are moved by the impulse of another,
and I understood that he that moveth them is God, who is bidden
in them and concealed from them: and this is well known, that
that which moveth is more powerful than that which is moved."
He goes on to state certain facts about the Creator :
"He is incomprehensible in his nature ... is not begotten,
not made ; a constant nature without beginning and without end,
immortal, complete, and incomprehensible : and in saying that he
is complete, I mean this, that there is no deficiency in him and he
stands in need of naught but everything stands in need of
him ..."
"He has no name ... he has no likeness nor composition of
members . . . adversary he has none, for there is none that is
more powerful than he; anger and wrath he possesses not; for
there is nothing that can stand against him ... he asks no
" Texts and Studies, I., 25.

248 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
sacrifice and no libation nor any of the things that are visible;
he asks not anything from anyone, but all ask from him."
How much this philosophic statement of the nature
of God reminds us of Paul's sermon at Athens which
was preached perhaps half a century or less before the
birth of Aristides !
He next discusses the four races of men in this
world, "barbarians and Greeks, Jews and Christians,"
and then makes what has well been called "the first
attempt at a systematic comparison of ancient re
ligions." Idolators he subdivides into Chaldeans,
Greeks, and Egyptians, showing the worship of each
of these to be erroneous and absurd. The Jews he
mentions briefly (Sec. 2) as descending from Abraham,
and later (Sec. 14) he praises them because they say:
"God is one Creator of all and Almighty . . . and they imi
tate God . . . for they have compassion on the poor and
ransom the captive and bury the dead . . . nevertheless they too
have gone astray . . . their service is to angels and not to God
in that they observe sabbaths and new moons and a Passover
. . . and circumcision and cleanness of meats; which things
not even thus have they perfectly observed."
Aristides then proceeds in his argument before the
emperor to a description of the Christians. He begins
(Sec. 2) with a statement which, when purged of
glosses by a comparison of the three forms in which it
survives, shows a striking correspondence to the second
section of the Apostles' Creed :
"Now the Christians reckon their race from the Lord Jesus
Christ; and he is confessed to be the Son of God most high.
Having by the Holy Spirit come down from heaven and having
been born of a Hebrew virgin, he took flesh and appeared unto
men to call them back from their error of many gods ; and having
completed his wonderful dispensation, he was pierced by the

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 249
Jews and after three days he revived and went up to heaven.
And the glory of his coming thou canst learn, O king, from that
which is called among them the Evangelistic Scripture, if thou
wouldst read it. He had twelve disciples who after his ascent into
heaven went forth into the provinces of the world and taught his
greatness, whence they who at this day believe their preaching
are called Christians."
After a long discussion, showing to this heathen
king the error of the heathen who think sun, moon and
stars to be gods, he reaches his climax in ridiculing the
gods of Egypt, who worship not only evil deities but
beasts and creeping things and even garlic and onions
and other plants.
The last quarter of the argument consists in a
beautiful statement concerning the Christians who, he
says, not only have a purer theology than all others, but
live in the world as if they were a different race :
"These are they who beyond all the nations of the earth have
found the truth; for they know God as Creator and Maker of
all things, and they worship no other God beside him; for they
have his commandments graven on their hearts, and these they
keep in expectation of the world to come. . . . (They do not
commit adultery nor fornication, they do not bear false witness,
they do not deny a deposit nor covet what is not theirs . . . )
whatsoever they would not should be done unto them they do
not to another . . . (they do good to their enemies : and their
wives, O king, are pure as virgins and their daughters modest
. . . and they walk in all humility and kindness, and falsehood
is not found among them and they love one another . . . ) he
that hath, supplieth him that hath not without grudging : if they
see a stranger they bring him under their roof and rejoice over
him as over a brother indeed, for they call not one another brethren
after the flesh but after the spirit. They are ready for Christ's
sake to give up their own lives; for his commandments they
securely keep, living holily and righteously according as the Lord
their God hath commanded them, giving thanks to him at all hours
over all their food and drink and the rest of their good things.

250 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
. . . (And if any righteous person of their number passeth
away from the world they rejoice and give thanks to God, and
they follow his body as if he were moving from one place to
another ... as men who know God they ask from him petitions
which are proper for him to give and for them to receive . . .
but the good deeds which they do they do not proclaim in the ears
of the multitude, and they take care that no one shall perceive
them . . . but their sayings and their ordinances, O king, and
the glory of their service and the expectation of their recompense
of reward . . . which they expect in another world thou art
able to know from their writings.")
When we remember the age of this document and
its official character, we are amazed at the boldness of
the claims made here concerning the moral character
of the Christians — the modesty of the women, the kind
ness of Christians to inferiors, their care of the poor,
their assurance in prayer, and their joy at death; and
we are also much imprest with this appeal made to the
emperor to read the authoritative "writings" and learn
for himself concerning the new "way." The writer
continues :
"For truly great and wonderful is their teaching to him that
is willing to examine and understand it. And truly this is a new
race and there is something divine mingled with it. Take now
their writings and read in them and lo ! ye will find that not of
myself have I brought these things forward nor as their advocate
have I said them, but as I have read in their writings these things
I firmly believe and those things also that are to come."
Our author then tells how the Christians pray for
the heathen that they may repent and have their hearts
cleansed and their sins forgiven, closing:
"And truly blessed is the race of the Christians more than all
men that are upon the face of the earth. Let the tongues of those
now be silenced who talk vanity and who oppress the Christians
and let them now speak the truth . . . Let' all those . . . who
do not know God . . . anticipate the dread judgment which is

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 251
to come by Jesus, the Messiah, upon the whole race of men. The
Apology of Aristides, the philosopher, is ended." 30

(2) THE SHEPHERD OF HERMAS
Down to 1859 this remarkable apocalypse, which
was accepted as divinely inspired both by Irenaeus
(c. a.d. 1 15-190) and Origen (c. a.d. 182-251), was
known only from translations and quotations. In that
year Tischendorf discovered about one-fourth of the
work at Mt. Sinai in a fourth century parchment. In
1888 twelve more leaves (third century) were found
by Professor Lambros. In 1900 seven more leaves
from the sixth century were edited with the Amherst
Papyri (Vol. II: p. cxc) and several more scraps were
excavated by Grenfell and Hunt at Oxyrhynchus, tho
the most important discovery was made at Athos when
a seventh century manuscript, containing most of the
parts omitted by the Mt. Sinai text, was brought to
light.31 For the first time, therefore, we are able to
take a complete and connected view of this ancient work
which greatly resembles Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress
and was in its day even more popular.
Hermas, who may have lived a.d. 90-100 (Salmon,
Zahn) and certainly not later than a.d. 150 (Harnack,
Lipsius), had originally been a slave. After he secured
his freedom he succeeded well in business, but was irre-
80 For full Syriac text and translation of above bracketed portion, see
J. Rendel Harris, Texts and Studies, Vol. I., pp. 1-64 ; for a corrected text
(represented in unbracketed portion), see J. A. Robinson's "Apology of
Aristides," Encyclopedia Britannica; and for original Greek text see Texts
and Studies, 1 : 65-112. The close relation between some portions of this
"Apology" and the anonymous Epistle to Diognetus (second or third cen
tury), which has been known from the sixteenth century, is very marked.
"Facsimiles of the Athos fragments were published by Kirsopp Lake
in 1907, and a translation into English was made from these Mt. Sinai and
Athos texts by C. Taylor, 2 vols., 1903.

252 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
ligious, having evidently no very good influence upon
his family. Having at length lost his property, he was
converted and became intensely religious, as the strong
moral earnestness of the book makes very apparent.
His work is really a "Manual of Religion," tho cast in
an imaginative form. It is a mighty call to repentance
addrest to men who can well remember the days of
persecution, yet have allowed themselves to be swal
lowed up by business affairs and riches and heathen
friendships and ma»y other affairs of this world.
Man's sinfulness is powerfully depicted, but over
against this is put the power and willingness of the
Good Shepherd to lead his sheep to repentance and a
new life. In order to make forgiveness possible to one
who has sinned after baptism, a most curious explana
tion is given of Heb. 6:6; 12:17, after which the
author hears the "Angel of Repentance" saying to him :
"Go and tell all men to repent and they shall live unto God ;
for the Lord in his compassion sent me to give repentance to all,
tho some do not deserve it."
The indwelling of the Spirit in each believer is
strongly strest by this ancient Christian author. In
deed, he does not always discriminate between the
Son and the Holy Spirit, believing that the human
Jesus, because of his goodness and faithfulness, had
been unified with the Spirit and made partaker of the
divine nature:
"The Holy pre-existent Spirit, which created the whole crea
tion, God made to dwell in flesh that he desired (Jesus). This
flesh therefore in which the Holy Spirit dwelt was subject unto
the Spirit. . . . When it had lived honorably in chastity, and
had labored with the Spirit and had cooperated with it in every
thing, behaving itself boldly, he chose it as a partner with the

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 253
Holy Spirit" (Sim. V:6). "For that Spirit is the Son of God"
(IX: 1).
While this may sound a little like heresy, yet it re
markably resembles Paul's statement: "The Lord
(Jesus) is that Spirit" (2 Cor. 3: 17). There is no
thought of denying the deity of our Lord, but this is
one of the first attempts to explain how Jesus could
have been completely human and yet have become
divine.314 Hermas shows great familiarity with the Book of
James. His statement of Christian duty sounds as if it
could have been written by that practical apostle. After
mentioning the necessity of faith, fear of the Lord, love,
concord, righteousness and a perfect fast, "a fast from
every evil word and every evil desire/' he urges his
fellow Christians
". . .to minister to widows, to visit the orphans and the
needy, to ransom the servants of God from their afflictions, to be
hospitable ... to resist no man, to be tranquil, to show your
self more submissive than all men," etc.
This book, as several scholars have strongly pointed
out, witnesses emphatically to the worldliness of the
Church within half a century of the apostolic age — but
it must be remembered that the sins which he condemns
were also mentioned by Paul, and that they have not
yet vanished from the Church. On the other hand it
also witnesses to the love and benevolence of some
church-members in that era, and proves that the funda
mental faith of that earliest post-apostolic period was
sincere and thoughtful and fervent. While Hermas
a" Compare my explanation of the above text given in Hastings, Diction
ary of Christ and the Gospels, IL, 495 ; and see the illuminating review of
A." Mitchell in Hastings, Dictionary of the Apostolic Church, 1916, I., 561-4.
Very much of the above discussion and that which is to follow has been
adapted from this latter article.

254 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
is interested most in experimental religion, yet he gives
us some light on the officiary of the Church in his day —
mentioning bishops, elders, teachers, deacons, prophets,
and ministers.
Perhaps our greatest present interest in Hermas,
however, is connected with his confirmation of the
authority of Scripture. While he never quotes word
for word any New Testament book, yet he "continually
uses Scriptural words and ideas," and was certainly
acquainted with all the gospels.32 There are, indeed,
several statements in his visions which refer to the
gospels as having been "four" by divine ordination,
as where he represents the Church as seated on a bench
which has four feet and stands firmly "as the world is
held fast by four elements." 33 It may be finally added
that while the Church is pictured by this ancient be
liever as a tower, he represents the tower as being
founded not on Peter, but upon the "rock of the Son
of God." (3) THE RING OF POPE XYSTUS
This may be the best possible place to mention the
above famous book of devotion, which was widely read
and highly prized in Christian circles as early as
a.d. 250, and was undoubtedly composed "at least a
hundred years earlier" (Conybeare). We venture to
speak of it as a new discovery because recently for the
first time it has been rendered into English.34
With the exception of the Pastor of Hermas, which
"This was proved exhaustively by C. Taylor, Witness of Hermas to
the Four Gospels, 1892, and in New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers,
1905, pp. 105#.
ra Taylor, Shepherd of Hermas, p. 33, gives similar statements from
Irenseus and Origen.
"With critical commentary, by F. C. Conybeare, M. A., London, 1910.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 255
we have considered above, and the Acts of Pilate — with
their interesting but unreliable "official reports" — and
perhaps two or three other apocryphal works, such as
the Acts of Paul and Thecla, no other Christian work
equalled this for popularity in the third and fourth
centuries. Its deeply religious tone can be seen from its open
ing sentences :
"A faithful man is a man elect.
"A man elect is a man of God.
"He that is worthy of God is a man of God.
"He that doth naught unworthy of God is a man of God.
"Wherefore if thou art endeavoring to be faithful, do naught
unworthy of God.
"Reckon it thy best purification to wrong no man."
(4) LOST WORKS OF EARLY CHRISTIAN FATHERS
RECENTLY DISCOVERED
Many fragments of papyrus and parchment have
been found in recent years giving scraps of well-known
productions from the various early fathers; but it is a
surprize, indeed, to be able to report that at least two
lost works from the pens of two of the most celebrated
men of ancient Christendom have just come to light
after being buried in oblivion for unknown centuries.
Dr. E. J. Goodspeed in The Biblical World
(December, 191 5) has told this fascinating story and
we here offer an adaptation of his brilliant and com
prehensive summary. Irenceus, Apostolic Preaching
In 1904 a native scholar found in Erivan in
Armenia an Armenian manuscript containing a lost
work of Irenseus, In Proof of the Apostolic Preaching.

256 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Up to that time only one complete work of Irenaeus
was known to be extant, his famous treatise Against
Heresies, written about a.d. 185; but here there was re
stored to us a large book which no one, previous to this
discovery, could ever have hoped to see. Irenaeus was
born probably at Smyrna, a few miles from Ephesus,
within half a century of the traditional date of St.
John's death, and enjoyed the instruction of Polycarp,
who was a pupil of the holy "presbyter." 34a He may
have accompanied Polycarp on his journey to Rome
in connection with the Easter controversy (a.d. 154).
At any rate he was a missionary to Gaul and
under the persecution of Marcus Aurelius (a.d.
177) he witnessed there the terrible torture and
death of many of his fellow presbyters. In a.d.
178 he was elected bishop of Lyons, and for: the
rest of his life this greatest man and most superb
scholar of his generation labored with pen and tongue
for Christianity. His writings prove conclusively that
in the churches of his day strong emphasis was put
upon the New Testament and "Scripture"; upon the
Apostolic Creed and episcopal organization. In the
work previously known he had made hundreds of
quotations from the New Testament in his ardent
defense of the "faith delivered to the saints." It ought
to be almost awe-inspiring for any devout Christian to
read a new literary and religious work from the pen
of this "commanding figure" in early Christian litera
ture. "The newly discovered work," says Dr. Goodspeed,
"was evidently addrest to the laity. It sets forth in a
Ma As we have previously stated, it is very doubtful whether the "pres
byter John" of Ephesus can any longer be identified with the Apostle John.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 257
simple and telling way the apostolic type of Christianity
which Irenaeus maintained, and shows its agreement
with numerous Old Testament prophecies. Irenaeus's
usual method is to describe an incident in the gospel
story and then quote some prophecy which he thinks
is fulfilled in it. The work shows Irenaeus at the task
of teaching his Gallic flock to defend their Christian
faith in all its aspects by appeal to the Old Testament.
Many New Testament books are reflected in it, but
here, as in the older work of Irenaeus, no use is made
of Hebrews or Revelations, and it seems clear that these
books had no place in his New Testament."
In the second century many theologians looked upon
Hebrews as edifying literature but not as inspired
Scripture, and Irenaeus may have seriously objected to
Revelation because of the Montanist controversy which
made so much of this work.35
Origen on the Book of Revelation
"In July, 191 1," still to quote Dr. Goodspeed, "Con
stantine Diobouniotis, a Privat-Docent in the Univer
sity of Athens, sent to Berlin a copy he had made of a
short work on the Apocalypse which had been found
in a tenth-century manuscript in the Meteoron monas
tery in the north of Greece. The monastery is one of
those so picturesquely situated on the summits of the
rocky detached pinnacles of the Pindus Mountains,
which have to be reached by the aid of basket, rope,
and windlass. The commentary was anonymous, but
86 See Moffatt, Introduction to the Literature of the New Testament,
p. 498. For the testimony of Irenaeus to the Fourth Gospel and to John
the Apostle as its (indirect) author, see Univ. of Chicago, Hist, and Lin
guistic Studies, 2d Series, Vol. I., Part VII.

258 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Diobouniotis thought it might be the work of Hippo
lytus, one of whose treatises had already been found in
the same manuscript.
"The Berlin scholars at once recognized in it a work
of Origen, the founder of Christian interpretation and
of systematic theology, the leading theologian of Chris
tian antiquity, and the father of ecclesiastical science.
Origen was the most voluminous of ancient Christian
writers. Ephiphanius says that he left six thousand
works, but this enumeration must have included indi
vidual sermons, lectures, and addresses, as well as
greater works, like the Hexapla, which was so huge
that it was never copied. Part of Origen's prolificness
was due to his friend and patron, Ambrose, who sup
plied him with stenographers and secretaries so that
he might have every facility to record the results of
his studies, and so eagerly urged him on in his work
that Origen calls him his 'taskmaster' who left him no
leisure for meals or rest.
"These thirty-seven paragraphs of the commentary
on Revelation are a new and unexpected legacy from
the first great interpreter of the New Testament. It is
true that it had not been known that Origen ever wrote
a commentary or even a set of scholia on Revelation.
But it is an interesting fact that in his commentary on
Matthew he exprest the intention of producing a com
mentary on it. More than this, the commentary on
Matthew was one of the latest of Origen's works, and
falls between a.d. 245 and 249. It was in a.d. 249 or
250 that the persecution of Decius overtook Origen,
and the tortures he then endured eventually resulted
in his death in his seventieth year. It has been sug
gested that these comments on Revelation may have

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 259
been his last work and that they broke off before the
whole book had been covered, because the persecution
interrupted Origen in the midst of his task." 351
Letters of Ignatius
No one connected with the history of the early
Christian Church is more famous than Ignatius. Ac
cording to early tradition he was the pupil of the Apostle
John and for over forty years the contemporary of
Polycarp; finally being thrown to the wild beasts in
the Colesseum at Rome somewhere between a.d. 105
and 115. Our knowledge of him, however, up to the
present generation, has been confined to a few short
notices by Irenaeus and Origen and to a number of
epistles which claimed to be from him but the author
ship of which was disputed.
Thanks to the researches of modern scholars,
notably Zahn and Harnack, seven (short recension)
epistles, written to the Ephesians, Romans, Philadel-
phians, etc., are now accepted with practical unanimity,
being dated by a majority of scholars a.d. 110-117, tho
Harnack prefers a.d. 117-125.36 This brings the words
of Ignatius almost within the apostolic age and gives
to them a tenfold force. What is it that this earliest
post-apostolic teacher believed concerning Jesus Christ ?
This is his creed :
"Be ye deaf, therefore, when any man speaketh to you apart
from Jesus Christ, who was of the race of David, who was the
son of Mary, who was truly born and ate and drank, was truly
persecuted under Pontius Pilate, was truly crucified and died in
the sight of those in heaven and those on earth and those under
*' For full Greek text see Texte und Untersuchungen sur Geschichte
der altchristlichen Literatur, 1911, Heft 3, pp. 4-49.
"See R. H. Charles and others in Encyclopedia Britannica, IL, 189;
VII., 393; XIV., 292-294; XXII., 20.

260 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
the earth; who moreover was truly raised from the dead, his
Father having raised him, who in the like fashion will also raise
us also who believe in him — his Father, I say, will raise us — in
Christ Jesus, apart from whom we have not true life. . . .
There is one only physician, of flesh and of spirit, generate and
ingenerate, God in man, true life in death, Son of Mary and Son
of God, first passible and then impassible."
Ignatius was the first writer known, outside the
New Testament, to mention the virgin birth, but he
lays great stress upon this. He describes the holy
sacrament as the "medicine of immortality, and anti
dote that we should not die, but live forever in Jesus
Christ." His view of the supremacy of Christ is so
clear that he gladly puts him even above the Old
Testament itself, saying: "As for me my archives —
my inviolable archives — are Jesus Christ, his cross,
his death, his resurrection and faith through him."
When we read such words from this comrade of
Polycarp, we are glad to find that modern discoveries
of new Ignatian texts, as gathered from the Rainer
Papyri (K94 16-9422), corroborate fully the antiquity
and essential purity of these ancient epistles.37
4. The Didache or "Teaching of the Twelve
Apostles"
This most important of all recent discoveries that
touch Church history and doctrine was made by Bishop
Philotheus Bryennios, the "Tischendorf of the Greek
Church," in the library of the Jerusalem Monastery of
The Most Holy Sepulcher in the Phanar of Constanti
nople, and was announced by him in 1875. What he
found was a collection of manuscripts written on well-
" So Wessely, Sitsungsberichte der philosophisch-historischen Klasse
der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Band 172, Wien, 1913,
pp. 1-70.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 261
preserved parchment and bound in one volume con
taining 120 leaves. This volume includes the only com
plete manuscript of the first and second epistles of
Clement of Rome to the Corinthians and several other
works beside the Didache; but the latter is by far the
most valuable, altho it is less than ten pages in length.
Its publication in 1883 created a profound sensation in
the learned world. The work was undoubtedly genuine
and was dated by all scholars as the oldest church
manual in existence. It was written in Hellenistic
Greek, and of the 552 different words used 504 were
to be found in the New Testament (Harnack). The
date at which the manuscript was copied by Leon, the
humble "notary and sinner," was a.d. 1056, but the
date of the original was variously placed between
a.d. 50 and a.d. 160; until the consensus of scholarship
has finally decided, with comparatively few dissenting
voices, that it was written "before rather than after
a.d. 100." 3S
The reason for the special excitement concerning
this find was very manifest. Here for the first time
could be obtained the long-desired answer to many
historical questions concerning the doctrine, ritual, and
polity of the earliest Christian Church. What did
those earliest Christians believe concerning God and
Christ and baptism? Out of the long-forgotten past
this earliest ritualistic discipline arose to speak con
cerning the habits and beliefs of the primitive Church
at a time when it was "neither Catholic nor Protestant,
" So Bartlet in Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, V., 449; Professor Har
nack, however, does not date it earlier than a.d. 120 and says it may be
later. J. Armitage Robinson, Journal of Theol. Studies, XIII., 339-356, has
advanced certain arguments to prove that the writer used St. Paul, St. John,
and St. Luke, but attempted to conceal his obligations.

262 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
neither Episcopalian nor anti-Episcopalian, neither Bap
tist nor paedo-Baptist, neither sacerdotal nor anti-
sacerdotal, neither liturgical nor anti-liturgical"; yet it
claimed to convey a genuine apostolic doctrine as re
ceived from "the Lord," i.e., the glorified Christ
(VIII: 2; IX: 5; XI: 2, 4, 8; XV: 4; XVI: 1, 7/F). The
best edition of this work in English was published by
Philip Schaff in 1886, giving the Greek text and English
translation, and from this edition we now quote por
tions of this most remarkable manuscript interjecting
some of the more important scriptural parallels.
THE TEACHING OF THE LORD BY THE TWELVE
APOSTLES TO THE GENTILES
Chapter I
The Two Ways — The Way of Life
1. "There are two ways, one of Life and one of Death; but
there is a great difference between the two Ways.
2. "Now the Way of Life is this : First, Thou shalt love God
who made thee ; secondly, thy neighbor as thyself ; and all things
whatsoever thou wouldst not have done to thee neither do thou to
another. 3. "Now the teaching of these (two) words (of the Lord) is
this : Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies, and
fast for those who persecute you : for what thank is there if you
love those who love you? Do not even the Gentiles the same?
But love ye those who hate you, and ye shall not have an enemy,
4. "Abstain from fleshly and bodily (worldly) lusts. If anyone
give thee a blow on the right cheek, turn to him the other also, and
thou shalt be perfect. If anyone press thee to go with him one
mile, go with him two; if anyone take away thy cloak, give him
also thy tunic; if anyone take from thee what is thine, ask it not
back, as indeed thou canst not.
5. "Give to everyone that asketh thee and ask not back, for the
Father wills that from his own blessings we should give to all.
Blessed is he that gives according to the commandments, for he is

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 263
guiltless. Woe to him that receives. For if anyone receives,
having need, he shall be guiltless ; but he that has not need shall
give account why he received, and for what purpose ; and coming
into distress he shall be strictly examined concerning his needs,
and he shall not come out thence till he shall have paid the last
farthing. 6. "But concerning this also it hath been said, Let thy alms
sweat (drop like sweat) into thy hands till thou know to whom
thou shouldst give." Chapter II
The Second Great Commandment — Warning
Against Gross Sins
It is hardly necessary to quote this in full as it is
an expansion of the second table of the decalog with
reference to prevailing heathen vices, to which are
added points of warning with reference chiefly to sins
of the tongue. Some of the most striking command
ments are as follows:
"Thou shalt not use witchcraft; thou shalt not practice sor
cery ; thou shalt not procure abortion ; thou shalt not speak evil ;
duplicity of tongue is a snare of death ; . . . thou shalt not hate
anyone, but some thou shalt rebuke, and for some thou shalt pray,
and some thou shalt love above thy own soul (or life)."
Chapter III
Warning Against Lighter Sins
This chapter emphasizes the fact that anger leads
to murder, lust to adultery, superstition to idolatry,
lying to theft. It warns against quick temper and
filthy talk and astrological practises and vain-glorious
ambitions and continues:
"But be thou meek, for the meek shall inherit the earth. Be
thou long-suffering and merciful and harmless and quiet and good
and trembling continually at the words which thou hast heard
... the events that befall thee thou shalt accept as good, know
ing that nothing happens without God."

264 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Chapter IV
Sundry Warnings and Exhortations
This chapter enjoins duties on Christians as mem
bers of the Church, commanding them to honor their
minister, who speaks to them the word of God "as the
Lord," and continues:
"And thou shalt seek out day by day the faces of the saints
that thou mayest rest upon their words.. . . Be not one that
stretches out his hands for receiving but draws them in for giving
. . . nor in giving shalt thou murmur . . . thou shalt share
all things with thy brother, and shalt. not say that they are thine
own ; for if you are fellow-sharers in that which is imperishable,
how much more in perishable things."
It commands kindness to slaves that they may fear
"him who is God over you both," and commands rever
ence and fear on the part of bondmen, and adds :
Thou shalt hate all hypocrisy and everything that is not pleas
ing to the Lord ... In the congregation (grodnota) thou
shalt confess thy transgressions ; thou shalt not come to thy prayer
with an evil conscience. This is the Way of Life."
Chapter V
The Way of Death
This chapter describes the way of death by a
catalog of sins which, as Dr. Schaff says, "faithfully
reflects the horrible immorality of heathenism in the
Roman Empire" (cf. Rom. i: 18-32). It is significant
that the "Synagog Confession" gives the lists of vices
in almost the same order. We quote in full the first
paragraph :
"First of all it is evil and full of curse; murders, adulteries,
lusts, fornications, thefts, idolatries, witchcrafts, sorceries, rob
beries, false witnessings, hypocrisies, double heartedness, deceit,
pride, wickedness, self-will, covetousness, filthy talking, jealousy,
presumption, haughtiness, boastfulness."

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 265
The chapter closes with a warning against those
who are "advocates of the rich; lawless judges of the
poor; wholly sinful." Chapter VI
Warning Against False Teachers and the Worship
of Idols
This chapter contains a passage often quoted as
the foundation of the practise of ascetism.
"For if indeed thou art able to bear the whole yoke of the
Lord, thou wilt be perfect ; but if thou art not able, do what thou
canst." It also speaks of idol offerings as "a service of
dead gods."
This closes the first division of the book — the first
"Way" which has to do with moral precepts. Many
scholars think that an ancient Jewish work has been
used in the composition, modified, however, by the in
sertion of passages from the Sermon on the Mount, etc.
Dr. Schaff finds thirteen distinct allusions and two
quotations from the Old Testament in the Didache and
forty-six reminiscences of the New Testament, includ
ing many parallels to the synoptic gospels and at least
three to John's gospel (Did. 10:2; cf. John 1:14;
Did. 9:2; cf. John 15:1; Did. 9:2, 3; 10:2; cf.
John 15: 15). He also sees important resemblances to
Jude and 2 Peter, but no acquaintance with the pastoral
epistles. Professor Harnack acknowledges five quota
tions from the gospels and twenty-three citations.
The second part of the Two Ways consists of pre
cepts relating to church life. The first four chapters
are intended as "a short sacramental manual intended
for the use of local elders or presbyters, tho such are

266 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
not named, for they were not yet a distinctive order of
the clergy." This section was probably added to the
Two Ways before the edition of the remainder. It
orders baptism in the threefold name, making a dis
tinction as to waters, which has Jewish parallels, and
permitting a threefold pouring on the head if sufficient
water for immersion could not be had. It prescribes a
fast before baptism for the baptizer as well as the can
didate. Fasts are to be kept on Wednesday and Friday,
not Monday and Thursday, which are the fast days of
"the hypocrites." Then follows the Lord's Prayer
almost exactly as in St. Matthew, which is to be re
peated three times each day. Next come three
eucharistic prayers, the language of which is clearly
marked off from that of the rest of the book and shows
parallel with the diction of St. John's gospel. They
are probably founded on Jewish thanksgivings, and it
is of interest to note that a portion of them is pre
scribed as a grace before meat. As in Ignatius and
other early writers, the eucharist, a real meal of a
family character (10: i), is regarded as producing
immortality ("spiritual food and drink and eternal
life"), and none are to partake of it save those who
have been "baptized in the name of the Lord" — an ex
pression which is of interest in a document which pre
scribes the threefold formula. The next section
(XI-XIII) deals with the ministry of spiritual gifts
as exercised by apostles, prophets, and teachers. Next
comes a section (XIV, XV) reflecting a somewhat
later development concerning fixt services and ministry.
The eucharist is to be celebrated every Lord's Day and
to be preceded by confession of sin. The book closes
(XVI) with exhortations to stedfastness in the "last

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 267
days" and to the coming of the "world-deceiver" or
anti-Christ, which will precede the coming of the
Lord." 39
We will quote only special sentences from these
chapters. Chapter VII
Baptism
1. "Now concerning baptism, baptize thus: having first taught
all these things baptize ye into the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost in living water.
2. "And if thou hast not living water baptize into other water ;
and if thou canst not in cold, then in warm (water).
3. "But if thou hast neither, pour (water) thrice upon the head
into the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
4. "But before baptism let the baptizer and the baptized fast
and any others who can ; but thou shalt command the baptized to
fast for one or two days before." Chapter IX
The Agape and the Eucharist
With perhaps one exception the three prayers given
in this chapter are "the oldest known Christian prayers
after those in the New Testament . . . they furnish
together with the Lord's Prayer the elements of a
primitive liturgy . . . they are very remarkable for
their brevity, simplicity, and high-toned spirituality,
but also for the absence of any allusion to the atoning
sacrifice of Christ except perhaps in the mystic mean
ing of the Vine of David' and the broken bread. Not
even the words of institution, 'this is my body,' 'this is
my blood,' are mentioned; much less is any theory of
the real presence intimated or implied. The prayers
are too low for the sacrament and yet too high for an
" See for further analysis Encyclopedia Britannica, VIII., 201.

268 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
ordinary meal" (Schaff). The prayer for the cup
reads :
"We give thanks to thee, our Father, for the holy vine of
David thy servant, which thou hast made known to us through
Jesus thy servant ; to thee be the glory forever."
The prayer for the broken bread:
"We give thanks to thee, our Father, for the life and
knowledge which thou hast made known to us through Jesus thy
servant ; to thee be the glory forever. As this broken bread was
scattered upon the mountains and being gathered together became
one, so let thy church be gathered together from the ends of the
earth into thy kingdom, for thine is the glory and the power
through Jesus Christ forever."
The post-communion prayer is given in chapter X:
"We thank thee, holy Father, for thy holy name which thou
hast caused to tabernacle in our hearts; and for the knowledge
and faith and immortality which thou hast made known to us
through Jesus thy Servant; to thee be the glory forever. Thou,
O almighty Sovereign, didst make all things for thy name's sake ;
thou gavest food and drink to men for enjoyment, that they might
give thanks to thee ; but to us thou didst freely give spiritual food
and drink and eternal life through thy servant. Before all things
we give thanks to thee that thou art mighty ; to thee be the glory
forever. Remember, O Lord, thy Church, to deliver her from all
evil and to perfect her in thy love ; and gather her together from
the four winds, sanctified. for thy kingdom, which thou didst pre
pare for her ; for thine is the power and the glory forever. Let
grace come and let this world pass away. Hosanna to the God
(Son) of David. If anyone is holy let him come ; if any one is not
holy let him repent. Maranatha. Amen."
Altho the prophets are permitted to pray in any
words that they may chose, few modern prophets could
do better when administering the sacrament than to use
this most ancient communion prayer. An impressive
prayer craves the unity of all congregations.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 269
Chapter XI
Apostles and Prophets
The "apostles" here are evidently traveling evan
gelists or missionaries; and the "prophets," tho they
may have been itinerants, are more like settled minis
ters, being entitled to support and being the "chief
priests" who officiate at the holy sacrament. The in
struction given to these apostles is :
"Let every apostle that cometh to you be received as the Lord.
But he shall not remain (longer than) one day . . . if he remain
three (days) he is a false prophet. And when the apostle de-
parteth, let him take nothing except bread (enough) till he reach
his lodging. . . . But if he ask for money he is a false prophet."
Of the settled preachers it says:
"Not every one that speaks in the spirit is a prophet but only
if he has the behavior (roue; Tooitovg) of the Lord . . . No
prophet that orders a table in the spirit eats of it (himself) unless
he is a false prophet ... if he does not practice what he
preaches, he is a false prophet . . . Whosoever says in the
spirit, Give me money or any other thing, ye shall not listen to
him ; but if he bid you to give for others that lack, let no one judge
him." Chapter XII
Receiving Disciples
"Let everyone that comes in the name of the Lord be received,
and then proving him ye shall know him ... if he wishes to
settle among you, being a craftsman, let him work and eat (earn
his living by work) ... No Christian shall live idle among you.
And if he will not act thus he is a Christ-trafficker. Beware of
such." Chapter XIII
Treatment of Prophets
"Every true prophet who wishes to settle among you is
worthy of his food (i.e., "support") . . . therefore thou shalt
take and give all the first fruit of the produce of the wine press

270 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
and threshing floor, of oxen and sheep, to the prophets ; for they
are your chief priests. But if ye have no prophet give to the poor."
Chapter XIV
The Lord's Day and the Sacrifice
It is noticeable that there is no commandment in
this document to keep the Sabbath, and that already at
the end of the first century Sunday is the sacred day
of worship.
I. "And on the Day of the Lord come together and break
bread and give thanks, having before confessed your transgres
sions, that your sacrifice may be pure."
2. "Let no one who has a dispute with his fellow come together
with you until they are reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be
defiled." 3. "For this is that which is spoken by the Lord: In every
place and time offer me a pure sacrifice, for I am a great 'King,
saith the Lord, and my name is wonderful among the Gentiles."
Chapter XV
Bishops and Deacons
The early age of our document is seen from the
fact that traveling missionaries and prophets are given
higher rank than purely local officers, such as bishops
and deacons. Presbyters are not mentioned because
the word bishop is used in the same sense (as in 1 Tim.
3: 8-13 and Phil. 1 : 1) ; but these bishops and deacons
"are not to be looked down upon because their own
special functions are of a humble order, but are to rank
as associates of their more gifted colleagues" (Bart
lett). 1. "Elect therefore for yourself bishops and deacons worthy
of the Lord, men meek and not lovers of money and truthful and
approved; for they too minister to you the ministry of the
prophets and teachers."
2. "Therefore despise them not, for they are those that are the
honored (men) among you with the prophets and teachers."

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 271
Chapter XVI
Watchfulness and the Coming of Christ
I. "Watch over your life ; let not your lamps be quenched and
let not your loins be unloosed but be ye ready for ye know nqt the
hour in which our Lord comes."
2. "But be ye frequently gathered together seeking the things
that are profitable for your souls; for the whole time of your
faith shall not profit you, except in the last season ye be found
perfect." 3. "For in the last days false prophets and destroyers shall
be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love
shall be turned into hate."
4. "For when lawlessness increases, they shall hate and per
secute and deliver up one another; and then shall appear the
world deceiver as Son of God, and shall do signs and wonders,
and the earth shall be delivered into his hands ..."
6. "And then shall appear the signs of the truth: first, the
sign of expansion in heaven; then the sign of the voice of the
trumpet ; and the third resurrection of the dead. ..."
8. "Then shall the world see the Lord coming upon the clouds
of heaven." Such is this ancient synopsis of the official teaching
of the Christian Church in Palestine which comes to
us from a time as near to the lifetime of those who
knew the last of the apostles as we are near to those
who personally knew Abraham Lincoln and General
Grant." 5. Li BELLI
When Grenfell and Hunt published in 1904 a Greek
papyrus in which could be read the actual certificate
given by a Christian living about a.d. 250, stating in
set form his recantation of Christianity, the Chris
tians all over the world were stirred to a feeling
"For an extended and profound analysis of this document with full
statement of all the literature connected with it, see especially Hastings,
Dictionary of the Bible, V, 438-4S1.

272 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
of horror. As early as 1893 Dr. Fritz Krebs had
found a similar certificate among the papyri of the
Berlin Museum and two others had appeared a little
later; yet none of these had made so great an impres
sion, at least upon the English-speaking world. The
statement as translated by the discoverers read as
follows :
"To the superintendents of offerings and sacrifices at the city.
From Aurelius . . . son of Theodorius and Pantonymis of the
said city. It has ever been my custom to make sacrifices and
pour libations to the gods and now also I have in your presence
in accordance with the commandment poured libations and sac
rifice and tasted the offerings, together with my son Aurelius
Dioscuros and my daughter Aurelia Lais. I therefore request
you to certify my statement.
"The first year of the Emperor Csesar Gaius Messius Quintus
Trajanus Decius Pius Felix Augustus. Pauni 20." 41
Poor Aurelius! His act of apostasy is known now
the world over.
From this same reign of Decius (about a.d. 250)
have since been discovered a number of others, all
having the same set form, showing that a stereotyped
official wording was used.
By the time Dr. Charles Wessely published his great
work, Les Plus Anciens Monuments du Christianisme
ecrits sur Papyrus, in 1907, five of these libelli had
been recovered. The publication in the same year of
a libellus issued to "Aurelia Ammonous Mystos,
priestess of Petesouchos, the great god," threw a new
light upon the possibilities connected with the use of
these certificates. Was it possible that Christianity
had grown so popular that everybody, even the pagan
priestesses, were suspected and forced to sign these
" Oxyrhynchus Papyri, IV., No. 658.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 273
certificates ? Or did it mean that this woman who had
originally been a priestess had been converted to Chris
tianity, and later under stress of persecution had sac
rificed to the gods — or else had bribed some govern
ment officer to give her this certificate making use of
her former title in order to procure it? The latter
seems to the writer a natural explanation, since we
know from the statement of the early Christian fathers
that if Christians had friends among the government
officials or could part with a sufficient financial induce
ment, it was not impossible to obtain a signed and
witnessed certificate without having to go through the
damnable ordeal of sacrifice. This newly found libellus
suggests also that some of the men who previously
signed these certificates may not have been apostate
Christians, but may have been heathen falsely accused
of being Christians.
In 191 1 Dr. Paul M. Meyer 42 published the Greek
text of nineteen libelli from Theadelphia, in the
Egyptian Fayum, dating from June 12 to July 14, a.d.
250, all being relics of this same Decian persecution.
He exprest the judgment that the Roman government in
this persecution was less concerned to hurt Christianity
than to check what was considered a non-patriotic re
fusal to adhere to the official Roman religion. We give
below translations of the two longest and most com
plicated of these newly published documents :
"To those chosen to have charge of the sacrifices from
Aurelia, wife of ( ?) Ammonarios, from the village Theadelphia,
and who always sacrifices and reverences the gods, together with
the children of the Aurelians Didymos and Nouphios and
Taat. ( ?)
"We have ever continued to sacrifice and to reverence che
0 Abhandlungen der Berl.-Akademie, Phil. hist. Klasse, No. 5, p. 34#.

274 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
gods with the children of the Aurelians Didymos and Nouphios,
and now in your presence according to the orders we have poured
libations and have sacrificed and have tasted of the sacrifices, and
I demand of you that you witness this with your signature for
me. Farewell. (No. 2.)
(Another hand) "We Aurelians Serenos and Hermas have
seen you sacrificing.
(A third hand) "Erm(a)s has set his seal.
(The first hand) "The first year of the Emperor Csesar Gaius
Messius Quintus Trajan Decius, Revered, Fortunate, August.
"To those chosen to have charge of the sacrifices from Aurelios
Euprodokios (Euprodoktos?), household servant of Aurelios
Apianos, who has been in charge of the sacred rites of the most
illustrious city of the Alexandrians, and he is engaged in business
in . . . Theadelphia, ever sacrificing to the gods and now in
your presence according to the commands ; I have sacrificed and
poured libations and have tasted of the sacrifices, and I demand
that you witness this with your signatures. Farewell. (No. 16.)
(Second hand) "We Aurelians Serenos and Hermas have
seen you sacrificing.
(Third hand) "Hermas (Seal).
(First hand) "First year," etc. (as in other example).
Since Dr. Meyer's list was published Leclercq ia has
lifted the number known of these strange documents
to twenty-five — twenty of which came from Theadel
phia — and three others have just been published (1915)
from the Catalogue of Greek Papyri in the John
Rylands Library. The latter all came from Theadel
phia. The first of these (No. 112) is the certificate of
A. Souelis, "whose mother is Taisis," signed as wit
nesses by A. Serenus and A. Hermas; the second and
third certificates coming from A. Aouteis and A. Iseitos
Anoutos and signed by the same witnesses.
Among those who have made for themselves an
" Bulletin d'ancienne litterature et d'archeologie chrHiennes, 1914, pp. 57-
60, 126-139, 188-201. An additional libellus appears in Oxyrhynchus Papyri,
XII. (1916), No. 1464.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 275
eternal infamy by signing other papers similar to the
above, the writer has noticed the names of Horion;
Charis; Alexandros; Kamis, "who was seen to sacrifice
by A. Serenus"; Serenis Herod; Tausis; Thermouthe
Melana; A. Diogenes, son of Satabous, "aged about
72 years, with a scar on his right eye"; A. Syrus and
Paspes his brother, and Demetria and Serapias, their
wives; and A. Demas, whose husband signed for her,
"she being illiterate," etc., etc.
A word ought perhaps to be added concerning the
Decian persecution from which all these libelli have
come. Decius was not a monster but a man of high
aims. He sought the best good of his people, but his
judgment concerning Christianity was wrong. His
idea was that Rome in order to be strong must have
absolute control over both government and religion;
and as this one religion by its intolerance of all rivals
was a constant menace to the public peace and author
ity, he bitterly antagonized it. He recognized its claim
of world-wide dominion; and instead of linking the
government to it, as its ally, he set out to conquer it.
It was the greatest political mistake of his reign,
Trajan (a.d. 112) was the first to denounce Christian
ity as a crime against the State; and under Marcus
Aurelius (about a.d. 176) informers against Christians
were allowed to take the latter's property when con
victed; but under most of the emperors until Decius,
the Christian associations were permitted registration
as "burial clubs," tho Septimus Severus (a.d. 202)
issued ;a proclamation against proselyting. ' Previous
to Decius it was mostly the people, not the upper
classes, who opposed Christianity; but the nobles by
this era had become antagonistic to this avowedly demo-

276 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
cratic propaganda, and Decius greatly pleased the
heathen Senate by putting the strong arm of the law
against this movement. Doubtless both Decius and his
counsellors believed that Christianity was opposed to
patriotism, as it refused worship to the national gods.
When this persecution began, most of the civilized
world had been evangelized; but success had made the
Church luxurious and worldly. Bad as this persecution
seems, it was a good thing. The libelli weeded out the
tares from the wheat. It is certain, however, that many
who are affirmed to have sacrificed never actually did
this, as it was counted a much smaller sin to bribe an
official to give a false certificate than actually to sign
such a document. Some of the more ardent Christians
greatly objected to the ease with which such certificates
could be obtained and the ease with which such cowards
were readmitted to communion.44
It will be noticed that almost all of the victims of
this persecution were members of the Aurelian gens.
It is also to be noticed that it was not mere conformity
to the Emperor cult which was required, but a positive
and public sacrifice made to the "gods" of Rome. A
long list of these gods and goddesses comes to us from
the reign of Diocletian.. The refusal of any Christian
to worship any one of these deities assured his death.45
Dr. Meyer has been understood to suggest, in his fine
work which we have previously quoted, that these cer
tificates were required only from Roman citizens; but
several instances which he himself gives intimate that
no such limitation was made. Certainly servants as
u See for further particulars J. A. F. Gregg, The Decian Persecution,
1907. "Anecdota Oxoniensia, 1913, No. 22.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 277
well as masters were required to give this pledge of
loyalty to the state religion.
6. Ancient Christian Sermons
The oldest known sermon was discovered by Bryen-
nios in the Jerusalem Monastery and published in 1875.
It is from an unknown Greek or Roman author of the
middle of the second century and was formerly ascribed
to Clement of Rome. It is an interesting fact that he
read from manuscript and addrest his hearers as
"Brothers and Sisters!" He was an exhorter rather
than a preacher, but had the root of the matter in him,
as is seen from the fervent doxology with which he
closes :
"To the only God invisible, the Father of truth, who sent
forth unto us the Saviour and prince of immortality, through whom
also he made manifest unto us the truth and the heavenly light.
To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen." 45a
An early Christian fragment of the third or early
fourth century contains what seems like a paragraph
from an early sermon on "The Spirit of Prophecy" :
"Man being filled with the Holy Spirit speaks as the Lord
wills; the spirit of the divine nature will thus be manifest. For
the spirit of prophecy is the essence of the prophetic order, which
is the body of the flesh of Jesus Christ, which was mingled with
human nature through Mary." 46b
It is interesting to note here that Tyconius (fourth
century) seemed to have been the first preacher in the
Western Church who attempted to treat of the meaning
and inspiration of the Bible as a whole. In his "rules"
he tried to lay down a scientific method of interpreta-
"'Patrologia Apostolico, I, 111-143.
"" Oxyrhynchus Papyri, 1 : 5.

278 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
tion; and altho many of these, as found in his newly
discovered work, are now wholly antiquated, a few of
them sound as if they might have been formulated by
some ultra-conservative professor of hermeneutics in a
modern theological seminary.46
Liberius was one of the most celebrated bishops of
the Western Church in the fourth century (a.d. 352-
366) and one of his sermons seems to have been most
fortunately resurrected for us (Museon, XX, 1).
While Lefort, in the article referred to, does not posi
tively guarantee the authenticity of the homily, there
can be no doubt of its antiquity, even if the wrong
name was anciently affixt to it. It is suggestive that
this preacher of the olden time fills his sermon with
Biblical quotations from many books (Zech. 8: 19;
Ex. 20:13-17; Deut. 5:17-21; Matt. 19:18; Mark
10: 19; Rom. 13 : 9; 2 Tim. 2: 21). He is preaching on
the forty days preceding Easter and. beautifully says:
"Lent is the time of fasting, of pardon, of enfranchisement
from the corruptions of earth. Let us advance to the struggle
determined to rise victorious; the idle may labor, the coward
have courage, the peaceful become warlike in these days."
One of the very celebrated preachers of the Eastern
Church in the third century was Bishop Gregory
Thaumaturgus (died a.d. 270). From his pen we have
what may perhaps be called the "oldest extant Chris
tian sermon." " It is a Christmas sermon and he calls
this anniversary "The Festival of the Birth of Christ
our God, which is the Beginning of Festivals." The
sermon is too commonplace to be quotable; but in this
respect it differs from one on the same theme by
" See Rules of Tyconius in Apocrypha Anecdota, F. C. Burkitt, 1904.
*' See The Expositor, III, 392-400.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 279
Ananias of Shirak, who begins his Christmas sermon
in the following flowery fashion:
"When I remember the disobedience of Eve I weep ; but when
I view the fruit of Mary I am again revived. Deathless by
descent, invisible through beauty, before the ages Light of Light;
of God the Father wast thou begotten . . . with roses and
lilies and fragrant wreaths Christ our imperishable Spring hath
come unto us and hath filled the fair garden of the churches, even
the seed plots of our hearts, from the paradise of God." 47a
Another sermon by an ancient preacher named Mar-
lochanis (Father John) was found at Mt. Sinai at the
same time that the Syriac gospels were discovered.
The text seems to have been "Feed my sheep" (John
21 : 16). Some of the most striking sentences are:
"The sheep are the men, and the ewes they are the women, and
the lambs they are the young boys and the little girls. Lo thou
seest the priest of the people! With what care the Lord in
structed Peter, saying to him, not once but three times, Feed thou
the flock." A far more remarkable discourse on "Peter the
Rock" comes from the same place. It is a most elab
orate argument that the Church was founded not upon
St. Peter but upon Christ the Rock:
"It is our Lord Jesus the Messiah who goeth down amongst
the dead, and hath lordship over death, and cutteth the bonds of
Sheol, and breaketh the bars of iron, and leadeth captivity captive,
and goeth up in glory. And I will show you, my beloved, upon
the New Testament and the OJd . . . other foundation a man
is not able to lay outside that one which is Lord, that which is our
Lord Jesus the Messiah . . . after I have built my barns, and
gathered my fruits, and given thee the keys; after I have pre
pared the' fold and gathered the sheep — O Petros, thou wast
convicted of fault by Paulus thy colleague. How do men say
that upon Petros ... I have built (the Church which) is not
shaken . . . O Petros, after that thou didst receive the keys
"''Ibid., Ill, 161-173.

280 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
of heaven, and the Lord was seen by thee after he rose from
amongst the dead, thou didst let go of the keys, and thy wage is
agreed with thy Master when thou saidst to him, Behold we have
let go of everything and have come (after thee. What then shall
be to us? And he said to him, Ye shall be sitting on) twelve
thrones and judging the tribes of Israel, and after (all these signs,
O Petros), thou wentest away again to the catching of fish . . .
Thou didst deny me!" (Anecdota Oxoniensia, 1896.)
A vast number of these ancient homilies have been
recently recovered, especially those delivered by the
early Coptic preachers; and altho they in general
scrupulously avoid new ideas and are rather painfully
orthodox, yet a few of these may be quoted to ad
vantage. A large collection of sermon MSS. in Coptic
over 1300 years old has just been published by Mr. W.
E. Crum.48 In these sermons mystic numbers and pic
torial language are prominent, and much Scripture is
quoted. The topics of the sermons are interesting, the
"Last Judgment" being particularly popular; but
"Charity" and the "Good Samaritan" and "Repent
ance" are also in evidence. Under the latter topic the
preacher gives good advice:
"Hearken unto repentance, she that cleanseth such as are old
in wickedness . . . O Repentance, pure bread which nour
ished! . . . fellow unto the angels of God . . . But the rich
man is like unto a great ship whose freight is heavy."
One sermon is on the death of the Virgin Mary,
and the rejoicing among the angels when she reached
heaven , still another is a very rhetorical Christmas
sermon which emphasizes the baptism of the Holy
Ghost (Acts 1:3), and the fact that all power was
given to the Son.
It is a curious fact that one of these sermons
a Anecdota Oxoniensia, Semitic Series, Part XII, 1913, No. 10.

FOURTH CENTURY CHURCH AT RUWfiHA, SYRIA
American Expedition (1899-1900)

CHURCH AND BAPTISTRY AT KASR IBLISU, SYRIA (a.d. 431)
From Butler. "Ancient Architecture in Syria"

THE CHURCH OF SS. SERGIUS AND BACCHUS AT UMM IS-SURAB,
SOUTH SYRIA (a.d. 489)

A ROW OF CHRISTIAN SHOPS IN THE BAZAAR AT BA'tJDEH.
NORTH SYRIA (4th to 6th. Century)
From Butler. "Ancient Architecture in Syria"

EARLY CHRISTIAN TAVERN OR CAF£ IN SERDJILLA, SYRIA
(a.d. 473)
From Butler, "Ancient Architecture in Syria"

CHRISTIAN HOUSE AT SERDJILLA, SYRIA
(Late 5th or Early 6th Century)
From Butler, "Ancient Architecture in Syria"

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 281
preached in the cathedral church of Alexandria by the
patriarch Damianus has much to say of a recent earth
quake (a.d. 589), the subject being "The Terror of
Death." We possess it only in fragments, but it speaks
of Jesus, "The greatness of thy divinity . . . whose
is all honor and all blessing . . . the true Shepherd
that laid down his life for the sheep." There is one
remarkable passage in which the mother of Jesus is
eulogized :
"Hail, Mary! Pure meadow wherein is the pearl which is
our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . Holy Virgin, adorned with all
knowledge . . . Thou didst nurse him that shepherdeth all
creation. He that giveth food unto all creation, thou gavest him
milk . . . God the Creator is swathed in bandages."
One of the best preserved sermons is by Gregory
Nazianzen, having for its text Romans 4: 15. The
preacher brings out clearly the truth that transgression
grows as knowledge is increased. Our transgression
is especially great since not only the prophets but the
Son of God have spoken unto us. True repentance
comes when one forsakes sin. His yoke is easy and
his burden is light. Do not delay repentance, for "thou
knowest not that thou shouldst live until thou be
old . . . hast thou established a covenant with death
in thy youth?" To go to a wizard or soothsayer or
to be a fornicator or liar is to give up Christianity.
"A Christian that shall lie in anything is not a Christian.
Faith without works is barren. Thou hast received baptism and
clothed thee with Christ; if therefore thou strip thyself with him
through thy evil deeds then hast thou made thyself barren ....
if thou do not the deeds of baptism thou hast destroyed baptism
... woe unto thee if the sign of Christ's death be not found
upon thee, which is his cross . . . beat thy breast saying, 'I have
sinned.' "

282 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Here follows a statement that the clergy, too, have
sinned, but that the laity have not been intrusted with
the souls of the clergy as the clergy with the souls of
the laity; therefore it is not their business to criticize
their minister. He closes with' an exhortation to benev
olence :
"He that giveth unto a poor man lendeth at usury unto God.
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these little ones, it is
unto me that ye have done it. . . . Verily, my beloved, unless
God forgive us there shall not a single one from this generation
be saved from the punishment of the Son of God."
Another sermon on "The Last Judgment," by a
preacher equally revivalistic, points out the inability
of the parent to aid his child in that day; and, in the
midst of a powerful call to repentance, the preacher
pictures the doom of the lost soul who in the midst of
his torment sees his friends in glory, and cries out as
he recognizes his father: "It were good if thou hadst
not begotten me !"
Other sermons preserved elsewhere which have re
cently been brought to light 49 illustrate God's vengeance
on sinners by stories of David, Elijah, and Pharaoh,
and contain homilies against the "mischief-maker" and
clerical "evil-doer." This ancient preacher warns
against the man who elicits confidences only to repeat
them to an enemy, thus making trouble, declaring that
every man that is double-tongued is "estranged from
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost until he re
pent." In a sermon on "Humility" there is a warning
against those who boast of "prayers and fastings and
great asceticisms; for every one that exalteth himself
"Coptic Ostraca.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 283
shall be humbled; but he that humbleth himself shall
be exalted. . . . Moreover it is written that Jesus
spared not to visit the teachers that were in the temple
and to learn, for the end of all this is humility."
Another sermon on the present troubles of the world
points out that these troubles "do but lightly requite
all our misdeeds." One sermon particularly notable,
coming as it does from such an early era, urges that
Christians should not judge each other in non-essen
tials; for some Christians are called to celibacy but
others to "till the earth and sell what is brought in
by labor ... let each be content with such good
works as he is able to perform ... in which there
is not evil."
One of the most beautiful sermons is on "Forgive
ness of Injuries":
"For it is no sin to continue being insulted ; but it is wholly
sinful if thou requite an insult with insult. For is it a sin to bear
insult in silence? Does not Christ say, Whosoever smiteth thee
on thy right cheek turn to him the other also ?"
Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge, of the British Museum,
who had previously published very many of these
ancient sermons, in 1910 published several more of
most unusual interest.50 These sermons, which were
long and well-developed discourses concerning fasting,
repentance, the end of the world, the incarnation, the
purity of Susanna, continence, etc., were found in
Egypt by some peasants in a stone box under the
ruins of an ancient Coptic monastery where they had
been hidden years ago. Over half of this volume of
ancient sermons has been lost, but 175 leaves remain.
The book itself dates from the seventh century, the
50 Coptic Homilies in the Dialect of Upper Egypt.

284 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
sermons being those of preachers most of whom lived
in the fourth and fifth centuries. The book showed
evidence of having been read for many years, and no
doubt constituted a standard guide to Christian doc
trine, being read to the monks evening by evening.
If we except one homily which antagonized the
"contemptible dogma" of Nestorius, we have here a
body of very ancient pulpit orations that will compare
favorably in many respects with any volumes published
lately in America. We have heard so much of the
ignorance of the ancient Egyptian clergy that it is a
surprize to find in these ten sermons over 300 Scripture
quotations and allusions from almost all the books of
the Old and New Testaments. They also contain many
brilliant rhetorical figures. They will appear to many
to be extravagantly orthodox, but they are at any rate
"Scriptural" and evangelistic in a marked degree.
Some of the expressions sound very much as if these
were meant for "revival" sermons: "We must weep
and wipe away our defilement by tears" ; "Because thou
canst not be a vessel of gold or silver, do not become
a log of wood which is only fit for fuel"; "If the
Psalms are in our mouths, they will be guarded against
the entrance of the Evil One"; "Abstinence from sin
is the only true abstinence," etc.
Among the most interesting of all these homilies
is one by St. Athanasius (fourth century) who takes as
his text the Parable of the Laborers (Matt. 20: 1-16),
strangely interpreting it to mean that the laborers whom
the Master hired at daybreak were Moses, Aaron, and
Joshua; those hired at the third hour, the Judges,
those hired at the sixth and ninth hours were Samuel,
David and the other prophets ; while those hired at the

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 285
eleventh hour were the apostles whom the Master found
idle the whole day. Why were they idle? Because
"the devil found that he could not hire them, for they
would not do evil." The sermon closes with the very
flowery peroration:
"And now, O man, come and embark in the ship of salvation,
which is the faith of the Church. It hath two steering oars
wherewith it is guided, and these are the Testaments ; whereon if
thou shalt meditate they will bring thee unto a good place for
tying up thy boat. It hath a mast which is the cross of the Lord ;
a rudder, which is thy hands stretched out in prayer to God. It
hath a sail which beareth it onwards, that is the power of God,
which directeth thee into every good course. It hath a guiding
pole, which is the bishop in the church. It hath a helmsman to
steer it, who is Jesus, who directeth the course of the universe,"
etc. Bishop Proclus in the fifth century (a.d. 434) in his
inauguration sermon when he was installed as arch
bishop, and also in a later discourse when it is said
Nestorius was present, preaches on the "Deity of Jesus
Christ," rejoicing in the mystery of this doctrine:
"Which is the greater miracle? The heavens raining down
bread, or God taking upon himself flesh? Which is the greater
miracle ? The sea which became divided that thou mightest pass
through it, or the virgin who ceased not to be a virgin, even after
a passage had been made through her? Which is the greater
miracle? The rod which made the rock to become a lake of
water, or the cross which cleansed the world ?"
After quoting the law and the prophets, as well as
the evangelists and apostles, to prove Christ's deity, he
appealed to the four elements at the time of the cruci
fixion in support of his doctrine:
"Heaven declareth that he was God; the sun saith, 'Jesus
Christ was my Lord' ; the earth saith, 'He whom they crucified
was the Creator in human flesh' ; the sea saith, 'He was not my

286 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
fellow servant' ; the temple saith, 'He who was crucified was God,
who was worshipped in me from the beginning' ; the grave saith,
'He who came into my domain was the Almighty.' And the
angels and archangels and all the hosts of heaven say, 'He who
was crucified was the King of Glory.' "
The old Egyptian word "Amente" is the one used
in these sermons instead of "grave," and in many
cases when the punishment in the future world is des
cribed, ancient Egyptian terms and ideas are used.
To the writer the most interesting sermon of all is
one by Apa Eusebius, bishop of Csesarea, upon the
Canaanitish Woman (Matt. 15:21^). This ancient
preacher begins by showing how the wickedest could
get to Jesus and he could transform them :
"If thou art a tax gatherer, thou hast the power to turn thyself
into an evangelist. And if thou art a thief, thou hast the power
to enter into the paradise. For there is no kind of sin whatsoever
which repentance will not do away."
He continues by pointing out that Jesus is a great
physician who loves to get difficult cases so that he can
prove his power, and continues :
"If thou hast committed sin, make haste, stand upon thy feet,
be sorry and let thy heart eat thee, and pour out thy tears. For
did not the sinful woman act in this wise ? And did she not pour
out her tears and lay hold on repentance ?
"Now Jesus came out of the border of Tyre and Sidon, and
behold a woman set out to go to him. The evangelist is stricken
with wonder and saith, 'A woman,' i.e., the strongest weapon of
the devil; the mother of sin ; the beginning of wickedness ; woman
who was cast forth from the paradise ! This is woman and such
is her nature.
"Oh what strange and wonderful works are these ! The Jews
fled from him, but the woman fled to him. Consider this woman,
who made herself to be a preacher and one who acknowledged
the government of God ; for she said, 'Lord,' which was the con
fession of his divinity, and 'Son of David,' which was the

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 287
acknowledgment of his manhood ; 'have mercy upon me.' Is not
this act better than every other act in this world ? . . . She did
not make an appeal to the apostles ... she said, 'I have no
need of men to make him come to where I am.' And why? 'Be
cause he came down, and took upon himself flesh, I will speak
with him in the flesh.' . . . She said : 'Have mercy upon me !
for this reason hast thou taken upon thyself flesh, and hast come
forth, and hast entered into the world for the sake of sinners
like unto myself . . .
"He answered her not a word. The sickness increased, but
the Physician kept silence. The blow was sharp and severe, and
the Word kept silence. The Physician held his hand. What is
this new and wonderful matter? Thou didst run after others
and did say, 'Come ye unto me. I will heal you.' Yet from her
who ran after thee thou didst run away." . . .
He then quotes the passage that has so influenced
modern commentators and their interpretation of this
incident: "I was not sent unto any except the sheep
which had gone astray of the house of Israel" ; but the
old preacher sees that this, when properly understood,
can not declare that Jesus was not sent to this woman:
"It was for this very thing that thou didst take upon thyself
flesh; that thou mightest do good to a certain woman who is
going to perish ... Or didst thou come into this world only
for the sake of the Jews ? . . . Wherefore then did David say,
'Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance,
and thy dominion unto the end of the earth.' Why then didst
thou, O Lover of every soul, say to thy disciples, 'Go ye, baptize
all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Ghost?'"
This ancient preacher points out that Jesus had not
refused to go to the Roman centurion nor even to
harlots ; why then should he speak as if those who were
not Jews were dogs? And he properly resolves the
difficulty by saying:
"All these words were intended to shame the Jews who called
themselves 'Children' . . . Make thou thyself like untp this

288 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Canaanitish woman. And when thou goest into the Church of
the Persians, and of the Cuthaeans, and of the Hindoos, and of
the Moors, thou shalt hear Christ saying out, 'O thou woman,
great is thy faith.' "
It is a most astonishing thing to find this early
Christian preacher taking this broad position that the
Canaanite woman was not a dog but a child, and that
Jesus was trying to teach the disciples this great truth.
This sermon alone ought to be enough to bring an
increased respect for the thinking qualities of the
primitive Christian ministers who preached these
sermons nearly 1600 years ago.
A preacher by the name of Alexander who was
archbishop in Alexandria a.d. 313-326 has some sen
tences in one of his sermons which, whatever may be
thought of its author's mechanical theology, can rival
in eloquence anything by the leading pulpit orators
of America: "And now, O soul, sing thou hymns of praise to thine own
imperishable God, because Christ died for us in order that we
might live with him forever. Tho he himself was the fabricator
of the universe, he endured patiently and allowed himself to be
begotten in the womb of a woman. And they wrapped in
swaddling bands him that had been arrayed in all the glory of the
Father. He who sat on the chariots of the cherubim was laid in
a manger. He before whom the seraphim stand in awe, ascribing
glory to his divinity, and who sent forth waters from heaven, re
ceived baptism in the Jordan by a mortal man. He upon whose
word hang the seven heavens was himself hung upon a cross of
wood. He gave his soul for the soul of man. He gave man for
man and his death for our death. He gave his blood on behalf of
all. It was the wicked people whom he loved that put him to
death. They pierced the side of him who had created them. They
hung upon a tree him that had hung out the earth. He who was
the Judge was judged. He through whom the whole universe
liveth, died. The grave was perturbed when the Lord went down
into it. He despoiled the grave and made himself master of it.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 289
He burst open the gates of brass. He broke through the bolts of
iron, and he took the souls which were in Amente and carried
them to his Father. Death fell down upon the feet of Christ,
and Christ carried him away. One died in order that all might
rise from the dead. For having died he put man on himself like a
garment, and took him with him into the heaven of heavens ; and
man became one of one with him. He took him as a gift to his
Father. The gift was not gold, neither was it silver, but it was
man whom he had created in his own likeness and in his own
image. Glory be unto him for all ages of ages. Amen."
From this same collection we give one more ex
ample of the manner in which these most ancient
preachers speak of Christ:
"He is the Light; therefore is he the Sun of our souls. He
is the Life ; therefore we live in him. He is Holiness ; therefore
is he the slayer of sin. He is Salvation ; therefore it is he who hath
purchased the whole world with his blood. He is the Resurrec
tion; therefore it is he who hath set free those who are in the
tomb, and hath made them new a second time by his blood. He
is the Way; therefore he is the guide to his Father. He is the
Door ; therefore he is the guide into paradise. He is the Shepherd ;
therefore he is the seeker after the sheep which is lost. He is
the Lamb ; therefore he is the cleanser of the world from its im
purity. This is my God ; I will ascribe glory unto him, for unto
him belong glory and power for all ages and ages. Amen."
In the above references we have not attempted to
mention all the newly discovered sermons, but prob
ably a sufficient number of quotations have been given
to indicate the wealth of new material and the char
acter of the preaching a.d. 250 to a.d. 600. How im
possible it would be in any such work as this to review
competently the entire field may be seen from the fact
that over forty complete sermons of Chrysostom
have been found written in Bohairic, and in the one
convent library of St. Michael, dug up in 1910 and
now preserved in the J. P. Morgan collection, there are

2qo THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
at least forty other sermons, which with Acts of mar
tyrs, Lives of saints, etc., were regularly read to the
monks at various times during the liturgical year.
This is only one of several collections recently discov
ered. The early Christians were surely great sermon-
tasters ! B1
7. Ancient Prayers and Amulets
The oldest written prayer of post-apostolic times
was recovered by Bryennios from the ancient mon
astery in Jerusalem in 1875, being found at the close
of Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians. Dr. Philip
Schaff, in a very thorough analysis of its contents, says :
"It is long and carefully composed and largely inter
woven with passages from the Old Testament. It
begins with an elaborate invocation of God in anti
thetical sentences, contains intercession for the afflicted,
the needy, the wanderers and prisoners, petitions for
the conversion of the heathen, a confession of sin and
prayer for pardon (but without a formula of absolu
tion), and closes with a prayer for unity and a doxology.
Very touching is the prayer for rulers, then so hostile
to the Christians, that God may grant them health,
peace, concord and stability."52 A few sentences from
this prayer are all that can be quoted here:
"Grant unto us, Lord, that we may set our hope on thy name,
which is the primal source of all creation ; and open the eyes of
81 On the Morgan collection see especially Hyvernat, Revue Biblique,
1897, and Journal des Savants, X., 174ff. Some newly published sermons
of interest probably equal to that of any mentioned above are those of
Shenoute published by Maspero and Chassnat in their Coptic Texts, Vol.
IV. (Cairo, 1911) ; but the writer has not seen this work nor any satis
factory account of its contents.
a Church History, II, 226; for the Greek text of the prayer consult
Patrum Apostolicorum Opera, edition by Von Gebhardt and Harnack, III.,
517; and for English translation Lightfoot's St. Clement of Rome, Ap
pendix pp. 376-379, or Schaff's History, II, 228-229.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 291
our hearts that we may know thee, who alone abidest, Highest in
the highest, Holy in the holy; who layest low the insolence of
the proud ; who scatterest the imaginings of nations ; who settest
the lowly on high and bringest the lofty low; who makest rich
and makest poor ; who killest and makest alive ; who alone art the
benefactor of spirits and the God of all flesh ... Let all the
Gentiles know that thou art God alone, and Jesus Christ is thy
Son, and we are thy people and the sheep of thy pasture.
"Save those among us who are in tribulation ; have mercy on
the lowly; lift up the fallen; show thyself unto the needy; heal
the ungodly; convert the wanderers of thy people; feed the
hungry; release our prisoners; raise up the weak; comfort the
faint-hearted." One sentence concerning the rulers may be added :
"Grant unto them therefore, O Lord, health, peace, concord,
stability, that they may administer the government which thou
hast given them without failure . . . that, administering in
peace and gentleness with godliness the power which thou hast
given them, they may obtain thy favor."
This prayer is known from a rather late copy, and
was certainly not from the pen of the Clement who was
bishop of Rome a.d. 92-101 ; but as it is found in the
oldest extant Christian sermon, which is confidently
dated by all experts in the middle of the second cen
tury, we possess in it an unrivaled treasure.
A Christian prayer (sixth or seventh century)
reads :
"Grant to us in the day of judgment to stand near thee, O
worthy One . . . and to hear the voice of the Father saying,
Thy sins are forgiven.53
About a century earlier than this a Christian woman
concluded her written prayer with a quotation of the
opening words of the Gospels of St. Luke, St. Matthew,
"Amherst Papyri, IX.

292 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
and St. John, and fortunately this prayer has been pre
served to us in the original handwriting.54
"Extend to me rescue . . . from the horns of one horned.
... To my brethren in the midst of the Church I will sing thy
praise. . . . Good One, protect thy servant . . . her redemp
tion from all weakness that has to do with her spirit through the
name of the Lord salvation.*^ Of the living God, inasmuch as
many have undertaken to set in order an account concerning the
things brought to pass among you, the book of the generation of
Jesus Christ. ... In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and God was the Word.^J* O holy Phokas,
O holy Merkourius, guard thy servant." >%*
Another Christian prayer, the autograph of which
is 1,500 or perhaps 1,600 years old, reads:
"O God Almighty, who madest heaven and earth and sea and
all that is therein, help me, have mercy upon me, wash away my
sins, save me in this world and in the world to come through our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, through whom is the glory and the
power for ever and ever. Amen." 55
A Greek papyrus in the Cairo Museum dating from
the fourth century which may be from a "Lost gospel,"
but which is in part written in the form of a prayer,
reads :
"Christ ... the true Word, the God of eternity ... The
blessed Lamb wherefore souls were set free through his blood
... the earth rejoiced because the enemy departed . . . Thou
didst give freedom to the creation-that asked for a Master, Jesus.
Thou . . . that forgivest sins ... we call upon thy holy
name." Another very early Christian prayer from the
Fayum is written on the back of an ancient Coptic
text: "I pray that the person named may not be led into falling but
to his salvation ; but if he cannot hear that which is said for his
"Grenfell and Hunt, Greek Papyri, No. 10696.
K Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Vol. Ill, No. 407.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 293
salvation, may it be for a judgment. Jesus himself taught that his
presence was for a judgment, that those who see not might see,
and that those who see might become blind. The very word of
the gospel taught that Jesus came not only for lifting up but also
for falling down. . . . See that these words be not spoken for
thy fall." 56
Gustave Lefebvre has published the Greek text of
several Christian prayers which are of deep interest,
altho the text is occasionally very obscure:
"The God of the spirits and of the flesh, the one that has
abolished death and the grave (Hades), the one that has freely
given life to the world, give repose to the soul of thy servant
Marianos ... in the bosom of Abraam and Isaac and Jacob." 57
"Lord, grant repose to the soul of thy servant Thecla, summon
her to the bosom of Abraam and Isaac and Jacob, and feed her
upon the tree of life and hearing (i.e., let her hear) : 'Come, ye
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom made ready for you
from the foundation of the world.' " Ha
Another private prayer of unusual value, dating
from the fourth century, has just been published by
Dr. C. Schmidt:
"Give light in (by) thy consolation, that we may be deemed
worthy of the glorious teaching of our Saviour Jesus Christ." 5S
"God the all-conqueror, the one that is, that was, that is to be,
Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the living God, remember the sleep
and the rest of thy servant Zoneese, the most devout and loving-
the-commandments, and deem her worthy to tabernacle through
thy holy and light-bearing archangel Michael, in the bosom of the
holy fathers, Abraam and Isaac and Jacob, because thine is the
glory and the power to the ages of the ages. Amen. She lived
blessedly seventy-seven years and her memory . . . " 5
M Bouriant, Memoirs de la. mission- arch, francqise au Caire, I., 1889,
p. 243. ¦
"Recueil des Insc. Chret. de I'Egypt, Cairo, 1907, No. 64.
"'Ibid., No. 107.
aNeutestamentliche Studien fttr G. Heinrici, 1914, p. TL
"Reference mislaid,

294 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
While few private prayers, outside of cemeteries,
have been preserved, we have many public prayers such
as this coming from a very ancient Greek library re
cently discovered:
"Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.
Holy is God, strong and undying; have mercy upon us, save us,
Son of God, our Saviour. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia !" 60
Many individual prayers from poor people have
been found written on pieces of broken pottery, and a
few official church prayers, among which is a very
ancient invocation used in the primitive Church in
preparation for the kiss of peace:
"Cleanse us from all deceit and all malice, and make us worthy
to salute one another with a holy kiss, that we may partake with
out condemnation of thine immortal and heavenly gift.61
It is very noticeable that the earliest Christian
prayers, many of which will be mentioned later from
epitaphs found in Christian cemeteries, quote Scrip
ture more freely and are decidedly more spiritual or,
at least, less mixed up with superstitious and magical
references than those of later eras. In the most an
cient official Christian literature, magic is mentioned
only to be attacked as an error of heathendom (Did
ache, II, 2; III, 4; V; 1) ; but among the lower classes
magical expressions probably entered into Christian
letters and prayers from the earliest period; and cer
tainly by the fourth century, notwithstanding the fact
that the great leaders of Christianity protested against
M Coptic and Greek texts in British Museum, H. R. Hall, 1905, p. 53.
See for another beautiful Christian prayer Of third or fourth century,
Greek Papyri in British Museum, No. 1189.
a Crum, Coptic Ostraca, No. 5.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 295
the adoption of superstitious means for the regaining
of health or the recovery of lost articles, the papyri
show that this was very common. This is not at all
surprizing. The fear of demons had for centuries ruled
the heathen world. A special charm had been arranged
against every possible disease and dangerous circum
stance. Curative charms, weather charms, love charms,
malevolent charms, meet us everywhere in the heathen
literature. Christians evidently used these so far as
they were not against their religion, tho attempting
to exclude everything that connected them with idol
atry; yet amethysts were preferred for rings even by
Christian nobles and bishops, and herbs were used as
charms rather than medicine, and scarabs and other
protective tokens were not infrequently placed in Chris
tian graves. The name of Jesus together with gospel
texts and certain liturgical formula were early used
as amulets, and by the sixth century the sign of the
cross and other symbols for Christ had quite widely
taken on a magical import. Several of the early fathers
speak of the Christian women wearing diamond editions
of the gospels round their necks after the manner of
Jewish tephillin, and the papyri show us the Lord's
prayer as one of the most common devices to ward off
evil. Wilcken and others have published a goodly num
ber of Christian amulets from the sixth century, in
which prayers to God and the local saints are made
against the demons of asthma, croup, hydrophobia, in
sanity, indigestion, witchcraft, and pain. These amu
lets often end with the Lord's prayer. A beautifully
written Christian relic of this character has recenth
been recovered (1911) from Oxyrhynchus. It is c
thin vellum, dating from the sixth century, and co

296 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
tains Matt. 4:23-24, written in five columns in the
form of a series of small crosses.62
It ought not to be expected that a man's ignorance
shall be wholly cured by Christianity. While the early
Christians had lost their faith in heathen demons, they
often expected some Bible text or a repetition of the
omnipotent "Name" (cf. Acts 4: 7, 12) to do for them
what magical charms had formerly been supposed to
do. The following amulet, published in 191 1, shows
the piety of an ignorant Christian of the fifth century:
"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God
and the Word was God. All things are made by him, and without
him was not anything made that hath been made. O Lord
Christ, Son and Word of that Living God, who healedst every
sickness and every infirmity, heal and regard thy handmaid
Johannen." 63
Another amulet of the sixth century, published in
this same volume, quotes Matt. 4 : 23-24, under the
suggestive title, "The Gospel of Healing according to
Matthew." Christian amulets of all eras ordinarily
consist chiefly of gospel verses strung loosely together.
A magical text of the fourth century, previously
quoted, more fully shows the common form of divina
tion at that era condemned by the Christian Church :
"If the abdomen quiver, it denotes something good with ad
verse talk; ... if both parts of the hips quiver, a person so
affected will stand in the grip of a twofold trouble." ...
With this may be compared the modern Jewish in
cantations by means of chanted "Names" in the syna-
gog,e3a and the following Christian gibberish from the
fifth or sixth century:
M Oxyrhynchus Papyri, VIII, No. 1077.
" Oxyrhynchus Papyri, VIII, 1151.
{<a' Journal of Biblical Archeology, 1916, p. 221.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 297
"Oror phor, Eloi, Adonai, Iao sabaoth, Michael, Jesus Christ
help us and this house." 64
It may be that a very curious papyrus of the third
or fourth century, which contains an explanation of
some of the most powerful and comforting Biblical
names, may have been used as an amulet of protection.
We give this, in part following Dr. Deissman's trans
lation:65 "Arima, Jesus ; Jo, Salvation ; Ariel, My light of God ; Azael,
strength of God ; Eli, Eli sabachthani, My God, my God, to what
purpose hast thou forsaken me ? Judas, Jao confession ; Jonathan,
Jao gift ; Joseph, Jao addition ; Jakin, Jao resurrection," etc., etc.
Jews, Christians, and heathen, alike, believed in
the power of magical names, and therefore Hebrew
archangels, together with Greek, Roman, and Egyptian
deities, appear "most confusedly mixed up in some of
these conjurations. In the great magical papyrus of
Paris, olive branches are placed before the man pos
sest of demons, and the exorcist standing behind
him pronounces over his head:
"I invoke the God of Abraham, I invoke the God of Isaac, I
invoke the God of Jacob, Jesus Christ the Holy, the Spirit Son
of the Father, above the seven, below the seven. We bring Iao
Sabaoth, whom thy power scoffs at (beyond others) until thou
hast exorcised this supreme demon Satan who is in him. I
exorcise thee, demon, whoever thou art, by this god, Sabarbathiot,
Sabarbathiouth, Sabarbathioueth, Sabaraphia." 66
In the Leyden papyrus the method of making a
dream (a.d. 300) is given:
"Take oil in the left hand and repeat formulae . . . then go
to bed with the head turned toward the east. Jesus — Anoubis." 67
" Oxyrhynchus Papyri, VIII, 1152.
" Light from the Ancient East, pp. 415, 416.
86 Wessely, Les Plus Anciens Monuments, No. 16.
"Ibid, No. 18.

298 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
An even more elaborate magical formula from the
third century gives the method by which supernatural
information may be obtained:
"Great is the lady Isis . . . take twenty-nine leaves of a
male palm and inscribe on each of the leaves the names of the
gods ; then after a prayer lift them up two by two and read that
which is left at the last and you will find wherein your omen con
sists." 6S
Another magical formula from the fifth century,
quoted previously, reads:
"Fly, hateful spirit! Christ pursues thee. The Son of God
and the Holy Spirit have outstripped the . . . in the beginning
was the Word (John i: 1-3 is quoted here). . . . O, Lord
Christ, Son and Word of the Living God, who healest every in
firmity, heal . . . thy handmaid . . . put to flight all fevers
and every kind of chill ... on thy name, O Lord God,
have I called, the wonderful and exceeding glorious name,
the terror of thy foes. Amen." 69
The most curious of all magical prayers has just
been brought to light, in which a miserable widow
conjures a mummy and its companions against her
oppressor, urging them to cry to God the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost, con-substantial Trinity ('Oixoowxioc;),
until he hear. The widow most fervently appeals to
the God of the widow and Father of the orphans, to
the God who created Adam and helped Job:
"I adjure thee who sittest upon the chariot, before whom
stand a thousand and ten thousand archangels and seraphim
with six wings, to do justice against Schenute, son of Pamin, that
thou mayest slay him as thou didst slay the 85,000 Assyrians in
one night; that thou mayest bring upon him heat and cold and
jaundice; and open the mouth of his enemies against him; and
when he flees from them, may he flee on the same road which bis
pursuing enemies take !"
"Ibid, No. 886.
" Oxyrhynchus Papyri, VIII, 1151.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 299
Then she invokes the mummy that it call night and
day clear across to another land, and with the other
mummies cry all together "that which stands upon
this paper until God hears and gives us justice in
haste, Amen." It closes with an Alpha and Omega,
each repeated seven times.70
Stars of five, six or eight points, or some other
symbol to bring good luck, were as common on the
door-lintels in Syria in the early Christian period as
now. Characteristic inscriptions found on Christian
dwellings in the sixth century are:
"Christ's is the victory. Flee, Satan !" (a.d. 524) .
"Of this house the Lord shall guard the entrance and the exit ;
for the cross being set before, no malignant eye shall prevail." "
In order, impartially, to give proper credit to the
ignorant Christians whom we have just been quoting, it
ought to be remembered, first, that the charms which
come from the middle ages in every part of Europe, and
even from some sections to-day, are at least as bad as
any of these; second, that the differences in favor even
of these most superstitious and ignorant Christians,
when their prayers are compared with those of the
heathen, are far more marked than the similarities.
A prayer which has been common in certain parts
of Europe for over three hundred years and is yet
in use reads :
"O, Holy Cross of Christ, ward off from me all sharp repeat
ing words. Ward off from me all dangerous weapons. Holy
Cross of Christ, protect me from all my enemies." n
nBeitrage sur Forschung, 1915, pp. 96, 97.
n Am. Journal of Archeology, XXI, 137-141.
™ Ancient Egypt in the Light of Modern Discoveries, Davis and Cobern,
p. 255.

300 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
The rubric connected with this prayer declares :
"They who shall repeat this prayer every day or hear it re
peated or keep it about them shall never die a sudden death nor be
drowned in water, . . . nor shall poison take any effect upon
them."73 The Jews of Jerusalem are to this day accustomed
to write out prayers and leave them at the so-called
Tombs of the Judges, as the Jews in Hebron leave
similar prayers at the Tomb of Abraham, hoping that
the ancient saints may help them in trouble. A typical
Jewish amulet reads :
"M. M., son of Joseph. May he grow up to a prosperous life
and to peace with male issue continually." 74
Certainly, as compared with the above, the ordinary
early Christian amulets take on a more dignified ap
pearance, as may be seen from a typical invocation
found in a magical papyrus owned by Dr. Charles
Wessely and dating from a.d. 300.
"I invoke thee, O God of all, whose name is above all power
and authority and dominion and every name ; who is seated above
the cherubim; I invoke thee by our Lord Jesus Christ, thy be
loved Son." ?5
8. Ancient Christian Hymns
The oldest Christian hymn known to scholars up
to the most recent discoveries dates from the early part
of the third century and comes from Clement of Alex
andria. It has long been known, and breathes the
most devotional spirit:
"O King of Saints, all subduing Word of the most High
Father, Prince of Wisdom, Support of sorrows that rejoicest in
"For additional instances of the same kind, see London Academy
1893, pp. 132-150.
" Am. Journal of Biblical Literature, 1903, pp. 164-186 ; 1904, p 97.
"Wessely, op. cit., No. 19.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 301
the ages, Jesus, Saviour of the human race, Shepherd, Husband
man, Helm, Bridle, Heavenly Wing of the all holy flock, Fisher of
men who are saved, catching the chaste fishes with sweet life from
the hateful wave of a sea of vices," etc.
Very recently, however, a number of fragments of
new hymns that are almost or quite as ancient as this
standard hymn of the Church have come to light.
One of the first of these to be discovered — found with
the Logia at Oxyrhynchus — proves to be over 1,500
years old, and resembles the hymn of Clement in a
marked way. We transcribe a few lines of this, follow
ing Grenfell and Hunt's translation:
"Hold fast the hope which thou hast learned,
Which the Master determined for thee.
"O the rest of the sorrowful !
O the leaping of the flame !
O the fire, fearful for the wicked !
"Glorious are the ordinances of God,
In all things he suffers as an example
That thou mayest have glorious life.
"The Father sent him to suffer,
Who has received eternal life,
Who has received power over immortality,
In order that thou mayest see the light of
eternity," etc.76
Another hymn which seems to have been a favorite
of the Gnostics was first published in 1871 by Prof.
William Wright, but has recently been re-edited.n It
dates probably from the first half of the third century.
Its pictorial and symbolic language is especially to
be noted.
" Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Vol. f .
" By Mr. A. A. Bevan in Texts and Studies, Vol. V, Art 3.

302 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
EXTRACTS FROM THE SYRIAC HYMN OF THE SOUL
"I went down into Egypt
And my companions parted from me ;
I betook me straight to the serpent ;
Hard by his dwelling I abode
(Waiting) till he should slumber and sleep
And I could take my pearl from him.
"I forgot that I was a son of kings
And I served their king ;
And I forgot the pearl
For which my parents had sent me ;
And by reason of the burden of their . . .
I lay in a deep sleep."
Then his father, the "King of Kings," sent him a
letter by an eagle, the king of all birds :
"Call to mind that thou art a son of kings !
See the slavery — whom thou servest !
Remember the pearl
For which thou didst speed to Egypt !
Think of thy bright robe
And remember thy glorious toga
Which thou shalt put on as thy adornment
When thy name hast been read out in the
lists of the valiant !
"I remembered that I was a son of kings
And my free soul longed for its natural state.
I remembered the pearl
For which I had been sent to Egypt
And I began to charm him,
The terrible, loud-breathing serpent.
"And I snatched away the pearl
And turned to go back to my father's house,
And their filthy and unclean garb
I stripped off and left it in their country.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 303
"And my toga of brilliant colors
I cast around me in its whole breadth ;
I clothed myself therewith and ascended
To the gate of salutation and homage ;
I bowed my head and did homage
To the majesty of my Father who had sent
it to me.
For I had done his commandments
And he, too, had done what he promised.
"For he rejoiced in me and received me
And I was with him in his kingdom."
Another Christian hymn written in the form of
an elaborate metrical acrostic comes to us from the
fourth century : 78
"Some come in sheep's clothing who are inwardly wolves,
Seek to live with the saints,
Seek to receive life, seek to escape the fire.
Hold fast the hope which thou hast learned,
Which the Master determined for thee.
God came bringing many blessings,
He wrought a triple victory over death,
Jesus who suffered for this, saying :
I give my back that thou fall not a prey to death . . .
He washed in Jordan, he washed as an example,
His is the stream that cleanseth.
God said, Feed the stranger, the stranger and the helpless,
That thou mayest escape the fire.
Oh, the fire ! fearful for the wicked ! . . .
Christ is the crown of the saints, Christ is the fire for the
wicked . . .
Freely hast thou come under grace, listen to the prayer of the
poor.
Speak no more arrogantly. . . .
Singing psalms with the saints . . . knowing these Scriptures,
Thou shalt never fear death."
78 Amherst Papyri, Part I, No. II.

. » 79

304 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Another (sixth to eighth century) which seems to
us a little more musical, reads somewhat as follows :
"Cherubim and Seraphim, the many-eyed, sing the thrice holy
hymn:
Holy, holy, holy art thou !
Thou who art seated upon the right hand of the Father,
(Image) of the Godhead, take not thy mercy from me."
Another Christian hymn, one or two centuries older
than that just quoted, but representing doubtless an an
cient form, is an acrostic, having a kind of refrain
after every fourth line. It reads in part:
"Let us glorify him singing, Glory to thee, O Lord !
Let us worship him and say, Glory to thee, O Lord.
"The Lord is risen for us, the Word of truth,
Incarnate of the unwedded virgin,
Let us extol him and say, Glory to thee, O Lord !" 80
A great many short hymns used in the Eastern
Church have come down to us from the fifth, sixth, and
seventh centuries. In very many of these the Virgin
is mentioned with great honor. Nothing seemed to
astonish the early Church as much as the fact that
God should deign to come to earth in human form,
and the mystery of this incarnation induced a rever
ence for the "Mother of God" — as the Virgin was
commonly called by the sixth century — which was
often extravagant in its expression. Yet nothing is
clearer from these earliest hymns than that the
honor given to Mary was due to the high theological
concept concerning the Son. We give a number of short
hymns from this early period, showing the thought of
nIbid., Part I, No. IX.
80 Catalogue of Greek Papyri in the John Rylands Library, Vol. I, 7.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 305
that early Church concerning Christ and his salvation.81
The opening hymns given here were sung before read
ing the gospel at the kiss of peace:
"Sing a song of joy, ye people, that Christ is born,
Made flesh from a virgin to save us
And to glorify thy name, O Lord.
"Blessed art thou upon the throne of thy kingdom,
And much to be extolled and exalted for ever more."
At another feast, perhaps the purification, these
hymns were used:
"Hail Mary, favored one !
The Lord is with thee, and the Holy Spirit.
"Thy priests shall clothe themselves with righteousness,
And thy holy ones shall rejoice with much rejoicing,
Because of David, thy servant, O Lord.
"Hail Mary, glorious Virgin, gifted with grace !
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Because thou hast received Christ, the Son of God,
The nourisher of our souls."
Some of the most impressive among these early pro
ductions are the post-communion anthems:
"Heavenly bread he gave to them,
And a human being ate the bread of angels !
"Blessed bread have we received,
The body of our Lord and his precious blood.
" The Greek texts of these hymns can be found in the early pages of
Crum's Coptic Ostraca.

306 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
"Having received holy bread, let us bless God,
The One doing marvelous things throughout the
whole earth.

"We give thanks to thee, Christ our God,
Because thou hast deemed us worthy to partake of
thy body and blood."
One specially impressive chant preserved in several
Greek texts reads:
"O thou who once spoke to Moses in Mt. Sinai,
Now from a spotless Virgin hast received a form of flesh free
from all sin.
"O thou who didst, nourish Israel,
Now thou hast been fed on milk from a mother who knew not
marriage,
O marvelous One !
"Oh thou who once smote kings,
Now in Egypt has thou escaped a king.
"Thou that sittest upon a lofty, exalted throne,
Thou wast laid lowly in a manger tho still living sublimely re
vealed on high.
Now in faith let us count happy the one who bore thee,
And let us exalt with hymns the One born.
"God who was on high without mother
Was below and was without mother. Glory to thee !
"O God, who humbled thyself to be born as an 'infant from a
Virgin,
The holy mighty One who was willing to be placed in the arms
of Mary,
Thou holy immortal One who came tq lead Adam back from the
grave,
Christ our God have mercy upon us !

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 307
'Stainless Virgin, gifted with grace, mother of God,
Thy holy womb hast born Emmanuel,
Thy breasts gave suck to the nurturer of all.
Therefore art thou highly praised and in great honor.
Hail, mother of God, precious treasure of angels,
Thou favored one, proclaimed in the message of the prophets,
The Lord is with thee." 82
Several copies of the Psalter used in the ancient
Coptic Church have recently come to light. One of the
most important of these was found by some Egyptian
peasants in Upper Egypt hidden in a stone box or
coffer. Two books were inside the box, wrapt in
coarse linen cloth. They were written upon papyrus
but bound in stout leather covers. They were beauti
fully preserved and consisted of a volume containing
ten complete homilies by the Fathers of the Monophy-
site church and a complete copy of the Psalter, in the
dialect of Upper Egypt.
This Psalter, consisting of 156 leaves, was edited by
Dr. Budge, of the British Museum, who pointed out its
unique importance since it was the "only complete copy
of the Psalter in the dialect of Upper Egypt, which
has come down to us." It dates from the sixth or
seventh century, tho rebound in the eleventh or
twelfth century.821 Another discovery as spectacular as
the above occurred in 1908 when Charles L. Freer suc
ceeded in obtaining in Egypt a volume of 700 pages —
a volume so small that the pages only measured 2^4
inches wide by sH inches high — containing a Psalter
made of goat skin and dating a.d. 400-700.82b
82 See also Greek and Latin hymns, Encyclopedia of Religion and
Ethics, Vol. VII, 1914.
828 E. A. Wallis Budge, The Earliest Known Coptic Psalter, 1898.
a"' The Coptic Psalter in the Freer Collection, ed. by William H.
Worrell, 1916.

308 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
It may be added that the "Canticles of the Christian
Church East and West," as found in all available manu
scripts, have recently been published by Dr. James
Mearns (1914). Any one who, like the writer, has
ever been at the dawn service at Mt. Sinai can quite
understand how St. Augustine felt when a.d. 358 he for
the first time heard the Scriptures sung or chanted by
a choir of monks. In these earliest manuscripts just
found we can read the very phrases over which St.
Augustine wept when he first heard them. They in
clude the Lord's Prayer, Magnificat, Gloria in Excelsis,
Nunc Dimittis, etc. This Dawn Service proves, ac
cording to Dr. Mearns, that the "Odes of Solomon,"
next to be mentioned, were known to their composer.
Many hymns have been preserved, and recently
discovered, written in Syriac. Here is one written by
Bishop Severus about a.d. 500:
On the Holy Ascension
"Thou God who bowedst the heavens,
The Word who is before the ages,
The Word of God who shone on us
Through the only Son of God, the Word
The hosts of heaven shook with amazement." 83
By far the greatest discovery, however, so far as
Christian hyninology is concerned, was made when Dr.
J. Rendel Harris recovered a large Syriac manu
script of 64 leaves and published it to the world in 1909
under the title, Odes and Psalms of Solomon?* Really
the "Psalms" have very little in common with the
"Odes," and they should not be classed together. The
88 For many more of these see, Patrologia Orientalis, 1911, pp. 1-179,
595-802. " In 1911 Prof. F. C. Burkitt found in the British Museum another
MS. (10th century) containing a large part of these newly discovered
Odes.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 309
"Psalms" were a collection made by the Pharisees some
half-century before the birth of Christ, and had been
known (tho in a different version) for many decades.
The "Odes," however, now come to light for the first
time, and because of their peculiarly mystic thought
and phraseology, greatly resembling that of the gospel
of St. John, they occupy a uniquely important position
for Christian scholars. Professor Harnack in a splen
did hundred-word sentence declares the find to be su
perior to anything ever discovered since the Teaching
of the Apostles, being "epoch-making for the higher
critic of John's gospel," since these odes contain "all-
important pieces of the Johannine theology together
with their religious tone color."848.
Dr. Harnack is certain that we possess here a
"Psalm-Book" of the time of Jesus, which was taken
over and edited by the Christian community of Pales
tine about the year 100 (ibid., 3:5). Dr. Harris and
many other specialists regard the "Odes" as the work
of a Jewish Christian of the first century, tho some
think them to be wholly Jewish, adopted with certain
Christian interpolations to form the earliest Christian
hymnal. Very many, following Harnack, Kennedy,
and Cheyne, think the interpolations numerous, but
some — notably Kittel and Abbott— offer strong verbal
and stylistic arguments to prove the unity of the book
and the interpolations negligible. Bishop Bernard85
believes them to be hymns of "the newly baptized,"
which give us the actual form of initiation with
which converts were received in the second century,
"* Texte und Untersuchungen sur altchristlich. Literatur, von A.
Harnack u. C. Schmidt, Vol. XXXV (1910), Heft 4.
88 See Texts and Studies, Vol. VIII, 1912, No. 3.

310 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
into the Christian communion; and he sustains this
view with forceful arguments. Dr. E. A. Abbott pre
fers to think of them as "Songs of Ascents or De
grees," in which the thought ascends from the Son
of David, husband of Pharaoh's daughter, to that sec
ond and perfect Son of David who was hailed from
heaven as the Beloved and who was the Spouse of the
Church.86 In any case, the exceptional value of these
hymns — which without any question represent Chris
tian doctrine and feeling within a few years of the
death of the "beloved disciple" — throws an unexpected
light upon the Johannine spirit and mystic phraseology
of the early Church at a time previous to the develop
ment of Gnosticism.87
The interest awakened by this unique treasure of
early Christian song may be seen from the fact that at
least 1 66 books or important articles concerning this
discovery appeared between the years 1909-1914.88
There is a marked literary excellence as well as beauty
of thought shown in these hymns. As Bishop Bernard
says, it would not be easy to find Christian poems of
any age "which strike a higher spiritual note." The
author was evidently a devout Christian — who may
have been a Jew but who certainly did not keep the
Jewish Sabbath (Ode XVI) — having an attitude of
mind possible only to one who has entered into close
fellowship with God.89
The Odes are "marked by a vigor and exaltation
88 Light on the Gospel from an Ancient Poet, in Diatessarica, Part IX.
87 See especially the works cited by Harnack and Abbott and the articles
by R. H. Strachan, Expository Times, 1910-11, pp. 7-14, and by Dr.
Schweitzer, Journal of Theol. Studies, XIII, 372-386.
88 See full list in Gerhard Kittel's Die Oden Salomos, Leipzig, 1914,
pp. 142-158.
89 Kittel, op. cit., p. 36.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 311
of spiritual life and a mystical insight to which we
can find parallels only in the most illuminated periods
of the history of the Church" (Harris). They have
few, if any, quotations or adaptations from Scripture;
but this only suggests their extreme antiquity and that
their "inspiration is first-hand and immediate" (Abbott).
No one doubts that we have here a collection of
"hymns and spiritual songs" coming from the apostolic
age and breathing the deepest thoughts of the New
Testament. This, indeed, as one scholar suggests, may
possibly be one of the very collections referred to by
St. Paul (Eph. 5: 19; Col. 3: 16), having come into
existence before the gospels were universally known.
While, as we have said, there is no direct mention of
any incident in Christ's life, nor any direct quotation
from the . New Testament, there are oblique references
to the dove of the baptism (Ode XXIV), to his yoke
(Ode XLII), to the "rock" on which he built the
Church (Ode XXIII) ; and frequent allusions to Christ
as the Head, which has a Pauline ring ( Eph. 1 1 : 22 ;
5:22; Col. 1: 18) and to the living crown which re
minds us of other New Testament writers (1 Peter
5:4; James 1 : 12) ; while there is the most pronounced
connection in thought and style between these Odes
and the writings of St. John. The author's keywords
are love, joy, faith, knowledge, truth, rest, grace, glory;
and he urges in Johannine fashion the spiritual neces
sity of fruit. It is to be noted that the Lord Christ,
as Abbott pointed out, is not mentioned as the con
queror, but as the "Redeemer" of the Gentiles. This
author finds 132 references to John's gospel suggested
by the Odes.
The thought of these hymns is not put in the fa-

312 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
miliar orthodox form — these Odes were written before
orthodoxy had crystallized — but our author clearly
states that "Christ is the Word; that he is before the
foundations of the world; that he bestows living water
abundantly; that he is the door of everything; that he
stands to his people in the relation of Lover to the
beloved ; that they love him because he first loved them"
(Harris). We find in this earliest Christian hymn-
book, which was in use before the reputed death of
St. John, a direct teaching of the doctrine of the Trin
ity, virgin birth, and descent into Hades, while its
Christology gives tone to almost every thought of every
Ode: Christ's pre-existence, his preeminence in the
Church; spiritual union between himself and believers,
his deity as "Son of the Most High who appeared in
the perfection of the Father . . . the Word ... the
Messiah who was truly One and was known before
the foundations of the world." 90
We will now give from this very long document,
containing over 1,000 verses, a sufficient series of ex
tracts to show the general style and teaching of the
various hymns. We will follow Dr. Harris' transla
tion — altho with the omission of many lines and para
graphs — except as this is slightly modified occasionally
by the rendering of Johannes Fleming, Abbott, and
(most frequently) Bernard:
ODE I (given in full)
"The Lord is on my head like a crown and I shall not be with
out him. A crown of truth has been woven for me, and it has
caused thy branches to grow in me. For it is not like a withered
crown which blossometh not, but liveth upon my head, and thou
00 For this rather elaborate analysis of this remarkable work the writer
is wholly indebted to the brilliant and thorough investigations of J. Rendel
Harris and E. A. Abbott, referred to above.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 313
hast blossomed upon my head. Thy fruits are full grown and
perfect, full of thy salvation."
ODE II
"And on them do I hang, and he loves me, for I should not
have known how to love the Lord if he had not loved me (cf. 1 John
4: 19). For who is able to distinguish ["discern and interpret,"
Abbott] love except the one that is loved? I love the Beloved
and my soul loves him ; and where his rest is, there also am I, and
I shall be no stranger, for with the Lord Most High and Merciful
there is no grudging. I have been united in wedlock to him, for
the lover has found the beloved ; and because I shall love him that
is the Son, I shall become a son . . . Hallelujah !" 90a
ODE IV
"Thou hast given thy heart, O Lord, to thy believers. Never
wilt thou fail nor be without fruits ; for one hour of thy faith is
more precious than all the days and years. For who is there that
shall put on thy grace and be hurt ? . . . distill thy dews upon
us, and open thy rich fountains that pour forth to us milk and
honey . . . Hallelujah!"91
ODE VI
"As the hand moves over the harp and the strings speak, so
speaks in my members the Spirit of the Lord, and I speak by his
love. . . . For there went forth a stream and became a river great
and broad. . . . Blessed then are the ministers of that draught who
are entrusted with his water . . . for every one knew them in
the Lord and they lived by the water of life forever. They have
refreshed the dry lips, and the will that was paralyzed they have
raised up, and the souls that were near departing they drew (back)
from death."
ODE VII
"... He became like me in order that I might receive him ;
he was reckoned like myself that I might put him on (as a robe),
and I trembled not when I saw him because he is my salvation ;
""Harris: "Because I shall love him that is the Son that I may be a
son; for he that is joined to him that is immortal will also himself become
immortal." " Abbott: "Sprinkle on us Thy sprinklings (of dew) and open Thy
rich fountains that pour forth to us milk and honey (of Thy promise)."

314 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
like my nature he became, that I might learn him and like my
form, that I might not turn back from him ; the Father of knowl
edge is the word of knowledge . . . the Most High shall be
known in his saints to proclaim the good news to those who have
in their hearts songs of the Lord's coming . . . and they shall bring
their songs, and their heart shall be like the day ; and like the ex
cellent beauty of the Lord their pleasant song ; and there shall be
nothing that breathes . . . that is dumb . . . Hallelujah!"
ODE VIII
"... Keep [or "guard"] my secret, ye who are kept [or
"guarded"] by it; keep my faith, ye who are kept by it; and under
stand [or "know"] my knowledge, ye who know me in truth.
Love me with affection [or "fervent love"], ye who love; for I do
not turn away my face from those who are mine; for I know
them, and before they came into being I took knowledge of them,
and on their faces I set my seal ; I fashioned their members ; my
own breasts I prepared for them that they might drink my holy
milk and live thereby. . . . Ask and abound and abide in the
love of the Lord, and, ye beloved ones, in the Dearly Beloved ; and
ye shall be found incorrupt in all ages ["aeons"] to the name of
your Father . . . Hallelujah."
ODE IX
"Open your ears and I will speak to you. Give me your souls
that I may also give you my soul, the word of the Lord and his
good pleasures, the holy thought which he has devised concerning
his Messiah. ... Be strong and be redeemed by his grace. An
everlasting crown forever in truth . . . blessed are they who set
it on their heads. Put on the crown in the covenant of the Lord
And all those who have conquered shall be written in his book,
. . . Hallelujah!"
ODEX
"The Lord hath directed my mouth by his word. And he
hath opened my heart by his light ; and he hath caused to dwell in
me his deathless light ; and gave me that I might speak the fruit
of his peace ; to convert the souls of them that are willing to come
to him ; and to lead captive a good captivity for freedom. . . .
And the Gentiles were gathered together who were scattered

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 315
abroad. And I was not polluted by my fervent love for them.
. . . And they walked in my life and were saved and became my
people for ever and ever. Hallelujah !"
ODE XI
"My heart was circumcised [or "cloven"] and its flower
["stem"] appeared; and grace sprang up ["budded"] in it; and it
brought forth fruit in the Lord ; for the Most High circumcised me
[or "clove my heart"] by his Holy Spirit and revealed my reins
toward him ; and filled me with his love. And his circumcision of
me became my salvation ; and I ran in his way, in his peace, even
in the way of truth . . . and I was established upon the rock of
truth . . . and speaking waters touched my lips from the foun
tain of the Lord poured forth without grudging, and I drank and
was inebriated with the living water that doth not die. . . .
Hallelujah !" ODE XII
"... The mouth of the Lord is the true word and the door
of his light ; and the Most High hath given it to his worlds . . .
for the swiftness of the word can not be expressed, and according
to its swiftness so is its sharpness . . . by it the worlds talk one
to the other ; and in the word there were those that were silent ;
and from it came love and concord . . . and they were penetrated
by the word . . . for the dwelling-place of the word is man and
its truth is love. Blessed are they who by means thereof have
understood everything and have known the Lord in his truth.
Hallelujah!" ODE XIII (in full)
"Behold ! the Lord is our mirror ; open the eyes and see them
in him ; and learn the manner of your face ; and tell forth praises to
his Spirit; and wipe off the filth from your face; and love his
holiness, and clothe yourselves therewith; and be without stain
at all times before him. Hallelujah !"
ODE XV
"... Death hath been destroyed before my face; and
Sheol hath been abolished by my word ; and there hath gone up
deathless life in the Lord's land, and it hath been made known to
all his faithful ones, and hath been given without stint to all those
who trust in him. . . . Hallelujah !"

316 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
ODE XVII
"I was crowned by my God ; my crown is living ; and I was
justified in my Lord; my incorruptible salvation is he. ... I
received the face and the fashion of a new person ; I have entered
therein and have been saved ; and the thought of truth led me on
. . . and I sowed my fruits in hearts and transformed them
into myself ; and they received my blessing and lived ; and they
were gathered to me and were saved ; because they were to me
as my own members, and I was their head. Glory to thee, our
Head, the Lord Messiah. Halleluj ah !"
ODE XIX
"A cup of milk was offered to me ; and I drank it in the sweet
ness of the delight of the Lord. The Son is the cup and he who
was milked is the Father; and the Holy Spirit milked him; be
cause his breasts were full, and it did not seem good to him that
his milk should be spilt for naught; and the Holy Spirit opened
his bosom and mingled the milk from the two breasts of the
Father; and gave the mixture to the world without its knowing
it. And they who receive it are in the perfection of the right hand.
The womb of the Virgin caught it and received conception and
brought forth, and the Virgin became a mother with many mercies ;
and she travailed and brought forth a son without incurring pain ;
she brought him forth openly, and acquired him with great dignity,
and loved him in his swaddling clothes, and guarded him kindly,
and showed him in majesty" (cf. I Tim. 3: i6).91a
ODE XXII
"He who brought me down from on high also brought me
from the regions below ; and who gathers together the things that
are betwixt is he also who cast me down ... he that overthrew
by my hands the dragon with seven heads . . . Thou didst bring
thy world to corruption ; that everything might be dissolved and
then renewed, and that the foundation for everything might be
thy Rock and on it thou didst build thy kingdom ; and it became
(or 'thou wast') the dwelling place of the saints. Hallelujah !"
M* Johannes Flemming translates : "And it did not seem proper that this
milk should be carelessly spilled . . . and those who receive it in its
fullness are on the right hand ... He embraced the body of the Virgin,
and she conceived and became a mother with much grace."

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 317
ODE XXIII
"Joy is of the saints ! . . . Grace is of the elect ! . . . Love
is of the elect! and who shall put it on except those who have
possest it from the beginning . . . and his thought was like a
letter . . . and many hands rushed to the letter to seize it and
to take and read it; and it escaped their fingers, and they were
affrighted at it and at the seal that was upon it. Because it was
not permitted of them to loose its seal ; for the power that was
over the seal was greater than they . . . and the1 letter was a
great tablet (cf. Matt. 28: 19), which was wholly written by the
finger of God ; and the name of the Father was on it and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, to rule for ever and ever. Hallelujah !"
ODE XXIV
"The Dove fluttered over the Christ (Messiah) because he
was her head and she sang over him and her voice was heard . . .
the birds dropt their wings and all creeping things died in their
holes ; and the abysses opened themselves and were hidden 92 . . .
and they sealed up the abysses with the seal of the Lord."
ODE XXVII (in full)
"I stretched out my hands and sanctified my Lord; for the
extension of my hands is his sign ; and my expansion is the up
right tree (or cross)." ODE XXVIII
"As the wings of doves over their nestlings, and the mouth of
their nestlings toward their mouths, so also are the wings of the
Spirit over my heart. ... I believed ; therefore I was at rest ;
for faithful is he in whom I have believed ; he has richly blest me
and my head is with him ; and the sword shall not divide me from
him nor the scimitar . . . immortal life has come forth and has
kissed me,93 and from that life is the spirit within me and it can
not die for it lives . . . vainly did they cast lots [or "make at
tack"] upon me ... in vain did those who were behind me seek
to bring to naught the memory [or "memorial"] of him who
was before them ; for nothing is prior to the thought of the Most
High ; and his heart is superior to all wisdom. Hallelujah !"
"Harris, "the abysses were opened which had been hidden."
"Harris, "Immortal life will come forth and give me to drink."

318 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
ODE XXX
"Fill ye waters for yourselves from the living fountain of the
Lord, for it is open to you ; and come, all ye thirsty, and take the
d aught ; and rest by the fountain of the Lord ..."
ODE XXXI
"And they denounced me as a criminal when I showed myself,
me who had never been a criminal ; 9i and they divided my spoil
tho nothing was due to them. But I endured and held my peace
and was silent . . . and I bore their bitterness for humility's
sake ; in order that I might redeem my people and inherit it, and
that I might not make void my promises to the fathers to whom I
promised the salvation of their seed. Hallelujah!" (cf. Luke
1:69-73.) ODE XXXII (in full)
"To the blest there is joy from their hearts, and light from
him that dwells in them ; and words from the Truth who was Self-
originate ; for he is strengthened by the holy power of the Most
High ; and he is unshakable for ever and ever. Hallelujah !"
ODE XLI
"... His word is with us in all our way; the Saviour who
makes alive and does not reject our souls, the Man who was
humbled and exalted by his own righteousness, the Son of the
Most High appeared in the perfection of his Father; and light
dawned from the Word that was before time in him ; the Christ
is truly one; and he was known before the foundation of the
world, that he might save souls forever by the truth of his name.
A new song (arises) from those who love him. Hallelujah!"
ODE XLII
"I stretched out my hands and approached my Lord ; for the
stretching of my hands (i.e., the cross) is his sign; my expansion
is the outspread tree which was set up on the way of the Righteous
One . . . and I lifted up over them the yoke of my love; like
the arm of the bridegroom over the bride, so was my yoke over
those that know me . . . and I was not rejected, tho I was
M Harris, "And they made me a debtor when I rose up, me who had not
been a debtor."

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 319
reckoned to be so. I did not perish, tho they devised it against
me. Sheol saw me and was made miserable, death gave me up
and many along with me. I was gall and bitterness to him, and
I went down with him to the uttermost of his depths . . . and
I made a congregation of living men amongst his dead men and I
spake with them by living lips ... let us also be redeemed with
thee ; for thou art our Redeemer. And I heard their voice ; and
my name I sealed upon their heads; for they are free men and
they are mine. Hallelujah!"
We have made these many quotations from these
oldest Christian hymns because of their phenomenal im
portance in showing the Christian doctrine of that
earliest Christian Church and the confidence with which
they rested upon the acts recorded in the four gospels.
The doctrine of the Trinity was distinctly taught (Ode
XIX). The Messiah was the divine Son of God "by
whom the worlds were made" (XVI: 20); "who ap
peared in the perfection of his Father" (XLI) ; born
of a Virgin (XIX) ; that he might redeem his people
(XXXI) ; who descended into the grave but rose again,
and with whom his people can rise (XLII) ; and have
complete victory over death (XLII). The last ode
is evidently the climax of the whole collection. There
is nothing in it for which the way has not been ar
tistically prepared (tho perhaps rather by a spiritual
than by a conscious art) in various preceding stages.
There is, for example, almost at the opening, the
"stretching out of the hands," mentioned before and
now repeated, as the "sign" of the Lord, indicating the
triumph of the cross; there is also the bridegroom, no
longer merely the Beloved, but with his "arm over the
Bride," the wedding being consummated; there is the
rescue of the dead, like Israel of old "brought again
from the depths of the sea" ; lastly there is a "running"

320 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
of captive humanity toward its Rescuer, and a sim^
ultaneous recognition of him as the "Son of God"
(Abbott, op. cit., 477). It is a fit close to a series of
visions, depicting the purpose of. the Father to redeem
to the uttermost all who "run" to "the Son of God
for help" — for the Christ is Lord even over the grave!
9. Private and Official Letters of Early
Christians
The writer can never forget the strange thrill of
excitement that came to him when he first examined
a letter which was supposed to be written by a Chris
tian of the second century. It was a papyrus found
by Grenfell and Hunt and published in 1903.95 The
name of the writer was Serenus, and the letter was
addrest to his "sister" (i.e., wife) Isidora. It read
in part:
"Many greetings. . . . Before all else I pray for your health,
and every day and evening I perform the act of veneration on
your behalf. ... I assure you that ever since you left me I
have been in mourning, weeping by night and lamenting by day."
Unfortunately this text, upon closer inspection,
proved to be from a heathen.98 The same editors, how
ever (1909-1911), published the Greek text of several
letters which are certainly Christian. One of these is
from a sick woman living in the fourth century :
"... to our God and gracious Saviour ... I write this
to you in sickness, and very ill and quite unable to rise from my
bed."97 " Oxyrhynchus Papyri, IL, No. 528.
M Dr. Victor Martin of Geneva, Switzerland, who was one of the joint
editors of the Catalogue of Greek Papyri in the John Rylands Library,
writes me that there can be no possible doubt as to the heathen character
of this letter.
" Oxyrhynchus Papyri, VII., No. 1161.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 321
Another is too mutilated to be well read, but it is
from a man of the same era and in it certain phrases
stand out with distinctness:
"Fullness of joy ... I pray for your health in the Lord
God. . . . Beloved brothers in the Lord God . . . Emmanuel
is my witness." 98
Certainly these early Christians did not forget their
religion when they wrote letters to their friends.
Neither did they fail to show themselves to be Chris
tians when they wrote to their superiors. A Christian
servant, writing to his master concerning the illness
of his mistress (fourth century), writes in this courte
ous fashion, incidentally illustrating an important New
Testament word:
"Please pardon me, my lord, and receive me kindly (anobs^ei;
cf. Acts 24 : 3 ; 28 : 30 ; 2:41), tho I unwillingly caused you so
much anxiety by writing to you the messages which you re
ceived." 99
In the very latest discovered Christian letter,100 a
father and mother of the third century of our era write
to their son thanking God they have recovered health,
and adding the strange words : "up to the present time
we have not sacrificed the pigs!" This I suppose to
allude to a common form of heathen sacrifice, and to
be a notice to their absent son that they were standing
firm in the faith. In this same collection (No. 13) a
son, who almost too prominently emphasizes his re
ligious profession, writes home (fifth century) asking
his mother in a badly spelled letter to send him "the
KIbid. No. 1162.
"Oxyrhynchus Papyri, VL, No. 939; cf. Moulton and Milligan's Vo
cabulary, I, 61.
"Oxyrhynchus Papyri, 1914, X., 1299.

i» ,

322 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
rings" and to buy him certain things for winter. It
begins :
"To the lady, my most esteemed and virtuous mother, Maria,
from your son Peter in the Lord God, Greeting."
Greetings are then added to various "sweetest
brethren" whose names are given, and the boy closes
with the customary prayers for their health. The
opening words of this letter are rfj nvgia, almost ex
actly as the opening words of 3 John ; and it is delight
ful to find this Christian youth in the midst of his letter
speaking of his mother most tenderly as "my dearest
Maria," "Lady Mother," etc.
From this same century, or a little earlier, occurs
this rather formal Christian epistle:
"To my beloved brother blest in God, Paulus, from Apa
Johannes. I wish to be found worthy of writing continually to
your holiness. ... I greet you, my brother Paulus, and all
those of your house in the Lord." 100a
One of the most curious of the Christian docu
ments so far discovered (The Epistle of Psenosiris)
was published in 1902, with its true explanation by
Dr. Deissmann:
"From Psenosiris the presbyter to Apollo the presbyter his
beloved brother in the Lord, greeting !
"Above all, I salute thee often times, and all the brethren that.
are with thee in God. I would have thee know, brother, that the
grave-diggers here into the inner parts have brought Politike, who
was sent into the Oasis by the government, and I have handed her
over to the good and faithful among the grave-diggers until her
son Nilos be come. ... I wish thee welfare in the Lord God."
That is the way one preacher wrote to another in
the third century concerning a Christian woman who
™* Amherst Papyri, Part 2, 1901, No. CXLV.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 323
was banished to the Oasis of el-Khargeh, where pris
oners of State were sent. The "grave-diggers" or
fossores mentioned in the text were the undertakers,
who are often mentioned in the Catacombs and else
where as having charge of the selling of graves and
the setting up of monuments, and were often extor
tionate in their charges. In this case, however, they
may represent fellow Christian exiles in the Oasis. It
is a curious thing that the Greek name politikan was
the term for "harlot" in Byzantine times; tho it occurs
also as a proper name. Whether this woman was a
converted harlot or had been given by some misfortune
this peculiarly ill-odorous name, in any case she must
have been a woman of the better class whose property
had been confiscated and who had been banished to this
desert place.101 This letter throws a vivid light upon
the care which Christians had for each Other at that
early period.
Other Christian letters show that even in money
matters the Christians were expected to help each
other, and that the early Christian churches were also
expected to be banks which could loan money to de
serving brethren.102
Numbers of business letters from Christian men
have come down to us, among which I would especially
mention that of Zacharias and Silvanos, "head men" of
the village of Demetrios near Hermopolis, who write to
Tyrannos, deacon of the church there, sending him a
receipt for "fifty-one thousand talents" — tho part of this
debt still remains unpaid.103 It is noticeable that Sil-
101 Several of the most celebrated of the early Christians bear this name;
see e.g., Sinaitic Palimpsest, vii, viii.
mE.g., Amherst Papyri, II, pp. 28-30.
m Publicasioni de la Societd Italiana, Vol. I, No. 43.

324 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
vanos, notwithstanding his wealth, is unable even to
sign his name, and Zacharias — who could write but cer
tainly could not spell — signs his name for him.
In another document (sixth century) Aurelius
Ploution, a baker from the city of Oxyrhynchus, rents
"the small house" belonging to one of the churches of
that city, on the street Axaxiog, with its lands, agreeing
to pay "to the same holy church . . . yearly of gold
coin a third (?) by private scale." This indicates that
the church had a special scale of values b^ which they
tested all purchases.104
One beautifully written missive is addrest to a Chris
tian soldier stationed in the Fayum about a.d. 346. It
is one of a package of some sixty letters written from
a.d. 343 to 351, belonging to Flavius Abinnseus, a
Roman cavalry officer. This particular note is from a
priest who intercedes for a private soldier who is under
discipline, very much as St. Paul interceded for Onesi
mus (Philemon, verses 15-18).
"Greeting! I salute thy children much. I would have thee
know, Sir, concerning Paul the soldier, concerning his flight;
pardon him this once . . . and if he desist not he will come
again into thy hands another time. Fare thee well, I pray, many
years, my lord brother." 104a
A most interesting letter from the fourth century
is from Justin to his dear brother Papnuthius
Chrestophorus ("Christ-bearer"). It reads:
"It behoved me to write to thy excellence, my dear lord. For
we believe that thy citizenship is in heaven ; wherefore we regard
mIbid., No. 75. I am much indebted to my colleague, Dr. Wm. A.
Elliott, for assistance in working out the meaning of several of the above
very obscure letters and for other help in instances too numerous to men
tion specifically.
1M" Deissmann, op. cit., pp. 20S-210.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 325
thee as our master and common protector. But lest I write and
prate too much (for in much talk there is no escape from sin), I
pray thee, Master, recall me in thy holy prayers that we may be
partakers in the cleansing of sins. For I am of those that sin.
. . . Many greetings I send to all our many brethren in the
Lord, and may the divine providence protect you long in Jesus
Christ, beloved Lord." 105
The above title, Chrestophorus or "Christ-bearer,"
was commonly given to bishops in the Coptic period, so
that this letter probably suggests how bishops were
already honored at the beginning of the fourth century.
This conclusion of Dr. Deissmann may be modified,
however, by the next new discovery, which may show
that the title "Christ-bearer" was not confined to bishops
any more than the title "papa" ("pope") was. The
following letter of the sixth century, the Greek text of
which was published in 191 3 by Dr. Paul M. Meyer,108
speaks for itself regarding the distinction even then
made between "pope" and "bishop" — the latter being
the superior title :
"To the beloved and most God-fearing brother . . . Sarapion,
a priest (papa), the priest (papa) Heron sends greeting in the
Lord. "When I was in the village Aphrodite I was urged by the elders
["presbyters"] there to write to your holiness in regard to one
Sansneut.long ago appointed by Phoibadios of blest memory bishop
(episkopos) ... of his village. So inasmuch as he is vouched
for by his village and by the clergy themselves as being of blame
less life, have the goodness to give directions that he be instructed
["regarded" ?] as a deacon until he be able by God's help to return
to his own, village. I and those with me in the Lord address you
and the brethren with you in the Lord."
'"Facsimile and full 'text in Deissmann's Light from the Ancient East,
pp. 203-204.
™" Griechische Papyri im Museum . . . su Giessen, Band 1, Heft 2. No.
SS.

326 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
This letter was dictated according to the usual cus
tom, and Father Heron adds his greeting in his own
handwriting just as Paul was accustomed to do:
"I pray that you are well in the Lord, beloved and most longed-
for Father." Meyer thinks that this letter shows how the ranks
of the diaconate in the fourth and fifth centuries were
recruited from the lowest classes, particularly the coun
try clergy, who knew very little, often being able not
even to write. This point, however, must not be unduly
strained. The surprize is to find so few either among
the clergy or common people who are unable to write;
and at least in some dioceses in Egypt, candidates for
orders, as has recently been proved, were required to
pass rather severe examinations before being admitted
to ordination. Samuel, Jacob, and Aaron, in a letter
written to their bishop about a.d. 600, promise that if
they do not watch their beds on the days of communion
and "learn by heart" the entire gospel of John and
"practise it," they will not even apply for ordination.107
Another Christian letter from near the middle of the
third century — perhaps the earliest of which the original
has come down to us — shows that Christians in Alexan
dria and Rome who were dealing in "barley" and "linen
cloth" were accustomed to deliver the money for safe
keeping to "Maximus the pope" (toy nanav), who is
to act as confidential agent in this business engage
ment. One or two phrases from this letter will show
how intimate those early Christians were with their
official superiors, and how interested this "papa," who
was evidently an ordinary "father" of the church, was
in the business success of his parishioners:
:OTSee Deissmann, op. cit., p. 211.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 327
"Ye shall do well therefore, brethren, having bought the linen
cloth. Then let some of you take the . . . and set forth with
it unto Maximus the papas and . . . the lector. And having
sold that linen cloth in Alexandria deliver the money unto
Primitinus or Maximus the papas, receiving a quittance from him.
But the gain, the price of the bread sold by you and the money for
the linen cloth, let him commit and deliver it up unto Theonas, in
order that I being come with God to Alexandria may find it ready
against my charges. . . . Fare ye well, I pray." . . . etc.108
Another letter given by Deissmann,109 tho certainly
not Christian, coming from the second century so
thoroughly illustrates the parable of the prodigal son
(Luke 15: n-32) that we quote a paragraph from it
here: "Antonis Longus to Nilus his mother, many greetings. And
continually do I pray that thou art in health. I make supplications
for thee daily to the Lord Serapis. I would thou shouldst under
stand (cf. Phil. 1 : 12) that I had no hope that thou wouldst go up
to the metropolis. And therefore I came not to the city. But I
was ashamed to come to Caranis, because I walk about in rags. I
write to thee that I am naked. I beseech thee, mother, be recon
ciled to me. ... I know what I have brought upon myself. . . .
I know that I have sinned."
The verbs "beseech" and "reconcile" are exactly the
same as those used in the New Testament, while the
phrase "I have sinned" sounds as if it were coming
from the lips of the prodigal himself. The letter con
tinues finding great fault with Postumus, who had told
his mother of his bad conduct and had, perhaps, sug
gested that he had badly run in debt, for one of the few
remaining sentences that can be deciphered asks in very
prodigal fashion, "Knowest thou not that I had rather
be maimed than know that I still owe a man an obol ?"
108 Deissmann, op.cit., pp. 192-201.
1M Op. cit., p. 177.

328 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Let us hope for his mother's sake that Antonis did
return home as that other prodigal of whom Jesus
spoke, In one particularly interesting note, which some
scholars have thought to be Christian, dating from the
second century, Eutychides makes complaint to Helio-
dorus concerning Demetrius and certain other village
elders ("presbyters") who have been acting, he says,
like "busybodies" (egyokafiovq) having seized Peteus —
probably in order to compel him to pay his taxes.110
As Christian letters written in Greek are so rare,
and therefore so priceless in interest, we give here a few
more which we find scattered through the various pub
lications. One of the most valuable as showing the hos
pitable Christian "way" in the fourth century reads as
follows :
"To. the beloved brother Peter:
"Greetings in the Lord. I, Sotas, bid you receive our brother
Heracles according to (the usual) custom,111 through whom I and
those with me salute (jiQoaaYoo£tio|>iEv) you and all those with
you. I pray that you be strong (in good health) in the Lord."112
How the style of writing changed for the worse may
be seen by another missive which, however, is badly
damaged, dating from a.d. 602.
"In the name of the Lord and Master Jesus Christ, our God
and Saviour ... to Flavios Apion, the all-illustrious and most
excellent of consuls, possessing land, and to the illustrious city of
'"'Amherst Papyri, II, CXXXIV; 3. Dr. Victor Martin, of Geneva
assures me, however, by private letter that there is no substantial reason
why this letter should be ascribed to a Christian writer.
ul"Edos, of Acts 6: 14; 16: 2; 26: 3; 28: 17; Luke 1 : 9; Heb, 10:2S.
1U Publicasioni de la Societd Italiana, Vol. Ill, No. 208; No. 209 also
contains a few words from Serapion, a Christian, to Herakles (whose
name he misspells) about a talent of silver.

NOTE FROM ABRAHAM ABOUT A HOE SENT TO
HIM BY THE PRIEST SHENUTE
From a previously unpublished parchment in
author's collection

Q

*t i#

ll Y-"ff

X':n

-
>t;i y:,yM "r

BBMHH

LETTER FROM PARENTS TO THEIR SON, WHO IS THE ADMINISTRATOR OF A CONVENT
From a previously unpublished papyrus in the author's collection

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 329
the Oxyrhynchites, through Menas the servant, who requests and
procures for his master the all-illustrious . . . Greeting !" m
Besides the Greek letters there are a very few
known written in vulgar Latin, which seem to be Chris
tian. One of these, dating from the second century, is
addrest to a military tribune :
"Greeting ! Already aforetime I have recommended unto thee
Theon my friend, and now also I pray, Lord, that thou mayest
have him before thine eyes as myself (cf. Philemon, verse 17).
For he1 is such a man that he may be loved by thee. For he left
his own people, his gods and business, and followed me. And
through all things he hath kept me in safety. And therefore I
pray of thee that he may have entering in unto thee" (cf. 1
Thess., i:q).1u
While so few Christian letters have been found
written in Greek or Latin, the results have been much
more favorable so far as Coptic is concerned. These
Coptic letters are very generally written not on papyrus
but on potsherds; but the writer had the good fortune
to obtain in Egypt in 19 13 a number of ancient Chris
tian letters written in Coptic on papyrus. Of several of
these I will append free renderings, being indebted to
Dr. Hyvernat of the Catholic University of America
for the decipherment and preliminary translations of
these texts, which I hope may be edited by him later :
"Bless (us), our Father. Since a man who is ours is sick, we
wish to go and visit him. May your mercifulness grant us
something for a sick man, so that God may multiply his blessing
on you (and) be kind to you, while you give to all who ask you.
Be well to us (for our sake) while you pray for us that we may
be well." This shows most vividly the dependence which the
118 Ibid.. No. 179; Lefebvre, op. cit.. gives the fragments of a few more
Christian letters but they are too mutilated to read.
m Deissmann, op. cit., p. 183.

330 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
people placed in their religious superiors when they
came into trouble.
Among these unpublished letters are several written
to Father Shenute, and one very curious letter written
by parents to their son who was at the head of a monas
tery. This may be later than most of the letters given
above, as the florid style seems to attest as well as the
excessive humility of the parents.
"Before (further) discourse, our humbleness greets your
(lordly) sonship, honorable, in every manner. In Christ Jesus,
greetings !
"Then we make known to. you the well-being of our house
from the big one to the little one, and the well-being of the whole
village from the little one to the big one."
This letter closes by mentioning that the messenger
who bore this note "has told us of all the good things
that your lordly sonship achieves."
How close such a letter as this brings us to the early
Egyptian life!
Multitudes of such letters have come to light written
on pieces of broken pottery or on flakes or slices of
white limestone, the latter being regarded as the most
honorable material. In ecclesiastical letters the limestone
was frequently used, an apology seldom being made for
it, tho such apologies were often offered when potsherds
were used. These ostraka contain a vast quantity of
business letters, episcopal decisions, petitions to clerics
asking for prayers because of illness, and especially beg
ging letters of all kinds. The Church and its ministers
were evidently regarded as being open-handed, for here
are requests for vinegar, flax, oil, rope, clothing, vege
tables, and especially for bread and corn. A common
type of the begging letter is that of John to Apa Victor:

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 331
"First I greet thee, devout and pious man. May the Lord
bless thee and all that thou hast, men and beasts. Be kind and
have pity upon this poor man." 115
A son writes to his mother asking her to send him
a blanket, as he has none. In another, Paul promises
to provide a blanket for a brother in need. A rather
heart-breaking letter from a man whose name is lost,
which was written to his "dear and holy father," throws
light on the material need of the early Christians :
"Be so kind as to pray for me. Again I have told thee of my
misery. I tell thee didst thou know the plight that I am in thy
heart would be sorely grieved. It is written 'Get thyself a friend,
but not friends of eating and drinking, rather friends in thy need.'
Never have I suffered trouble greater than this present. Do not
fail to come to me in the trouble that I and my children are in.
... If thou hast compassion on me, thou wilt have redeemed
six souls from death. No man gives me wherewith to cover me.
. . . Thy heart will grieve for me if I die with my children. . . .
If I can find two loaves a day I shall not die ; if I find one I shall
not die. I have little ones and they . . . come weeping to me
and break ( ?) my heart." 116
One letter of a different nature seems equally full of
tears :
"Forgive me the sin that I have committed, my Lord, father,
and my brethren; for it is great and ye are pitiful. Indeed
through shame I am not able to say, Forgive me." m
It must be said, however, that there was rather an
affectation of sinfulness and humility very common in
the sixth century, as some of the expressions in letters
from "Peter the little" and "this humble and wretched
sinner" show very clearly. A few suggestions as to the
"" W. E. Crum, Coptic Ostraca, No. 75. It is strange that in Wilcken's
great work, Griechische Ostraka, 1899, giving 1624 documents, there is not
a single letter so far as I can find having any Christian interest
mIbid., No. 254.
'"Ibid., No. 275.

332 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
habits of the early Christians light up the ordinary dul
ness of these very commonplace letters. One man
writes :
"Excuse me that I can not find papyrus, as I am in the
country." 118
In one note one Christian writes another: "Thou
knowest that we prayed together."
One parishioner expresses surprize that his pastor
had not visited him in his sickness.
Very many of the letters contain requests for
books to read. It is probable that it was some book of
the Bible that was generally desired, but certainly in
one case a medical work was asked for (No. 253). On
one piece of broken pot a theological student has given
a list of the apostles in which Philip is said to be the
son of a charioteer, and on another sherd there is the
record of a priest who has been excommunicated —
probably for making boys drunk (No. 47).
The general poverty of the times and its financial
ruin is seen from the fact that one man promises if he
fails in his business agreement he will pay "five baskets
of bronze money." It appears that thousands of these
bronze coins were received to equal one large silver coin.
It is suggestive to observe that a thousand or more
years ago (as two thousand years earlier), in legal
documents "word of God" meant the decree of God's
ministers or of God's Church:
"Lo here is the word of God to thee; thou mayest come and
gather thy dates, and no one shall hinder thee." 119
""Crum, ap. at., No. 129; See also Nos.. 97, 212, 332, 374. Papnoute be
ing unable to write, signs with three crosses.
"* Crura, op. cit., p. 100.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 333
One ostrakon, which evidently represents a practise
exercise for young monks, well expresses the duty of a
preacher of the gospel as these early Christians under
stood it :
"He was sent to all men, to the flock of the faithful, to the
dwelling of the Son of God to bring old men to God, little children
to the Church, to pasture the sheep of God, to tame the antelope,
etc." 120
Such are samples of the goodly number of Christian
letters which have been recovered from the dusty past
in our generation. As a whole these private notes speak
well for the early Christians. It may be doubted
whether the ordinary mail of modern followers of the
Man of Galilee would give better testimony to spiritu
ality. It is noticeable that few of these ancient letters
deal with theological questions. Only occasionally has
there been any autograph preserved to us from a man
distinguished in his generation for scholarship or piety,
and very few mention any of the great church move
ments. The ordinary Christian then as now was
especially interested only in what touched his own life.
Yet a very few letters have fortunately been found
which enable us better to appreciate the intellectual
struggles of those early days and the splendid leader
ship which sought to protect that early Church from
superstition. Among such letters attention may be called to one
just found, written by Theodore of Egypt, in which he
refers to the "Canon of the Books of Holy Scripture"
reported to the Church by Athanasius, the archbishop
of Alexandria, in the very year in which this letter was
written (a.d. 326-328). Theodore praises Athanasius,
m Amherst Papyri, II., CXXXIV.

334 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
calling him "a son of the holy apostles . . . who
taketh care of the flock of the Lord, giving them nour
ishment in due season" and preserving them from "the
lying waters of which so many drank" — that is, the
apocryphal books to which were falsely given "the name
and age of the holy books." 121
While we can afford in this era to be more chari
table in our judgment of the apocryphal writings, yet it
is a good tonic to sensitive nerves to read these positive
words from a letter written some sixteen centuries ago.
10. Liturgical Fragments and Biblical
Quotations
When in 1910 there were published the sixth-cen
tury litany of the Lord's Supper, in 191 1 the new
manuscript containing Origen's comments on the
Apocalypse, and in 191 3 the new Armenian text of
Irenaeus, it was found that these newly recovered docu
ments were a mass of scripture texts. This is practically
true of all ancient ecclesiastical documents. Whether
one examines the newly found Acts of Paul and Thecla,
or the Passion of St. Perpetua, that "most beautiful of
all the records of Christian martyrdom"; or the newly
found second-century Christian dialog (a.d. 155) be
tween Bishop Athanasius and Zacchaeus the Jew, in
which the Christian defends the thesis that "Christ is
God, yet there are not two Gods" ; or any other of the
recently recovered church writings from the ancient
past, nothing is more impressive than the multitude of
Biblical quotations or references, which appear every
where in early Christian literature like the miraculous
**Museon, New Series, XL, 205.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 335
draught of fishes.122 Sometimes it is impossible to tell
whether these fragmentary Greek papyri are leaves of
ancient Bibles or whether they are portions of sermons
or letters, or church rituals. We will give a few
samples of the way in which these quotations appear.
In 1887, Dr. Charles Wessely published a fragment
from the third century found in the collection of Arch
duke Rainer relative to the denial of St. Peter, which
contained an exact quotation of Mark 14: 26. Its back
adhered to a contract of a lease dating from the
Emperor Alexander Severus (a.d. 221-235). The frag
ment reads:
"You shall all be offended this night, as it is written, I will
smite the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered ; but Peter said,
Although even all, yet not I, and Jesus saith, Before the cock
crow twice thou shall deny me thrice." m
In 1906 the same author published an ecclesiastical
papyrus (third century) from Akhmim containing two
passages from our gospels (Luke 2: 34; John 9: 39),
one of these being an exact word-for-word quotation :
"I pray that the named be not lead to his humiliation, but to
his salvation. But when he does not understand this that is said
for his salvation, let this be for his judgment (xQijia). Jesus
himself has taught that his presence is to exercise judgment, in
order that those who see not shall see, and those that see shall
become blind. The same words of the gospel show that Jesus
has not come only for the rising but also for the downfall : 'Be
hold he is placed for an occasion of falling and for rising. . . .
pay attention that these words be not said for your falling.' " 124
122 For these and many other newly recovered works see Armitage
Robinson in Texts and Studies, Vol. I- VIII, and Harnack, Texte und Un-
tersuchungen sur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, Vol. I-XI.
123 Wessely, Les plus anciens monuments du Christianisme ecrits sur
papyrus, 1906, No. 14.
""Ibid., No. 20.

336 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
In 1903 Grenfell and Hunt published some Christian
fragments from the second and third century, and
among them was one which contained a perfect quota
tion of Matt. 3: 16-17, describing the baptism of Jesus,
the words from the heavenly voice being indicated by
wedge-shaped quotation marks. Perhaps the most im
portant of all this class of discoveries are the many
fragments of the early Fathers and other early writings
of the Christian Church specially revered, which are full
of Scriptural thought and phraseology. Among these
ought particularly to be mentioned the second epistle of
Clement of Rome, found by Bryennios in 1875, "prob
ably written in the middle of the second century" ; 125 the
probably third century Greek text of Irenaeus against
Heresies; 126 and the later but very important and newly
discovered Scholia of Origen on the Apocalypse, first
published in 191 i;127 the lost Commentary of
CEcumenius (about a.d. 600) on the same Biblical
book;128 and a sixth century copy of the Nicene Creed.129
This is nearly the same as our version — variations are
slight — and fortunately the scribe writes at the end
of it in brown ink, his personal confession of faith :
"This is my creed, and with this language (I shall approach
without fear) the terrible judgment seat of the Lord Christ in
that dread day when he shall come again in his own glory to judge
the quick and the dead and to reign with his saints forever and
ever, Amen."
Another papyrus of the fifth century classed as a
125 Kenyon, Bible and Ancient Monuments, Appendix.
*** Oxyrhynchus Papyri, cf. Barnard's "Examination of the Biblical
Quotations made by Clement of Alexandria" in Texts and Studies, Vol.
V., pp. 899#.
127 Harnack, Texte und Untersuchungen sur . . . altchrist. Lit.; see also
the new Armenian text, ibid., XXXVI.
128 See American Journal of Philology XXXIV, 1913, 3-301.
120 Papyri in John Ryland's Library, No. 6.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 337
"liturgical fragment," tho it may be from a private book
of devotion, reads:130
"Suffer the little children to come unto me, of such is the king
dom of heaven. On Thee do I wait all the day. Remember thy
tender mercies, O Lord . . . Saviour, keep me, O Lord, as the
apple of thine eyes . . . Create in me a clean heart, gracious
God, and save me."
"The most unique of all the new ecclesiastical
documents is the calendar of church services at
Oxyrhynchus a.d. 535-536, discovered in 1905-6, and
first published in 1915.131 This contains a list of
the services at the various churches in Oxyrhyn
chus on Sundays and holy days during a period of five
months. Twenty-six different churches are mentioned,
and these special episcopal services are given for sixty-
two different days, including Christmas and the various
Sundays of Lent, the day of St. Peter and St. Paul, etc.
It is noticeable that the Virgin and St. Euphemia are
the only two female saints honored by special services.
A church was also named after the latter saint, as well
as after St. Justus, St. Menas, St. Philoxenus, and
several lesser martyrs; there were besides churches of
St. Mary, St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Jeremiah, St.
Zachariah, "the Baptist," "the Evangelist" (St.
John) and others. The calendar is too technical to be
quoted. No Scripture quotations occur in this docu
ment because of its character.
One class of works regularly read with the liturgies
in the monasteries dealt with the lives of saints and
martyrs who died because of their loyalty to the Bible
and the Church. A number of these have recently been

in

Ibid, No. 8, cf. No. 9.
Oxyrhynchus Papyri, XL, No. 1387.

338 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
recovered. The style of this not altogether commend
able literature may be judged from the following :
STORY OF THE MARTYRDOM OF S. CHRISTINA
" 'If you do not go and sacrifice ... I order heavy penalties,
and the one who was put to death by the Jews, whom you serve,
shall not rescue you.' "
"And the saint looking up into the sky and laughing strangely,
said fo Urbarius: . . . you do not know that the Son of the
living' God, the Light of truth and the Saviour of the world, has
come down from the heaven to put away all iniquity from the
world in order to save us, and now through him, the Lord who
saves me, I endure all these things, so as to overcome your power
. . . ' But her father Urbanus . . . ordered the wheel to
be brought and the holy Christian to be placed upon it and fire to
be kindled under it and oil to be poured to make if burn . . .
and when . . . the wheel, turned around, had broken the whole
body, the holy Christian . . . prayed saying : I bless thee, thou
God in the heaven, and I thank thee, thou Father of the Lord
Jesus Christ; do not leave me forever, but stretch out the hand
and take hold pf the fire and quench . . . that Urbanus the
tyrant may never rejoice over me . . . the fire came forth sud
denly and slew 1,500 idolaters . . . and the holy Christian was
resting upon the wheel as upon a bed," etc., etc.132
ACTS OF MARTYRDOM OF PAPNOUTIOS
"... the maiden said to her mistress, Come out and see
. . . the man called Father Papnoutios, who is the one doing
wonderful things before the ruler. And . . . she saw Father
Papnoutios standing as an angel of God and he struck the . . .
she saluted (worshipped) him saying, Truly my life is not equal
to the joy that has taken hold of me. And then she took hold of
his hand and kissed (it) saying, The Lord be magnified because
thou hast come under my roof this day, and she placed for him
a chair of silver. But Father Papnoutios laughed and said to her,
Daughter, these silver and gold things give me no gain ... but
hear me, daughter, and choose for thyself the life of the angels,
182 Fifth century papyrus in Publicasioni de la Societd Italiana, Vol.
I., No. 27.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 339
. . . and her daughter . . . came out from her chamber bring
ing a costly garment and having a golden diadem upon her head.
But Father Papnoutios sat upon the ground and they sat at his
feet and he says . . . Children, forsake vain wealth, for it is
written . . ,"133
While the Scripture references in the above narra
tive are lost, many documents remain, giving these
quotations so voluminously as to prove conclusively that
these primitive Christians were great Bible students.
One paper whose title seems to have been Notes on
Famous Biblical Texts (sixth century) refers to Matt.
25: iff.; 12: 32; 16: 19 — but the "notes" are scant, tho
the precious Bible words are written out fully.134
While the discoveries of Greek documents have
given us such treasures, the finds so far as Coptic
liturgical texts are concerned are even greater, many of
these being translations from Greek originals. Among
these may be mentioned particularly the Acts or Canons
of the Council of Nicola (which Hyvernat accepts as
genuine) ; Acts of the Council of Ephesus and Memoirs
of Dioscurus, a fragment of a great work by St.
Epiphanius; the lost Festal Letters of St. Athanasius;
a panegyric of St. George, by Bishop Theodosius ; and
Encomiums of Severus on St. Michael; and especially
an Ecclesiastical History in twelve books — one so early
that it was used by Eusebius, the "father of Church
history." Many church disciplines have recently been dis
covered in Coptic, including the "Ecclesiastical Canons
and Canons of the Apostles ;135 the canons of Hippolytus
described by Hyvernat but as yet not published; and
m Ibid, No. 28.
'" Papyri delta Societd Italiana, I., No. 65.
""Eng. translation by G. Horner, 1904.

340 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
the canons of St. Athanasius and St. Basil edited by W.
E. Crum, 1904.
A complete edition of the Coptic (Sahidic) liturgy
was prepared by Dr. H. Hyvernat, with full translation
in Latin, in 1909. All of these liturgies are full of
Scripture quotations. The J. P. Morgan collection,
discovered in 1910, also contains a complete lectionary,
breviary, and antiphonary in this same dialect.
These ecclesiastical documents not only quote much
Scripture but also throw an enormous light on the life
of the Church. Dr. G. Horner has recently published
the Statutes of the Apostles or Canones Ecclesiastici
(1904), from which we give a few suggestions of the
early church life as seen from these liturgies. No
catechumen could be a painter or sculptor, go to the
theater, nor train men for pugilism or war.138 No Chris
tian is allowed to be a soldier. No Christian could wear
lascivious clothes or ornaments, or wear phylacteries,
or drink magical potions. All believers are urged to
bring bread and wine for the Eucharist. Prayers are
made over the bread that it may become the body of the
Lord Christ, or according to one recession, the "form
of the flesh of Christ." Exorcism and the breathing
upon the candidates that they may receive the Holy
Spirit is mentioned. All are excluded from "the mys
teries" who eat with heretics or adulterers or those de
voted "to the world." A long catalog of reasons is
given for not working on the Sabbaths — "Sabbaths"
presumably including both Saturday and Sunday.
Among the special commandments are:
"Thou shalt not corrupt young children, thou shalt not be a
"'The Jewish Church also opposed painting and sculpture, which was
devoted to idol making; and the theater, which was a murderous as well
as an idolatrous show. Texts and Studies, VIII', p. 27.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 341
soothsayer, star-gazer, or magician, thou shalt not kill young
babes, after birth; thou shalt not be a speaker against any, and
thou shalt not think about doing evil."
Of bishops it is said that they shall be "without sin,
without anger, lovers of the poor, not lovers of the
greater share for himself." Widows in limited numbers
are permitted ordination (by words, not by the laying
on of hands) in order to devote themselves to prayer
for those in affliction, and to stay with women who are
suffering. Of laymen it is said:
"The lay people shall do the commandment which is told them
with cheerfulness, and they shall obey those who devote them
selves to the altar . . . and ye shall not have enmity one with
another . . . but rather shall each one hasten in his work ac
cording as it has been given him from God."
Of baptism it is said : "Candidates shall be baptized
naked" (i.e., only with the undergarment), the little
children first, "and if they can speak for themselves, let
them speak; but if they can not, their parents shall
answer for them, or one of their relatives." No adult
was allowed baptism until "he had learned the Psalm."
The minister prayed concerning the candidate that the
Savior might "open the ear of his heart, and enlighten
the eyes of his mind, and give to him the light of
knowledge and impart to him the washing of regenera
tion for the forgiveness of sins, making him the temple
of the Holy Spirit by our Lord Jesus Christ," etc., etc.
The ordinary baptism was by dipping three times, but
if the candidate was weak, pouring was allowed. The
confession made by the candidate was as follows :
"I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, and in his only
son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, giver
of life to all creation, the Trinity equal in God-head, one Lord

342 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
and one kingdom ; one faith, and one baptism, in the Holy Church
Catholic, and life eternal. Amen."
Such was the early Ethiopic liturgy.137 While few
direct quotations are made in some of these ecclesiastical
documents, it is plain that they rest solidly upon the
New Testament Scriptures, as they interpreted it.
Not only the papyri but also ordinary inscriptions
connected with official and private buildings dating from
the early Christian era contain many Biblical quotations.
M. Gustave Lefebvre, in 1907, published 808 such in
scriptions gathered from all parts of Egypt during six
years or more of careful work. Of these three of the
most ancient (Nos. 34, 35, 54), dating from a.d. 148-
159, are doubtfully Christian; but two others of the
fourth century, three of the fifth century and sixty-two
of the sixth century are almost certainly Christian. Of
these 808 inscriptions sixteen are New Testament
texts (Matt. 3:3; 5: 13; 9:27; 19: 18; 25:34; Mark
1:3; 10:19, 47, 48; Luke 18:38; 23:42; John 8: 12;
10: 25; 14: 6), and certain other formulae are certainly
based on expressions used in Corinthians, Colossians,
Ephesians, Timothy, and Hebrews. While these texts
are on the walls of buildings or portals of churches or
engraved on stone tablets or lamps or bronze crosses
and are not in any sense portions of ancient Bibles,
they vividly disclose the constancy with which the early
Christians used their new Testaments.
Altho they may not illustrate this point quite as well
as some other examples, we give here a few very re- '
cently discovered texts:
"Lord, grant repose to the soul of the servant Thekla, summon
197 For the modern form see The Ethiopic Liturgy, Rev. S. A. Mercer,
1915. This entire liturgy should be compared with the Didache.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 343
her to the bosom of Abram and Isaac and Jacob and feed her upon
the tree of life, hearing Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom made ready for you from the foundation of the
world." "God, the All-Conqueror, the one that is, that was, that is to
be, Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the living God, remember the
sleep and rest of thy servant Zoneese, the most devout and loving-
the-commandments, and deem her worthy to tabernacle through
thy holy and light-bearing Archangel Michael, in the bosom of
the holy fathers, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, because thine is
the glory and the power to the ages of the ages. Amen, she lived
blamelessly seventy-seven years ..." 138
We have already mentioned the Biblical references
to be found in the ancient sermons.139
Many liturgical Greek fragments have been re
covered from the fifth and sixth centuries telling of the
adventures of Christian saints, condemned to starvation,
etc., and a good many texts so broken that one hardly
knows whether they are private Christian letters or
official church documents.140
A great multitude of Christian documents written
in Coptic but not strictly liturgical, dating from near
a.d. 600, have also recently been published. Here, for
example, is a dialog in which different interpretations
are proposed of various passages in the gospels, such
as the miracle at Cana, the temptation of Jesus, etc.
These interpretations aim to be practical ; e.g., under
John 9: 3, the expositor says: "The pool of Siloam is the
Church; the waters are the waters of holy baptism." H1
138 (a.d. 409.)
130 Pp. 260#; and see further Homily of Pope Liberius, reported by
Lefort (which quotes from Matt., Mark, Rom. and 2 Tim.) in Museon
XII., 1.
140 One, e.g., speaks of the "terrible judgment seat of Christ our God."
Greek Papyri in the John Rylands Library, Vol. I., No. 8, cf. Nos. 10, 11 ;
and another of "Christ the King risen from the dead," Jour, of Theol.
Studies, 1915-16, pp. 171-3.
'"¦ Crum, Anecdota Oxoniensia, No. 12.

344 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
There are many accounts of martyrdom that have
recently come to light, one representing Diocletian being
inspired by the devil in the guise of a serpent; another
narrating with eagerness the tortures of the martyrs
crowned with red hot helmets or boiled, after strips
were cut from their back, etc.142 They thought too
much of the martyrs in the sixth century, as is shown
by many texts such as, "Let us pray the holy martyr
of Christ, Apa Moni, that he guide us in this sea that
is full of trouble." 14S Yet they talk and write re
ligiously and quote Scripture voluminously. Even the
ostraka give us some material of value. A "Confes
sion of Faith," which was written over 1300 years ago,
shows the careful theological discrimination attempted
in that era:
"We confess a Trinity which is in a Unity, namely the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, three persons ('¦JjtooTdoEig) , of
whom One took flesh for our salvation, namely, the Son. Yet
each one of these Persons is a thing apart not in the others." 1M
Compare also the following ancient Sanctus in which
occurs the passage:
"That he may make them all worship him . . . Thy beloved
and holy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, the First-born of all creation
(who is also co-essential with thee), who didst make us heirs of
these (good things by his precious blood; we give thanks to thee,
the incorruptible, unapproachable, unsearchable,) inexpressible
(God Almighty), . . . Before thee stand ... the many-eyed
cherubim and seraphim, each having six wings (and with twain
veiling their face, because) they fear to look upon thee, Image of
the Invisible . . . shouting and saying, Holy, holy, holy Lord
God Almighty, which was and is and is to come." 11B
luCrum, op. cit., Nos. 17, 18.
IU Crum's Coptic Ostraka, 1902, No. 1.
luIbid., No. 3.
mIbid., No. 4.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 345
The ostraka used as lesson tables in the schools con
tain many direct Biblical quotations: e.g., Rom.
16: 10-12, and the story of the woman taken in adultery,
John 8: 9-1 1, • 2 Cor. 4: 18; 5: 5; Matt. 5: 13. A very
great multitude of "copy-books" and "exercise books"
from the early Christian centuries have been preserved
to us from Egypt. Most of the literary exercises con
sist of quotations of Scripture such as the above or of
religious sentiments such as:
"The grace of Jesus Christ conquers. Amen." 1U
"Jesus Christ. Alleluia. O Eternal Life." m
Among the many spelling books and grammatical
and arithmetical exercises in Greek and Coptic have
also been preserved a few school-boy compositions which
are attempts to copy Bible models. One of these from
a boy by the name of Enoch starts in with an attempt
to reproduce a religious legend but closes up with a
rebuke written in another hand, evidently that of the
school master — showing that the copying of a "holy
legend" had not kept this lad out of mischief :
"As Jesus went out of the gate of Paradise he saw a vine
which wept and was giving forth tears. He spake saying : 'Why
does the vine weep and give forth tears ?' It spake saying : . . .
Tt has pierced my eye ... I have raised my eyes to heaven'
. . . Enoch, don't throw your pen on . . . " H8
Several documents of excommunication have been
discovered, the usual form being:
"M. M. shall be anathema, to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
and to the Christian community, and his house shall be ana
thema." 149
148 Hall, Coptic and Greek Texts, p. 34.
"' Theban Ostraka, p. 211.
148 Coptic Ostraca, p. 149. This is probably a little later than the sixth
century. "'Ibid., No. 135, cf. No. 78.

346 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
An episcopal letter is extant which forbids com
munion to a whole village until one of its leading magis
trates shall "pay the man what is his." In other docu
ments litigation among Christians is prohibited under
fine. One edict of excommunication, much more elabo
rate, is quoted by Deissmann 150 from a bishop named
Abraham. The episcopal letter is written to the clergy
of his Egyptian diocese and has to do with the sin of a
man named Psate who had been oppressing the poor.
It is written in Coptic about a.d. 600, on a piece of
pottery, and contains several expressions that might
make" good copy for a modern episcopal address :
"He that oppresseth his neighbor is altogether reprobate ; and
he is like unto Judas, who rose from supper with his Lord and
betrayed him, as it is written, He that eateth my bread hath lifted
up his heel against me.
"He that oppresseth his neighbor is altogether reprobate, and
he is like unto the man to whom Jesus said, 'It were better for him
if he had not been born' (that is, Judas).
"He that oppresseth his neighbor is altogether reprobate, and
he is like unto them that spat in his face and smote him on the
head. "He that oppresseth his neighbor, is reprobate, and he is like
unto Gehazi, unto whom the leprosy of Naaman did cleave, and
unto his seed.
"He that oppresseth his neighbor is altogether reprobate, and
he is like unto Cain, who slew his brother," etc.
The phrases used above are evidently stereotyped,
so that this was not the only instance in which dis
cipline was carried out in ancient times for this crime —
and the language is almost wholly Scriptural.
It is evident that these various official Christian
documents which represent not simply the feeling of
150 Light from the Ancient East, 1910, p. 216.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 347
an individual but the thought of the Church are quite
as important as private letters, perhaps even more im
portant. We find coming from the era of Constantine the fol
lowing beautiful tribute to several Christians who had
proved their constancy by a martyr's death :
"Ploution the blessed celibate (jtctoflevcov) having borne wit
ness . . . became a martyr in the nineteenth year and fell
asleep aged forty-one. He went to the land of the blessed having
two crowns. Similarly Berekon a self -controlled (iyKQair\<;) man
(cf. Titus 1:8) became a martyr and fell asleep aged thirty-six.
Likewise also his son Konon a neophyte." 151
This inscription is most remarkable, since it is a
relic of two heretofore unknown martyrs of the epoch
of Diocletian. The text can not be much posterior to
the year 300, and M. de Ricci even calls it the most
ancient Christian inscription from Egypt. One of the
most suggestive features is the mention of the future
life in a phrase which was constantly used in the
classics, and the further mention of "two crowns"
which the Christian was to receive, which must be a
reference to 2 Tim. 4: 8 and James 1: 12, or to Heb.
2:7. While we will later analyze the multitudes of Chris
tian epitaphs which are to be found in many lands dat
ing from the second to the sixth centuries, it may be
well under the present caption to notice the liturgical
language and Biblical pre-suppositions continuing in
every century through all these Christian epitaphs :
EPITAPH OF. MARIANOS (7th-Qth Centuries)
"The God of the Spirits and of all flesh who hast abolished
death and the grave (Hades), and hast graciously given life to
the world; give repose to thy servant Marianos in the bosom of
"' M. de Ricci in Revue Epigraphique, 1913, No. 10.

348 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (in the Bright Place, in the Place of
Rest)." EPITAPH OF JOHN THE DEACON (8th Century)
"Oh how dreadful is this separation! Oh departure to the
strange land, which- removes one for all time. Oh condition of
Hades, how do we come to thy gate ! Oh death, name bitter in
the mouth of all beings, which cutteth off, which sundereth
fathers from their children, and children from their fathers. Let
all who love to weep for their dead come to this place and mourn
greatly." THE EPITAPH OF HELENE (nth Century)
"With God fell asleep in Christ Jesus the deceased, Helene
... May the God of the Spirits and the Lord of all flesh give
repose to the soul of thy servant in the place of rest. Amen." 151a
GREEK EPITAPH OF MENA (8th Century or later)
"By the command of God, who ruleth both the quick and the
dead, the deceased Mena reached the end of this life . . . Lord
Jesus Christ, rest the soul of thy servant in the bright place, in the
coolness, in the bosoms of Abraham ..." 152
Another Greek epitaph showing perhaps also the
influence of Egyptian phraseology reads:
"Eutychousa, who entered into rest ... in the place of ver
dure at the water of rest, whence have fled all pain and grief and
groaning, in the brightness of thy saints." 163
These illustrations of the influence which the New
Testament had upon early Christian literature might
be indefinitely increased. Practically innumerable quo
tations from the New Testament have been found in
Italian, Syrian, and Mesopotamian inscriptions from
the second to the sixth century, as well as from Egypt.
*"¦ Coptic and Greek Texts in British Museum, H. R. Hall, 1905, plates
III, VIII.
w Ibid., p. 13.
™Ibid., page 138.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS 349
And while most of these are connected with the ritual
services of the churches, or are such texts as are appro
priate for epitaphs, yet it would be safe to say that if
every New Testament in the world should be destroyed
and with them all the writings of the ancient Fathers,
such as Tertullian and Justin Martyr, Eusebius and
Jerome, a very large collection of the most precious
texts of the New Testament expressing every
vital doctrine and experience of Christianity might still
be gathered from these newly found papyri and other
inscriptions written by poor and often nameless Chris
tians of the first six centuries.

PART TWO
THE MONUMENTS, INSCRIPTIONS, AND
OTHER ANCIENT REMAINS
STUDIED WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THEIR
BEARING ON THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE
PRIMITIVE CHURCH

NEW LIGHT FROM GRAVES AND BURIED
CITIES
i. New Light from the Land of Palestine
Palestine was the stage on which the drama of the
New Testament was enacted. One would naturally ex
pect that from its cemeteries and buried cities a flood
of light would have been poured upon the culture and
literature of the early Christian centuries. Unfor
tunately, however, very few authenticated monuments
of this period have been found in the Holy Land. Not
even one leaf of the Vulgate has been recovered from
Bethlehem, the home of St. Jerome; not one certified
ancient relic can be found in Nazareth, the home of
Jesus — excepting the old well; while scarcely a solitary
monument from the first century remains even in
Jerusalem except, possibly, the Holy Sepulcher, and a
few broken remnants of ancient Roman buildings,
roads, and walls.1 There is no doubt that the location
of Herod's temple can be determined with certainty,
and some of the valleys, springs, and pools, and the
sites of ancient gates can be fixt; but doubt remains
even as to the location of the little upper room where
the disciples met, and the palaces of Herod and
Caiaphas, and the praetorium and other sites con
nected with the trial of our Lord. Even the eleven
cities which have recently been excavated in the Holy
Land, while giving much new light upon the era of the
kings and the patriarchs, have given us pitifully few
1 For the far greater discoveries in Palestine illuminating the Old Testa-
nent, see the author's Recent Explorations in Palestine (3d ed., 1916),
"ollegiate Publishing Co., Meadville Pa.
[3531

354 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
remains from the era of Jesus and the Christian com
munity previous to Constantine. Some reasons for this
lamentable silence are easily discovered. Palestine has
been the battleground of the ages; Jerusalem has been
pillaged and destroyed many times, while the destruc
tion wrought by pious pilgrims was almost an equal
catastrophe. Even nature has conspired against the
archeologist, for the rains of Palestine have rotted all
papyri, and the stones are of a character which will not
permanently hold inscriptions. History has also been
antagonistic to scientific research, because this land for
centuries has been at the mercy of the Moslem, and be
cause the most important New Testament sites could
not in any case be thoroughly excavated, since they
still remain inhabited villages.
Notwithstanding these disadvantages, considerable
has been accomplished. Individual surface exploration,
which has been going on ever since the time of St.
Jerome, reached its climax in the last generation in the
person of Dr. Edward Robinson. In 1856 this dis
tinguished American scholar published his three vol
umes of Biblical Researches, and altho he had spent
barely five months in his explorations, yet, in that short
time, he virtually "reconstructed the map of Palestine"
'(Bliss). He identified 160 Bible sites, and almost every
one of his decisions has been confirmed by modern
scholarship. He studied Jerusalem with critical care,
being the first to show that the fragment of an arch
still in existence had been part of the ancient bridge
connecting the temple with Mt. Zion. He was also the
first to trace with accuracy the windings of the tunnel
leading from the Virgin's Fount to the Pool of Siloam.
Other particularly successful explorers in Palestine, in

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 355
the earlier period, were Lieutenant Lynch, who in 1848
made the first thorough examination of the Dead Sea,
and Tobler (1845-68), and Guerin (1852-75), who both
made extensive scientific explorations. One of the most
remarkable single discoveries ever made in Palestine
directly touching New Testament times was that of
Clermont-Ganneau, who in 1871 found the Jewish
placard which had been posted up in Herod's temple
forbidding Gentiles to enter the sacred enclosure. The
characters were monumental in size and contained the
following inscription in Greek in seven lines :
"No stranger is to enter within the balustrade round the tem
ple and enclosure. Whoever is caught will be responsible to him
self for his death, which will ensue."
Dr. Ganneau made many other important discoveries
! adding to our knowledge of the first century by his re
covery of a goodly number of ancient inscriptions, rock-
cut tombs, and other monuments. One of his most
famous "finds" was the "stone of Bethphage" (cf. Luke
19:29) on which was frescoed a precious ancient pic
ture of the resurrection of Lazarus. Colonel Conder
also did specially good work in a private capacity, and
as the head of the archeological party under the
auspices of the Palestine Exploration Fund reported,
in 1880, ten thousand place-names and 172 new Bible
sites successfully identified.
The work of the Palestine Exploration Fund, begun
in 1865, marked a new era in the work of discovery.
It is scarcely too much to say that more advance was
made during the first fifteen years of its existence than
h all the fifteen centuries before. Perhaps the greatest
work, however, done by this society was that connected
with the topographical survey of Western Palestine

356 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
(1871-77) and of Eastern Palestine (1881-82), resulting
in an authoritative map on the scale of an inch to a mile,
showing accurately all previous identifications of ancient
places. These maps still hold their places among the best
published, and when they first appeared, together with
eight massive volumes giving full results of the topo
graphical and archeological survey of Palestine, scholars
declared with some appearance of reason that this work
represented "the most important contribution to illus
trate the Bible since its translation into the vulgar
tongue." It would be impossible even to hint at the con
tents of these enormous volumes, with their hundreds of
maps and plans of churches, mosques, temples, and tombs
from every part of Palestine, and the monographs, rich
with learning, which discuss the botany, zoology,
geology, etc., of the Holy Land. In 19 13-14 a survey of
South Palestine was made by Capt. S. F. Newcombe and
Lieut. F. C. S. Greig, including the Negeb — from
Beersheba to the Egyptian frontier, from Rafah on the
Mediterranean to the head of the Gulf of Akaba — but
at the present writing (1917) the map based on this
survey, tho completed, has not yet been issued.
Jerusalem was also explored by this society with
great thoroughness so far as this could be done under a
Moslem government, and with the embarrassment to
excavation caused by the necessary protection of
modern buildings and cemeteries. But tho the remains
of seven synagogs and many ancient churches were
carefully examined — among which was the ruined
church of Justinian on Mt. Gerizim, — and tho a few
relics were recovered from the time of Queen Helena
and Hadrian, and while much was done to settle dis
puted questions concerning the ancient walls and pools,

Dr. Rodolfo Lanciani

Sir William M. Ramsay

Dr. Agnes Smith Lewis
© Elliott » Fry '

Giovanni Battista De Rossi

Dr. Margaret Dunlop Gibson
© Elliott C& Fry

Dr. J. Rendel Harris

Melchior De Vogue

Prof. Howard Crosby Butler

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 357
it must be acknowledged that few discoveries were
made having any close connection with the New Testa
ment text or New Testament times.
It would be ungrateful, however, not to mention the
work of Sir Charles Wilson, Sir Charles Warren, and
others who uncovered the temple area of its countless
tons of debris, traced its approximate outline, examined
underground rock chambers, opened ancient streets,
and discovered many thousand specimens of pottery,
glass, tools, etc., dating from the Jewish to the Byzan
tine period. Among other discoveries the thirty-four
rock-cut cisterns found on the ancient temple site are
impressive. The largest of these has a depth of forty-
three feet and a capacity of more than 2,000,000 gallons,
while another had a depth of sixty-one feet and a capacity
of 700,000 gallons. One can not forget Maudslay
(1875), who made a masterly examination of the great
scarp; and Guthe (1881), who made fine additional dis
coveries at Ophel; and the later work of Warren and
Conder, who published an elaborate plan of the whole
city, twenty-five inches to the mile — a plan which remains
the basis of all later maps. Neither can one forget the
work done in Jerusalem, 1884-97, by Dr. F. J. Bliss;
and that done since then by the Assumptionist Fathers
of Mt. Zion and others who have excavated beneath
and around their churches, and have brought to light
many ancient relics and some remarkable construction,
beside tracing the history of the sacred sites quite
elaborately.2 One of the most inspiring of these
later discoveries was that of Dr. Bliss in recover
ing the ancient church which had been built over
"See, e.g., P. Urbain Coppin, Le Palais de Caiphe, 1904, P. Barnabe,
Le Pretoire de Pilate, 1902.

358 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
the Pool of Siloam (John 9:7); and almost equally
stimulating was the discovery by the White Fathers of
what is probably the ancient Pool of Bethesda with the
ancient church above (fifth century), built in memory of
the troubling of the waters (John 5:4). The Assump-
tionist Fathers found, in 19 12, on Mt. Zion what seems to
be the remains of an ancient prison and the foundations
of an ancient church ; also, at a time somewhat earlier, a
set of Hebrew measures, enabling us for the first time to
be sure that we possess a correct knowledge of the
ancient measures of capacity mentioned in the Old
Testament and in later Jewish writings.
The Algerian Fathers, in 19 12, also made a
peculiarly valuable discovery at Jerusalem when they
found the standard talent, which was kept in the
sanctuary. This was a spherical stone with flattened
bottom having a rude inscription at each end and
weighing about nineteen pounds.
But the new era in Palestine exploration opened
in 1890 when Dr. W. M. Flinders Petrie began to ex
cavate the ancient Biblical city of Lachish at Tel el
Hesy, in southern Palestine. There had been much
surface exploration and some miscellaneous digging at
various sites previous to this, but Dr. Petrie was the
first to undertake the scientific excavation of an entire
town. At the end of six weeks' work he could date
approximately some seven successive occupations of this
site covering a period of a thousand years, and because
of his previous excavations in Egypt this explorer was
able to produce a chronological scale by which the age
of each city could be definitely calculated from the
styles and decoration of the pottery fragments. While
no relics of the Christian era were found in this par-

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 359
ticular city, it was a necessary preparation for the ex
cavation of about a dozen other ancient sites in some
of which remains of the Christian era were found.
During 1890-1900 Dr. Frederick Jones Bliss — who
had followed Dr. Petrie at Lachish — and Dr. R. A.
Stewart Macalister dug up four towns on the border
land between Philistia and Judea, the most important
of these being situated at Tell Sandahannah. This
town covered about six acres, and the work done was
"unique in the history of Palestinian excavations"
(Bliss), because at this place was "recovered almost an
entire town, probably the ancient Mareshah (Joshua
15:44), its inner and outer walls, its gates, streets,
lanes, open places, houses, reservoirs, etc." (Bliss). It
was a Seleucidan town (third to second century B.C.),
built with thin brick-like blocks of soft limestone. The
town was roughly divided into blocks of streets, some
of the streets being paved. The houses were lighted
from the street and from an open court. Very few
rooms were perfectly rectangular, while some were of
awkward shape. Many closets were found, and pit-
ovens and vaulted cisterns reached by staircases, as
also portions of the drainage system. The cisterns had
plastered floors and sometimes two heavy coats of
plaster on the walls. The houses occasionally had
vaulted roofs, but usually the ordinary roof of to-day
made of board and rushes covered with clay. The
chief importance of this discovery lies in the fact that
it shows us a Palestine town just previous to the
Christian era. The towns of Palestine two centuries
later could not have been very different.2*
"The work of Petrie, Bliss, and Macalister was carried on under the
auspices of the pioneer society, The Palestine Exploration Fund.

360 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
The fact that the Holy Land was freely open to
foreign immigration is shown from the Sidonian tombs
found near Tell Sandahannah. Drs. J. P. Peters and H.
Thiersch discovered these strange examples of sepulchral
art in 1902. The walls of the tombs were brilliantly
painted, showing a bull, panther, serpent, ibex, croco
dile with ibis on its back, hunter on horseback, etc.,
with dated inscriptions, the earliest being 196 B.C.
Nothing shows better the interrelations of that age
than this Phoenician colony living in Palestine, not only
writing in the Greek language but also using Egyptian
and Libyan characters in their, art. The dress of this
period is surprizingly modern, as shown by some of the
figures. That they also believed in the future life is
shown by their tomb decorations. In a similar tomb
which the writer discovered in 19 13 the most prominent
features of the decoration were a garland of flowers
surrounded by a cross and a cock. The cross was
probably merely an ornament, but the cock as "herald
of the dawn" almost certainly symbolized the hope of
a future life. Another painted tomb of the same era
has more recently been discovered, and thoroughly
described by Warren J. Moulton, but it adds little more
to our knowledge of the period.2"
The most striking find at Tell Sandahannah con
sisted of sixteen little human figures dating from the
early Christian era. These little "revenge dolls" are
bound in fetters of lead, iron, etc., through which the
owners hoped to work magic on their enemies. To
gether with these, forty-nine fragments of magical
tablets were found inscribed in Greek on white lime
stone with exorcisms, incantations, and imprecations.
a Journal of Roman Studies, 1915 (Jan.-March).

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 361
Nor was belief in magic confined to the Jews and
heathen. In a Christian exorcism recently published
the ancient writer attempts to put magical bonds upon an
enemy who he supposed was working evil through the
"spirit of evil whom the angel Gabriel released from fiery
chains." The "name" of Jesus and certain "scripture"
narrating the power of our Lord in Galilee is "pro
claimed" to this evil spirit, and he is bidden to flee to
the woods on the mountain top and leave the tormented
Christian alone.3
It seems a great pity that in the remarkable exca
vations of Dr. Ernest Sellin at Jericho (1907-9) no
remains from the early Christian era were discovered
excepting two crosses and two or three other Christian
emblems. They did, however, find a large Jewish town
(600-400 b.c), and proved that the Jericho of Jesus'
day was a double city spreading itself out on both sides
of the wady. They found a rich hoard of Jewish house
hold utensils, and proved that Greek merchants and
terra-cotta manufacturers found in Jericho a very good
sale for their wares about the days of Ezra. Toys in
terra-cotta were common, and fragments of a beautiful
animal frieze were found, as well as twelve Rhodian jar
handles stamped in Aramaic with the words "To
Jehovah." All of this shows that Jericho, the city of
priests, was a cultured and religious town several cen
turies before the birth of Christ.
While Dr. George A. Reisner, with a staff of
specialists, made many remarkable discoveries at
Samaria, 1908-9, almost all of these refer to a period
long before the Christian era. They did, however, trace
the road of columns leading to the forum and the great
" Bulletin d'anc. litt. chret., 1911, p. 81, No.l.

362 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
outer wall "twenty stadia in circuit" which Josephus
mentions, and uncovered the ornamental gate and
several important buildings. Many inscriptions and
much pottery of the Roman period were excavated, and
the old Roman chariot road leading into the forum,
which Jesus and his disciples must have known well,
was positively identified. Adjoining the forum and
connected with it by a wide doorway was a basilica con
sisting of a large, open, stone-paved court surrounded
by a colonnade with mosaic floor. An inscription in
Greek on an architrave in the courtyard dates this
a.d. 12-15. The plan of this Herodian temple, which
was built during the boyhood of our Lord, consisted of
a stairway, a portico, a vestibule, and a celia with a
corridor on each side. The staircase was eighty feet
wide, composed of seventeen steps beautifully con
structed, the steps being quite modern in style, each
tread overlapping the next lower by several inches.
The roof was arched and the walls very massive and
covered with a heavy coat of plaster still retaining
traces of color. A few Greek graffiti were found near
here, 150 stamped jar handles, and many fragments of
Latin inscriptions. A complete inscription on a large
stele proved to be a dedication from some Pannonian
soldier (probably second century) to "Jupiter Optimus
Maximus." Near this was found a torso of heroic size
carved in white marble with such superior skill as to
bring to mind the Augustus of the Vatican. Close to
this statue was a Roman altar (presumably Herodian)
about 13x7 feet, rising in six courses of stone to a
height of six feet.
Beneath the Roman city was a Seleucid town (about
300-100 b.c.) with its fortifications, gateway, streets,

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 363
one great public building and complex of private
houses, in connection with which was a large bath
house with mosaic floor, containing hot and cold baths,
water-closets, etc., which was heated by a furnace. In
this connection we ought perhaps also to mention M.
Gaster's discovery at Samaria of fifteen ancient
phylacteries, the text of which dates back to the first
century of the Christian era, being therefore the kind
of phylacteries referred to in Matt. 23 : 5. They con
sist of quotations from the Old Testament, and also
contain a curious list of the names of male and female
sorcerers.4 The greatest single excavation ever made in Pales
tine was that undertaken under the auspices of the Pales
tine Exploration Fund by Dr. Macalister at Gezer,
some twenty miles northwest of Jerusalem, in 1902-5;
1907-9. No explorations have been continued so long
on one spot, or have produced more unique discoveries,
or thrown more light upon the development of Pales
tinian culture and religion; and none have been re
ported as fully. Unfortunately, however, even here
the early Christian era is almost a blank. The popula
tion had either disappeared in the early Christian
period, or the monuments had been broken into dust in
some terrible catastrophe. It is something, however,
to find here coming from the time of Ezra or a little
earlier another complete plan of an ancient Palestine
town. Gezer at this era was in appearance like a
modern Arab village, a huge mass of crooked, narrow,
filthy streets, shut inside a thick wall with no trace of
sanitary conveniences, with huge cisterns in which
dead men could lie undetected for centuries, and with
* Palestine Expl. Fund, Quarterly Report, March, 1916, etc.

364 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
no sewers. Even in the Maccabean time the only
sewer ran, not into a cesspool, but into the ground
close to the governor's palace. No wonder that the
death rate was exceedingly high, few old men being
found in the cemeteries, while curvature of the spine,
syphilis, brain disease, and especially broken and unset
bones were common.
The houses were generally of one story, and when
two-storied the stairs led up from the outside and the
lower floor was mostly given up to the cattle. When
a chamber was too large to be spanned by a single
length of roofing timber, middle posts were used.
Tweezers, pins, and needles, bottles containing eye-
paint, mirrors, combs, perfume boxes, scrapers for
baths, and jewelry of various kinds were common,
while a pulley of bronze was also found and an iron
hoe exactly like the modern one. During the Macca
bean epoch the people of Gezer built reservoirs (one
having a capacity of 4,000,000 gallons), used well-
paved rooms, favored complex house plans with pillars,
the courtyard becoming less important as compared
with the rooms, tho domestic fowls were now for the
first time introduced. The architectural decorations
have all been annihilated, excepting a few molded
stones, and an Ionic volute from a palace supposed to
be that of Simon Maccabeus because of the reference
in Josephus and because of a scribbled imprecation
found in the courtyard: "May fire overtake (!)
Simon's palace." This is the only inscription from this
period excepting one grotesque animal figure on which
is scrawled a name looking something like "Antio-
chus."5
• The writer has quoted freely in the above summary of results, from

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 365
Since the above excavations were finished, a
few other explorations of minor importance have been
made which ought to be mentioned. These have con
sisted mainly of topographical, geographical, and
meteorological notes; examination of ancient walls,
towers, caves, roads, and springs; a critical study of
the natural products and of the exports and imports
of Palestine; modern manners and customs, religious
ideas, folk-lore, etc. Yet many small objects have been
brought to light, such as seals, glass mosaics, wall
frescoes, ossuaries, osteophagi ; Greek, Latin, and Kufic
inscriptions; and other objects too numerous to men
tion. In the midst of this wealth of small discoveries
it seems almost impossible to mention any without un
fair discrimination; yet we can not wholly omit from
our review a few of the most recent "finds." No Bible
student could fail to be interested in the two fine rock-
cut tombs containing Jewish sarcophagi found recently
in a srb,irb of Jerusalem, a rolling stone being used for
one of the doors of the tomb. As these are almost the
only Jewish sarcophagi ever found in Jerusalem, it is
of interest to note how carefully the tombs were made,
and that the walls were prepared for paintings, just as
in the best heathen tombs of this period. In connection
with this might be mentioned the discovery of a richly
carved marble sarcophagus (second century b.c), at
Turmus Aya near Shiloh.6 It was constructed out of
his article, "Palestine (Recent Explorations)," in the International Bible
Encyclopedia (IV., 2222-2235), published by the Howard-Severance Co.,
Chicago, 1915. Thanks for this privilege are hereby returned to the pub
lishers, and the reader is referred to that work for a list of authoritative
publications on this subject. An additional official publication of value
is, Fifty Years' Work in the Holy Land, published by the Palestine Explora
tion Fund, London, 1915.
6 Described hy Mr. Jacob E. Spafford, June, 1913, in the Journal of the
British Archeological Association.

366 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
fine white marble, the heavy lid being gable-shaped like
most of the Greek and Roman sarcophagi, and its sides
ornamented with elaborate carvings, little inferior to
the best work previously unearthed in Palestine.
Among these are fruits and flowers in abundance and
several remarkable symbolical figures. The figures
represent Bacchus, a horse and rider, a man in the
clutch of a dragon, and the four seasons with sym
bolical figures of the Earth and Ocean. The figure
representing Winter is covered with an ample mantle,
his right hand is broken, and birds are held in his left
hand. By his side is Spring, whose left arm rests on
a gnarled branch, the right hand holding a basket of
flowers. Next to this is the figure representing Sum
mer, pictured as a winged cupid, whose hair is adorned
with ears of wheat and who carries a basket over
flowing with the same grain. The Earth is seen at
the feet of Winter, wearing a garland of ripe grain
upon her brow.
In April and May, 1905, the German Oriental
Society excavated a Hebrew synagog of the Roman
period at Tell-Hum. It was 78 feet long by 59 feet
wide, was built of beautiful white limestone almost
equal to marble, and was in every way more mag
nificent than any ever before found in Palestine, that
in Chorazin being the next finest. Its roof was gable-
shaped, and it was surprizingly ornamented with fine
carvings representing animals, birds, fruits, etc; tho
in some cases these ornamentations had been inten
tionally mutilated. In January, 1907, Macalister and
Masterman reported that they had made sufficient ex
cavations at Khan Minyeh to prove that it was not the
ancient Capernaum, as it contained no pottery older-

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 367
than the Arab time. This report being accepted, Tell-
Hum is left without a rival in its claim to be Caper
naum and makes it probable that the synagog ex
cavated there is the very one referred to in Luke 12: 5/
Among the most recent finds we perhaps ought to
mention also the heathen temple from the time of
Diocletian recently found a little south of the "street
called Straight" in Damascus; the inscription (a.d. 318)
found east of the Jordan telling of the existence of
a Marcionite synagog there; the small, vaulted chapel
discovered in 1905 under the traditional site of the
house of Ananias; and the Christian mosaic found on
the Mount of Olives in 1907, containing the monogram
of Jesus Christ and the letters alpha and omega. The
finest mosaic, however, ever found in Palestine was
that discovered in 1896 at Madeba by Father Cleopas,
librarian of the Greek patriarch.
This proved to be a part of the pavement of a sixth
century church (a.d. 527-565) and is a "veritable map
of Palestine," showing its chief cities, the boundaries
of the tribes, and especially the city of Jerusalem with
its walls, gates, chief buildings, including the Church
of the Holy Sepulcher, and its chief streets ; notably one
long, straight street intersecting the city and lined with
colonnades. As Madeba lies near the foot of Mt. Nebo,
it has been thought that the artist may have intended
to represent ideally a modern sixth century vision of
Moses. This mosaic was very large and was beautifully
laid out in colors. It has just been very pleasingly
suggested that this "oldest land-map known" was prob
ably a votive offering to the church by some ancient
pilgrim. In 1899 Mr. S. W. Woodward of Washington,
7 Yet see Pal. Expl. Fund, 1916, p. 194.

368 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
D. C, obtained in Jerusalem the remarkable draw
ing of this mosaic, which we reproduce through the
kindness of Dr. I. M. Casanowicz and the editor of Art
and Archaeology. It was orientated toward the sunrise
and contains about one hundred forty place names, some
eighty of which have reference to the Bible narratives.8
Another mosaic found recently at 'Ain 'Arrub, be
tween Bethlehem and Hebron, contained an inscription
in Greek telling of St. Plesippos, Who, "like St. John,"
had lived to be a hundred years old. Still another de
scribed recently by Mr. Willard H. Robinson, Jr.,"
discovered at Ard el-Muheit near Mt. Nebo, early in
1914, deserves to be more fully described, as it is one of
the most beautiful ever found in Palestine. It is part
of the floor of an ancient church, and is 36 feet long
by 27 feet broad, being richly adorned in colors with
figures of men, and animals of various kinds; perhaps
the most important is the representation of a man
and woman with a serpent coiled about a pole between
them. The whole is in an excellent state of preserva
tion. Along the borders there are three Greek in
scriptions dating probably from the fourth century,
the largest and most valuable of which consists of six
lines telling of the prayers of certain devotees to the
god of "holy Lot" and "holy Procopias." The designa
tion of Lot as a patron saint seems strange; but an
ancient Jerusalem ritual mentions that Abraham and
Lot were both reverenced in Galilee in the seventh
Christian century.10
Many inscriptions have recently been found in
"Art and Archeology, March, 1916.
' American Journal of Archeology, 1914, pp. 492-498.
10 See article of Prof. George L. Robinson, Harvard Theological Review,
October, 1915, pp. 525-552.

MAP OF PALESTINE AS SEEN FROM MT. NEBO (6th Century)
From "Art and Archaeology," March, 1916

CHRISTIAN VILLA AT EL-BARAH, SYRIA
From De Vogue, "L'Architecture dans le Syrle Centrale," (Vol. I)

CHRISTIAN HOUSES AT DJEBEL RIHA IN CENTRAL SYRIA (6th Century)
From De Vogue, "L'Architecture dans le Syrle Centrale," (Vol. I)

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 369
Eastern and Western Palestine. One of these, coming
from Getasa, has to do with Hadrian's campaign
against the Jews, a.d. 132-133, and proves that eight
squadrons of the Royal Body Guard were at Gerasa at
that time with the Emperor. Dr. A. Cowley, 1914-
191 5, found a particularly interesting inscription at
Khalasa, about forty-five miles southeast of Gaza,
dating from about 96 b.c. :
"This is the place which Nuthalru made for the life of Aretas,
king of the Nabateans."
A number of other inscriptions mention Aretas, "who
loves his people." One of these dates from a.d. 31, and
another from a.d. 37. It was at some time between these
dates that Paul escaped from the governor of Aretas in
Damascus (2 Cor. 11: 32).10a
Mr. M. N. Todd reports a building inscription at
Beersheba, dating a.d. 241-242, possibly Christian, and
several other funeral inscriptions elsewhere, certainly
Christian, dating from the fifth and sixth centuries.
One of these gives not only the month and year, but
the day and hour of the person's death.
The present writer, in 1913, saw a large grave
tablet at Beersheba which he copied, containing the
following previously unpublished epitaph (a.d. 589-
604): "Here was deposited Emma Nonna, the deaconess, in the
month of Daesius ... the twenty-third of the first indiction."
This reminds one of the grave inscription reported
in the Revue Biblique (N.S., Tome II, p. 248) :
"Here is deposited the happy Peter, the first day of the month
Artemesios in the third indiction."
,0° For a translation of these texts see Geo. A. Barton, Archeology and
the Bible, p. 442.

370 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
There are also Christian epitaphs for "the late
Abraham, a physician, who died May 8 in the twelfth
indiction in the year 365," reported from Beersheba, for
Father Symmachis, and for "the happy Victorine," etc.
But the most important is the following :
"I am George, the son of Theodotus. Fate extinguished me
in my youth and I have left to mourn me my father and my uncle,
who brought me up and gave me an excellent education . . .
indiction. 12 . . . May the Christ give thee rest, my orphan."11
Nathaniel Schmidt has also recently reported
twenty-one texts from Ruhebek (cf. Gen. 26:22), all
of a similar nature to the more simple epitaphs given
above, and three more from Beersheba, one of which
is an honorific inscription dedicated to an artist who
had evidently just designed and erected some mag
nificent monument there in the middle of the fifth
century :
"Eyes, what marvel is this ! Such an ornament, how was it
made here ? What mortal devised this beautiful thing the world
never saw before? Antipater made it, and shewed how Uranus
(gracious be he!) holds in his hands the reins of armies dear to
Mars." 12
In 1914 Dr. G. Dalman was able to report twenty-
Greek inscriptions and a number of Hebrew and
Aramaic epitaphs from the fourth to the sixth cen
turies, coming from Jerusalem, Nazareth, Gadara, and
other towns. Perhaps the most interesting of these is
that of Oneos, "the high priest," a.d. 539, closing with
the ordinary heathen formula, "Be of good courage,
no one is immortal." In connection with the latter in-
u Op. cit., pp. 249, 250.
u American Journal of Archeology, 14 : 67.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 371
scription we would like to mention a small marble slab
which we obtained at Caesarea in 19 13, containing the
following Christian epitaph:
"In the month Loos, the priestess passed away ... on the
eighth day of the year ... of Christ."
The fact that this is certainly a Christian inscrip
tion makes us wonder whether Oneos was a Christian
priest, and whether "the priestess" mentioned above
was a converted heathen priestess or whether this was
a Christian title. It is interesting tho puzzling to find
on the tombstone of this priestess two engraved figures
which seem to be those of a scorpion or spider and a
hare. If properly interpreted the former may be the
heathen symbol representing pain and destruction, as
the hare was certainly the Christian symbol represent
ing escape from danger.13
That the spider was sometimes used by Christians
in exorcisms is shown by a very curious Latin text,
recently published, in which the exorcist denounces his
enemy in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, declaring
that he shall not be able to "cross the river" because
of the "fiery spider." "
" The carving is so imperfect, however, that it may be possible that a
butterfly was intended instead of the spider. For the other inscriptions
quoted, and many more, see Zeitschrift des deutschen Palastina-V ereins,
1914, pp. 135-145. Some Latin inscriptions were also recently found in the
Lebanons by Prof. James A. Montgomery (Am. Journal of Archeology,
Jan. 1916). The writer is greatly indebted to Dr. E. J. Goodspeed
of the University of Chicago for help in deciphering several of the above
previously unpublished inscriptions.
"Text published by Giulio Bertoni in Bulletin d'anc. litt. chret., 1911,
p. 81, No. II. Ancient inscriptions are always difficult to read because of
their mutilation, bad orthography, and bad grammar; but magical texts
are also made intentionally obscure. I am indebted to my friend and col
league, Prof. Clarence F. Ross, A. M., for help in unraveling some of
the puzzles in language connected with this and several other Latin texts.
For the detailed interpretation, however, I must alone be held responsible.

372 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
In addition to inscriptions, many fine statues and
marble bas-reliefs, with a few personal ornaments, have
been recently found at Askalon, Caesarea, and else
where. One of the most interesting pieces of jewelry
was an onyx seal ring of Abbahu, containing a Hebrew
inscription dating from a.d. 279-80, found at Caesarea
and reported by Dr. P. Schroeder.15
While the record of these new discoveries in Pales
tine has, in a way, been disappointing, yet they have
been important in bringing clearly to view the extreme
poverty of the poor and the wealth of the rich in the
cities with which our Lord was best acquainted. It is
now seen that Jesus lived in a luxurious age, coming
into close touch daily with the currents of an important
world traffic. Jesus and his disciples were poor, but
their neighbors were rich. The shore of the Sea of
Galilee was a favorite place for the summer residences
of Roman nobles. When one thinks of the splendid
Greek city of Tiberias, the most prominent object on
the Sea of Galilee, built during the early manhood of
Jesus, and made capital of Galilee by Herod, and when
one examines the magnificent ruins of Samaria, a city
which was directly on the route to Jerusalem, and then
crossing the Jordan visits Gadara or the even more
wonderful ruins of Gerasa in Decapolis (cf. Matt.
4:25), with its 230 great columns and Corinthian
pillars, its triumphal arch, its magnificent baths and
temples, its splendid theater, capable of seating 6,000
spectators, and its newly excavated harbor for naval
engagements — a Bible student comes away with a new
impression of the surroundings of the Founder of
Christianity.
" Op. cit., p. 177.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 373
2. New Light on the First Century from
Pompeii
August Mau, in the great work to which every
student of Pompeian life is indebted, has said : "Pompeii,
as no other source outside the pages of classical authors,
helps us to understand the ancient man." 16
But even this does not state the complete fact. The
classics only incidentally reveal the life of the middle
and lower classes ; but in Pompeii we see the scribblings
and sports of these classes, in which we are now so
intensely interested. To the New Testament student as
to no other, Pompeii appeals, since we here see a
concrete illustration of the civilization contemporaneous
with the apostles; for it was in the twenty years pre
ceding the destruction of Pompeii that all the synoptic
gospels were written, together with all Paul's great
letters, and in fact the entire New Testament with the
exception of a few very small pieces and perhaps the
gospel of John.
The culture of this country town in Italy was
superior in certain respects to the average town of
Palestine, Egypt, and Syria; yet the life of the middle
and lower classes was fundamentally the same. It
must not be forgotten, also, that culture was not con
fined to Italy, as has recently been very conclusively
proved by the excavations. There is no single work
of architecture in Pompeii that imprest the writer as
much as the ruins of the ancient synagog in Capernaum
and those other great ruins at Chorazin and Samaria,
or the extraordinary and immense ruins at Timgad in
Northern Africa, all of which date from the first
century.
"Pompeii, Its Life and Art, Kelsay ed., 1904, p. 511.

374 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
While no palace in Pompeii could compare in ele
gance with the Villa of Hadrian — out of which came
almost all the art treasures of the Naples Museum, con
trasted with which our finest palaces would rank as
common bungalows — yet the house of the Vettii, of
the Silver Faun, or of the Golden Cupids, exceeds in
beauty the average residence of modern men of
wealth. The best houses may not even yet have been
uncovered, for Cicero had a villa near here where he
wrote his famous De OMciis; and Nero in a.d. 64, mur
dered one of the officials in order to take possession
of his property. The jewelry and ornaments found in
Pompeii and especially in Herculaneum were rich and
artistic, while one blue glass vase ranks only second
to the celebrated Portland vase, the pride of the British
Museum; and the hoard of seventy beautiful bowls, in
South Gallic style, discovered in one house in Pompeii
in 1 88 1, proves that the importation of foreign ware
was common.
There was not the same comfort in the home life
of Pompeii as is common in modern times, for such
comfort is unknown even now in the East; but the
plumbing and heating was adequate, baths and foun
tains were numerous, the marble center-tables and
ornamental stands were as beautiful as any to-day,
while the kettles and pots and "self-cookers" found in
the kitchens prove that the people lived well. There
were three public baths, the largest of which covered
as much ground as the Houses of Parliament in Lon
don. In the Forum baths alone, 1,300 lamps have been
found, and there were sixteen independent water- jets
in the house of the Vettii.17 Pictures of the dining-
" Alberto Piso and William Mackenzie.. Pompeii, 1910, j>. 120.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 375
rooms show the table surrounded with couches each
made to accommodate three persons. "The diner rested
on his left arm on a cushion at the side nearer the
table and stretched his feet out toward the right.
Hence the first on the upper couch had what was
called 'the highest place.' The one next was said to
recline 'below' him, because lying on the side toward
which the first person extended his feet; the man at
the outer end of the lower couch was said to be 'at the
foot.' When in the gospel of John we read of a dis
ciple 'lying on Jesus' breast,' the meaning is easily ex
plained by reference to Roman usage; John was re
clining in the place next below the Master." 18
The Pompeians loved sports. Their large stone
theater had been built for a hundred years before the
first stone theater in Rome (55 b.c); and when the
Romans built their first stone amphitheater (about
29 b.c.) the Pompeians had already been enjoying
theirs for some fifty years. The small theater was used
specifically as a music hall, and the barracks of the
gladiators were established in the colonnade of this
theater. The gladiatorial combats were frequent and
on a large scale for so small a town, thirty or forty
pairs fighting each day of the show, the amphitheater
being large enough to accommodate the entire popula
tion of 20,000 people. It was not alone the combatants
that were killed at these theatrical exhibitions, for a
record remains of a riot, a.d. 59, in which many of the
populace met their death.
All these public buildings and all the better class
houses were decorated with wall paintings which show
at their best "refinement in the choice of subjects,
18 Mau, op. cil.t P. 263.

376 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
fertility in the composition, firmness of touch in the
drawing, and exquisite finish in even the smallest de
tails" (Mau). Expert artists can speak of the frescoes
in the villa discovered in 1909 as representing a "very
natural and noble art," and of the cupids and psyches
in the house of the Vettii "as very dainty and charm
ing," "revelling in brilliance and variety of color," "a
perfect blaze of harmonic polychromy," expressing
"delicacy of touch, fertility of invention, novelty of
theme — the blossoming of a new life" — "a living art
not a series of mechanical replicas," a style "that
passed into early Christian art" and "profoundly in
fluenced the artists of the Renaissance." 19
Yet the fact is that in some rooms these beautiful
cupids, instead of being represented as vine-dressers,
goldsmiths, or flower merchants, blacksmiths or sellers
of oil, are painted engaged in such evil actions, with
such devilish ingenuity of imagination, that ordinary
visitors to the ruined city are not allowed to see them.
When the present writer was taken, in 191 3, through
the new street which had just been discovered, he
found that the walls of the houses fronting the street
were covered with such abominable pictures that the
excavator had covered them with sheets so that his
working men might not be debauched by them. The
street was straight and broad, the houses were well
built of brick and concrete, and the balconies covered
with tile exactly such as are used for roofs now; but
the unblushing immoral tone of the town's life was
below anything that can be found in any European or
" Gerhart Rodenwaldt, Die Komposition der pompejanischen Wandge-
malde, 1909; Alberto Pisa, Pompeii, 1910; R. A. Briggs, Pompeian Decora
tions, 1911; Revue archeologique, 1915, pp. 321-347; Journal of Hellenic
Studies, XVI., 143-157.

A WINE SHOP OR "SALOON" RECENTLY DISCOVERED AT POMPEII
"Notizie Doeli Scavi Di Antichita," 1012, p. 114

BRONZE DOOR OF A ROMAN VILLA
IN POMPEII
"Nottzle Degli Scavi," etc., 1910, it. it'.

WALL PICTURE FROM A POMPEIAN
VILLA
"Notizie Degli Scan," etc., 1910, flg. iv

COLOSSAL SEATED STATUE OF TIBERIUS
The Vatican

THE MARK OF THE BEAST
Seal of the "Divine Cassar" (A.D. 5-G)
From A. Dei.ssmann's "Light from the Ancient
East," p. 313

VIEW OF THE APPIAN WAY

ANCIENT RELICS FROM ROME

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES . 377
American city to-day. Ih the worst sections of the
worst cities such obscene scrawls, dealing with the
depths of human depravity, could not remain un
touched by the public censor. ,
Modern civilization is not chiefly a matter of better
inventions but of better morals.
In the House of the Surgeon was found a number
of instruments exactly such as our best surgeons now
use. The bronze bust of Caecilius Jucundus, the
banker of Pompeii, whose receipts and legal documents,
carefully signed by nine Witnesses, have come down to
us from a.d. 15, a.d. 27, a.d. 52-62, shows a typical
capitalist's face and would not look out of place in the
office of any modern captain of industry ; while the bar
room, found two or three years ago, with marble
counter and with glasses and decanters in place, was
almost exactly like a modern bar-room, even to the hot
lunches offered with drinks; but behind the veneer of
wealth and civilization there was a moral rottenness
which no one seemed to care to hide. The people were
not all wicked ; yet I do not wonder that one man, prob
ably a Jew, scribbled on the wall one day, "Sodom!"
''Gomorrah!" Other scribblings reveal the life of the
city equally well. One of the most curious of these
graffiti speaks of Harmonia saying, "The number of
her beautiful name is 45." The name Harmonia, of
course, suggests the "Muses" and 45=1 +2 + 3 + 4+ 5 +
6 + 7 + 8 + 9, and is therefore a number of perfection.
So 666 (Rev. 13 : 17)=!+ 2 + 3 up to 36, and 36=1 + 2 +
3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8.20 It would seem more likely to
"Numerical identifications are never demonstrative. One scholar
has actually suggested that the Beast of the Apocalypse was numeri
cally equal to the Gnostic "Wisdom," Journal Theol. Studies, XIV., 444.

378 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
the writer that 666 would equal the subhuman or
demonic as compared with 777, the symbol of abso
lute human perfection, while 888, the common "num
ber" of Jesus Christ, would represent the super
human.21 If 616 is the real "number" of the beast, as
it is according to a most ancient text, then there can
be no doubt whatever as to its meaning; for it numeri
cally represents Kaioao Oeog — the "God Csesar,"
against whom the "Lord Jesus" was opposed.21"
That this rather mystic method of expressing
thought was very common during St. John's lifetime is
proved by the fact that even in one of the Pompeian
election notices the vowels are distinguished cryptically
by numbers. A favorite actor is mentioned as "darling of the
people"; a certain gladiator is spoken of as "the glory
of the girls," and a "lord among the lassies." A woman
is named in this public way followed by the invocation,
"may you sneeze sweetly!" Another amatory verse
by an unknown poet reads:
"Good health be with you lovers all ;
Who knows not how to love be cursed."
Another effusion from a Pompeian lover may be
paraphrased :
"My fair girl has taught me to hate brunettes.
I never love a dark-haired woman except against my will."
Another ne'er-do-well with a different taste has
scribbled something which may be feebly paraphrased:
"Dark maidens for me ; I always did like blackberries."
21 If this is a proper explanation, the number 888 must be considered
the earlier form, and "Jesus Christ Saviour of Man" its later explanation.
m" That is, Kcaoap ©eog, which in Greek is 666, is 616 in Latin and there
fore this must be the original meaning.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 379
One scrawl reads, "He who has never been in love
can be no gentleman," and still another, "All lovers
come! I purpose to break the ribs of Venus and to
smash the small of her back with clubs," and still
another placard, whether of warning or praise, it may
be difficult to say, reads, "Restitutus has many times
deceived many girls." Many of the graffiti found in
the city are of such a character that they can not be
quoted; many more are of a personal nature such as
the following:
"Samius to Cornelius: Go hang yourself."
"Pyrrhus to his chum Chius : I am sorry to hear that you are
dead." One of the most valuable of the wall-paintings dis
covered 1911-13, represents a large religious procession
carrying a statue of Cybele. The crowd is large and
drest in brilliant costume. One woman is noticeable
for her blond hair and green dress. A priestess who
is inviting the populace to the sacrifice also wears a
green dress and green crown. The priest wears a
white tunic striped with purple and a white toga.
Brown and black shoes and stockings seem most pop
ular. The most interesting placards are, however, the
election notices. There were bulletin boards at the
head of the street leading from the forum for notices
of all kinds, but besides this the walls of the houses
were freely used. One of these on the most public
street in letters nearly eight inches high, reads :
"Make Publius Furius duumvir, I beg you ; he's a good man."
Another notice, just uncovered, reads:
"Sergius Felix recommends A. Vettium as a strong character."

380 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Another, which may show the interest of women
in politics (as is usually supposed), or may only be an
opponent's suggestion that the corrupt women of the
town were supporting Fuscunas, reads:

"Asetinas and Smyrine say, Vote for Fuscunas as your alder

man.

So in a text published in 1912, Julius Polybius is
"recommended" by Smyrina and H. Priscus.
About 1600 of these election notices have been
found, the qualifications of the candidates being boldly
set forth, as:
"He is worthy of public office ; he is a good fellow" ; "He is
an upright young man"; "He will be the watchdog of the
treasury." "This young man is honest and is worthy of election."
Occasionally a man who has recommended a can
didate draws a line through his name later, indicating,
probably, that for some reason he has withdrawn his
support. While most of these recommendations are from
individuals, many of them are from the different guilds
and trade unions, such as barbers, carpenters, laundry-
rnen, pastry cooks, inn-keepers, masons, bakers, etc.
The muleteers, porters, fishermen, apprentices, ball
players, and even the schoolmasters and their pupils
have their political "say" in this public way, and in at
least a few instances recommendations for a candidate
come from the "late drinkers," the "loafers," the
"sneak thieves," the "assassins," and from "all the
people who are asleep!" These are placards evidently
put up by the opposing candidate. The shops and even
the gravestones are desecrated by these election notices,

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 381
which are sometimes painted and sometimes scrawled
in charcoal. The above shows the frivolity and careless sport of
the town ; yet many were trying to be religious. There
is no intention of suggesting that Pompeii was more
frivolous than other towns of the first century. Prob
ably Neapolis (Naples), being a watering-place, was
more frivolous than Pompeii. This town merely repre
sents the ordinary life of the Roman world. The
tendency fifty years ago was to overestimate the frivolity
and sin of this era. Scholars have now generally gone
to the opposite extreme. Many street altars have been
found, one being dug up two or three years ago with the
offering still upon it ; and in front of many a house can
yet be seen painted the symbol of Hermes — a wand with
two serpents twisted about it, warning off loiterers from
the premises. Very few indications of intellectuality and
love for literature have been found in this country town,
tho there is a picture of a girl with a writing tablet in her
left hand holding the end of a stylus against her lips
"as if pondering what to write," and that of a young
man with one end of a roll of papyrus under his chin.
One wall-painting pictures an elderly man and three
younger ones writing in the open air, probably rep
resenting an open-air school, since another boy "is
receiving his moral instruction in more tangible form
upon the bare back" (Alberto Pisa). An Egyptian
priest is also pictured chanting before the goddess Bast
from a papyrus text (Ancient Egypt, 1916, p. 17).
While this proves that in Pompeii, as everywhere else in
the apostolic era, the people could read and write, it is
, quite evident that education was not a strong point of
its population. A study of all the relics left in this

382 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
town — whose famous mountain for the first time became
volcanic a few months after Paul stopt at its port —
leaves the impression that its view of life was the same
as that found on a gaming-table at Timgad:22
This may not have been the view of life taken by
the Jewesses Mary and Martha, who worked for a
Pompeian weaver, nor of those other Jews for whom
Umbricius Scaurus manufactured the special fish sauce
which he marked "Pure" (Casta) ; but it undoubtedly
represented the general spirit of the people.
The town was utterly destroyed a very few years
after Paul stopt for an entire week within a few miles
of it on his journey to Rome (Acts 28: 14). If he
visited it, as is very possible, he may have seen the
large wall-painting of the Pompeian Venus drawn by
elephants in a quadriga, which was dug up three or
four years ago, and he may have met some of the very
men who were a little later in the bar-room previously
mentioned, drinking at the marble counter on the night
of the catastrophe. At any rate, the very cash box
which was found in its place in the wine room with
the bronze and silver coins in it, just as they were re
ceived as the fatal eruption began, was probably the
same as was being used when the sailors on Paul's
ship ran over from Puteoli in order to see the sights
of this famous little city in the year a.d. 59 or 60.23
22 Venari, lavare, ludere, ridere — hoc est vivere — "To hunt, to bathe, to
gamble, to laugh, this is indeed to live."
** There were five coins of silver and twenty-seven of bronze found in
this saloon minted under Augustus, Vespasian and Nero. Besides personal
observation, my authority for these most ancient discoveries is the Nuovo
Bulletino die Archeologia Christiana, 1912, pp. VXlff., 185#.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 383
3. New Light on the First Century from the
Roman Catacombs
The mass of new material brought to light in Rome
in the last forty years is without a parallel in history.
The excavations, during which 270,000,000 cubic feet
of earth have been displaced, have uncovered pottery,
inscriptions, tombs, and private houses in almost in
credible quantities. Yet none of these are equal in
value for Christian antiquity to the discoveries in the
catacombs. In order that the later work may be ap
preciated a summary of the earlier excavations must
be given.24 The catacombs represent the most notable monu
ments of primitive Christianity which have come down
to us. They are entirely of Christian construction and
did not originate, as was formerly supposed, out of
ancient stone quarries, but are hewn out of the tufa
rock. The vastness of these labyrinths awakens aston
ishment when we consider the poverty of the early
Christians. "This work of giants was completed by a
community of poor men destitute of resources, without
talent as without fortune, incessantly persecuted and
frequently decimated . . . With one hand they con
structed in the bowels of the earth a city more astonish
ing than Babylon; . . . with the other seizing on the
pagan world in the abyss of degradation they raised
it . . . and suspended it to the cross" (Abbe Gaume).
"Altho the writer has visited the oldest catacombs at Rome, he has
no independent judgment concerning them, and the facts and generaliza
tions from the earlier period have been gathered chiefly from the great
work of De Rossi (Northcote and Brownlow ed. 1869), and from the
summaries of recent excavations given by other specialists. For the more
recent excavations he has been mainly dependent upon the reports of Dr.
Orazio Marucchi in the Nuovo Bullettino di Archeologia Christiana, and
his invaluable Christian Epigraphy (1912).

384 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
These catacombs were dug along several of the prin
cipal streets leading out from Rome, and if the galleries
were extended in a straight line they would reach, ac
cording to De Rossi, at least 550 miles. They are narrow
passages with graves on the right and left, the number
of which has been estimated at nearly two millions.
They were evidently built on Jewish models, the Jews
having made such underground cemeteries near Rome
in pre-Christian time. Several of these Jewish cata
combs remain, containing pictures which represent the
olive branch, the dove, the palm, the seven-branched
candlestick, and a number of inscriptions, prominent
among which may be seen the Hebrew word Uu^f
"Peace." Up to a.d. 70, the early Christians were
legally regarded as Jews by the Roman government,
and could doubtless be buried in Jewish catacombs or
in graves of their own without fear. Burial places,
even of criminals, were sacredly respected by the
Roman Empire, so that for several generations Chris
tian cemeteries were not disturbed.
By the end of the first century Christianity had
already won a number of wealthy heathen converts,
and these permitted the poorer Christians to construct
burial places in connection with their magnificent
private tombs. A characteristic inscription is "M. M.
made this hypogeum for himself and his (brethren)
who believed in the Lord."
The earliest of the catacombs, those of Domitilla,
Priscilla, Commodilla, the crypt of Lucina, etc., are
accepted practically by all scholars as dating back to
the first century. In the third century these cemeteries
were violated during the persecutions of Valerian
(a.d. 258) and Diocletian (a.d. 303-305), and in the

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 385
sixth century by the Goths. De Rossi found in the
cemetery of Calixtus a mysterious stairway hanging in
mid-air which indicated that at one time this catacomb
was used as a hiding-place by persecuted Christians,
but it is perfectly evident that they were not often used
for this purpose. It is now equally clear that preaching
was not ordinarily conducted in many of them, altho
the Chapel of St. Priscilla is an exception, a pulpit
having been erected there behind the coffin of an
ancient martyr; and a baptistry has also been found
in the catacomb of St. Pontianus.
In something over 300 years, more than fifty cata
combs have been dug up, the greater number of these
belonging to the fourth century. The Emperor Con
stantine set the example of building churches over the
graves of the martyrs; but while Christian cemeteries
above ground became common, the catacombs were
still used and revered, and the old graves during this
century were adorned with marbles and inscriptions.
The invasion of Alaric a.d. 410, put an end to burial in
the catacombs and no inscription is dated later than
this. By the eighth century these sacred cemeteries
had been deserted, some of them being turned into
sheep stables; soon the popes began to transfer the
remains of the martyrs to the great cathedrals. From
the tenth to the sixteenth century they were al
most completely forgotten, excepting those of St.
Sebastiano, which continued to be visited by pil
grims. In 1578 one of the catacombs was ac
cidentally discovered by Antonio Bosio, who thereupon
spent forty years in studying these hidden ruins, pub
lishing his results in 1632. The "true Columbus" of the
catacombs, however, was Giovanni Battista de Rossi

386 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
(d. 1894), who "created from the foundations a science
of cemetery topography which he based upon solid and
unshakeable criteria," publishing his results in three
splendid volumes.25 In 1890 De Rossi made one of his
greatest discoveries, finding certain galleries "that had
not been touched since they were filled in during the
Diocletian persecution." The loculi or shelves in the
rock used as graves were intact and the epitaphs still
in their places, so that "they formed a kind of museum
in which the development, the formulae, and the
symbols of epigraphy from its origin to the end of the
third or fourth century can be contemplated ... in
the genuine and living reality of their original con
dition."26 Since then Stevenson, Armellini, Marucchi, Wil-
pert, Lanciani, and others have carried on De Rossi's
work. Several thousands of dollars have been ex
pended each year by the Holy See for this purpose,
and "there has been dug up a treasure of early Chris
tian epitaphs and paintings, valuable beyond all ex
pectations, which has given much unlooked for infor
mation concerning the faith of the early Christians,
their concepts of life, hopes of eternity, family relations,
etc."27 Even as early as 1873 there was found under an
ancient basilica a bas-relief representing the martyr
Achilleus (a.d. 391-395) receiving his death blow from
the executioners. Achilleus was a martyr of the first
^Nuova Roma Sotterranea, 1864-1877.
* Bullettino, 1884, p. 68. It was at this time that he uncovered the
wonderfully beautiful chamber of Ampliatus, its frescos rivaling those
of the Golden House of Nero and so ancient that he identified it as that
of the friend of St. Paul (Rom. 16:8).
87 Anton de Waal, Catholic Encyclopedia, III., 417-426.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 387
century and is represented tied to a stake which is sur
mounted by a cross. The cross is crowned by a
triumphal wreath as a symbol of the immortal recom
pense which awaits the confessor of the faith. The
picture and inscription dates from the fourth century,
the inscription being erected by Pope Damasus:
"They had enrolled with fearful heart in the army and were
performing their cruel functions prepared to serve . . . the will
of a tyrant looking to his every order. With marvelous faith
they suddenly put aside their madness and turning in flight they
leave the unholy camp of their commander, hurl away their
shields, their breast plates and their bloody weapons and, confess
ing their faith, rejoice to conduct the triumphal celebrations of
Christ." 28
Many beautiful inscriptions date from Damasus,
the "poet of the martyrs" (a.d. 366-384), the most im
pressive being his own epitaph:
"Here I, Damasus, confess that I wished to place my members
but I feared to disturb the holy ashes of the saints. . . . He
who walked upon the fierce waves of the sea and stilled them at
his command . . . who could loose the bonds of death from
Lazarus . . . he, I believe, will make Damasus to rise again." 29
During 1887 over eight hundred tombs were
opened in nine months, among which was the tomb of
a boot-maker with the tools of his trade pictured on
the gravestone. Even earlier than this the tomb of
a surgeon had been found with his surgical instruments
figured in the marble, and the tomb of a dentist with
his forceps. It is interesting to note that while gold-
plating was excellently done in the first century, few
28 Latin text in Encyclopedia Britannica, V., 498.
w For other inscriptions of Damasus, see Marucchi, op. cit, pp. 415-435.
Cf. J. H. Treat, Catacombs of Rome, p. 35. The name of his mother —
Laurentia — has recently been discovered. His father, who had been a
shorthand writer, took holy orders early in life, after which his wife took
the vow of chastity, lasting sixty years.

388 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
if any instances of gold filling have been preserved.30
Many tradesmen appear in the inscriptions — carpenters;
masons, curriers, wool-combers, shoemakers, black
smiths, weavers, vine-dressers, bakers', gardeners,
cooks, charcoal sellers, stone-dressers, tent-makers, etc.,
often with the tools of their trade. A few physicians
and teachers, many clerks, a few soldiers, and one
racing charioteer were buried as Christians. The
epitaphs of several Christian senators and a number
of ladies who were members of senatorial families
have been found, but none which are so impressive
as this inscription from the grave of a Lycaonian
soldier, Marcus Julius, who writes (earlier than a.d.
"Having suffered many annoyances from the general, I re
signed my military commission, holding fast to the Christian.
faith." In 1884 tne house and tomb of the Licinii Calpurnii
were discovered, the former being the richest and most
important palace found in a generation, the latter con
taining the burial urns of these princes of the time of
Nero, but with the urns broken and the ashes scattered
to the four winds.
In 1888 the crypt of the Acilii Glabriones was dis
covered, a family very famous in the first century. In
1885 a sarcophagus of the daughter of a Christian cap
tain of the ninth battalion of the Pretorian Guard was
dug up, and even earlier than this an entire cemetery
of Christian soldiers was discovered. It may have
been in the barracks of these soldiers that several
graffiti were found, dating from early in the third cen-
'"Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome, p. 364.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 389
tury, in which ridicule was offered to those who had
become Christians. The most famous is the well-
known scrawl in which a crucified man is represented
with an ass's head and underneath it the sneer:
"Xlexamenos worships his god !"
The same occurs again with the sneering epithet,
"The faithful!" Another soldier appears, bearing the
title, "Libanus the bishop!"
One of the most successful recent explorations was
conducted 1897- 1900, when a fine double crypt with
frescos representing Christ seated between six saints
was discovered in the cemetery of Domitilla, and
another fine fresco of Christ seated among the apostles
on the day of judgment was found in the catacomb of
Santi Pietro e Marcellino. To the epitaphs of four
popes discovered by De Rossi a fifth was added, found
in the crypt of St. Cecilia, his only title being "Over
seer" (emaxojtog).31 Since that date a number of other
inscriptions and frescos and several new catacombs
have come to light, but few things have been found of
preeminent importance.
In 1908 Professor Marucchi made a particularly
thorough study of the Cemetery of Priscilla,32 finding a
pontifical basilica and an ancient baptistry, and making
a re-examination of the vast number of inscriptions
found there, identifying this cemetery with that of
Ostriano. Seven years later he continued these ex
plorations and found in the very oldest part of the
catacomb fragments of a great sarcophagus from the
time of Damasus (a.d. 366-384), and a theological in-
American Journal of Archeology, XIII., 603.
Nuovo Bullettino di Archeplogia, Christiana, 1908, pp. 5-125.

390 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
scription containing the phrase, "the divine kingdom of
Jesus Christ."
In 1911-12 he excavated in the catacomb of
Domitilla, finding a number of wall-paintings and a
few inscriptions. This was the cemetery where
Boldetti had discovered the remarkable bronze medal
lion containing the portraits of Paul and Peter (late
second or early third century), and much was ex
pected, but very little of importance was found.33
Another discovery, however, this same year more than
repaid the excavator for all his work and more than
fulfilled all his hopes, for in March he began to open
an old primitive subterranean graveyard which proved
to be the cemetery of the Flavii, in which still re
mained one particularly magnificent sarcophagus
covered with bas-reliefs. He also found not far away
a small, rude sarcophagus of the fifth century repre
senting the Epiphany and the visit of the Magi, one of
the Magi carrying a lamb in his arms as his gift.
Another figure held a volume in his hand, and still
another picture represented Moses bringing water
from the rock. Another very magnificent tomb un
covered this year was that of a presbyter, Dulcitus
(early fourth century), in which was an inscription
dated November 3, 369, recording the death of the
deacon, Gregorus.
In November and December, 19 14, and during the
early part of 191 5, while engaged in repairing the
Cemetery of St. Marcellino, Marucchi found some in
teresting new inscriptions, one of these being written by
MLanciani accepts these "portraits" of the apostles found on this
medallion and on many third century glass baptismal cups. He says:
"The type never varies ; the antiquity and genuineness of both types can not
be doubted" (Pagan and Christian Rome, p. 212).

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 391
Jannarius (third century) in honor of his infant son
Africanus, whom he calls his "little lamb." A little
later, in the most ancient part of the cemetery of
Domitilla, three fragments of a burial inscription
erected by Fanius Paulus to his two-year-old "sweetest
child," Fanius Leo, was found. The father is recorded
as asking his infant son Leo to "pray" for his brethren.
The year 19 15 brought several other important dis
coveries, including a previously unknown Christian
and a Jewish cemetery, but most spectacular of all, an
ancient church, which was found under the basilica of
St. Sebastian on the Appian Way — where, according to
very ancient tradition, St. Peter and St. Paul were
temporarily buried about a.d. 258, during a time of
persecution when the vaults of the Vatican were un
safe. In 1915, through the generosity of Mons. De
iWaal, thorough excavations were made here, near the
spot which tourists remember because of the "three
springs," uncovering, some six feet beneath the floor
of the present basilica, a pagan columbarium of the
first century, and near this an ancient building partially
destroyed. While most of the walls of this very ancient
building were broken down, one remained containing
third century paintings and fourth century graffiti,
the latter referring frequently to Peter and Paul, a refer
ence which proves to Professor Marucchi's satisfaction
that this was the authentic site of that ancient famous
sepulcher.34 A few remarks ought now to be made on the gen
eral bearing of the catacomb inscriptions upon our
knowledge of the early Christian life. The most
" See for the above statement Nuovo Bullettino, 1912, pp. 123#., 169 ff. ;
1914, pp. 95ff.; 1915, pp. 57 ff., 147 ff., 152#.; 1916, p. 516.

392 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
ancient of these inscriptions, which are usually written
very beautifully, begin as early as the first century and
are very brief — e.g., "Peace"; "Peace to thee." The
symbols used during the first and second centuries are
few and simple, the peacock, the anchor, the trident, and
the ship with rigging — the latter, perhaps, representing
a hidden form of the cross. During the third century,
which was the period of persecution, the dove with the
olive branch in its mouth appears, as also the palm
branch, crown, and fish. By the close of the third or
beginning of the fourth century the cross appears, and
the monogram of Christ containing the initial letters
of the Savior's name (X and P) and the common
lyfivc, — which was an acrostic meaning "Jesus Christ,
Son of God." The crucifix does not appear
until the seventh century, the cross, however, often
appears previous to this, the cross of the crucifixion
being painted green or red, that of the resurrection
and ascension blue or white. By the middle of the
fourth century appear the symbols of the lion, phoenix,
cock, hare, etc., and by the end of this century the
glasses or mugs grow common, on the bottom of which
are gilded the portraits of Peter and Paul.
These little glasses were probably gifts received at
baptism. Eighty of these precious relics contain the
portraits above mentioned. They also frequently bear
inscriptions such as the following:
"Mayest thou live long."
"A mark of friendship."
"Life and happiness to thee and thine."
With the Constantine era the dead are eulogized
as "wholly good," "entirely innocent," etc., and the in
scriptions take on a triumphal note: "Living in

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 393
eternity"; "Living in God Christ forever," etc. With
the fifth century the catacomb inscriptions cease, but
those above ground grow frequent and sarcophagi
begin to appear, the latter having been previously
confined to wealthy cemeteries like that of Domitilla.
The new joy of the Christian can be seen to no
better advantage than when these burial inscriptions
are contrasted with the death memorials of the con
temporaneous Romans. While the common people
among the Romans were at this time cherishing the
hope of a future life, the supposed "better class" held
very gloomy and pessimistic views, the grave being
called "an eternal home" and death "an eternal sleep."
A typical inscription is "Farewell, farewell, farewell
forever!" Another inscription reads, "The cruel fates
. . . have placed me, snatched away, in the infernal
bark," and still another, "I, Procope, lift up my hands
against the god who snatched me away (being) in
nocent" Even more pathetic are such cynical inscriptions
as "What I have eaten and drunk I have with me;
what I have foregone I have lost"; or "Drink now to
my memory and wish that the earth may be light on
me"; or the numerous ones in which life is compared
to a play:
"While I lived I lived well. My play is now ended ;
soon yours will be. Farewell and applaud me."
Many of the Roman epitaphs and a few Christian
epitaphs contain warnings to travelers not to violate
the grave.
In contrast with the above we transcribe a few
Christian epitaphs from the catacombs: "Weep not,
my child; death is not eternal"; "Sweet Simplicius

394 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
lives in eternity" (second century) ; "Gemella sleeps
in peace"; "Sweet little daughter, Severa, beloved by
her parents and servants . . . her body rests here
in peace until it shall rise again in God. . . . The
Lord will reclothe her . . . with spiritual glory"
(about a.d. 300) ; "If I have lived virtuously I have
not repented of it, and if I have served Thee, O Lord,
I will give thanks to thy name" (second century) ;
"Prosenes received to God" . . . (a.d. 217); "Alex
ander is not dead but lives above the stars."
Other inscriptions read: "She was borne away
by angels"; "He sleeps but lives"; "He went to God";
"He reposes in the Lord Jesus"; "Here lies Proteus
in the Holy Spirit of God."
Many beautiful tributes to relatives and friends
from Christians of the earliest centuries have been pre
served, such as :
"God's little lamb"; "Little dove without gall";
"Sweeter than honey"; "A sweet spirit, gentle, wise
and beautiful"; "Aurelius Ampliatus and his son
Gordian to Aurelia Bonifatia, his incomparable wife, a
woman of true chastity, who lived twenty-five years,
two months, four days and two hours" (second cen
tury) ; "To her sweet nurse, Paulina, who dwells in
Christ among the blest" ; "Peter, a most sweet adopted
son (alumnus) in God."
The oldest Christian inscription, coming from an
unidentified catacomb, was written a.d. 72. One from
the first century and two from the early second (a.d.
107, no) came from the catacomb of St. Lucina,
where, according to De Rossi, St. Paul was buried a
few decades before.35 The earliest of these reads :
85 Op. cit., p. 66.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 395
"As a resting-place for Titus Flavius Eutychus, who lived
nineteen years, eleven months, and three days. His dearest friend,
Marcus Orbius, gave this spot. Farewell, beloved."
Before the middle of the fourth century, prayers to
martyrs appear:
"Holy souls have in remembrance Marcianus Successus
Severus and all our brethren . . . May (they) have a pros
perous voyage." 36
There are many inscriptions coming from the third
century, tho the greatest number of all date from the
fourth. The change wrought by Christianity in the social
relations of master and slave is plain from the exceed
ingly small number of Christian inscriptions containing
the words "slave" or "freedman," words which are
constantly seen on pagan gravestones. Instead of this
those formerly slaves appear with a new name,
"alumnus," i.e., foster child. As early as the second
century, slaves were buried in the catacombs with
honor. One text (No. 257) tells of the manumission
of seven slaves by one family at the funeral of a little
daughter. Almost as important as the inscriptions are the
specimens of the earliest Christian art preserved here.
"These first and second century paintings are in the
most classical style, and are scarcely, if at all, inferior
in execution to the best specimens of contemporary
pagan art" (De Rossi).
The earliest paintings of the Savior date at latest
from the third century, and represent him in the form
of a shepherd, clad like a Roman peasant, usually carry-
M De Rossi, op. cit., p. 133.

396 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
ing a lamb or kid in his arms or being followed by his
flock, or in a few instances with the sheep on one side
of him and wild beasts on the other.37 By the fourth
century the garb and posture of the Divine Shepherd
has become stiff and conventional and the face has lost
its youthful freshness.38 Some wall-paintings, even as
late as the fourth century, continue to represent Jesus
as a youth and all the disciples as mere children; but
others at this era represent Jesus as very old, and the
twelve sitting about him at the Last Supper, looking
quite like aged Roman senators.39 Peter and Paul
often appear in the fourth and fifth century paintings,
the former with broad face and luxuriant curly hair and
close-cropped beard, the latter of much more noble and
impressive presence, having a narrow face, bald head,
and long Vandyke beard.41 It is interesting to notice
that sometimes one and sometimes the other of these
apostles appears standing in the place of honor on the
right hand of their divine Lord.42 There was no at
tempt in the earliest pictures at making a likeness of
the Savior, the conception being purely ideal, repre^
senting a beardless youth in the serene joy of a noble
and divine task. Toward the middle of the fourth
century a new tendency appears in all Christian art,
perhaps brought about by the triumph of the Church
or by an artistic desire to represent the Redeemer as
an oriental. He is now painted with a beard ; the brow
is calm, shaded by long brown hair parted in the middle
" Giuseppe Wilpert, Le Pitture delle Catacombe Romane, 1903, Tav. 5,
106. 88 See Wilpert, op. cit., Tav. 168.
"Ibid., Tav. 193.
aIbid., Tav. 48, 252.
" De Rossi, op. cit., 286.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 397
and falling upon the shoulders; the eyes are large and
thoughtful. In 1887 the fragment of a marble bust
of this type, dating, it is said, from the fourth century,
was discovered. The pathetic representation of Christ
as the Man of Sorrows does not arise until much later.
Other paintings from the third and fourth century
are the Orante (a female figure in prayer) ; the raising
of Lazarus, the escape of Noah .from the deluge, Isaac
escaping the knife of Abraham, Daniel escaping from
the den of lions, the three Hebrew children delivered
from the fiery furnace, and Jonah escaping from the
sea-dragon — all of which represent the Christian's
escape from death through Christ; while the appear
ance of the wise men from the East in adoration of the
infant Savior probably receives its prominence because
the Magi were the first representatives of heathendom
to give honor to Jesus. Wilpert dates one Jonah pic
ture as early as the second century.43 In the same way
pictures of Orpheus taming wild beasts may have
symbolized the peaceful sway of Christ, while Odysseus,
deaf to the siren's song, may have represented the
Redeemer triumphing over the allurements of sensual
pleasure.44 The Eucharist was probably celebrated at every
funeral, and it is very natural to find eucharistic
symbols — the vine, baskets of bread, etc. — in the
earliest pictures. In most of these pictures the fish is
also prominent; in a picture dated by Wilpert to the
second century the basket of loaves is placed on a fish.45
" Op. cit., Tav. 47.
" Ludwig von Sybel's Christliche Antike (2 vols., 1906-9) shows, in a
beautiful way, the pictures on the sarcophagi, mosaics, etc.
" Op. cit., Tav. 27, 28.

398 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
The fisherman appears in many of the wall-paintings,
and in one inscription (not in the catacombs) Chris
tians are spoken of as "the divine children of the
Heavenly Fish." 46
The same pictorial methods of expressing religious
truth which were universal among the heathen were
wisely utilized by the early Christian artists. As early
as the first century (Wilpert) a cupid is changed into
a Good Shepherd, probably suggesting that Christ was
the true king of love. All the great doctrines of salva
tion, Christian eschatology and the divine nature of
Christ, were taught by symbols.47
The oldest picture of the Virgin Mary represents
her holding the divine Child on her lap, while the
Prophet Isaiah, or perhaps one of the Magi, points to
the star overhead. This picture, which De Rossi dated
in the second or perhaps the first century, has had its
claims to antiquity reinforced by recent discoveries of
undoubted second century inscriptions on the same
level with it. In these earliest pictures the Virgin does
"not appear as the central figure but as accessory to
the divine Child." 48
In the third century the nimbus first appears about
the head of our Lord — not far from the same era when
a pagan artist placed it on the imperial head in the
Arch of Constantine.48* In the early fourth century it
seems generally reserved for Christ and the angels,
but by the end of this century the Virgin and the
a De Rossi, Op. cit, p. 219.
"American Journal of Archeology, 1911, pp. 507-522.
48 Withrow, Catacombs, pp. 307-318.
""Cf. Strong, Roman Sculpture, pi. XL, XLI, 1907, and accompanying
text. The heads on this arch, originally Domitian, have been reworked or
replaced to honor later emperors. I owe this reference to the kindness of
Dr. John R. Crawford.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 399
apostles are similarly decorated, and by the fifth cen
tury it begins to be used for any of the "saints." 49
In the 15,000 Christian inscriptions that De Rossi
gathered, and in the thousands that have been gathered
since, many suggestions can be obtained concerning the
social condition and the religious and theological views
of those early Christians. Many of them appear bear
ing Biblical names such as Phoebe, Prisca, Aquilius,
Felix, Ampliatus, Epenetus, Olympias, Onesimus,
Philemon, Asyneritus, Lucius, Julia, Gaius, Timotheus,
Tychicus, Crescens, Urbanus, Hermogenes, Tryphena
and Trypho(sa), the last two appearing together on
the same stone. A light is thrown upon the religious
spirit of early Christian families by the names which
they were accustomed to give their children, such as
Faith, Constancy, Peace, Amiable, Pure, Light, A
Pilgrim, Born of God, God-beloved, Redeemed, Hand
maid of God, etc. It is also significant that the burial
inscriptions omit the birth years but practically always
give the date of burial, presumably because of the feel
ing of the early Church that death was the Christians'
"true birthday," as St. Cyprian exprest it, and there
fore the relatives should not wear black but should
dress in white at the funeral of believers. So Philete
is called a child (puella), altho thirty years of age, be
cause she was baptized only a few weeks before she
died. It may be noticed also that few, if any, appre
hensions of purgatory are found in the earliest inscrip
tions, but a confident and joyous anticipation of im
mediate reception into the presence of God. Wedlock
is also honored in many inscriptions. Only a very few
40 De Rossi, op. cit., pp. 193, 194; Wilpert, op. cit., Tav. 116, 141, 207,
209, etc.

400 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
among the many ancient epitaphs request the dead in
heaven to pray for the living on earth, as (No. 103),
"Jannaria, be thou refreshed and pray for us." More
often the living friends pray for the dead: "Lord
Jesus, remember our daughter," etc.
The oldest baptismal pictures date, perhaps, from the
second century, coming from the most ancient part of
the catacomb of St. Calixtus. They all represent the
baptized standing in a stream with the administrant on
dry ground, the former being nude, the latter more or
less clothed. The very oldest picture represents the
new convert as "coming up after immersion from the
river which reaches over his knees, and joining hands
with the baptizer, who is drest in a tunic and assists him
in ascending the shore; while in the air hovers a dove
with a twig in its mouth. . . . As far as they go
all of the pictures confirm the river baptism prescribed
by the Didache as the normal form, in imitation of the
typical baptism in the Jordan. . . . From these pic
torial representations we have a right to draw the in
ference that the immersion was as complete as the
depth of the accessible stream or fount would admit,
and that the defect, if any, was supplemented by pour
ing water on the head. The baptism of the head is
always the most essential and indispensable part of the
baptism." 50
Presbyters are not distinguished from bishops in
the inscriptions. There are numerous texts in which
presbyters and deacons lament the death of their wives,
and there is very early proof that the primitive church
possessed a female diaconate for administering charity,
caring for the sick, and instructing the young. There
60 Philip Schaff, Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, pp. 36-41.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 401
is little trace in the catacombs of that ascetic spirit
which grew up in the fourth and following centuries.
It is perfectly certain that those early Christians be
lieved in the Trinity, the deity of Christ, communion
of saints, the resurrection of the body, and life ever
lasting. They also believed in the doctrine of the atone
ment as preached by St. Paul.51 They seemed, however,
to have had too high an appreciation of the value of
the sacraments, and too great veneration for martyrs.
Some of the recently discovered doctrinal inscriptions,
such as can not be found in the earlier period, deserve
mention :
"O thou who hast been born again of water, come with thy
fellows hither where the Holy Spirit calleth thee to receive his
gifts. . . . Thou hast received the sign of the cross ; learn to con
quer the temptations of the world." 52
In a baptistry said to have been built by Fausta,
the wife of the Emperor Constantine, the following
appears, written by Sextus III (fifth century) :
"A race to be dedicated to the heavens is born here from beau
tiful seed, which the Spirit nourishes with its fructifying waters.
The fruitful mother Church bears from the virgin stream sons
whom she has conceived by the breath of God. Ye who have been
born again from this fountain hope for the kingdom of heaven.
A happy life awaits not those born but once. This is the fount of
life, which purifies the world, taking its source from Christ, from
his wound. Dip, sinner, to be purified in its sacred flood, and
though old it will receive you and bring you forth from its waters
made new." (No. 78.)
One young scholar, utilizing the new archeological
material, has recently offered a very ingenious argu
ment seeking to prove from the pictures of the cata-
81 See Albert Schweitzer, Paul and his Interpreters, 1912, p. 248#.
B Marucchi, Op. cit, No. 77.

402 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
combs that St. John's gospel was in use in Rome by
the end of the first century, or at least by the opening
decade of the second, and that it was influencing the
wall-paintings in a marked degree before the middle
of the second. He shows from the best authorities on
art that Biblical themes peculiar to St. John — raising
of Lazarus and the woman of Samaria — are each
found once before a.d. 180 (one of these almost cer
tainly being as early as a.d. 130), while three or four
other pictures of the resurrection of Lazarus must be
dated to the end of the first or during the second cen
tury. As these themes are not treated in the synoptic
gospels, but only by St. John, the inference is drawn
that the Fourth Gospel must have become widely in
fluential before such pictures would have been painted
on Christian tombs.53 By a similar argument the in
fluence of Matthew's gospel can be proved from the
many pictures of the Magi, while it may also be shown
that no influence of the apocryphal gospels is apparent
earlier than the fourth century.
4. New Light from Christian Cemeteries in
Egypt
Cemeteries of Christian people dating from a com
paratively early time have been found in many parts
of the world.54 The most remarkable of those known
previous to the most recent finds were at Rome, Naples,
Syracuse — where they constitute an entire underground
city — at Malta and in Alexandria; but the excavations
of Christian graves (1896- 1900) at Antinoe and
18 C. 0. Lamberton, Themes from John's Gospel in Early Roman Cata
comb Paintings.
54 See summary in New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, "Cemeteries".

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 403
Akhmim in Egypt outrank most of these in importance,
giving to us a flood of new light upon early Chris
tianity and the changes it wrought in religious thought
upon the banks of the Nile.
Other recent excavations of ancient cemeteries are
important, such as those of Father Delatre, near
Carthage, in 1905, when he opened up an ancient
Christian graveyard and obtained nearly 1,800 epitaphs
from the third century and later, as also the discovery
of Christian catacombs at Hadrumetum in 1906, and
since then the opening of Nubian cemeteries (first to
sixth centuries) ; but those at Antinoe' and Akhmim
have almost proved epoch-making. The catacombs of
Hadrumetum and Mar Sousse are dated by Harnack as
earlier than Cyprian (a.d. 238), and those at Tipasa as
perhaps pre-Constantine; but the discoveries of Chris
tian antiquities are not comparable to those now to be
mentioned. At Oxyrhynchus also every Christian relic
from the Grseco-Roman cemetery had perished, unless
a little doll-like image resembling the Madonna and
Child be an exception. All of this shows the unique im
portance of the Egyptian cemeteries to be mentioned.
A complete series of tombs were excavated by M.
Gayet at Antinoe dating from the time of the founda
tion of the city by Hadrian, a.d. 120-140, up to the
end of about the fifth century ; and fortunately many of
these graves were Christian. Some of the tombs had
brick chapels before them, eight of which were Chris
tian, resembling in their symbolism that of the cata
combs, the frescos showing the Good Shepherd, the
dove, trees of paradise cross-garlanded with flowers,
etc., most of these pictures probably dating to a time
anterior to the reign of Constantine. At Akhmim ex-

404 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
cavations were conducted at various times by M.
Maspero, director of antiquities in Egypt.55
The classical analysis of the results of both investi
gations was made by Mr. Philip David Scott-Moncrieff,
Paganism and Christianity in Egypt (1913), and we
•use his data freely in the following discussion. He
shows that notwithstanding the strong Hellenic in
fluence, the old Egyptian religion held its own in Egypt
until Christianity came. Indeed, the religious rites
became more elaborate in late Ptolemaic time and the
early Christian era, the most salient feature being the
worship of the gods of the dead, and especially of
Osiris, the "god of life in death" — who taught the hope
of a new life springing from decay, death having a
divinely revivifying power. Renunciation of the world,
leading to asceticism and celibacy, was not peculiar to
Christians but was common to Jews and heathen in the
first two centuries of the Christian era. As the old sys
tems crumbled before Christianity, the ancient gods did
not disappear but lived on as demons who could be con
trolled by sorcery. The demotic papyri of the first cen
tury are full of pictures of the other world, grim and
wild as those of Dante; but "salvation" for the soul was
obtained, according to the ancient Egyptian worshiper,
not by wealth or gorgeous funeral ceremony, but by the
preponderance of the deceased's good deeds over his evil
ones when weighed in the scales of the gods. It is now
proved that the Egyptians did not believe in a resur
rection tho they did believe in a future life, and much
of their old religious symbolism was adjusted to the
"These discoveries were reported in Annates de Musee Guimet, tome
XXX; Bulletin de I'Institut Bgyptien; Die friihchristlichen Alterthtimer
von Achmim-Panopolis. The last-named publication the writer has not
been able to examine.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 405
new Christian faith. The pictures of Isis nursing
Horus became a forerunner of the Madonna and Child,
while Haroeris, especially when mounted on horseback,
is probably the ancestor of the military saints so dear
to Coptic art. The early Egyptian Christians were
mummified clear up to the Arab conquest and used the
old Egyptian forms connected with the burial rites to
enforce their new doctrine. As the poor man who was
an unconverted native Egyptian had a ticket put around
his neck to take him to the cemetery by boat on which
was written, "May his spirit serve Osiris"; so the
native Christians wore the same kind of a tablet, but
instead of the appeal to Osiris the monogram for
Christ appeared — this symbol probably being employed
as a seal as early as the third century, tho outside of
Egypt it has not been found earlier than the fourth.
One of these burial tickets from a middle-class grave
reads: "Taesai lived twenty-eight years. She has
gone to the Shining (Land)."
Another, almost certainly Christian, speaks of
Satripes Psenmagotos having "gone to rest" at Alex
andria (cf. Rev. 14: 13).
One of the earliest graves found at Antinoe was
that of a woman named Krispina, whose handsome
oval face, with the hair drest somewhat after the man
ner of the Antonine empresses, is well shown by the
painted portrait in the coffin of the deceased. The
left hand still clasps the Egyptian symbol of life,
slightly changed to a shape like that found in early
Christian designs. The additional fact that only floral
decorations are represented in the frescos of the tomb,
instead of the typical Egyptian figures, makes it the
more probable that this woman was a Christian. Another

406 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
woman (early third century) has the monogram of
Christ stamped on the seals of her bandages, and the
legend, "Be at peace," embroidered on her shoes. In
another grave (fourth century) was a cross flanked
by the Alpha and Omega. With this body a wooden
symbol of life, the crux ansata, was found, together
with two reed baskets and a large jar. Did the baskets
and jar indicate that the friends of this Christian
woman had yielded to the old Egyptian custom of bury
ing food offerings with the dead, or were they only
Eucharistic vessels connected with the Christian (or
Gnostic) sacraments? The latter is probably correct.
It is also interesting to note that the hands of the de
ceased were grasping a small cruciform flower well-
known as a desert plant which ordinarily lies dead and
lifeless but on contact with the slightest moisture
blossoms into life. This was entirely analagous to the
Egyptian custom of placing the Osiris on a bier
covered with soil and planted with grain, allowing the
mummy to remain there until the wheat sprouted. Both
Egyptians and Christians used these nature-symbols of
life springing from death to express their faith in a
future world. Near this rather luxurious grave was
another of quite different character, containing the
body of Sarapion, a Christian anchorite, clothed in a
coarse brown robe and black mantle, with a cross hung
from his neck and iron bands about his waist, ankles,
and arms.
Some of the bodies found had been dipt in a bath
of bitumen, certain parts being afterward covered with
gold leaf. Then the entire body was bandaged and re-
bandaged in spiral or interlaced patterns, over which
was put a fresh coat of bitumen and a fresh layer of

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 407
bandages, the face being finally covered with a fine
cloth, painted and gilded with a plaster mask simulat
ing the features of the deceased. This was the elab
orate method used in the burial of the Christian woman
mentioned above. A slightly later method of burial was
not to envelop the body in bandages or dip it in
bitumen, but simply to clothe it in a tunic or shawl as
Sarapion the ascetic was clothed. Another Christian
body, embalmed according to the earlier method, was
found by Dr. Naville at Deir el-Bahari, the deceased
holding in his right hand a cup containing a red liquid
and in his left something that looks like a handful of
wheat. M. Naville believes these to be emblems of the
Eucharist. On the left shoulder is the swastika ( * )
which was used as a Christian emblem from the earliest
times not only in the Roman catacombs but also in
Egypt. Yet the lower part of the robe covering the
deceased contains a painting of two jackal-headed gods,
probably Anubis and Apuat, adoring the sacred bark
of Socharis. This seems to Scott-Moncrieff as almost
incredible unless the dead man belonged to some
fantastic Gnostic sect which might have employed this
mixed symbolism; but to the writer it seems perfectly
harmonious with the practise of Christians in all lands —
that of using the native symbolism wherever possible to
express their religious ideas. It must be remembered
also that heathen relatives or heathen artists might
have been permitted some discretionary powers in the
decoration of early Christian graves. We see exactly
this same use of heathen mythological motifs in the
frescos of the catacombs, in the ancient Christian
sarcophagi in Italy and North Africa, and in the grave
stones from Phrygia. Several ivory objects were

408 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
found in the Egyptian Christian graves of the third
and fourth centuries which probably had been used for
counting the number of prayers recited.
The Christian tombs were decorated with vines
painted black, resembling those of Pharaonic tombs,
and in one grave was found a little terra-cotta model
of several figures reclining at a table spread as if for
a banquet. This evidently represented the Christian
Agape, or else was an imitation of the old burial cus
toms of the Egyptians, or, perhaps, as Scott-Moncrieff
suggests, it may have had some connection with some
fifth century rite for nourishing the soul, which may
have been used at Antinoe. Even at that early era the
Eucharistic ceremony must have been thought to have
some connection with the repose of the dead, for this
man in his will expresses the desire that "celebration
be made of the holy offerings and funerary repasts for
the repose of my soul before Almighty God." When
we consider the condition of the Church even in the
middle ages, we must not discount too easily the
spirituality of the Christians of the fourth and fifth
centuries because of their use of semi-pagan symbolism
or superstition. The cemetery at Akhmim was in use from the first
to the eighth century of our era. The bodies were
mostly laid in a trench without coffins but drest in their
richest clothing. The method of preservation, which
was not by the use of bitumen but apparently by soak
ing in natron, was wholly successful, and has brought
to us both clothes and bodies in fine condition. "It is
due to this cause that we possess the magnificent series
of textiles from this site which are a revelation of the

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 409
skill and artistic knowledge for which the Panopolites
were famous."
Worked upon these tapestries of the second and
third centuries are designs of nymphs and garlands,
of the cross, the fish, the dove, and the hare, the
' last three being "peculiarly employed in early Christian
designs as furtive symbols of the faith"; while another
representation of two doves on either side of a cup
seems to be even more certainly of Christian origin,
the type persisting in Christian tapestry for centuries.
In later eras these designs were still employed; but the
pagan deities which were used from the first to the
third century have been changed into military saints
and representations of the Savior. Of course, the
Egyptian hieroglyphic of life is always used as one of
the principal forms of decoration to represent the Chris
tian cross. A ring from Akhmim, probably of the
second century, has incised upon it an anchor and two
fishes, while a model anchor comes from a neighboring
tomb. From one grave comes a little figure bandaged
like a mummy with the hands folded on the breast,
which may have represented Osiris or may have been
a figure of our Savior represented in the same way as
the dead Osiris was pictured. The figure of Osiris
found in another Christian tomb may have been, not an
amulet as usually supposed, but a symbol expressing to
the Christian as to the heathen the certainty of a future
life. Scott-Moncrieff well says: "Everything seems
to point to the fact that as far as funerary customs are
concerned the syncretism of the age is evident not only
in early Christian art but also in early Christian beliefs.
We must also bear in mind when considering these
objects the notorious activity of the Gnostic teachers

410 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
during the second and third centuries and the con
servative character of the Egyptians themselves." It
should be remembered that Gnosticism was a system in
which all religions found a place; its object was to ex
plain not only the mysteries of the Christian faith but
those of the pagan religions as well.
It is also plain that ignorant natives who had,
previous to conversion, believed in a magical resurrec
tion through Osiris, the divine man who had risen from
the dead and who through magical rites could impart
immortality, might without careful instructions confuse
this with Christ's death and spiritual resurrection. Such
men would also naturally use ancient customs and old
artistic designs, not remembering their original mean
ing or not being philosophically curious; only knowing
that Christ, like Osiris, came to life, and that through
Christ immortality could be gained. Sometimes, also,
a Christian would appropriate a pagan tombstone with
all its mythical ornamentation.56 Very constantly the
early Christians in their art were influenced by the
forms of artistic representation, with which they were
familiar. In the Roman catacombs the decorations, as
we have seen, were freely inspired by pagan motifs,
and nymphs, fawns, Apollo, and Orpheus appear there
commonly in the earliest period of Christian art, just
as similar old Egyptian designs are used at Akhmim.
This does not mean that the artists were unchristian,
but only that Christian art was still in the process of
birth. Perhaps the most interesting thing, coming from
the Akhmin cemetery was the picture of the Savior
88 See a notable illustration in Paganism and Christianity, pp. 134-135,
and compare De Rossi, Roma Sotterranea (Northcote ed.), p. 299.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 411
(fourth century) worked in white on a purple back
ground showing a young man with curly hair, beard
less, and wearing a long tunic and cloak. In his left
hand he holds aloft a cross, and in his right is a cross-
headed lance with which he spears a snake-like croco
dile. Two other representations woven into the textile
fabrics seem to represent the Good Shepherd and his
flock. A vast number of Christian grave inscriptions have
been found in Egypt, the oldest of all, according to
De Ricci, being the following:
"Ploution the blessed, a celibate, having borne witness
in the nineteenth year fell asleep, 41 years of age, and went to
the Land of the Blessed having two crowns; likewise Berekon,
the self-controlled, having borne witness fell asleep, (being) 36
years old; and likewise also his son 'Konon a disciple of the
celibate." 57
Of the persons mentioned at least Ploution must
have been a martyr, as the "double crown" plainly in
dicates. Several Biblical terms occur here. It is just
possible that the term "self-controlled" (A.V., "tem
perate") applied to Berekon may indicate that he was a
bishop (see Titus 1:8). We append two later Chris
tian inscriptions as published by De Ricci, as types of
ordinary epitaphs:
a.d. 597. — "There fell asleep our father among the saints (?),
Abba Kuriakos the anchorite (father?), of the Abba Nilos the
anchorite in the month of Thoth . . . " 58
a.d. 574. — "O Lord God of righteousness, give rest to the
souls of thy servants Euthalios and Maria, for Euthalios was put
to rest Phaph 12 . . ., and Maria ... in the reign of Jus
tinian." 59
"Seymour de Ricci, "Inscriptions grecques d'figypte," in Revue con-
servies epigraphique, N. S. I., 153, No. 10.
M Op. cit, No. 11.
" Op. cit., No. 14.

412 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
What has imprest us most in this study has been the
proved interrelationship between pagan Egyptian and
early Christian art and thought,- and the new and vivid
proof of the extraordinary power of primitive Chris
tianity. The Egyptian religion, as we now see, was
able to sustain itself in a surprizing way against the
Asiatic and Syrian cults — such as those of Adonis,
Atys, Cybele, and Mithra, and perhaps of Buddha
also — and remained practically unaffected, except for
the renaming of some Egyptian gods, even by the re
ligion of their Greek rulers; but yielded unreservedly
to the new ideals and the new theology of Christianity,
tho retaining much of its old religious symbolism and
some of its external forms of expression.
5. New Light from Second and Third Century
Christian Gravestones in Phrygia
It has been just about thirty-five years since the
Ecole Franchise d'Athenes and the Asia Minor Ex
ploration Fund of England began their work in
Phrygia, which was the district most thickly populated
by Christians in the early centuries, so far as records
exist. Even earlier than this Hamilton and others had
made important observations there, but detailed and
scientific excavation has been confined to the period
named. Sir William M. Ramsay, who first entered Phrygia
in 1880, and has visited Asia Minor almost continuously
year after year from that time up to the present, is
the main authority on this important Christian district,;;
having settled many geographical and topographical
points, located some of the celebrated rivers of classic

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 413
history, and above all gathered vast quantities of antiqui
ties and utilized them, in a peculiarly convincing way, to
explain the New Testament.60
The story of Sir William Ramsay's "call" to his
providential work is fascinating beyond description.
He was a young married man of twenty-five with only
money enough to pay his debts, when his physician, in
his last year at Oxford (1876), ordered him to travel
for his health. For several years he rambled in Ger
many, Switzerland, Italy and England, paying his ex
penses by teaching, writing for the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, and other such methods. Finally, in 1880,
through the efforts of Mr. Stuart Poole, keeper of
coins at the British Museum, he was elected to a
studentship paying him $1,500 and entitling him to
travel for research in Greek lands. His desire was to
go to Athens; but instead of this, when he landed at
Smyrna he was induced by Sir Charles Wilson, against
the judgment of all his friends, to start work in
Phrygia. When he entered Phrygia there was not a
trustworthy map of the country, either in its ancient
or modern state. He undertook to supply this need
and also to trace the history of Roman institutions in
Asia. He was not at all interested in the bearings of
his discoveries upon the New Testament and early
Christianity. In fact, he considered the time lost which he had to
spend in copying Christian inscriptions. That seemed
" In saying this we do not forget the work of Humann, who made an
important journey in 1882, or of Korte in 1899, or of Prof. J. R. S.
Sterrett, D. G. Hogarth, J. G. C. Anderson, T. Collender and others who
have done splendid work, on the foundations laid by Ramsay; nor are
we underrating the previous work reported 1862-1872 by G. Perrot and E.
Guillaume, Explor. de la Galatie, and later by G. Radet, M. S. Reinach,
Le Blant, and others.

414 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
outside his province, and besides he was a "worshiper
of Wellhausen," and accepted without question the
verdict of such critics that the Acts was an untrust
worthy work of a highly wrought imagination pro
duced in the second half of the second century. He
was first awakened from this illusion by a study of
Acts 14:5, which stated as a geographical fact that
one passed from the frontier of Lycaonia in going from
Iconium to Lystra. The statement seemed absurd and
was opposed to the decision of the most authoritative
modern geographers, and seemed to be contradicted by
ancient writers; but as Sir William studied the con
temporaneous inscriptions, he discovered that the
author of the Acts knew more about the ancient
geography of Phrygia than any of his modern critics.
In all the other statements of this book he also found
such surprizing accuracy that he has finally been able
to state (191 5) as a scientific conclusion from all the
data now in our possession that "Luke's history is un
surpassed in respect to its trustworthiness." 61
We will now look for a moment at this strange dis
trict from which so many astounding discoveries have
recently come.
Phrygia was the name of a very large country in
Asia Minor which had great celebrity in ancient times,
not simply because of the fame of King Midas and of
the trade routes leading through this land to Boghaz-
Keui, one capital of the Hittite empire ; but also because
of the civilization which could invent money and guaran
tee its value, thus "placing traffic on a new footing by
01 See for most of the above facts and for an entrancing examination of
late discoveries in Asia Minor The Bearing of Recent Discoveries on the
Trustworthiness of the New Testament, Sir William Ramsay (2d. ed.),
1915.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 415
regulating exchange." The immense riches of this
land in ancient time is seen from the fact that Lydia
could offer Xerxes as a bribe 2,000 talents of silver and
3,993,000 gold darics. In Roman time Phrygia was
divided into two provinces, Asia and Galatia, called
Phrygia Asiana and Phrygia Galatica. Galatic
Phrygia extended along the front of the Pisidian
mountains and included, according to popular under
standing, the cities of Iconium and Antioch. One in
scription has long been known mentioning Phrygia as
a part of the province of Galatia and two or three
others written in poetic phraseology have seemed to
mention "Phrygian" Antioch; but in 191 1 Sir William
Ramsay found another which conclusively proved to
him that Luke's geographical terminology (Acts 16: 6)
could have been made "no more precise, definite and
clear." 62 Racially this region was Phrygian, but ad
ministratively it was Galatic. The Phrygian language
kept the racial feeling alive, as was confirmed in 1910
by the discovery of two Phrygian inscriptions (a.d.
150-250) at Iconium. Asian Phrygia was much
larger ; but we are particularly interested in the former
because of Paul's travels in that region.
North Galatia in the first century was one of the least
civilized corners of the Greek world; road-building did
not begin till Vespasian ; travel was difficult ; the customs
were barbarous ; there were no literary interests before
the fourth century after Christ ; and while a few of the
people could speak Greek, Phrygian was the tongue gen
erally known, and the laws (e.g., of inheritance) were
very different from those of Greece or South Galatia. It
"London Expositor, 1911, 263; compare on Luke's grammatical terms
Ramsay's Church and the Roman Empire, pp. 74-177.

416 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
was certainly not to such people that the epistle to the
Galatians was written.63
Whether we accept the South Galatian theory or
not, there can be no doubt that either through the work
of Paul — whom the inscriptions prove to have been
thought of with special regard in this region — or
through some other early teacher, almost this entire
district was converted to Christianity earlier than any
other of corresponding size in the civilized world. By
the end of the second century Christianity was so
dominant that it is against heretics, not against pagans,
that the Christians were contending, while by the
middle of the third century the population was so
largely Christian that local persecution seems to have
completely ceased; and when in a.d. 301-312 Diocletian
sought to destroy this faith, bringing in government
troops for that purpose, he was compelled practically
to annihilate the population of Eumenea and perhaps
other cities.
That the heathen had tried hard, tho unsuccessfully,
to check by other means than persecution the onward
sweep of Christianity, is shown by a most valuable in
scription (a.d. 300) found in 1882 by Sir Wm. Ramsay,
which tells of the "Tekmorian Guest-Friends," an anti-
Christian secret society established on the imperial
estates of Pisidian Antioch. These "brothers of the
sign" spoke of the pagan devotees as "saints" (avioi),
and doubtless sought to rebuild the decayed temples and
OT See Ramsay, Epistle to the Galatians, pp. 131-194. It will be noticed
that we accept without question Ramsay's South Galatian theory, believing
that the archeological facts compel this, notwithstanding certain verbal
arguments from Biblical texts which we think have unduly influenced such
scholars as Schmiedel, Steinmann, Moffatt, etc., who have opposed it. For
full list of the latter see Moffatt, Introduction to the Literature of the New
Test, p. 90.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 417
to win new votaries to the old faith in their homeland,
which had become wholly Christian, by an imitation
of the languages and virtues of the new Way.61
One reason for the swiftness with which this dis
trict was converted may have been found in the
psychology of the native population, who seem to have
had a strong leaning toward religious and mystical dis
cussion; but the prevalence of Jews, who had never
been taught rabbinically, was probably the chief cause.
Jews for several centuries had been granted special
privileges, 2,000 families having been brought by the
Seleucidan Emperor for political purposes from Babylon
into Lydia and Phrygia about 200 B.C.63 They had
populated the district in great numbers and had grown
rich and very influential. They maintained much of
the old Jewish character, their morality being doubtless
much higher than that of their neighbors ; yet they had
lost connection with their country, having even for
gotten their language. According to the Talmud they
represented the remnants of the Ten Tribes; certainly
they were rather foreign in their sentiments, having a
sympathy with non-Jewish thought and manners very
unlike their Palestinian brothers. The inscriptions
prove that they were complying with many pagan cus
toms, and Ramsay believes that this may account for
the fact that Timothy, tho having a Jewish mother,
had never been circumcised.66
The two chief pagan deities of Phrygia were Cybele,
the Great Mother, symbolizing the reproductive and
nourishing power of the earth; and Sabazius, the son,
"Ramsay, Studies in the Hist and Art of the E. Provinces of the
Roman Empire, Chap. ix.
, M See Ramsay, Epistle to Galatians, p. 74.
"Acts 16: 2; Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, III., 869,

418 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
symbolizing the life of nature dying and reviving every
year. A drama representing the life and death of the
latter was given annually, being characterized by a
frenzy of devotion, unrestrained enthusiasm, and wild
orgiastic dances. As late as the second century, women
of the highest circles in Lydia lived as courtezans
before the goddess. One woman records this service in
a public dedication. To want to detain one's wife when
it was her turn to serve in the temple was accounted a
sin. Even after civilization stopt this as a general
custom, a class of priestesses kept it up.67 As the pig
was the animal used in religious purification by the
Phrygians as well as the Greeks, it is hardly likely that
the Jews were reached, excepting very indirectly, by
the native Phrygian worship ; tho perhaps they, like the
early Christians, were influenced somewhat by the
universal belief in magic among all classes.
The Christian remains of Phrygia come from three
districts, one in the center of the country, one in the
north, and one in the extreme southeast and in the
adjoining northern part of Lycaonia. A long-con
tinued study of the trade routes convinced Ramsay that
all three districts, altho differing widely in local inscrip
tions, were Christianized through Pauline influence.
One line of influences undoubtedly starts from
Ephesus, coming up the Maeander Valley and then on
to Pisidian Antioch ; another from the Pauline churches
of Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch into Lycaonia,
etc. The inscriptions which center in Eumenea are
generally very orthodox, those which center in
Lycaonia and the adjoining Phrygian district are of a
mixed nature ; but those in the north of Phrygia, which
""Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, I., 95.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 419
seem connected with the Christianity of the Troad
(cf. 2 Cor. 2: 12), spreading up through Mysia and
Bithynia, are akin to the Montanist heretical type. We
shall not discriminate constantly between these districts,
but shall use the inscriptions chiefly for the sake of
throwing light upon the general condition of the earliest
followers of the "Way" and illustrating their re
ligious faith.68
The first thing that strikes us in examining these
Christian epitaphs is the fact that, except in slight
variations, they resemble the pagan epitaphs. This
was intentional. However powerful the Christians
grew, they were always in danger of governmental in
terference and felt it prudent to make their declarations
of Christianity in a way so inconspicuous as not to
rouse the attention of Roman officials. Most Chris
tians did not covet martyrdom, and the greatest Chris
tian teachers discouraged public statements which
would bring persecution. It was also easier to follow
customary formulas than to invent new ones, so that
among some of the less intelligent Christians distinctly
pagan abbreviations — which very likely were not fully
understood — were occasionally cut upon the grave
stones. A very curious epitaph from a Parthian of high
1,8 The text used, unless otherwise stated, is that given in the Cities and
Bishoprics of Phrygia, 1895, 1897, excepting in a very few instances where
later examination has given a different reading ; Sir William's translations
have been used when available. We once more wish to express our con
stant obligation in almost every paragraph of this discussion, to the various
learned works of this distinguished explorer. We have also consulted the
, later texts published in the Journal of Hellenic Studies by Hasluck, Ander
son, etc., XXIII., 20#., 75#.; XXV., 81#.; XXVII., 61#.; XXVIII., 180#.;
XXXIII., 97 ff.; XXIV., 20#. It may be worth while to add that a sample
collection of all known Phrygian inscriptions was given by Ramsay in 1905,
in the eighth volume of Jahresbericht des osterreichisch-archiiologischen
Instituts, pp. 79-110; but many have come to light since.

420 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
rank, dating probably from the fourth century, either
marks the grave of a Christian who only slightly
modified a very usual heathen formula or of a heathen
who, during the anti-Christian revival, imitated in a
rather imperfect way the moral epitaphs used by his
opponents :
"I was not ; I came to be ; I shall not be" ;
"This life does not concern me. Farewell, ye passers-by."69
On the grave of another man who was certainly a
Christian is carved the rather hopeless words:
"Do not weep . . . There is one end that comes to all."
When one died who was, perhaps, a Christian official
of the third century, those who had the responsibility
of providing for him a proper tribute used very
classical terminology but failed to get in much of the
Christian joy:
"Here lies Aurelios Trophimos . . . Here the doom of
death overtook me, the public teacher of wisdom. I dwell in the
house of Pluto . . . The light of the moon does not shine from
heaven but there is dark night. ... I went to the house of
Hades, the lightless land, I who was once called teacher of sacred
wisdom." 70
But while occasionally the old fashions in grave
inscriptions interfere with the expressions of the new
view of the future life introduced with Christianity,
ordinarily certain Christian expressions or symbols
clearly differentiate the Christian from the pagan
grave; altho even the early symbols were chosen from
those used by the pagans or were made to resemble
™ Op. cit, No. 134.
70 Ramsay, Studies in the Hist, and Art of the E. Provinces of the
Roman Empire, 1906, pp. 138, 142.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 421
such. The dove and fish are seldom used in Phrygia,
but as Sir William Ramsay points out, the horse, the
ship, anchor, palm, etc., were used, as also certain ana
grams which presumably had a Christian significance,
altho it must be confest, most of these differed but
slightly from those favored by their heathen neighbors.
Quite often it is only the names which have a Chris
tian meaning, thus indicating the Christian nature
of the inscription ; or perhaps names given to the Chris
tians in scorn by their opponents, such as Credula,
Alogius, Injuriosus, Calumneosos, Malus, Pecus,
Fugitivus, etc. Biblical names excepting Maria are
rare in Phrygia. Even when the term "deacon" or
"bishop" appears, it usually marks the grave of some
official of a pagan temple. The Christians here seem
ingly did not publicly use the title "bishop" until a
later era. One distinguishing mark, however, of the
Christian epitaph is the "deeper thought" and more
"human feeling" displayed. Also when there is more
than one body permitted in the grave it is almost cer
tainly Christian. The heathen (and perhaps many
Christians, too) believed that the preservation of the
grave had something to do with future happiness, and
so invoked penalties upon all violators of its sanctity ;
but the Christian not only often shared his grave with
' relatives, but in a surprizing number of cases with
. friend or stranger. One beautiful Christian inscrip
tion of the third century (about a.d. 270) shows the
good political standing of the Christians at that time:
"Aur. Menophilos, Jr., the (son) of Asklepiades, senator, con
structed the enclosure before you for himself and his son Apil-
lonius and his wife Meltine and his grandsons Menophilos and
Asklepiades and for whomsoever he himself wishes . . . But if

422 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
any one else shall attempt to place (herein) another it shall be
to him according to Jesus Christ." 71
One of the formulas quite common is shown in the
following gravestone of the fourth century:
"Eutyches son of Eutyches, to his wife Tatia and her father
in remembrance, being Christians," etc.
A still more common formula which occurs very
often scratched upon the corner of the tombstone:
"Thou shalt not wrong God."
Other Christian expressions are "God help"; "Lord
help"; "Servant of God"; "Pardon our sins"; "Sleep";
"Rest," etc. The word which indicates the grave as
a "resting-place" (Koi|a.ittJqiov) is "only found in Chris
tian inscriptions" (Hogarth). One such inscription
reads :
"Aurelius Asclepiades made this resting-place. Peace to all
the brotherhood." A most common formula in the third and fourth
centuries is this:
"Aurelius Zoticus, son of Marcion, to his own parents Marcion
and Appe ; ... in remembrance during his lifetime, Chreistians
to Chreistians." The variation in spelling the word Christian is a
certain proof of early date. Dating from the year
a.d. 333 comes the following:
"Chreistians to a Chreistian"
"Aurelia Ammia with their son-in-law . . . and grandchil
dren ... to her husband constructed this tomb." n
n Greek text in Bishoprics of Phrygia, No. 371.
™ The above inscriptions are given by Hogarth, Authority and Arche
ology, p. 386.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 4231
From the century previous occur similar epitaphs
full of Bible names:
"Ioulios, son of Onesimus to ... A Chreistian to a Chris
tian." "Auxanousa . . . and his son Trophimos . . . Chreistians
to a Chreistian."
The title Christian was originally a taunt meaning
"Messiah-ites," and very many of the early Fathers
preferred, instead of writing "Christus," to write
"Chrestus" (the "good" one). This invariably marks
a pre-Constantine grave. On one third century stone
an open book is pictured, evidently the Bible. Many
tombstones are made in the form of altars or in some
districts in the form of doors, with the knockers in
place and the common utensils of life carved on the
hntels — as if all the Christian needed to do was to
pause and knock at the door of the grave and then
pass through to eternal life. On the door-posts of one
door is written the beautiful sentiment:
"They live having escaped great danger."
On another Lycaonian stele, placed above the grave of
Dikios, "a measurer of wheat," is written:
"The sarcophagus belongs to him who knocks where the door
stands before him."
Many inscriptions quote or paraphrase Scripture.
The texts used in four typical grave inscriptions were:
Isa. 1: 16-18; 25:6; 60: 1-3; 61: 1, 10; Matt. 6: 13;
24: 15; Luke 15: 4; Phil. 1: 21.73
One of the most pathetic of all these third century
n Op. cit, Nos. 674-678.

424 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
gravestones is that in which Aurelius Alexander, son
of Mark, puts up a memorial to his martyred family;
"To my sweetest children honored by God in the peace of God
(here follow five names) who on one single occasion were blessed
with the lot of life . . . and whatsoever alien shall injure this
tomb may they have children who die young."
This, • as Ramsay points out, certainly marks the
grave of five martyrs, for there can be no slightest
probability that five children would be killed even by
the plague in one day. Sir William dates this epitaph
to the persecution of Decius or Gallienus, a.d. 249-266.
It was quite customary with the Christians, as with the
pagans, to call down an imprecation upon any one who
would meddle with the tomb. The customary formula
was, "He shall have to reckon with Christ"; but the
father who had lost five children in one day puts on
record a prayer which, under the circumstances, would
affect the reader even more powerfully.
Another heroic inscription of a little later date,
already quoted, describes the attitude of an officer in the
Lycaonian army — Marcus Julius — who when Maxi
mums issued an order compelling Christians to sacrifice,
wrote to his general, Diogenes, "I resigned my military
commission, holding fast to the Christian faith." "
Mystical inscriptions, the meaning of which is
often obscure to us, are not uncommon. Marcus
Aurelius of Hierapolis, about a.d. 200, puts his will on
his tombstone, leaving a large share of his property in
the care of the presiding officers of the "purple-
dippers" (or "those bathed in purple"), a part of the
estate, under certain conditions, to go permanently to
this "Guild of the Thremmata." He also leaves money
" Marucchi, Christian Epigraphy, No. 379.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 425
for candles to be used on "the wonted day." This
enigmatical text seems to most scholars clearly Chris
tian. That it is either Jewish or Christian is pretty
certain from a second inscription, which also mentions
"the most reverend assembly of the purple-dippers"
(porphyrabaphoi) , where a certain further amount is
left to be used "on the feast of Pentecost." 75 Scholars
generally agree that this "Ekkles'ia of Purple-Dippers"
was a Christian burial club, the name being chosen be
cause dyeing was one of the leading industries at
Hierapolis and a "guild of dyers" was well known.
Mr. Hogarth76 accepts the Christian reference and
says "the passers-by would read it as 'purple-dippers,'
'dyers in purple'; but the Christians would know that
it meant 'those who were washed in the blood of the
Lamb.' "
The most celebrated of all the Phrygian inscrip
tions is the mystical and allegorical poem found by Sir
William Ramsay on the tombstone of a second century
Christian named Avircius or Abercius, who places his
confession of faith — evidently directed against the
heresy of Montanus — in the most prominent way
possible upon his tomb. There are in existence so few
long inscriptions from the second century that his has
an unequalled value. We give Hogarth's translation:
"I, the citizen of a notable city, have made this tomb in my
lifetime that I may have openly a resting-place for my body.
Avircius by name, I am a disciple of the pure shepherd, who
feedeth flocks of sheep on mountains and plains, who hath great
eyes looking on all sides. For he taught me faithful writings,
and he sent me to Rome to behold the king, and to see the golden-
"The Greek text is given in Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, I., 118;
II., 525, 545.
™ Authority and Archeology, p. 383.

426 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
robed, golden-slippered queen, and there I saw a people bearing!
the splendid seal. And I saw the plain of Syria, and all its cities,)
even Nisibis, having crossed the Euphrates. And everywhere I
had fellow worshipers. With Paul as my companion I followed, ';
and everywhere Faith led the way, and everywhere set before:
me fish from the fountain, mighty and stainless, whom a pure
Virgin grasped. At all times Faith gave this to friends to eat,
having, good wine, giving the mixed cup with bread," etc.
This epitaph can hardly be dated later than a.d. 192,
and as at the end of the inscription Avircius says he
was in his seventy-second year, this would date his
birth a.d. 120, only some fifteen years after the tradi
tional death year of John the Apostle. Another in
scription a.d. 216 quotes a portion of this epitaph.
Christ is evidently the Good Shepherd whose "great
eyes" represent symbolically his prudent care. Avircius
had taught his catechumens, he says, from true and
sacred books, having been brought up on the writings
of the Apostle Paul, who in the spirit was with him in
all his journeys. The "fish" was the common symbol
for Christ, born of a "pure Virgin," while the "mixed
cup with bread" seems a clear reference to the Holy
Communion. To allow that the king's daughter, the
queen whom he saw at Rome, represents the Christian
Church seems a little less certain, tho scholars gen
erally accept it; but it is absolutely clear that Avircius
found Christians everywhere he went in the second cen
tury from the Euphrates to the Tiber.
In a number of the inscriptions which we have
quoted, burial guilds have been mentioned and charit
able bequests. So the will of Aristeas, in central
Phrygia, leaves a bequest to the "Society of Neighbors"
in order that every year they may "cause the grave of
my wife Aurelia to bloom with roses." The burial club

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 427
was almost certainly the first official society established
under the auspices of Christianity. It was common
among the pagans and the Jews, tho not conducted
probably on the same wide lines of charity and brother
hood as among the early Christians. It was the easiest
way to get official recognition, as the government re
spected tombs and burial societies and allowed such
clubs legal privileges. So far as charity is concerned
mention of it occurs in many inscriptions as, e.g., in
one of the fourth or fifth century where on a tombstone
the duties of a presbyter are declared to include "the
help of widows, orphans, strangers ( ?) and poor." The
name of the presbyter is mentioned who has "charge
of the sacred expenditure (?) in remembrance." " The
inscriptions speak of Christian orphanages for found
lings and of the church funds which were used for the
liberation of slaves and for the care of aged people,
prisoners, and exposed infants. Throwing the infant
out to die or to be picked up by strangers was "a horri
bly common practise in Asia Minor." It was also com
mon for pagan families to bring up foundlings in order
to sell them for immoral purposes; so that this branch
of charitable work on the part of Christians differ
entiated them very clearly in early times from their
heathen neighbors; altho later, at the time of the anti-
Christian revival, pagans were accustomed to imitate
these acts of charity, as they were also accustomed to
quote on their tombstones Christian phrases.
Very impressive is a gravestone found near Iconium
in 1905, dating from about a.d. 350:
"Koulas to Solon, a stranger, in remembrance."
"Expositor, XII., 444.

428 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Even now it is not too common for Christians to
put up tombstones in memory of dead strangers. One
bishop about the middle of the third century is called
in his grave memorial, "Friend to all men"; which is
even a better tribute than that on another bishop's
tomb who is called "the very pure and sweet-voiced";
while an inscription on the tombstone of a priest
emphasizes another beautiful quality:
"Here lies a man, priest of the great God, who on account of
gentleness gained heavenly glory."
The honor given to women in Phrygia is marked.
On a Jewish tombstone, a.d. 60-80, Nicias Lucius and
his wife are both called archons or official officers in
the synagog (aQxiouvdycoYOS). Even if this were
merely an honorable title so far as the wife is con
cerned, it still indicates the rank of women in the com
munity.78 This Jew had both a Greek and a Roman
name, tho he was not a Roman citizen; he also acted
as priest for the emperor cult, having to do especially
with rites in honor of Poppsea, the wife of Nero.
Ramsay has shown 79 that the Jews before a.d. 70 con
stituted a self-administrating community, "the law of
the Jews," being, in fact, specifically mentioned on one
tombstone. While it is an old tradition, probably un
true, that the Roman government did not discriminate
between the Jews and Christians in the first century,
yet it is often difficult to determine whether an inscrip
tion is Jewish or Christian unless the seven-branched
candlestick or some other distinctively Jewish symbol
is engraved on the stone.
78 So in a.d. 200, we hear of a woman "prophetess" from the inscrip
tions, Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, I., 118.
™ Op. cit, Chap. XVI.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 429
It is interesting to know that many soldiers and
senators were Christians in Phrygia in the second and
third century. It is far more interesting to discover
that the early Church favored education, and that it
was not until after the annihilation of the most pros
perous part of the Church that the Christians began to
underrate the value of learning.80 It is supremely inter
esting to note that in almost all these pre-Constantine
Christian inscriptions, which outrank in number those
found anywhere in the world — unless we except the
catacombs of Rome, — we find not only a firm faith in
the fundamental doctrines of primitive Christianity,
and a faithful spirit, which did not slacken even in the
face of martyrdom, but also a love for the stranger
and outcast which is peculiarly Christlike.
In addition to the foundation work which we have
described as done by Sir William Ramsay in western
Asia Minor, a great deal of supplemental work has
been accomplished there and in other sections. Prof.
J. R. Sterrett, in 1883-84, made an independent journey,
bringing back 390 inscriptions; and in 1885 conducted
the Wolfe expedition which obtained 625 texts. Very
many more expeditions have been made, such as that
of Cornell in 1907, conducted by A. T. Olmstead; the
Princeton expedition, and the later expeditions at
Cyzicus by several scholars, all of which have yielded
an enormous treasure of inscriptions — tho all of these
do not seem to have been carried away, as proved by
Ramsay's most successful journeys in 1910 and 191 1.81
"Ibid., IL, 509.
"Ramsay published a complete collection of all known Phrygian in
scriptions in 1905 in Jahresbericht des osterreichisch-archdologischen In-
stituts, which has since been greatly supplemented. See, e.g., Journal of
Hellenic Studies, Vol. 31, etc.

430 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
As early as 1856-59 His Britannic Majesty's govern
ment sent an expedition into S. Asia Minor, examining
ancient cities and obtaining a goodly number of Greek
sepulchral inscriptions from Halicarnassus, Cnidus, etc. ;
and these results were much enlarged by the work of
C. Lanckoronski, F. von Luschan, K. Humann, and
others (1888-1890), altho nothing for our present dis
cussion was discovered more important than Sir Charles
Newton's early find at Cnidus of a collection of leaden
imprecatory tablets from the temple of Demeter which
are remarkably like some later Christian imprecations.
In East Asia Minor, G. Perrot and E. Guillaume, whom
we have previously mentioned, did a magnificent piece
of work (1862- 1 872), while the art of this district has
been treated in a particularly thorough way by Pro
fessor Strzygowski, followed by Miss Margaret
Ramsay — a strong argument being made to prove that
the early art of Asia Minor exercized a strong influence
on the development of Roman and Byzantine Christian
art.82 D. G. Hogarth and other later investigators
have added considerably to the knowledge of this Sec
tion, while from Northern Asia Minor other scholars
like J. C. Anderson and F. Cumont have done splendid
work. Some of these results will be utilized later.
There is, however, one city, Cyzicus, where the ex
plorations have been so extensive that it must receive
special mention. Cyzicus was a town so ancient that
its founding is placed by tradition only thirty-four
years after Ilium, its king being the central figure in
the famous expedition of the Argonauts. In 1902 F.
W. Hasluck assisted Mr. Henderson in making a sur-
a Journal of Hellenic Studies, XXIV, 206#.; Ramsay, Studies in the
History and Art of the Eastern Provinces of the Roman Empire.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 431
vey of the site under the auspices of the British School
of . Archaeology, and afterward each year up to 1906
he conducted excavations there, giving important
epigraphic and numismatic results, besides determining
positively many of the ancient roads and giving us the
first and only reliable map of the district. He found
the Roman walls of the city still standing, and was able
to give a good description of the style of buildings from
the first century to Hadrian's time. The substructure
(252 x 150 feet) and "a few gaunt piers" of Hadrian's
temple are still standing, tho the great theater re
mained but a shapeless remnant overgrown with brush
wood. A necropolis was found in the east end of the
ancient ruins, and nearby a church where insanity
and all kinds of diseases were supposed to be miracu
lously cured — a direct perpetuation of the traditions of
the old Cybele worship.
The custom was to remain at least forty days, sleep
ing each night in the temple, and during this time the
temple physicians treated the disease; so medical
science developed.. Investigators tell us that by the
fifth Christian century the medical profession had prac
tically eliminated superstition from their theory and
practise and "stood on the solid ground of scientific
observation and experiment."83 We shall see later,
however, that at least among the common people these
superstitions were long-lived.
The language of Cyzicus was a mixture of Lydian
and Phrygian. The local religious cult was transformed
into a gorgeous emperor worship, the ruling emperor as
early as a.d. 124 being styled "the New Son," "Olym
pian Saviour," etc., while the female members of his
ffl Botsford and Sihler, Hellenic Civilisation, 1915.

432 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
family were worshiped as "The New Aphrodite," etc.8*
The mass of inscriptions found here, while exceedingly
interesting, are valuable chiefly for their complete cor
roboration of Sir William Ramsay's previous con
clusions concerning the religion and customs of Asia
Minor, and therefore need not be quoted.
6. New Light from the Second, Third and Fourth
Century Monuments at Salona, Dalmatia
For an entire century magnificent imperial con
structions and vast ruins from the early Christian ceme
teries at Salona have been the wonder of all travelers
in Dalmatia. This city under the Roman emperors
was one of the chief ports of the Adriatic, and the town
of Spalato, situated near its site, is still the largest city
of the district.
In 1818 the Emperor Francis I visited the ruins of
Salona, and to his royal interest we owe the systemat-
ization of the explorations and the foundation of the
archeological museum. The first excavations were con
ducted by Dr. C. Lanza, 1821-1827, and were con
tinued by Dr. F. Carrara, 1842-1850, bringing to light
the circumference of the city walls and some important
buildings like the amphitheater, theater, several splendid
gates, an old Christian baptistry, and several ceme
teries. These excavations were continued intermit
tently till 1877, when a subsidy was granted to this
work by the Austrian government, since which time
annual excavations have been made. In 1870 all the
collections previously gathered were housed in the
gymnasium near the Silver Gate. After the accommo-
84 See a fascinating account of the entire history of this city, Cysicus
in Mysia, By F. W. Hasluck, 1910.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 433
dations provided here were overcrowded, additional sec
tions were added, and finally a new museum of mag
nificent proportions was projected by the state in 1894.
Mons. Fr. Bulic has been the director of excavations
since 1884, and it is from his reports chiefly that we
gather the following information. One of the most
spectacular discoveries has been in connection with
Diocletian's palace. This wonderful building covers
nearly ten acres, resembling in outline a Roman camp,
tho its architecture is distinctly non-Roman. Portions
of the old arched aqueduct still stand, by means of which
Diocletian brought good water to the palace from moun
tain springs five and a half miles away.
Diocletian retired here to private life near his birth
place, about a.d. 300, and at once began the building of
this palace, the workmen evidently being imported from
Greece, Syria or Asia Minor. In five years it was so
nearly completed that he brought his household gods
and lived here the remainder of his life, dying about
a.d. 313. The wall surrounding the palace is in some
places two hundred feet high. There are towers at the
extremities with truly imperial portals, many Doric
columns adorning the approach. The colossal arched
gates, which resemble those of the temple of Isis at
Pompeii and the temple of the sun at Baalbec, have
been recently cleared at immense expense. Many niches
for statues and inscriptions appear, but the latter were
all broken to pieces in the fifth century. A fine stair
case leads to the most beautiful part of the palace, which
contained the imperial apartments. The style of this
palace is absolutely unique, representing the death of
the old and the birth of modern art. As Dr. Bulic
says, "Without the palace of Diocletian we should have

434 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
been in the dark on the relation between the earliest
Christian architecture and the Roman architecture."
A noble mausoleum, far superior to the famous
mausoleum of Napoleon, was constructed within the
palace area and adorned with twenty-five Corinthian
columns. Perhaps, however, this never received
Diocletian's body, as tradition states that shortly after
his death it became a prison for Christians who were
martyred there. Their bones have actually been found,
in recent years, walled in the niches.
It is difficult to describe the effect which the sight
of this ancient palace still produces upon an intelligent
traveler. Its size is astounding, for it yet accommodates
from fifteen to twenty thousand people within its
ancient walls. Its magnificence when new must have
been almost without parallel. ' Even yet it causes all
modern mansions and government buildings to appear
small and unworthy.
But far more than this is its historic importance to
Christian architecture. It can scarcely be doubted that
this latest palace produced by Roman imperial art, con
structed for the "last really great emperor," furnished
the "source and type of the arcaded interiors of the
early Christian basilicas built soon after under Con
stantine, some of which had architraves, while others
had their lines of arcades on either side of the nave." 85
The mausoleum, of which we have spoken, built under
the center of the palace dome, is undoubtedly "the pro
genitor of the Christian baptistry."
It will not be forgotten that it was under Diocletian
that the Christians were most violently persecuted, and
85 See A. L. Frothingham, Roman Cities in Italy and Dalmatia, 1910,
p. 318#.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 435
that this persecution took place at the exact time when
this palace was in process of erection. Even after the
persecution ceased elsewhere, the emperor personally
conducted it in this locality. But he failed in his pur
pose to exterminate the disciples of the new faith.
Christianity had been introduced into Dalmatia prob
ably by Titus (2 Tim. 4: 10), and recently discovered
monuments prove that as early as the beginning of
the second century it had found adherents among the
higher class of citizens and even among the high
officials of the palace. Lucius Ulpius, contemporary
with the first bishop, Doimus, established at about the
end of the second century a large Christian cemetery
beside his own monument near his villa, and his de
scendants continued for a century or more to erect
Christian mausoleums near their own family monu
ments. Even more interesting than this is the fact that
in some inscriptions recently found it is proved that
among the martyrs of the third century there were even
some members of the illustrious family of Valerius, to
which ancestry the Emperor Domitian himself be
longed. Instead of being destroyed by Diocletian's persecu
tion, parts of the palace were turned into Chris
tian worshiping places not long after the emperor's
death, and the worshipers so multiplied that by the
fourth century the Christian cemetery had extended at
least over three hundred feet in all directions from the
central basilica. Out of this cemetery — "the greatest
known open-air Christian cemetery in all the ancient
world" (Frothingham) — have come most important in
scriptions and monuments. As early as 1894 Professor
Bulic could report that the collection in the museum

436 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
comprised at least twelve thousand small objects, in
cluding 2,034 inscriptions, 387 pieces of sculpture, 176
architectural fragments, 1,548 terra-cottas and vases,
1,213 glass objects, 3,184 metal articles, 229 gems, etc.
Yet the largest excavation projects have been carried
on since this period. In 1902 it was estimated that
60,000 feet of material were removed, and in 1905 a
field railway was constructed and the government took
part in clearing the debris, using it for the filling of a
nearby marsh.
Besides the ruins of very ancient churches which
have been uncovered, and many grave inscriptions,
some intensely interesting relics from the tombs of
Christian martyrs have been recovered. Among the
most remarkable discoveries may be mentioned the
sarcophagus of the Abbess Johanna, found in 1884, the
unique baptistry first discovered in 1842 but more re
cently described, and the colossal Christian sarcophagus
of Julia Aurelia Hilara (sixth century). On the latter
is sculptured the remarkable figure of the Good
Shepherd in short tunic with hands extended holding
on his shoulders a lamb, exactly after the type of that
seen in the Roman catacombs. The baptistry is of
octagonal shape, its walls adorned by large white
marble columns, and its central baptismal font sus
tained by slender columns of red marble. In 191 5 Dr.
Jelic described a unique ornamental communion : table
made of marble and adorned with figures of Christ and
the apostles. Instead, however, of thirteen figures, this
frieze, strangely enough, has seventeen — the extra
saints probably being four of the most celebrated
martyrs of Salona. On the table was a figure of
Jonah • thrown out from the mouth of a strange,

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 437
elaborately carved monster — this picture symbolizing,
of course, the resurrection.
Several remarkable mosaics have been discovered.
One of these, reported in 1903, is that in connection
with an ancient Christian baptistry (about a.d. 400),
representing two stags drinking from a vase, while
over them are placed these appropriate words from
Ps. 42 : 1 : "As the heart panteth after the water
brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God."
Another polychrome mosaic, even more impressive, was
uncovered July 11, 1902, in the choir of the basilica.
In the midst of a very large section of beautiful mosaic
pavement the excavators found an inscription, parallelo-
piped in shape, in honor of some martyrs who lived in
the days of St. Jerome and St. Ambrose. The letters
were cut into the mosaic and originally filled with
colored paste mixed with crystalline powder, the cubes
around the letters being of blue indigo color and of a
vitreous substance. Each line of lettering was sep
arated by a line of cubes of Venetian red, and the en
tire inscription was surrounded by seven lines of cubes
of various colors. This curious inscription reads :
"A new construction after the old; Escychius his grandson,
with the clergy and people, has finished it (in honor of) Synferius.
Receive these labors as gratefully given to thy house, O Christ."
The word which we here translate "house," is
written in its usual form, domus, but means "church."
Another inscription recently discovered reads :
"Jesus Christ, 'King of Kings and Lord of Lords, may thine
eyes be open in mercy day and night over thy house."
A funeral inscription dating from the end of the
third century shows how even the soldiers and highest

438 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
government officials were at this time unashamed of
their Christianity:
"To Quintia . . . daughter of Quintus Germanus, a chief
centurion, a noble woman, who paid the debt of nature at the age
of thirty, Flavius Valens, special governor of Upper Pannonia,
to his beloved wife." 86
From a.d. 303-305 multitudes of Christians suffered
martyrdom, and as early as a.d. 375 their tombs had
become so sacred that Constantine, ex-proconsul of
Africa, and his wife, Honoria, came back here choosing
for themselves a burial place "near to the martyrs."
Over 600 short inscriptions have been found, mostly
in the large Christian cemetery. This cemetery, as has
been previously indicated, has been a source of in
calculable wealth to Christian epigraphy and martyr-
ology. It had been partially opened earlier, but in
1859 a farmer struck with his plow the cover of a
marble sarcophagus having engraved on the top of it
the story of Hippolytus and Phaedra. This roused
great interest, and soon other wonderful sarcophagi
were found, among which was the immense one of the
matron Asclepia, dating from the end of the third or
the beginning of the fourth century, known for its re
markable representation of the Good Shepherd. Several
Christian cemeteries have been found, but the most
important is this Manastirine cemetery, which Dr. Bulic
calls the "most important ever discovered," both be
cause of a long uninterrupted series of monuments
dating from the first Christian generation up to the
M Jacques Zeiller, Les Origines Chretiennes dans la province romaine
de Dalmatie, p. 85. This book gives many texts ; a detailed description of
the early evangelization of Dalmatia, and good illustrations ; also the
names of all the known Dalmatian Christians from the Diocletian era to
the sixth century so far as these are found in tradition or in the cemeteries
here.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 439
seventh century, and because of the novelty of its archi
tectural forms, but especially because of its intimate
connection with celebrated historic martyrs such as St.
Doimus (d. a.d. 107), whose tomb Dr. Bulic believes
he has recovered.87
One other point should be remembered as showing
the importance of the discovery of the ancient episcopal
basilica mentioned above, with its surrounding build
ings, baptistry, confirmation hall, episcopal palace, and
hospice. If at Ravenna and Parenzo we see the early
Christian basilica almost untouched in its architecture
and the main lines of its decorative mosaics, better in
fact than anywhere else in the world, it is to Salona
that we must come to study the accessories and sur
roundings of the early churches." M Both the episcopal
church, which was the city cathedral, and another
suburban basilica (around which was located the large
cemetery) have been thoroughly excavated. "In both
basilicas numerous columns, capitals, mosaic pavements,
cornices, parapets and screens, dating from the fourth
to the sixth centuries, have been uncovered, giving us
all the necessary elements for reconstructing the
artistic appearance of the interior." Dr. Frothingham
considers the confirmation hall of the suburban church,
which contained the symbolic mosaic representing the
stags drinking from the sacred fountain to be "the
most perfect known." 89
"With the exception of other authorities mentioned, this description
was taken from Guida di Spalato e Salona, by Prof. Dr. L. Jelic,
Mons. Dir. Fr. Bulic, e Professor S. Rutar, Zara, 1894, and in Bullettino
di archeol. e stor. dalm. a. 1902, 1903, 1904, 1906 ; Revue Biblique October,
1915. I am indebted to Prof. Amos W. Patten of Northwestern Uni
versity for first calling my attention to the special importance of these ex
cavations. 88 Frothingham, op. cit, p. 279.
80 Op. cit, p. 281.

440 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
7. New Light from Fourth and Fifth Century
Christian Basilicas and Sixth Century
Christian Towns Still Standing in the
Deserts of Syria
The Christian monuments of Syria constitute one
of the seventy wonders of modern archeological ex
ploration. The "thousand and one churches" of Kara
Dagh recovered for us only twenty-six Christian
1 basilicas dating at the very earliest from the fourth cen
tury, and in all the rest of Asia Minor and in all European
Turkey, Italy, and North Africa — those rich centers of
primitive Christianity — scarcely an equal number of
equally ancient churches remain in a good state of preser
vation; yet in northern central Syria, within one hun
dred and fifty miles of Antioch, in a district measuring
not much more than a hundred miles square, not only
scores of fourth century churches have been found, but
also at least one hundred Christian towns and villages
stand practically uninjured, just as they were left by
their owners over thirteen hundred years ago.
There is no other land where the architectural mon
uments of antiquity have been preserved to us in such
large numbers, in such perfection, and in so many
varieties. But far better than this, these are monuments
of Christian architecture that show us the ordinary
town life of the Christians from the fourth to the seventh
century in a most vivid way. To the surprize of every
one, it is found that this was a population of wealth and
refinement, the houses being well lighted, well ven
tilated, and beautifully ornamented. Wall paintings
and mosaics of rare workmanship and vessels of glass
in a hundred different shapes of rare beauty have been
found.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 441
While some early travelers, like Burckhardt, Seetzen,
de Laborde, Wetzstein, William Rey, M. Porter, and
a few others had reported the existence of strange
ghost cities in the trackless wilderness, it was the
Marquis Charles Jean Melchior de Vogue, with Wad-
dington as his colleague, who first drew the attention
of the learned world definitely to these architectural
marvels. He made an extensive tour in 1861-62, and
five years later published the results in two magnificent
volumes which at once drew the attention of scholars.90
De Vogue reported that he had found over a hundred
cities within a territory of seventy-five to a hundred
miles, all built in practically the same style and dating
from the same epoch, the epoch of primitive Christian
ity, thus throwing light on the most obscure era of
historic art. These towns are in general so well pre
served that one must "almost refuse to them the name
of ruins." The life which they reveal is not that of the
catacombs, hidden, secretive, and sepulchral, but the
free and open life of unrestrained development under
favorable conditions, "a large, opulent, artistic life, dis
playing itself in roomy dwellings built of heavy hewn
stone, perfectly put together on a palatial plan," while
the inscriptions bring to us voices from a previously un
known "Church triumphant." The inscriptions, how
ever, are full of a Christian humility contrasting in a
marked way with the bombast of the pagan inscriptions.
They are almost universally architectural, not sepulchral,
representing the utterances of the owners and architects
of dwellings, churches, and other monuments. These
Christians were not ashamed of their Christianity, for
80 L'Architecture civile et religieuse , . , dans la Syrie centrale, Paris,
1865-1877.

442 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
almost every house was marked by the sign of the cross,
while the well-known symbols of salvation were en
graved on the doors and the windows, painted on the
walls, and embroidered on the garments.
De Vogue reported that all the constructions in this
district earlier than the first century had totally disap
peared, either because made of less durable material
than was used by later builders, or because previous to
the Roman period this part of Syria could not have
been policed or made safe for colonists. He also pointed
out that these towns represent a line of frontier posts
which were then in the most prosperous condition, altho
now several days' journey from cultivated territory. By
the end of the first century there grew up in all direc
tions "houses, palaces, baths, temples, theaters, aque
ducts, arches of triumph, and cities built in the style of
all the Roman colonies," a Greek style modified by local
interests.91 It was nearly forty years after De Vogue's great
journey before any additional work of an equally
thorough nature was done in this strange country, but
in 1 899- 1 900, 1 904- 1 905, and 1909, the American and
Princeton Archeological Expeditions to Syria conducted
elaborate investigations under the direction of Prof.
Howard Crosby Butler with Dr. William Prentice as his
colleague, the latter having special charge of the Greek
and Latin inscriptions.91" The results of this expedition,
worthily published by Professor Butler, in sumptuous
double-folios, of which ten volumes have already ap
peared, represent the finest monument of American
" De Vogue, op. cit, pp. 1-6.
'" The expedition of 1899-1900 was not a Princeton undertaking but
was called the American expedition.

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 443
scholarship in the field of Christian archeology. The
writer feels himself wholly unable to give in a brief sum
mary any adequate conception of the magnitude and im
portance of these discoveries, but in order so far as
possible to do this, he will freely use Professor Butler's
facts and felicitous phrases.
This first American expedition made an elaborate
and thorough search of the entire region previously ex
plored by De Vogue in north central Syria. The ex
plorers visited every site previously described and dis
covered many new sites and important archeological
remains; they also visited every site described by
De Vogue in the Djebel Hauran with the exception of
three. They procured an enormous number of dated
monuments, and were able not only to corroborate the
general results obtained by De Vogue but also to correct
him in numbers of instances and to add largely to his
results in many directions. It was elaborately proved
that the architecture used was not Byzantine but an
alliance between the Greek style and some hitherto un
known oriental style. The latest dated inscription was
a.d. 609. After this building activity seems to have
ceased abruptly, probably because of the lack of rain,
perhaps due indirectly to the cutting down of the
forests, and more directly to the coming of the Persians,
a.d. 538, who not only destroyed the olive groves but also
practically destroyed the country.91" It was found that
the people of the northern half of Northern Syria were
poorer and were more influenced from Antioch, while
those of the southern half were richer and more in-
*"• Professor Butler writes me that the first invasion of Syria by the
Persians in 538 does not seem to have affected the smaller cities or towns of
Syria. But the second invasion under Chosroes II. (590-628) seems to have
put an end to the Christian civilization here.

444 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
fluenced from Apamea; yet strangely enough in the
north was found the "most magnificent ruin of early
Christian architecture in the world — the church of St.
Simeon Stylites at Kal'at Siman." This church was
probably not, however, merely a local enterprise, but was
built by contributions throughout all Christendom.
The earliest well-preserved Christian churches date
from the fourth century, tho the Christians were a con
siderable part of the population as early as the third
century. Previous to this the architects were non-Chris
tians, and the work was in the usual classic style as
found in the provinces. Perhaps one most interesting of
the pre-Christian ruins consists of the subterranean
rockhewn tombs at Il-Magharah. These are very elabo
rate and magnificent, but contain no inscriptions nor sar
cophagi. The civic buildings of the second century are
less grandiose but more refined than the third century
ruins at Baalbec.
With the fourth century, as we have said, the dated
monuments become numerous and a large majority
of these are Christian. It is often only by the inscrip
tions that certain basilicas can be known as churches,
since these are made in exact imitation of the public
buildings of the Romans of the previous period. The
private houses are often most elegantly built, and the
pyramid tombs, such as the mausoleum at Rbeah and
the miniature temple at Ruweha, (a.d. 384), are often
"marvels of construction." The pyramid tomb just
mentioned was corbelled in, and built without mortar
or clamps of metal, and can probably be compared
favorably with any pyramid tomb in the world.
We continue to follow Prof. Howard Crosby Butler
and read with delighted surprize his description of a

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 445
Christian villa at Ruweha. in the Djebel Riha (a.d.
396). The plan is a great square, on the north side of
which rises a long two-story building having four com
partments in each story and a two-story portico in
front. On the west side of the court are two Targe
compartments with the entrance — a triple gateway —
between them. The entrance is guarded by a tower,
which also doubtless served as a porter's lodge. The
ornamentation is fine, and many Christian symbols are
carved in prominent places. All the more expensive
dwellings have private stables at the back of the court
yard ; the more modest houses have these on the ground
floor. The stairs of the houses, usually of stone, are
always on the outside, usually at one end of the portico.
One of the strangest things connected with these
early Christian towns is found in the light thrown on
the "captains of industry" at this early era. In some
instances whole blocks have been preserved showing the
shops of the fourth century. These are a series of small
two-story dwellings with only a doorway on the ground
floor of each, but with doors and windows on the floor
above. Universally there is a long, low, two-story
portico in front. The lower chambers were evidently
used as storehouses for the merchandise which was dis
played during the day in the portico fronting the
street. The upper story was undoubtedly the home of
the proprietor. Christian inscriptions are found upon
many of these shops. Business men of that era were
not ashamed of their Christianity. One inscription
written a.d. 350 reads :
"One God, one Christ, be a helper to Flavius
Eusebios, buyer and builder."
Between the fourth and fifth centuries there was

446 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
some development in architecture, so that strange styles
of capitals and a new and rich Christian symbolism ap
pear. In the fifth century classic models of ornamenta
tion are less and less used. The churches of this era,
instead of the nine arches on either side of the nave as
in the fourth century, now have seven and sometimes
five arches, and the central nave becomes much wider
and the apse arch much broader, while bands of chain
and basket work ornament the moldings. The churches
are large and magnificent, often having splendid bap
tistries in connection with them, and vast inns for the
accommodation of pilgrims; they often stand inside of
strong forts, whose towers occasionally, as at Kasr
il-Benat, rise to six stories in height. The ecclesiastical
dwellings around the churches are small and of the
simplest rectangular style, almost entirely devoid of
moldings. The shops of the fifth century are sub
stantially like those of the fourth, while the houses with
restaurants and baths near by prove that luxury and
wealth still continued.
The sixth century saw the elaboration and perfec
tion of all the architectural motifs that had been ini
tiated and developed in the two centuries preceding.
This was the century that produced the church of St.
Simeon Stylites and many others of magnificent pro
portions and splendid perfection of details. Professor
Butler shows that these Syrian Christians were better
architects than even those royal engineers of Justinian
who designed and executed the famous Saint Sophia in
Constantinople. Altho their work was not so stupendous
and awe inspiring, it was more symmetrical and beauti
ful. We dare not attempt to describe the many beauti
ful churches photographed and minutely described by

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 447
Professor Butler in his great volumes, but will merely
add that Professor Butler declares too much can not be
said of the beauty cf the interior decorations and the
crisp and graceful carving of the great archivolts, the
elaborate and flowing ornament of the chancel arch, the
bold treatment of the foliage of the great capitals of
the piers of the naves, and the graceful turnings of the
slender colonnettes.
So far as domestic architecture is concerned, the
sixth century offers to us several very fine palatial
Christian residences. One of these at Serdjilla is a
double house of imposing appearance, while several at
Ruweha. are real mansions, in some cases so well pre
served that they need only roofs and a few minor re
pairs to make them quite worthy to be used as town
residences for wealthy gentlemen of the twentieth cen
tury. In the sixth century three-story houses were not
uncommon in the cities, and the rear entrances, as well
as those in front, began to be made attractive. The
beauty of some of the doorways and windows could
hardly be surpassed in any modern structure. The
wood and bronze doors of ancient times have disap
peared, but some very fine doors of black basalt remain.
These were hung with such mechanical perfection that
they still "swing so easily upon their ball and socket
hinges that they can be moved by one finger."
The first Princeton archeological expedition to
Syria (1904-5) re-examined certain sites previously
explored by the first expedition, and then passed to
other regions farther north, which few travelers had
ever reached, and where only four or five buildings had
been mentioned by De Vogue, and only a few others by
the first American expedition.

448 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
The technical diversities of style between the differ
ent sections of Syria and" between the fourth,' fifth, and
sixth century architecture in each section are elaborately
set forth by, the distinguished director of the expedition.
Space restrains us from attempting even to hint at these
important comparisons.
Perhaps, of most popular interest would be -Professor
Butler's observations concerning the Christian archi
tecture of the fotirth century in this district- which, as
in those previously examined, shows every variety of
structure required by a civilized people. Here, as else
where, were perfectly developed, basilicas of the fourth
century; public baths as. luxurious as those of pagan
times, the best preserved houses of antiquity— -not ex
cepting those of Pompeii — and mausoleums of great
magnificence.. It was found that classical ornament,
in the hands of these Syrian architects, was infused
with a luxuriant grace unknown at Rome, while some
of the most stupendous and some of the richest build
ings of the Roman empire were erected here. The
Christian period of architecture in Syria did not in
augurate a decline as it did in Europe, but began a new,
fresh, and vigorous style that continued in its prime
until cut off by Mohammedanism'.
The oldest architectural fragment could be dated
by inscription to A.D. 73, and similarly the oldest
church to, a.d. 372. In the mountains of northern
Syria the vault was very little used, and then in a style
peculiar to this region. The building material here was
almost exclusively limestone and produced effects often
"unmatched for beauty." In the 'Ala plateau the vault
was used more than; elsewhere; while basalt' was the
ordinary building material,' houses were occasionally

TEMPLE OF JUPITER (ESCULAPIUS) ?
AT SPALATO
JTrom Kowalczyk and Gurlitt's "Dfinkmaler der
Kunst in Dalmatien." 1910

THE GOLDEN GATE AT SPALATO
(RECONSTRUCTED)
From "Jahrbueh deg archiiologischen Instituts."
XXIV. Abt. 2, V. 49

DETAIL OF PERISTYLE AT SPALATO
From Kowalczyk and Gurlitt's "Denkmiiler der
Kunst in Dalmatien." 1910

"v p'ppTppjTjfsffS^'fi
', * un p"1 rn rn1 v rs nr w

R

nTpnrFpr.|

CHRISTIAN CONVENT (a.d. 390-418)
From Butler, "Ancient Architecture in Syria"

OCTAGONAL CHURCH AND RESTAURANT AT MONDJELEIA, SYRIA
From De Vogue1, "L'Architecture dans la Syrie centrale," (Vol. 2)

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 449
constructed of quadrated limestone blocks, and towns
built of sun-dried bricks — tho such towns have now
completely disappeared except for mounds of clay. All
the churches were built on the basilica plan, altho some
times containing unique features, and were usually
roofed with beams of great length. One church, a.d.
582, very nearly anticipates by 500 years the Lombard
and French Romanesque system, which has vaults con
structed above the nave and side aisles. The Kasr Ibn
Wardan church, which is situated on the rolling desert
far from contemporary buildings, is the most imposing
of all ancient sites in northern Syria, and is in some
respects the most remarkable of all. Seen from a dis
tance its ruins "loom up like the vision of some great
modern city"; yet it represents a group of only three
buildings, a square domed church, a large palace, and
the military barracks. The bricks of which these build
ings are partially composed came from Constantinople
kilns. Tradition declares these bricks were made of
clay mixed with rose water. Professor Butler believes
this church, like those at il-Anderin and Falul, may have
been built by an architect from Antioch. A fine-grained
white limestone and rare marbles of various colors were
used in the shafts and capitals of the interior, while the
floors, and possibly some of the walls, were covered
with beautiful mosaics. The local basalt was used for
the foundation, the lintels, and the jambs, and alter
nated with brick in the walls. The church was sur
mounted by a dome about sixty-five feet high, and its
great arched windows and the walls of the lower story
still stand almost intact. The palace, which was two
stories in height, measures 162 by 170 feet* and is
almost as handsomely built as the church. Professor

450 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Butler believes that the windows of the palace were
glazed, and indeed fragments of flat glass have been
found in the ruins. Great churches were usually attached
to forts from the middle to the end of the sixth century,
and several of these constructions built of this imported
brick may represent colonies of princes or ecclesiastical
dignitaries banished by the reigning emperor.
The Djebel il-'Ala and Djebel Barisha are bordered
by the Roman road running from Antioch to Aleppo.
Here both American expeditions found and described
many ruins. This differed from the Djebel Riha in
having no rich suburban villas, all the town buildings
being huddled together evidently for business purposes.
These towns ordinarily had gardens in the plaza, two
or three churches — finer in most cases than those of
Djebel Riha, — and occasionally a watch tower; but the
centers of the towns were exclusively given up to shops.
The inscriptions, too, were found in three languages,
Greek, Latin, and Syriac, showing that these ancient
Christians were in close touch with cosmopolitan busi
ness centers.
From this business district twenty-five Christian
churches have been examined, two of these dating from
the fourth century, seven from the fifth, and fifteen
from the sixth. None of these are of the first mag
nitude, the largest measuring only about eighty feet in
length, and the smaller something over fifty feet. The
architecture is less dignified than that of the more
southern districts; and altho often very rich, there is
the over-elaboration which shows lack of culture. In
connection with the churches, inns are often found.
These have no courtyards nor enclosed gardens as
private residences have. They face the street or open

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 451
square and have no dividing walls in the lower story,
the entire space on the first floor being longitudinally
divided by a row of mangers. One inn was definitely
dated a.d. 436, while the shops and bazaars in Dar Kita
were erected a.d. 350-354. The funereal architecture
here is particularly impressive, some of the fifth cen
tury tombs, built out of polygonal blocks of limestone,
comparing favorably in technique with the best ex
amples in Greece.
Limestone, as we have said, represents the main
building material in the mountains of North Syria ; but
some doors of imported basalt — for example those at
Sera — are beautiful beyond description, both in their
design and execution. In northern central Syria wood
and other materials are used more commonly. The
largest cathedral known in northern central Syria
is found at Kerratin (cir. a.d. 500), measuring 195
feet long by 85 feet wide. In north central Syria,
in the Djebel Riha., the architectural materials are
more varied and the structure and ornament are
exquisitely beautiful. Among the thirty ancient towns
excavated in this region there are several which
show a type having no parallel in any part of the
ancient world. Serdjilla is such a town, having no
streets, alleys, bazaars, shops, or poor quarter; being
composed wholly of elegant residential villas with one
or two churches, and some rich ornamental tombs fring
ing the outskirts.
It betokens advanced civilization and a high degree
of public order, as Professor Butler well points out, when
people can live in safety and in such luxury as this.
These were not powerful lords or millionaires, but well-
to-do people of the middle class.

452 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
The necropolis of Serdjilla was rifled in ancient
times, but a number of very large and beautiful sar
cophagi were found. The bath here dates from a.d.
473, and is the most perfect building of its kind in
Syria. M. De Vogiie describes this bath, but the
American expedition found the many colored mosaic
pavement with an inscription giving the date of its
erection and the name of the donors, Julianos and his
wife, Domna. The bath contains many rooms, was well
fitted to give cold, hot, and vapor baths, and was
elaborately decorated, the mosaic probably being its
chief adornment. It is intensely interesting to notice
that this best preserved bath in Syria, and perhaps in
the world, dating from a time immediately after Con
stantine, was found in a Christian community and for
the benefit of a Christian population. In connection
with the bath was a "cafe."
At U-Barah were found a large and a small church
and some monumental tombs which are the finest in
the entire region. At Ruweha. many acres were covered
with ruins of shops, churches, wonderfully preserved
tombs, and splendid villas. This town, like the others
we have described, touched its most flourishing period
in the fourth century. The north church in this city
is the largest in the district. In some respects it is the
most important church in north Syria, owing to the
T-form of the piers of the nave which supported not !
only the usual longitudinal arches but two higher trans
verse arches that spanned the nave, dividing the plan
into three equal squares. Transverse arches carrying
gables — reducing the number of roof trestles — is a new
feature in ecclesiastical architecture, as this church1
dates from the fifth, or at the latest from the early sixth,

CHRISTIAN TOMB FROM EUWtHA,
SYRIA (a.d. 384)
American Expedition to Syria, 1S99-1909

CHRISTIAN TOMB, REBEFAH
(4th Century)
American Expedition to Syria, 1899-1900

CHRISTIAN TOMB, MARATA, SYRIA (5th Century)
Butler, "Ancient Architecture in Syria," II. B., Part 2, 111, 103

CHURCH OF ST. GEORGE AT ZORAH, SYRIA
American Expedition to Syria

BASALT DOOR OF A CHRIS
TIAN HOUSE, KHAN SEBIL,
SYRIA (4th or 5th Century)
American Expedition to Syria

: • . ¦ I

1L.W -~ i-mi i ui ' '

A CHRISTIAN CHAPEL AT KFELLuSIN, SYRIA (a.d. 500-550)
From Butler, "Ancient Architecture in Syria"

CHURCH AND PALACE IN THE DESERT IN NORTH SYRIA (a.d. 561-564)
From Butler, "Ancient Architecture in Syria"

CHRISTIAN HOUSE FROM DILLOZA, NORTH SYRIA (6th Century)
From Butler, "Ancient Architecture in Syria"

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 453
century. The ornamentation is rich, yet reserved and
used to the best advantage.
The first American expedition made some of its
best discoveries in the Djebel Halakah, which is situ
ated to the northeast of the great plain bf Sermeda,
through which runs the great road from Antioch to
Aleppo. The ruins are very similar to those at Djebel
Barisha and Djebel il-'Ala. The earliest inscription
here dates from Refadeh, a.d. 73, and the earliest dated
house (which is built of polygonal cut stone) from a.d.
207. In general the architecture is the same as for
merly described, but the rock-cut tombs of Katura are
unique in central Syria. These tombs, which are cut
from the solid rock, are carved elaborately and contain
remarkable reliefs. Sometimes as many as four seated
figures are to be found cut in a tomb, altho in the
majority of cases only a single figure is represented.
These sepulchers belonged to the pagan forefathers of
the Syrian Christians. They must, at the latest, have
been cut very shortly after the end of the third cen
tury, since Katura became predominantly Christian
a.d. 366.
A tower house, five stories in height, was discovered
at Serdjibleh, and at Kafr Hauwar another was found
four stories high; what is much stranger, there was a
good sewer of original design connected with one of
these buildings, the pipe being made of terra cotta and
the whole construction furnishing "proof of an advanced
state of what might be called sanitary plumbing at this
.early date." This was not the only locality where
sewerage was provided, for Professor Butler says : "The
latrinae of many houses ih the Hauran have niches or
brackets for water jars in their side walls, and others

454 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
have wash hand basins corbelled out from their walls.
If the degree of advance in these particulars which
have to do with sanitation and personal cleanliness is to
be taken as an index of progress and civilization, we
must infer that the civilization of Syria in the fourth
and fifth centuries was considerably in advance of that
of large parts of Europe at the present day."
In the Hauran — which lies far south of the other
districts visited, being close* to Galilee — the American
expedition examined many important sites. While the
Christian buildings here do not look in their ruined con
dition to be so fine as those in north Syria, this is because
of the poor mortar, which when it falls away makes only
too visible the rough stones. Originally, however, the
buildings were covered with colored plaster, and the
churches and private dwellings were really larger and
more attractive than those in the north. The stucco
was very fine and hard, so that moldings of this
material looked almost as fine and beautiful as marble,
while the colors — grays, greens, deep reds, pale blues,
browns, and soft yellows — must have originally made
these towns look more attractive than many modern
watering-places. It must be added, however, that the
interior ornamentation, while simple and virile, was
not as refined and beautiful as in the north. At Umm
is-Surab the expedition found a fifth century church
which proved to be a true basilica bf three aisles sep
arated by two rows of five columns each and having an
upper story or gallery over the side aisles. It was the
only church found in the Hauran with a gallery.
Around the church was just such a group of ecclesi
astical residences as may be found about the cloistered
courts of the medieval abbeys of north Europe. Several

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 455
of the churches had heathen temples adjoining them,
which had been turned to Christian purposes.
It gives us a new impression of early Christianity
to be told by Professor Butler that even some of the
stables of these primitive Christians are built of stone
carefully drest, handsomely finished, and fitted together
with great care, the jambs and all the lintels of the door
ways being highly finished. At il-Medjdel a Christian
city was found with straight streets containing rec
tangular blocks of houses, and even boasting of side
walks on one or both sides. One house (a.d. 431 ) , which
stood at the street corner, had two stories of high arched
apartments in front and four stories of ordinary height
in the rear, and a large stable behind it. This was the
residence of a single family, yet the upper story, in
true oriental fashion, was completely cut off from the
lower, being reached by an outside staircase. There
were five rooms in the upper story ; this being, accord
ing to Professor Butler, the women's quarters.
Umm il-Kutten is one of the largest of the ruined
towns of the southern Hauran. It extended over half
a mile from north to south and its streets were broad
and straight. On the outside of the town were several
reservoirs, one of these being over 200 feet long, 85
feet wide, and 16 feet deep. At Der il-Kahf a fortress
was found containing 114 rooms dating from the year
when Constantine became Csesar.92
Dr. William Kelly Prentice was the expert to
decipher the Greek and Latin inscriptions found during
"The above description has been taken from the following works:
Architecture and Other Arts, by Howard Crosby Butler, N. Y., 1903. The
Princeton University Archeological Expeditions to Syria, by Howard
Crosby Butler, 1907; Ancient Architecture in Syria, by Howard Crosby
Butler, Leyden, 1910; Princeton University Archeological Expedition to
Syria, 1904-5, Parts I-V, Leyden, 1907-1914.

456 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
the first American archeological expedition. Of the
283 inscriptions discovered in north central Syria, over
100 were definitely dated. A large number of these
had to do with the pagan life (a.d. 60-250) which pre
ceded the domination of Christianity in this region, but
our interest centers in the Christian inscriptions dating
a.d. 324-609; altho one text (a.d. 50-100) should be
made an exception since it mentions "King Agrippa,
Friend of Csesar."
Some of the more interesting liturgical inscriptions
read as follows:
"Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, Crucified
for us, have mercy upon us."
"Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit."
(a.d. 369.)
It is thrilling to find painted on a wall of the sixth
century this liturgical hymn:
"Though immortal he endured many sufferings — Jesus the Christ.
Of David's race a heavenly branch — Jesus the Christ.
Extol the Only Begotten, Immortal One in all the earth — Jesus
the Christ.
In compassion he descended from the heavens upon the earth-
Jesus the Christ.
Teacher of true life from everlasting — Jesus the Christ."
The last three words of each line of this hymn are a
cryptogram of three numerals. These cryptograms are
frequently found; in one case the number 8051 being
written upon a door-post, meaning "The Lord shall
preserve thy coming in and thy going out, from now
even for evermore. Amen." (Ps. 121: 8.)
The funereal inscriptions are numerous. Some
times they imitate the pagan formula:
"Ah why, when about to face the dreadful voyage, hast thou
not taken me, but hast left to me, tenderly loving, such a wealth of

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 457
woe, bereaving my house, removing to another land? Alas, a
miserable lot hath fate to mortals meted out."
"Life is a wheel ! Vanity of vanities, all is vanity !"
"Thou runnest, I run — unto where ? Unto here."
The Christian epitaphs frequently contain the ex
pression :
"Hail, ye passers-by, and offer ye prayers for him."
On the Bizzos tomb (sixth century) is carved this
suggestive word:
"I sojourned well, I journeyed well, and well I lie at rest.
Pray for me."
Another epitaph which may not be Christian but
which ends as many Christian inscriptions end, reads:
"Farewell, loved places! Thou joy of enemies, grief of
children, expectation of the aged, healer of troubles, anguish of
the rich, desire of the wretched, with no respect of persons, mak
ing equal all, thee none may escape! An eternal dwelling has
Thalabathos, son of Ansos, built for himself and his children and
his dependents. Be of good cheer, my soul ; no one is immortal."
Occasionally we have an extended theological in
scription, as in the case of Eusebios and Antoninos
(fifth century) :
"Thou who gavest life to the human race and didst enjoin
death on account of transgression, and in thine own loving-
kindness and tender mercy didst promise a resurrection and gavest
us the pledge (the Holy Spirit) . . . Christ, visit with thy
salvation thy servant Antoninos . . . and the others who lie at
rest here, that they may see the good of thy chosen."
About 1,200 Greek inscriptions were copied by the
Princeton expedition (1904- 1905). Many of these were
dated and some were exceedingly important from a his
torical or linguistic standpoint. Besides the Greek in
scriptions there were 100 Nabatean, 1,300 North
Arabic, and several hundred in other languages; but
of these we need not speak.

458 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
About ioo of these Greek inscriptions came from
the 'Ala, eight of them belonging to the fourth century,
and over sixty to the sixth century. Often in these
sepulchral epitaphs we see the deceased spoken of as
"ever-victorious," "care-free," etc. Some of the more
noticeable epitaphs read:
Where Christ is gracious every man is happy"; "An eternal
place of dwelling, and at least for those who lived piously a gate
way of Holy Paradise" ; "Be of good cheer ... no one on earth
is immortal." One epitaph, which immediately strikes attention
because of its resemblance to those so often found in
old English and American graveyards, reads :
"Verily, I say to thee, I was as thou also art ; as I am, thou
shalt also be."
On the churches all over Syria, texts of Scripture
may be found, and other inscriptions similar to those
used at the present day, such as, "Enter into his gates
with thanksgiving and into, his courts with praise."
It also seems natural to see on the lintels of private
houses the term, "Good Luck" ; but it seems strange to
find carved over houses and baths and barracks such
words as "Life," "Light," and such expressions as
those given below:
"This is the gate of the Lord ; the righteous shall enter in it."
"Our Lord Jesus Christ dwells here, the Son and Word of
God. Let no evil enter."
"Of this house the Lord shall guard the entrance and the exit;
for the cross being set before, an evil eye shall not have power."
"If God be for you, who is he that is against you ?"
"What is the name of the bath ? Health ! Through this enter
ing, Christ hath opened for us the bath of healing."
Sometimes the inscriptions on these civic and do-

GRAVES AND BURIED CITIES 459
mestic buildings are strongly theological, especially in
the sixth century:
"May the Trinity, our God, drive envy far away ! O Image of
the Heavenly Word of God, O kindly Light, thou art Christ,
thou who hast built the world, incomprehensible (?), grant me
prosperity, and grant thy grace, unfailing ever! Christ, ever
living, . . . frees from ill ; therefore I fear no designs of evil,
no working demon, no hateful and lawless eye of man."
Many of these inscriptions had, without doubt, primary
reference to deliverance from evil spirits; yet there
must have been, nevertheless, a fine spiritual conscious
ness back of many of these seemingly spontaneous
utterances. Prayers of dead saints are invoked from the earliest
eras. One text which is unique reads: "Prayers of
apostles, prophets, martyrs for the renewal of the
synagog and people." The Christian kindness of this
early population is everywhere manifest, as in this in
scription on a house lintel: "Abraham received the
angels in hospitality" (cf. Heb. 13:2). The modern
Church may well rejoice over these newly discovered
evidences of the character of the early Syrian Church
which reached such unprecedented prosperity so soon
after the martyr period. These ancient towns show
many characteristics which might happily be imitated
by modern Christian villages.93
The unique value of these Syrian discoveries begins
to dawn upon us when we note that in all Egypt only
three or four poorly preserved church or ecclesiastical
" The above inscriptions have been selected from the multitude which
Dr. W. K. Prentice and his colleagues, Drs. Enno Littmann, David
Magie, and Duane Reed Stuart have published : Greek and Latin Inscrip
tions in Syria, in Ancient Architecture in Syria, Division III, Leyden,
1914; Princeton University Archeological Expedition to Syria, Parts I-V,
Leyden 1908-12, Div. III.

460 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
buildings date from the fourth century; and in all Italy
and Palestine very few more can be found. The earliest
basilicas in Rome, such as the Vatican, St. Peter's, and
St. Paul's, outside the walls, have long since lost their
original character ; the same thing can be said with equal
truth of St. Helena's buildings in Jerusalem; and in
Constantinople only one basilica dates as early as the
fifth century. Nowhere else on earth can there be
found standing, practically unrepaired and uninjured,
so many early churches as in this strange desert land
of Syria — and nowhere else can we walk through the
streets of a well-built Christian town over 1,500 years
old.

II
NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES MEN
TIONED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
i. Recent Excavations at Ephesus
A pile of beautiful white marble chips, which I
gathered two years ago upon the site of the Temple of
Diana, lies on my table as I write. It was difficult to
find even this slight evidence that on that spot once stood
the most celebrated temple, next to Solomon's, which was
ever constructed. It was rightly classed among
the "seven wonders of the world"; yet even the real
name of the goddess (Artemis) has practically per
ished from memory, being replaced by the Latinized
form Diana, while the little village built on the ancient
temple grounds is named in memory of St. John — who
according to a very old tradition spent the closing years
of his life in Ephesus — and the prominent tower of
Astyages is called the "Prison of St. Paul."
The romantic story of the digging up of this ancient
temple has been told in a most fascinating way by its
discoverer, Mr. J. T. Wood.1 Twenty years after Wood
had finished his researches the Austrian Archaeological
Institute began work at this famous city, publishing its
final results in two magnificent volumes in 1906 and
1912.2 It was on May 2, 1863, that Mr. Wood began
1 Discoveries at Ephesus, 1877; Modern Discoveries on the Site of
Ancient Ephesus, 1890.
2 Forschungen in Ephesos veroff entlicht vom bsterreichisch-archdol'o-
gischen Institut, 1906-1912.
[46i]

462 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
searching for this most famous monument of antiquity.
He found the boundary wall of its sacred precincts on
May 2, 1869. How he found it is a thrilling story. He
had been digging up the ancient city of Ephesus but had
discovered no sign of the temple excepting a few in
scriptions. But on one of these inscriptions, to be men
tioned later, he found a description of one of the temple
processions in which it was stated that in carrying the
sacred images of the goddess from the theater to the
temple the cavalcade passed through the Magnesian
gate. This proved that the temple was outside of the
city, and the excavator began at once to trace the city
walls. He soon found a magnificent gateway with
three openings, two for vehicles and one for foot pas
sengers, the deep ruts in the marble pavement showing
how much it had been traveled in ancient times. The
road was thirty-five feet wide and the paving stones
were of fine marble. No one of us who have ever stood
upon this pavement and looked back upon the great
theater — and at its side the wonderful ancient marble
library, more imposing than any Mr. Carnegie has
built — can ever forget the sight.
Mr. Wood followed this sacred road for a mile around
the mountain uncovering the funeral monuments with
which it was lined and taking note of the porticoes
built in ancient times to shelter pilgrims on their way
to the temple. Then he began, inside of the ancient
sacred temenos, to hunt for the ruins of the temple
itself, and on December 31, 1869, at a depth of twenty
feet, he came upon its white marble pavement made of
slabs of pure marble three inches thick. For five years
longer he worked here, employing from 100 to 300
native laborers digging up the magnificent capitals and

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 463
sculptured columns and massive blocks in white, blue,
red and yellow marble, now to be seen in the Ephesus
gallery of the British Museum. He found six or more
wonderfully sculptured drums from ancient columns, so
huge that it took fifteen men fifteen days to lift one of
them from the pavement. These drums were twenty
feet in circumference and six feet high, having eight
figures, all of life size, sculptured on them. He found
some splendid statues, like that of Hercules struggling
with the Queen of the Amazons; what was more im
portant, he discbvered hundreds bf temple inscriptions ;
so that when his excavations ended in 1874, he had
cleared away over 132,000 cubic yards of debris from
the ancient site, and was able to report with certainty
and fulness concerning this temple so famous in heathen
and early Christian history.
The temple was octagonal, and about 160 feet in
width by 340 in length; its richness may be imagined
when we notice that, instead of mortar, gold is reputed
to have been used between the joints of the marble blocks.
The celia, or Holy of Holies, was seventy feet wide and
open to the sky. Here was found in situ what the ex
cavator believed to be the foundation of the ancient
altar, twenty feet square, close to which must have
stood the divine statue. Many fragments were found
of the large white marble tiles which covered the roof
of the temple and of the double rows of fluted columns
in the peristyle. Over 700 inscriptions were also
brought to light.3
From the ruins and from these inscriptions many
facts were learned concerning the history and ritual of
'See particularly Ancient Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum,
part III, section II, by Rev. E. L. Hicks, 1890, to which work we are con
stantly indehteri.

464 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
the temple, most of which have been confirmed and
supplemented by later excavations. The earliest temple,
which took a century in building, was completed 480
b.c, just about the time Ezra was bringing back the
exiles to Jerusalem. When the temple was burned on
the night Alexander the Great was born, all Asia helped
in its restoration. The temple worship was never more
enthusiastic, seemingly, than at the era when Paul
visited Ephesus. Augustus (5 b.c.) built the boun-.
daries of the temple, within which limits asylum to
criminals was promised, and the next year ordered a
rebuilding of a large part of the temple. We know that
in a.d. 4 the canals leading from the temple to the sea
were repaired, and the votive gifts prove that the temple.
was increasing in wealth during the first Christian cen
tury. It was captured by the Goths in the middle of
the third century and left desolate; a little later, when
the early Christians became dominant at Ephesus, it
was completely destroyed. The earliest excavator
actually found the kiln in which these Christians turned
into lime such marble blocks as they could not utilize,
in other buildings. It is literally true that, with the
exception of a little pile of inferior foundations, not
one stone remains above another of this most glorious
structure. Many hundreds, if not thousands, of priests must
have been connected with the temple ritual, and many
of the priestly cells have been found within the temple
area. While honors were paid in the city and even in
the temple to Poseidon, Demeter, Dionysos, and other
deities, yet Artemis (Diana) was supreme, and her
priests ever preceded those who had charge of the cult
connected with the adoration of the emperor. In the

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 465
month Artemision (March- April), dedicated especially
to this goddess, the greatest of all the religious festivals
was held, during which there were athletic, dramatic,
and musical contests in connection with the ritual.
These festivals were celebrated with especial glory
every fourth year. In a most interesting decree dating
from a.d. 162, which Hicks thinks to have represented
an anti-Christian demonstration, it is decreed that all
the days of that month shall be sacred holidays in honor
of the goddess.
The head of the temple hierarchy was the Mega-
byzus, or chief priest, who was probably a Persian. A
multitude of priestesses, who came as virgins to the
temple, were dedicated to prostitution in the temple's
service.4 These vestals were presided over, at least in
the early period, by a eunuch priest. The bee which is
engraved on so many of the temple coins was the
symbol of the Ephesian priesthood, perhaps symboliz
ing its organization, ritual chastity, and beneficent in
dustry; perhaps having a mantic significance, the bee
in Greek myth being connected with the foretelling of
events.5 Another important college of the priests was
called Essenes (drones), while the priestesses were
called Melissae (working bees). One important college
of priests, which passed several decrees in honor of the
emperor, wore a peculiarly rich dress marking them as
engaged in some particularly honorable service of the
goddess, and received therefore as their special name
*Dr. Percy Gardner, The Ephesian Gospel, 1915, believes that altho
at Babylon the temple of Artemis was a seat of prostitution, at Ephesus,
through Greek influence, her worship was conducted "in far less repulsive
guise." Yet he admits that there were "elements of sexual impurity'^ in
her festivals where crowds of priestesses performed "orgiastic dances" in
her honor.
B See Journal for Hellenic Studies, XV, 1-24.

466 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
"gold wearers"; still another priestly caste — who prob
ably had to do with the transcribing and interpreting of
the sacred legends — were called "theologians."
Music must have had a great part in the service. A
boy's choir seems to have been connected with the
temple, and one inscription speaks of a golden chaplet
being voted to a Boeotian flute player who had won
honors during a festival. Like most ancient temples,
this sanctuary was a bank of deposit, and the "elders"
or "presbyters" are mentioned as having charge of the
temple accounts.
The "Asiarchs," "town clerk" and "temple-keeper,"
mentioned in the Acts (19:31, 35), are officers well-
known from the inscriptions. The Asiarchs were
provincial, not municipal, officers, who traveled in great
state accompanied by a train of long-haired pages, and
had special charge of the great festival in adoration of
the emperor, at which time each Asiarch tried to outdo
his predecessor in the games which he provided for
the people at his own expense. One of his titles was
"high-priest of Asia," his wife also being "high-
priestess." One monument in honor of one of these
Asiarchs mentions the troop of gladiators which had
been slaughtered at a particular show. Altho there
was only one Asiarch in office at any one time, there,
must have been many ex-Asiarchs, since this official
was changed every quadrennium; so that there is now
hardly any need of explaining the Asiarchs of Acts
19:31 as referring to a problematical "council" of
Asiarchs at Ephesus, as Sir William Ramsay does.6
The town clerk (YQa[i|AaT8ug) was a most important
8 Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, "Asiarchs" ; cf. Journal of Hellenit
Studies, 1910, p. 261.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 467
personage, as is known from the inscriptions. He was
responsible for the form of the decrees which were sub
mitted to the popular assembly and helped to draft
them; he sealed such decrees with the public seal; he
often proposed decrees and acted as chairman at popu
lar meetings, which meetings were commonly held in
the theater ; he had charge of the money bequeathed to
the people; in fact, he was so great a man that events
are sometimes dated by reference to the year when
such and such a town clerk held office.
When the town clerk called Ephesus the "temple-
keeper" (veawoQog) of Diana he is using the exact ex
pression used in various inscriptions where the city is
spoken of as "temple-keeper of the divine emperor."
The local color of the Bible narrative can be vividly
seen by comparing with Acts 19:27-35 an inscription
recently dug up at Ephesus which speaks of the city as :
"The first and greatest metropolis of Asia and twice temple-
keeper of the Emperors, according to the decrees of the sacred
assembly and temple-keeper of Artemis," etc.'
In an inscription found in the Diana temple, ex
cavated in 1910-13 at Sardis, one of these temple-
keepers is mentioned as having been "treasurer of the
kingdom." The title Neokoros is the same as that
given to the official who had charge of the Jewish syna
gog in an Egyptian village two centuries before Christ,
and is yet the current title in Greece for the sacristan
of an orthodox church or Jewish synagog.8
There were twelve temple wardens in the Ephesian
7 Greek text published in Forschungen in Ephesos, II, 163.
'So Reinach, quoted by Moulton and Milligan under veurtCOQOc; i"
their Vocabulary given in the London Expositor.

468 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
temple, two being constantly in service, the term of
office being two months each. One inscription declares
that both of these were required to accompany proces
sions in order to see that the sacred images got safely
to and from the temple. They were required to be pres
ent also when the images were cleaned ; they had charge
of the sacrifices; they were treasurers of certain temple
funds and took the fines due to the goddess; they had
general charge of the temple and temple repairs. In
addition to this one of these is mentioned as "chairman
of the board of corn commissioners." It is an interest
ing fact that they were elected or confirmed by a state
assembly called "ekklesia." 9 The shout of the mob,
"Great is Diana (Artemis) !" is now shown to have
been a common formula in the Artemis worship.
Artemis is mentioned in every inscription, being
sometimes called the "saviour goddess." Her image,
which according to tradition had fallen from heaven
(Acts 19: 35), was probably an aerolite which had been
roughly shaped into a mummy form, sometimes
pictured as a many-breasted, hideous idol. It is
better known than almost any other ancient image. She
was adored as the mother of life and nourisher of all
the creatures of the earth, air, and sea.
During the years 1904- 1905, Mr. D. G. Hogarth
excavated at Ephesus. On the site of the old temple
he found two beautifully carved heads and some minor
fragments of sculpture, and below the remains of the
sixth century temple he uncovered the foundations of
a much smaller temple built of yellow limestone. Over
2,000 small dedicatory gifts were brought to light, as well
as the greatest treasure-trove ever discovered here, con-
0 Hicks, op. cit., DLXXIX.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 469
sisting of some four thousand objects, including brace
lets, charms, brooches, pendants, and other objects in
bronze, ivory, crystal, glass, paste, enameled wood, iron,
and terra-cotta, besides at least a thousand articles in
gold and electrum.
The story of the finding of this ancient hoard reads
like a romance. Mr. Hogarth had been digging for
many weary months on the temple site without finding
anything worth reporting, the previous excavator hav
ing gotten, as it seemed, everything worth carrying
off. But in November, 1904, he came, in the course of
his work, to the small oblong structure which Mr. Wood
had denominated the "great altar," and decided, since
there was nothing else to do, to examine its construc
tion. But almost the first blow of the pick revealed a
most surprizing fact. The supposed altar was not
marble, but was merely veneered with marble, and be
neath this was piled countless limestone slabs and beds
of mortar, and in each bed of mortar the most astonish
ing treasure. Here were earrings of all patterns,
pieces of necklaces, jeweled hairpins and brooches,
primitive electrum coins, and 160 electrum stars, most
of the artistic work being of the finest quality, and the
whole treasure trove evidently coming from the best
era, "the Ionian springtime" of Greek art.
What did this mean? Had these precious things
fallen down, in some way, from the altar where they
had been laid as votive offerings? No; Mr. Hogarth
immediately sensed the true meaning of the puzzle.
These were the ancient "foundation deposit" made
when the temple was first built, and represented the
pedestal on which the divine statue — which the wor
shipers thought had "fallen from heaven" (Acts

470 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
19: 35) — was placed as on a throne." The Egyptians
made their foundation deposits under the main
threshold of the temple or under the corner-stone or
central axis; but this discovery showed that the Greeks
made their richest deposits under the pedestal which
held the image of deity.
The weather was execrable, but the diggers groped
for jewels waist deep in water and slime, beaten with
fierce rains and cyclonic winds, while Mr. Hogarth, sick
tho he was, rejoiced daily at such discoveries as made
the world of scholars gasp as they read of them. About
the pedestal three small shrines were found, many
broken vessels used in the worship, and vast quantities
of votive offerings, together with scores of statuettes
in ivory, bronze, and terra-cotta. Perhaps the best
prize of all to classical scholars was the discovery of a
thin silver plate containing the earliest record of ac
counts preserved to us in the Greek language (550 B.C.) ;
but to Bible lovers the best discovery was that of the
many statuettes of the goddess, representing her (cir.
700 b.c.) not as a loathsome, many-breasted idol but
either as a very beautiful woman or more commonly as
a mummy. She is usually represented standing stiffly
with feet close together, swathed from feet to ankles
in mummy-like wrappings, sometimes decorated with
figured scenes, sometimes with scales. The whole front,
from throat to waist, was usually covered with orna
mental pendant breasts (suggesting fulness of life),
and the arms were extended from the elbow. Behind
the head a sort of nimbus was pictured, and sometimes,
tho rarely, stags were placed on either side. As early
as the fifth century before Christ the seated Mother and
10 Compare the foundations of the New Jerusalem, Rev. 21 : 10-20.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 471
Child was a common representation. Not one figure
of the many-breasted type was found.11
The most important excavations, however, at
Ephesus were those by the Austrians, which began in
November, 1897, and were carried on continuously for
sixteen years. In the great work to which we have
previously referred, Drs. Otto Benndorf and Rudolf
Heberdey, assisted by a large number of distinguished
scholars, give special studies of the topography of the
district, its harbors, mountains, hills, brooks, etc., to
gether with a most thorough examination of the ruins
between the harbor and the mountains, where the old
Hellenic city stood, and especially of the great theater
which Wood had hardly touched. They thoroughly
examined the circular structure called the "tomb of St.
Luke," finding that it had nothing to do with St. Luke,
but was an ancient pagan edifice altered into a Chris
tian church. They also examined the other Christian
monuments, especially the celebrated "double church" —
900 feet long by 100 feet wide, — and found a basilica in
the western part of the ancient building, evidently repre
senting the large church of St. Mary in which a great
church council was held a.d. 431, the edifice, however,
being erected at least a century earlier. They also ex
cavated a smaller sixth century church and found a great
treasure of wonderful bronze lamp stands and a frieze of
"hunting Cupids" so fine and large that an entire room
has been given up to it in the Vienna Museum ; in
addition to all this they obtained a large number of
priceless statues, among which was one of the finest
bronze statues of heroic size known to antiquity, being
11 Cf. Hogarth, Accidents of an Antiquary's Life, 1910 ; British Museum,
Excavations at Ephesus, 1908 ; Journal of Hellenic Studies, XXIX, p. 192.

472 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
that of a Greek athlete originally dating from the first
century, but the base of which contains a dedication to
the Emperor Constantine.12 They were also able to
publish ninety new and important inscriptions; their
work representing, therefore, as the editor well says,
not merely a few "sheaves" but a "fresh harvest,"
gathered from the site of this famous city. The third
volume of the Austrian excavator's great work on the
sculptures has not yet appeared, but Dr. W. R. Lethaby
and others have given satisfactory preliminary state
ments of results in the Journal of Hellenic Studies™
They found an arched roadway nearly half a mile
long running f rorri the harbor to the theater, lined with
monumental buildings. From 1864 to 1866 they
thoroughly explored the theater, which was the central
object in the ancient city, and in size and beauty at
least equal to any now used in London or Paris. Set
up against the mountain which was utilized in order
to give grandeur to its architecture, it still seems mag
nificent even in its ruins, and the acoustics are so per
fect that even a whisper can be heard clear back to the
topmost row of seats. The Austrians have minutely
traced the changes in the architecture of the auditorium
and orchestra during the centuries even down to the
smallest detail, the enlarging of a door or the change
in size of a window. The reader can not be expected
to take interest in more than the general statement] that
this theater could seat nearly 25,000 people, and thatthe
orchestra was 80 by 37 feet, and the stage about 20 feet
deep and 80 feet long, being supported by 26 round
12 Op. cit, 1: 181-204; cf. Journal of Hel. Studies, XXIII, p. 347-350.
MXX, pp. 178-181; XXXIII, pp. 187-196; XXXIV, pp. 76-88;
XXXVI, pp. 2S-3S.

PAVED ROAD FROM THEATER TO TEMPLE, EPHESUS

SITE OF THE TEMPLE OF DIANA, EPHESUS

ANCIENT DOUBLE CHURCH. EPHESUS

ANCIENT LIBRARY BUILDING, EPHESUS

THEATER AT EPHESUS

NEW LIGHT FROM" FAMOUS CITIES 473
pillars and 10 square piers. During the apostolic era
(A.d. 40-112) the stage was raised, the ornamentation
enriched, and arched entrances constructed, while in the
parterre the old wooden ceilings were replaced by
beautiful stonework, the footlights were rearranged,
and several very artistic facades with elegant frescos
were erected in front of the stage. By a.d. 66 the. work
was practically completed. In the lowest of the sixty-
six tiers of seats were twelve wonderful marble
thrones, one or two of which still remain almost intact,
presumably having been erected for high officials or
victors in the games.
' In front of the great theater was the Serapion, and
on its west side the Odeum, or lyric theater, correspond
ing to our music hall. Here the medical doctors came
together for their meetings, as we know by the four
prizes they offered. Here also the guild or college of
schoolboys appeared on festival occasions with their
teachers. One inscription of the first century mentions
the death of a pupil of one of the celebrated teachers of
Ephesus, and another was set up in the temple at the
i!:; expense of his pupils in honor of Soteros, a. famous
rhetorician. The school of'Tyrannus (Acts 19:9),
where Paul gave his peripatetic talks, was probably
hot the hall of a sophist, for the proud sophists would
have held aloof from making such an arrangement with
a Jew; but must have been the room of an elementary
teacher, who according to custom used his class-rooms
only twice daily, teaching a few hours in the early
morning and a little while in the afternoon. Thus the
rooms would be empty and very suitable for such work
as Paul wanted to do, especially if, as was customary,

474 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
these lecture rooms were adjacent to the street.13*
The inscriptions give many points which ought to be
interesting to the Bible student as he reads the story
of Paul's visit to Ephesus. The very oldest inscription
of all,13" inscribed on a block of blue-veined marble, deals
with the rules of augury with reference to the flying of
birds :
"If the bird is flying from right to left, if it settles out of sight,
it is lucky ; but if it lift up the left wing, then whether it rises or
settles out of sight, it is unlucky. But if the bird is flying from
left to right, should it settle out of sight in a straight line, it is
unlucky ; but if rearing the right wing it . . . " etc.
How vividly this brings to mind the great bonfire
in which Paul's converts that had practised magical
arts "brought their books together and burned them in
the sight of all; and they counted the price of them and
fbund it 50,000 pieces of silver. So mightily grew the
word of the Lord and prevailed." 13° In this connection
it may be well to mention" that a new copy of the
apocryphal correspondence of Christ with Abgarus has
recently been found by the Austrians inscribed as a
charm on the lintel of a Byzantine house.14
Amid the multitude of dedications to emperors,
honors to the imperial family, to public bodies, and to
distinguished private individuals, certain letters appear,
written only a few years after the close of the apostolic
era, and the names of certain individuals are given who
offered votive gifts to Artemis and celebrated the
"mysteries of Dionysus" at the very era when the
"¦ Otto Benndorf, op. cit., I, p. 98.
"" Hicks, No. DCLXXVIII.
MeActs 19:18-20; cf. also Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East,
pp. 250-254.
" Journal of Hellenic Studies, XX, p. 79.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 475
Ephesian church was having its great fight with
paganism. These comparatively small and poor relics
are far more valuable to us than the elaborate inscrip
tions which were most prized then. Here is one in
scription, however, which catches the attention, for it
is dedicated "To Artemis of Ephesus and Emperor
Caesar Nero Trajan Augustus"; the Asiarch who in
scribed it, speaks of Nero as the "high priest, most
mighty father of his country." 1S
Another Latin inscription, tho written in Greek
letters, speaks of "Paullus Fabius, Pontifex of the
brotherhood of Augustus ... of Tiberius Caesar." w
Another interesting dedication is by Hiero, son of
Hiero, "holy, emperor-loving," who during his term in
office built from his own private funds a certain part of
the theater, dedicating it to the people.17 These gifts
to the people are often mentioned. In one decree three
very rich men who had shown themselves great bene
factors to the city in time of famine by selling wheat at
cost are granted citizenship ; 18 in another case a golden
crown and front seats at all the games is voted for pub
lic services to a Rhodian whose name is unfortunately
gone.19 In a number of cases a Dikast or judge, who
has been called in from another municipality in order
to decide impartially critical cases of justice and has
succeeded in his generous but difficult task, is voted
special honors. Of even more interest to the Bible
student is a list, engraved on a marble slab, of names of
those who in Hadrian's reign had celebrated the pagan
16 Rudolf Heberdey in Forschungen in Ephesos, Vol. II, p. 161.
"Ibid., II, p. 115.
"Ibid., 11:157.
18 Hicks, No. CCCCLXI.
"Ibid., CCCCLXVI.

476 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
"mysteries" ; a text in which an athlete is said to have
fought three fights, for two of which he was crowned;80
an official inscription in which Julius Caesar is spoken
of as the "God made manifest . . . saviour of human
life" ; and the dedication in which Ephesus is spoken of
as "temple-keeper of Diana" (veooxooog t% 'AQT8|u8og),
thus reproducing the exact phrase used by the town
clerk in his celebrated speech.21
The "golden crown" so often mentioned in the
Bible was one of the highest badges of honor in im
perial Rome. Many texts occur in which this is men
tioned, one of the most interesting having been found
by Prof. A. H. Sayce a few years ago at Antinoe.
Palm branches and a Maltese cross appear at the bot
tom of the inscription, which seems to date from the
fifth century:
"The famous, the glorious (lit. "golden") Erutheos (?).
"This foremost man is conspicuous to a great degree, in a
golden crown. For he has this honor, worthy of his deeds, from
the king who sent him afar to Thebes . . . upon a magnificent
car as guardian of the younger Rome." M
The most important pagan monument is without
doubt that which mentions the dedication by a very
wealthy Ephesian, Gaius Vibius, in the very year in
which St. John is supposed to have died, of a great
number of statues which were to be set up in the
temple of Diana; a monument which brings us into
close touch with the "craftsmen" whose business was
interfered with by Paul (Acts 19:24). It certifies to
us at first hand the truth of the statement of Demetrius,
°°Cf. 2 Tim., 4:7,8.
MActs 19:35.
22 Greek text in Academy, Feb. 2, Aug. 22, 1900.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 477
"Sirs, ye know that by this business we have our
wealth" (Acts 19: 25).
The Austrians were fortunate enough to find the
base of this dedicatory inscription, on which the donor
is given all his titles, and the enormous amounts of his
benefactions are properly tabulated. Omitting a few
sentences we translate this. The top of the inscription
is written in Latin :
"Gaius Vibius, prefect of a cohort of the Astures and the
Gallaeci, tribune of the XXII legion, deputy of the province of
Mauretania Tingitana and of the district of Belgica [Belgium],
has at his own expense made a silver statue of Diana and also
.two silver images, one of the city of Rome and one of the senate,
with this stipulation, that in every public assembly (sm&naia)
they shall be placed on pedestals, for the dedication of which he
has set aside to the senate for allotment 17,000 sestertia."
If correctly transcribed this would report a donation
equal to about $850,000; yet this was only one of many
gifts. Immediately below this on the same stone is
another dedication in Greek, reading much as the above
but containing the heading and adding a few more
honorary titles:
"TO ARTEMIS OF EPHESUS AND THE EMPEROR-
LOVING COUNCIL OF THE ELDERS
OF THE EPHESIANS
"Gaius Vibius, son of Gaius Vofentina, salutaris, commis
sioner of the harbors of the district of Sicily and commissioner of
the grain supply of the people of Rome . . . caused to be made
out of his own private funds a silver Artemis and silver images,
one of Imperial Rome and another of the Senate, which he dedi
cated to be erected at the place of public assembly [Biblical,
"church"] upon the bases as the arrangement there permits.
"He dedicated also for the portion of the council of elders
4,250 denarii. . . .

478 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
"In the time of the proconsul Gaius Aquilla Proclus, recorder
of Tiberius Claudius Julian, lover of emperor and fatherland."
Many other inscriptions exist recording the gifts
of this liberal Ephesian, the most important being the
one transcribed by Hicks.23 This noble memorial con
sists of a series of public documents in which this
Roman knight and naturalized citizen of Ephesus in
a.d. 104 dedicates twenty-nine images in the first case
and two more later, nine of which, weighing from three
to seven pounds apiece, were exceedingly valuable,
being either of solid gold or of silver overlaid with
gold. Among these the most prominent was a golden
image of Diana with two silver stags at her side. In
addition to this he donated 20,000 denarii, the annual
income of which at 9 per cent, interest was to be
spent for gifts to the citizens, temple ministers, etc., on
the goddess' birthday. The manner of conveying the
images to and from the theater is carefully set forth,
and with great definiteness it was specified what should
be done with the money, even down to items respecting
the powder used to clean the statues. The gifts were
to be divided in a manner specifically stated between
1,200 picked citizens, twenty-three choristers who took
part in the mysteries of Diana, the temple-keepers, cer
tain priests, a priestess, and forty-nine "boys" — the
latter probably representing sons of prominent citizens
who were being instructed in the temple school or were
candidates for the priesthood. These "boys" certainly
held a rather distinguished position, for according to
one of the recently discovered texts they had a place
reserved for them in the theater. The nine most im-
B Op. cit, pp. 127-142.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 479
portant images consisted of the golden Artemis men
tioned above, a silver Artemis with torch, silver images
of the Roman senate, knighthood, people of Rome, etc.
Of course, these votive images have special interest for
us because of the mention in the Bible narrative of the
"silver shrines of Diana" (Acts 19:24). These
"shrines" were not, however, mere statuettes of the
goddess, but were probably miniature representations
of the temple shrine which were sometimes dedicated to
the goddess as votive offerings, sometimes doubtless
kept in the homes, or placed in graves by the side of
the dead. Almost all of the silver images and shrines
have disappeared, having been made of such precious
metal that they were all carried off when the temple
was captured; but in the old temple ruins at Ephesus
some terra-cotta images were found, archaic in style,
representing the goddess sitting and holding an infant
in her arms, while numbers of marble and terra-cotta
shrines still exist where the goddess is seen seated in
a niche, sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied by
one or two figures. She ordinarily holds in one hand
the tambourine, in the other a cup, while beside her are
one or two lions; occasionally the lion serves her as a
footstool. There is just one silver statuette of Diana in
the British Museum, but it did not come from Ephesus.
A few ancient Jewish inscriptions and quite a num
ber of Christian inscriptions have been recovered at
1 Ephesus. One very curious Christian triumphal text
which probably dates from the fourth century vividly
L shows how the Christians were accustomed to treat
these Diana images after they came into power. This
tablet was found just east of the magnificent two-
storied library, and reads:

480 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
"Having taken down a deceiving image of the daemon Artemis,
Demeas set up this symbol of reality (truth) : A God that drives
away idols and a cross . . . victorious, deathless symbol of
Christ." 2i
By far the most interesting Jewish inscription is
that of a man named Julius, a physician. Elsewhere
we learn that there were ten of these public physicians
supported by the city at Ephesus, tho it is peculiarly in
teresting to find a Jew among these professional
citizens of high standing.
The early Christian churches and tombs, which con
trast so modestly with the proud buildings of antiquity,
speak a language highly impressive even in their ruins.
Standing in the midst of these religious edifices dating
from the second to the fifth century, one can better ap
preciate and feel "how the power of the local goddess
was broken and the faith of the Redeemer began its
victorious, absolute reign" (Benndorf).
Crosses are everywhere. It is only by the cross on
the tombstone that we recognize Prosdokimos, who
"with good fortune founded the castle," as a Christian.
One ancient Christian prays in a public inscription for
the protection of himself and house:
"Oh Lord, help thy servant . . . and his son and all hi$
household. Amen."
Another speaks of "Christian kings" and of the
"party of the green." Still another, as early as
Justinian, mentions the "house of the apostle at
Ephesus." What was probably the most important of
all the Christian inscriptions is, unfortunately, entirely
24 Benndorf, op. cit, Vol. I, p. 103.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 481
lost; but on this fine stele of white marble there are
four sunk panels; in the first panel appears a lion
rushing upon a man who defends himself with a club,
and in the third panel the lion fastening upon the thigh
of the man who lies as if just beaten to the earth.25 Mr.
Wood thinks this represents a Christian martyr. It
dates from the second Christian century, and it will be re
membered that Polycarp, who lived not far from here,
was thrown to the lions a.d. 155 at the close of a
gladiatorial show.
A number of inscriptions mention the Virgin Mary,
and Sir W. M. Ramsay is certain that the worship of
the Great Mother at Ephesus led to special reverence
for the virgin.26 The supposed recent discovery in a
dream of the House of the Virgin at Ephesus is, of
course, absolutely valueless; but the "virginizing" of
Christianity is largely due to the influence of Ephesian
thought, and Ephesus — "the most important city of
Christianity next to Jerusalem" — was affected largely
by the ancient reverence for the "Great Mother." It
was not so much due to the residence of Mary at
Ephesus — which is not very thoroughly proved — as to
the ancient cult that the early Christian bishops em
phasize the "glory of the female" and give their glowing
panegyrics of the "Mother of God." 27
One inscription of peculiar interest to the Biblical
student exhibits a list of Ephesian citizens arranged
according to their tribes, two from each tribe, repre
senting the ancient board of magistrates in Ephesus.
This list begins as follows :
| "Hicks, No. DCLXX.
"Expositor, XI, 413; Pauline and Other Studies, pp. 125-158.
' " So Ramsay, Expositor, XI, 401-413 ; for "Great Mother" see especi
ally H. A. Strong, The Syrian Goddess, 1913.

482 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
"i. OF THE EPHESIAN TRIBE.
"Demetrius son of Menophilus, son of Tryphon, of the
Thousand Boreis ; Thoas, son of Dracontomenes, of the Thousand
Oinopes. "2. OF THE AUGUSTAN TRIBE," etc.
Dr. Hicks dates this a.d. 50-60 and thinks it most
suggestive that the very man who at this exact date is
mentioned by this name as the opponent of St. Paul
(Acts 19: 24) is here found as president of this great
board of city fathers. Sir William Ramsay thinks
Canon Hicks has made out a strong case, altho he him
self prefers a slightly later date for the inscription.28
2. Recent Excavations at Athens
Modern Athens is more beautiful than our Wash
ington, and the ancient Athens of St. Paul's day
was incomparably more glorious. But this outwardly
prosperous city was in New Testament times inwardly
decadent, living upon the memories of its great past,
flippantly pretending to the most eager desire for new
truth, yet lacking both the spiritual and intellectual
energy of the past which it sought to imitate. A "rest
less inquisitiveness and shallow skepticism" had taken
the place of the ancient love of knowledge and moral
earnestness. Nero had just been crowned emperor at ¦
Rome when the great apostle came to Athens, and dur
ing his reign many of the ancient monuments were
carried from this city to the imperial capital. It has
been suggested by a recent writer that the cargo of
bronze and marble statues found at the bottom of the
28 Expositor, I, 401, II, 1; Church in the Roman Empire, pp. 132, 145n;jj
it should be borne in mind, however, that the name Demetrius was a very ,
common name, five occurring in one list of Lycian inscriptions., Cf,j
Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1914, pp. 1-35.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 483
sea by some sponge divers in 1900 may have been
destined for Nero's palace.
The richness of discovery at Athens has been so
great as to make any adequately impressive sketch im
possible.29 As early as the middle of the seventeenth century
the Parthenon had been well studied and a good descrip
tion of the ruins of the city had been written ; while the
topography of ancient Athens had been so thoroughly
examined that the works of that period have been taken
as the basis of the epoch-making work of Wilhelm
Dorpfeld and others. For nearly two and a half cen
turies Athens, so far as sculptures are concerned, has
been the El Dorado of the world. There is not a capital
in Europe which has not been enriched by this spoiling
of the Greeks ; yet there exists to-day in no land of the
earth a treasure-trove of art equal to that which is still
to be found in Athens.
t It is true that Lord Elgin at the beginning of the
nineteenth century carried off to England all the art
treasures of the Acropolis which he thought worth ex
porting, but the preservation of the Parthenon, the most
exquisitely beautiful building ever erected by man, the
remarkable excavation of the Acropolis by Dr. P.
Cawadias, with its astounding results, and the recent
restoration of the Propylaea under the direction of
M. Balanos, have permitted Greece to save for herself
her choicest jewels. The Athens which St. Paul knew
has been largely uncovered within the last two genera-
. "Probably the best brief statement of the modern excavations on the
Acropolis is that of Prof. Martin L. D'Ooge, The Acropolis of Athens,
while a brilliant resume of the history of the city is given by Prof. Howard
Crosby Butler, The Story of Athens, 1902. Our plan limits us to such
discoveries as illustrate in some way the New Testament era or narrative.

484 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
tions. A recent visitor has vividly described the things
which we once looked at together — things that Paul
also must have seen:
"There is the great ancient outdoor theater of
Dionysus built into the south slope of the Acropolis.311
Would Paul perhaps have gone to see a play by
jEschylus? Certainly he could there see one of the
ways in which the Athenian people thought about some
of the great problems of life. There is the recently re
built stadium, which was the scene of the Panathenaic
games. Certainly Paul may have gone to this, for he
often draws illustrations from games. There is the
exquisitely wrought monument of Lysikrates, who once
won the tripod in the games of the festival of Dionysus. {
There is the 'Tower of the Winds,' which accommo
dated a water clock, a sun-dial, and a weather-vane.
It is decorated with figures of the winds, the north
wind being 'a cross-looking old man in a heavy cloak,'
while the other winds are as suitably represented. Did
Paul perhaps get the time of day from this tower in the
Roman market-place? There is the platform of the
Pnyx, where once the democratic Ecclesia of the
Athenians met and made its laws, and where orators
brought their causes before the Athenian people.31
There is the recently excavated street of tombs that
led out of the Greek market-place. There is the splen
didly preserved Theseum which was probably dedicated
to Hephaestus, the divine smith, who was worshiped
*° This is the most ancient theater in the world. It was here that in the
fifth century B.C., the drama developed out of the religious rites used in
the worship of the god Dionysus. In Paul's day Nero built a new stage
to the theater.
B This place of popular assembly was very thoroughly excavated 1882,
1883, 1911.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 485
by artizans, especially by metal workers. There are the
ruins of the Asclepieum, a temple to Asclepius, the god
of healing. People came and stayed all night in the
temple and sometimes were cured of their disease by
morning. There are standing several columns of the
colossal temple to Olympian Zeus. This temple might
specially interest Paul because much of it was built by
that Syrian ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes, who had con
ducted such terrible persecutions in Jerusalem with the
hope of inducing the Jews to accept Greek religion and
culture. In fact, everywhere one looked there were
temples and altars to various gods, and standing up in
splendor above them all were the temples of the
Acropolis, the chief of which was the Parthenon,
adorned with marvelous sculptures and enclosing the
colossal statue of Athena, the goddess of wisdom.
Among these temples walked Paul, who knew himself
to be a temple of God." 32
Recent excavations, as we have said, have thrown
a new and unexpected light on the art, monuments, and
topography of the ancient city. Five foreign schools of
archeology established in Athens and directed by
eminent scholars have assisted the Greek government
in a series of extraordinary researches centering in
Athens but extending throughout all Greece. The
scope of our discussion does not permit mention of the
remarkable results obtained by the Germans at Olympia,
by the French at Delphi, by the Greek Archeological
Society at Eleusis, by the Americans at Heraium, or
the other important excavations at Tiryns, Mycenae,
Sparta, etc.
Ever since Schliemann, in 1868, began to open to
ME. D. Wood, Life- and Ministry of Paul the Apostle, 1912, pp. 129, 130.

4S6 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
modern eyes these ancient wonders, scarcely a year has
passed without some unexpected discovery throwing
light upon ancient architecture, art, or religion. All of
this assists the modern scholar to get the proper per
spective as he seeks to understand the conditions under
which Christianity arose — and it is something to know
that these discoveries have proved that "man in Hellas
was more highly civilized before history than when
history begins to record his state." It is something to
stimulate historic imagination to be able to read the
original report made to the financial Board of Control at
Athens concerning the big loan which had been made in
order to complete building the Parthenon, or to be able
to sit at Eleusis on the very step where those initiated
into the mysteries sat when they looked at the sacred
drama. It throws light on the New Testament conditions,
to read the records of cure found at Epidauros in the
ruins of the ancient temple of Asclepius as they were
written down by grateful devotees, and to find that the
priests of that temple also sometimes offered surgical
aid to the worshipers and used narcotics or anesthetics
in their operations ;33 and it throws light on the triumphs
of early Christianity to find the remains of a fifth cen
tury church on the site of this ancient pagan temple of
Asclepius at Athens.
But it is far more valuable to the Bible student to
walk through the street recently uncovered at Athens
and look at the ancient Greek houses, very unlike the
Roman dwellings uncovered at Pompeii ; or to visit the
ruins of the ancient Syrian temples, observing how
open Athens was to foreign influence; or to walk
through the ancient cemetery of Athens and the splen-
" Gardner, in Authority and Archeology, p. 264.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 487
did "Street of Tombs," where many monuments were
centuries old when Paul saw them, and to copy from one
of these, as the writer did on his latest visit, the inscrip
tion of the stranger who moved from Sunium to Athens
and after a life of prosperity carved in elegant and
enduring characters his remembrance of his old home:
2Q2IBI02 2Q2IBI0Y
20YNIE02.
There were other "strangers" in Athens (Acts 17: 21)
who when they came to die did not forget their native
home. Yonder in the Parthenon you can still see the place
where the shields once hung which were sent here as
a gift by Nero. Yonder at the foot of the Areopagus
is the Theseum, the best preserved antiquity of the
Greek world — the very building which was before the
eyes of St. Paul when, as Luke says, his spirit was
stirred within him. It was in the midst of these count
less temples and thousands of graven images that he
spoke to the officials of this university city about the
religious "ignorance" which God had winked at in the
centuries passed, but which now wise men ought no
longer to countenance.
Yonder is the theater of Dionysus, which could hold
30,000 people, the names of the owners of some of the
principal seats still being carved upon them. And
yonder, making our modern stadiums look poor and
cheap, is the ancient stadium, seating 50,000, the
ancient benches having only recently been covered with
marble by a Greek citizen at a cost of $500,000.
And yonder between the Propylsea and the

488 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Parthenon may yet be seen the spot on which stood the
great statue of Athena made by Phidias, a statue over
60 feet in height, the point of whose uplifted lance was
for centuries the landmark to approaching boats.
Shall we not appreciate the circumstances of Paul's
oration better, having thus put ourselves in the midst
of the ancient city? If not, the writer has failed of his
purpose; for this is one of the chief contributions of
archeology, that it permits the exercise of a historic
imagination which makes the ancient past to live again.
It is a most suggestive fact that while these un
rivaled discoveries of the monuments and inscriptions
of the ancient world have in scores of instances cast
discredit upon the accuracy of classical historians and
ancient writers, they have served only to put in clearer
light the remarkable knowledge and scrupulous exact
ness of the New Testament writers. The account of
Paul's visit to Athens sounds to modern scholars who
are best acquainted with the Athens of the first century
like the report of an eye witness. The statement of
Luke that Paul's soul "was irritated at the sight of the
idols that filled the city" (Acts 17: 16) has been illus
trated in every extensive excavation there; countless
idols were in and about the temples at which he must
have looked as he spoke. The reference to "strangers"
staying in Athens who "spent their time in nothing
else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing"
(Acts 17:21) recalls the fact that the university of
Athens was celebrated throughout all the world, and
that students gathered there from every civilized land,
while the whole population was celebrated for this very
trait of loving "novelty of argument." M
M Cf. Thucydides, III, 38.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 489
"The Epicureans were sometimes called the 'garden
philosophers' because their lectures were given in the
garden of Epicurus; the Stoics frequented the Painted
Porch in the Agora, and it was here in the market
place that the students heard the informal debates which
occurred when philosophers of different schools met.
Into this university circle came Paul with his gospel,
and the philosophers 'encountered him' just as they did
each other. But they saw that he did not bear the
usual university stamp, so they called him a 'babbler'
or a 'hanger-on' or a 'picker-up-of-learning's-crumbs.' "
The meaning of this strange word spermologos, trans
lated "babbler" in our version, has received a curious
illustration from a newly recovered papyrus in which
it is applied to the crumbs and scraps thrown out in the
streets to the dogs. It evidently meant to these learned
Athenians that Paul, notwithstanding his claims, was
not an original philosopher but was a picker-up of cer
tain scraps of philosophy which had been thrown away
by authorized and properly educated teachers. This
view seems very superficial when we remember that
one of the men most competent to speak has recently
declared at Cambridge University that Paul was the
only thinker who has added anything substantial in the
last 2,200 years to the philosophic system of Aristotle;
but it no doubt exprest correctly the views of the
university men in Athens who listened to him. Paul
was brought for his teaching "unto the Areopagus"
(Acts 17: 19). The Areopagus was, in ancient times,
a judicial council of Athens which held its meetings on
the "hill of Mars," a little west of the Acropolis, which
is in full view from its summit. On the top of this hill
can still be seen the rock benches on which the Areo-

490 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
pagites sat in the open air, and the two great rocks on
which the accused prisoners sat. But it is not certain
that Paul was officially tried before this ancient court.
He may have been taken to this place as the most
appropriate spot at which to address quietly an in
terested audience, or this may have been merely an in
formal inquiry made by the members of the court con
cerning his teaching. Yet from all the evidence avail
able it seems certain that this council had the right to
pass upon the qualifications of all lecturers either in the
university or in the city, and the official arrest of this
unauthorized lecturer is by no means impossible. The
apostle, who if he stood on the top of the hill could look
over the entire city, with the Parthenon and Temple
of Augustus so near that his voice might have been
heard there, begins his defense with a compliment to
the Athenians, who he says were "very religious"
(Acts 17:22), since they not only revered the gods
whom they knew, but when an unknown deity protected
them or bestowed upon them some great favor, they
would then put up an inscription in honor of this un
known benefactor. Several of these inscriptions have
been found. Such dedications were not peculiar to
Athens. Dr. Deissmann has published a picture of an
altar recently found at Pergamum containing the in
scription :
"TO THE UNKNOWN GODS." 35
The apostle further compliments his audience by
quoting a hymn of Cleanthes, the Stoic philosopher,
who had once been a teacher in Athens. The passage
" St. Paul; a study in Social and Religious History, 1912, p. 262.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 491
from which he quotes is the most beautiful in the entire
hymn:
"Oh God, most glorious, called by many a name,
Nature's great King, through endless years the same ;
Omnipotence, who by thy just decree
Controllest all, hail Zeus, for unto thee
Behoves thy creatures in all lands to call.
We are thy children, we alone, of all
On earth's broad ways that wander to and fro,
Bearing thy image wheresoe'r we go ;
Wherefore with songs of praise I will thy power forth-
show." S6
In connection with this the words of that older
philosopher, Epimenides, whom Paul elsewhere quotes
(Titus 1 : 12), ought also to be remembered:
"A grave have they fashioned for thee, O Zeus, highest and
greatest — the Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons. But
thou art not dead, for to eternity thou livest and standest, for in
thee we live and move and have our being." 37
In the midst of these glories of architecture and art,
only just revealed to us, and with the splendid litera
ture of ancient Greece in our memories, it stirs our
hearts to see Paul lifting up his hands, which were
pricked and roughened with his daily toil, before these
representatives of the best learning of the earth; and
we rejoice in his confidence that the new gospel of
" Translation of Dr. James Adams quoted by Dr. E. D. Wood, op. cit,
p. 135. For the further relation of this speech to Greek philosophy, see
Carl Clemen, Primitive Christianity (trans, by R. G. Nesbit), 1912, pp.
58-60. For the fluctuation of opinion concerning the influence of the
Greek world on St. Paul, see Albert Schweitzer, Paul and his Interpreters,
1912. "Dr. James Hope Moulton, who quotes this in his Religions and
Religion, 1913, p. 46, punctuates Paul's words (Acts 17:28) in a new and
attractive way: "For in him we live and move and have our being (as
even some of your own poets have said), for we are also his offspring."

492 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
purity could succeed even in such surroundings. His
confidence was vindicated, for there came a time when
the temple of Athena and even the Parthenon became
Christian churches. Vast numbers of inscriptions have
been gathered in and around Athens. In 1896 Mr.
Andrews of The American School in Athens deciphered
a text, with the help of the nail holes by which the
bronze letters had been affixt, and was rewarded for
his ingenuity by finding that it was a dedication in
honor of Nero, which had been placed in the Parthenon
within a few months of the time that Paul had visited
the city. Monuments in honor of almost all the em
perors of the early Christian centuries have been found,
but not many Christian texts of great importance.
One of the most interesting recent discoveries is that
of a tombstone in the form of a statuette of the Good
Shepherd, in which Christ is represented as a boy carry
ing a sheep upon his shoulders (a.d. 300), the design
being an original combination of the two types ordi
narily found.38
A few Jewish memorials have been recovered, tho
Jews were not attracted in as great numbers to Athens,
the philosophical center, as to Corinth, the commercial
center of Greece. It is known that St. Paul disputed
with the Jews in the synagog (Acts 17: 17), and it has
been thought by some scholars that the site of this
synagog was fixt by a modern discovery; but while
this is doubtful, it is interesting to find the modern';
Jewish synagog and Jewish quarter close to the Agora^,
and to discover in Athens a number of gravestones
bearing Jewish inscriptions. A translation of one of
the most valuable of these;, which illuminates in a strik-
88 American Journal of Archeology, XX, 624.

PICTURES OF ST. PETER
AND ST. PAUL
Prom Medals and Early Communion

PICTURE OF ST. PAUL (4th Century)
From the catacomb of Domitilla

OLDEST PICTURE OF ST. PAUL
AND ST. PETER. .
(2nd or 3rd Century)
ffrom Maruct eh

VIEW OF THE RIVER CYDNUS, TARSUS

-j** m

RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO AND THE ACROPOLIS, CORINTH

¦iffiSfi'

GENERAL VIEW OF LATE EXCAVATIONS AT CORINTH

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 493
ing manner the bloody spirit of the age, may close our
survey of this famous Biblical city :
"I invoke and implore the most high God, the lord of the
spirits and of the flesh, against those who by treachery slew and
poisoned the wretched Marthina before her time, shedding her
innocent blood unjustly, that it be so with them that slew her or
poisoned her, and with their children. O Lord, that seest all
things, and the angels of God (i.e., God), to whom every soul
humbles itself with supplication, (I beseech thee) that thou avenge
the innocent blood and that most speedily."
A pair of hands engraved on this stele is the not
unusual symbol of invocation for divine help, even on
pagan gravestones.
3. Recent Excavations at Corinth
No one who has once taken the journey from Athens
to Corinth can ever forget it. The traveler can still
see pieces of the ancient road, leading across the
isthmus, along which ships were dragged in St. Paul's
day, by the side of the great royal highway along which
the ancient caravans traveled from the city of culture
to the city of commerce. Nero in a.d. 67 began cutting
a canal through this isthmus, but the project was
abandoned until modern times, when it was finished in
1893. The modern Corinth, which is only some fifty
miles by rail from Athens, is an inferior village situated
about three miles away from the site of the older town,
which was completely destroyed by an earthquake in
1858. As one views the limestone pavements and marble
staircases and fragments of splendid marble ornaments,
and especially as he stands amid the mighty pillars of
the temple of Apollo and on one side looks out upon the

494 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
gulf and on the other sees Acro-Corinth rising 1,500
feet above him, and farther off, a higher snow-capped
peak on the top of which in the ancient time was the
temple of Aphrodite with all its horror of religious pros
titution which appealed to every ancient traveler, one
is imprest with the courage of that Christian Jew who
could establish himself in this great center of wealth
and expect to conquer it for the pure but lowly Naza
rene. It is suggestive that it was in writing to this
most licentious city that Paul most emphasized his
teaching that a man's body was the temple of the Holy
Spirit and a member of Christ (1 Cor. 3: 16; 6: 15, 16).
It appears rather suggestive that Paul did not venture
to preach here until he had received a special revelation
from God encouraging him (Acts 18:9, 10), after
which he made this his missionary base for nearly
eighteen months, succeeding in a remarkable manner
in winning some of the leading Jews, including Crispus,
the ruler of the synagog ; but especially having a multi
tude of conversions among the non-Jews (Acts 18; I
Cor. 1: 14-16; 16: 15).
While Paul was at Corinth, Gallio was appointed
"governor" (i.e., proconsul) of Achaia. A fragmentary
inscription recently discovered at Delphi contains a
letter of the Emperor Claudius, proving that the ap
pointment of this Roman official fell between the sum
mers of a.d.. 51 and 52. This shows that Paul came
to Corinth early in a.d. 50, and left in the autumn of
a.d. 51, and this is confirmed by- the edict of Claudius
expelling the Jews.38" Gallio had the honor of estab
lishing as a precedent the right of the Christians to
teach their doctrine without interference from the
M* See American Journal of Archeology, XXVII, 1912, p. 582,

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 495
Roman law, the value of which decision to the early
Christians is just beginning to be appreciated.
It was in Corinth that Paul met Aquila and Priscilla,
who had been expelled from Rome with other Jews in
a.d. 50, and it may have been in part their influence and
the influence of this great cosmopolitan center which
caused Paul to mature a plan for evangelizing Rome and
the West.39 Modern discoveries have opened up to us the
culture and vice of ancient Corinth, and have also given
us many monuments mentioning the Isthmian Games
which were held at the shrine of Poseidon, a little north
east of the city — from which games St. Paul may have
borrowed some of the figures of speech used in his
letter to the Corinthians (I Cor. 9: 24-26).
A recent visitor, who has the rare gift of historic
imagination, has brought vividly before our eyes those
early days, big with promise, spent in Corinth by Paul
the apostle. "How long was it before Aquila dis
covered that he had taken into his shop a man who was
active with his mind and spirit as well as with his
hands? When did he discover that this fellow tent-
maker had ideas that were of the greatest interest?
How many talks they then must have had about Jesus,
the Messiah, as they worked together cutting out and
sewing up the heavy tent-cloth. And in the evening in
the home, Priscilla, the Roman wife of Aquila, prob
ably became as deeply interested as her husband, and
soon instead of one Christian in Corinth there were
three, two tent-makers and a woman. Could they
affect the wealthy, wicked city of Corinth ?" 40
As the traveler sits amid the ruins of the temple of
88 Ramsay, in Hastings, Dictionary of Bible, I, 482.
"Wood, Life and Ministry of Paul the Apostle, 1912, p. 140.

496 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Aphrodite, once the temptress of the nations, where a
thousand priestesses are said to have sold themselves
in the name of religion, and looks out at the bay and
tries to locate the ancient harbor of Cenchrea, and
climbs the hill from which he can see Salamis, so
famous in heroic story, and rides along the seacoast to
the medical springs which are yet visited by travelers
from distant lands because of the value of the baths,
and walks among the enormous blocks and into the un
derground subways of the ancient city, stopping oc
casionally to work out the meaning of an ancient
inscription, and then turns his eyes upon the wonderful
fertile plain which coasts the sea ; it is easy to close his
eyes and visualize the ancient Corinth in its imposing
surroundings as St. Paul knew it — and the difficulty
of the task of converting such a city grows upon him.41
It was a bustling, money-loving city, and St. Paul
knew it and all its peculiarities as thoroughly as any
of us know the city in which we have spent eighteen
months of earnest toil.
Within a few years of the time when Paul visited
this city Nero also visited it, as we know by the "ad
vent" coins struck in his honor, and also by an inscrip
tion on which a speech which the emperor made is,
immortalized and he himself given divine homage.42
How often Nero and Paul — those two best-hated men
of the first century — crossed each other's track !
Altho we are nearer relatives of the Greeks than

41 "At Corinth, besides the female prostitutes who gave their gains to the
temple, there were also, doubtless, titled ladies who occasionally offered
themselves in the service of the goddess. In Baalbec every maiden was
required to offer herself to a stranger at least once in her life in the temple
of Ashtarte" (Ency. Ethics and Religion, VI, 672-4).
" See Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, pp. 358, 375.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 497
of the Semites, yet it is the fact that Paul, a Jew, lived
in this place which makes its ruins so impressive. The
first tentative excavations on the site of ancient Corinth
were carried on by Dr. Dorpfeld in 1886; a little
more was done by Mr. Skias in 1892, but the work
which proved epoch-making was begun in the spring of
1896 by the American School of Classical Studies un
der the superintendency of Dr. Rufus B. Richardson,
and was continued almost without intermission up to
1913. The excavators were compelled to buy the
modern village and displace an immense amount of
debris before anything of value could be reached; yet
within a year they had dug up for some distance an en
tire street of the ancient city, and had uncovered the
old Greek theater ; within two years they had discovered
the Peirene, the most famous fountain of the ancient
world, and had cleared the hexostyle temple of Apollo
which Dorpfeld had discovered ten years before; and
within three years their discoveries had taken first rank
among all the splendid excavations carried on in Greece
during the present generation. In fact, they had been
able to bring to light in that time most of the "sights"
of Corinth which Pausanias, "the ancient Baedeker,"
who visited the city about a century after Paul, had
put down in his guide-book as the places most worth
seeing. The Greek theater was a large edifice, rather
cheaply constructed, semi-circular, with at least thirty-
eight tiers of seats, but this was replaced in Roman
time by a better one which even Pausanias could ad
mire. The Peirene, which was celebrated five centuries
before St. Paul was born— Corinth being called by
Pindar the "Peirene city,"— was entirely uncovered. It

498 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
was placed at the entrance to the Agora in the most
prominent place in the entire city, and was so well pre
served that the main conduit of the old fountain still
supplied water to the modern village.
In 1899 the American excavators cleared the
Glauke, another famous fountain, even better preserved
than the Peirene, the old marble lion-headed spouts
which had been used before the remodeling of the
fountain in Roman times being still in situ. During the
next year they cleared the market-place and entered the
Agora, having disclosed its magnificent gateway and
found just inside a fine series of colossal statues in
Parian marble, part of the ornamentation of the
Propykea, which was practically a Roman triumphal
arch. The statues, which probably date from the time
of Marcus Aurelius, were of rather poor work, but
were, perhaps intentionally, made to look very uncouth,
for they represented male and female captives and were
clothed in barbarous style.
By 1 90 1 the excavators had been able to uncover a
considerable part of the Romanized city ; to open out the
great Hellenic stoa, over 350 feet long, which was stand
ing in Paul's day, but with its front hidden by a row of
vaulted steps; and to pile up such a vast quantity of
lamps, pottery, terra-cotta figurines, and old Greek
material reaching clear back to the sixth century before
Christ, that a museum had to be built at Old Corinth in
which to store the new-found treasures.
Of all such finds, perhaps the enormous quantity of
terra-cotta figures representing human and animal forms
in antique style were the most curious. Over forty-four
examples of a horse carrying a rider came from the
theater, while sixty-eight standing female figures of

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 499
Aphrodite, dating from the fifth century before Christ,
were dug up, and many more were found showing the
love-goddess reclining or else seated holding a dove to her
bare breast. All of these were originally painted and
must have stood in brilliant rows as votive offerings in
the temple ; one life-size statue of Artemis, of much bet
ter work, was found. The god of wine also had his temple
at Corinth and some suggestive sculptures were re
covered — for example, the statue of a nymph struggling
to free herself from the embraces of the intoxicated and
leering deity.
A few works of art of less importance and many
valuable vases of rare type, as well as very rich topo
graphical information, have been some of the other
results accomplished during the eighteen years of ex
cavation ; but how true it is that our interest in Corinth
is almost wholly dependent upon its relations with a
maker of tent-cloth whose name was never heard
spoken by the aristocrats and rich merchants of the
city! Inscriptions in Corinth did not appear as plenteously
as at Athens. Omitting the Byzantine inscriptions, the
excavators found only about sixty Greek inscriptions,
with an even smaller number of Latin ones, during
their first six years of work. Almost all of these dated
from the rebuilding of the city by Julius Caesar 46 B.C.
Was this due to the fact that the libraries have been
destroyed, or were the people "so busy making money
and making love as to ignore learning?" A few words
written on vases and jar handles, and oblong stamps
are about all that have been recovered. Very few of
the inscriptions strike fire from our hearts as we read
them; but here is one dating from Roman times that

500 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
makes our nerves tingle, for it has to do with granting
certain honors to "Titus . . . because of his most
noble character." 43 On another grave memorial,
erected in honor of two artists, Diogenes and Hermo-
laos — perhaps the very men who made the sculptures
for the Parthenon of Agrippa in Rome 27 B.C., — there
is claimed for these men either a very ancient and noble
ancestry in the flesh or else the even greater honor
that their work reflects the spirit of the Periclean
age: "I am from the Attic fatherland ;
I inherited the blood of Perikles.
The son of Hermolaos,
My name is Diogenes.
... set for me in Ephyre near to
the spring Peirene."
A distinctly Christian inscription was cut on a
large block of white marble found in 1899 at the top
of the steps leading to the Propykea:
"Demetrios, servant of Christ."
The man may have been a bishop, but we do not agree
with Professor Powell that his title (8ouA,og Xoicrrofj),
makes this evident.44 Very few Christian epitaphs were
found, but some most impressive inscriptions had to
do with the Jews.
While the excavators were clearing the street of
shops discovered in 1898 on the main road of the city
leading to the port, they found a door lintel on which
was written in ancient Greek letters :
SYNAGOG OF THE HEBREWS.
" Cf. Titus, 1 : 4 ; 2 Cor. 8 : 23 ; 12-18.
" See Journal of Hellenic Studies, XVIII, 64.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 501
This inscription was over eighteen inches long and
the height of the letters averaged about three inches.
It dates from the Imperial period, and therefore it is
"a possibility seriously to be reckoned with that we
have here the inscription to the door of the Corinthian
synagog mentioned in Acts 18:4, in which St. Paul
preached" (Deissmann).
The miserable appearance of this scrawl, which is
without ornament of any kind and is poorly engraved,
Dr. Deissmann considers to illustrate well the low
social position of the people to whom Paul at first
preached (cf. 1 Cor. 1: 26-31). Altho it was found as
they were excavating the finest street of the city, and
altho another piece of Hebrew writing was found not
far away, it seems probable that this block had been
moved from its original position, since it would be
almost impossible to suppose that a Jewish synagog had
been located on such a magnificent boulevard.45
When we remember the poverty of Paul's friends in
Corinth we can appreciate better the letters to the
Corinthians with their emphasis upon eternal values.
Dr. Deissmann has well said: "The paean of love
chanted at Ephesus under Nero for the poor saints of
Corinth, has not perished with Corinth. Annihilated
forever, the magnificence of Nero's Corinth lies buried
to-day beneath silent rubbish mounds and green vine
yards on the terraces between the mass of the Acro-
corinthus and the shore of the gulf; nothing but ruins,
ghastly remnants, destruction. The words of that
paean, however, have outlasted the marble and the
bronzes of the Empire. . . . The Corinthians, who
" In preparing this resume of the work at Corinth all the reports made
in the Journal of Hellenic Studies (1897-1914) have been freely used, as
also Mr. A. S. Cooley's short article in Records of the Past, 1902, pp. 33-88.

502 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
suffered other writings of St. Paul to be lost, pre
served these." 46
One recent discovery previously mentioned should,
perhaps, receive additional emphasis. In 1908 there was
found at Delphi a stone in which Gallio is spoken of as
pro-consul, which shows, according to Dr. Deissmann,
that Gallio entered upon his office in the summer of a.d.
51, and Paul had certainly been preaching in Corinth
some time before this. Deissmann thinks, as does O.
Holtzmann, that the text of Acts implies that he had
been in Corinth eighteen months before Gallio came. In
that case Paul must have reached the city at least as
early as the summer of a.d. 50 — which is at variance
with most chronologies. Because of this new discovery
Dr. Barton concludes that the Epistle to the Galatians
was written from Ephesus toward the close of the year
a.d. 54, or near the beginning of a.d. 55."
4. Recent Excavations at Rome
A renaissance of archeological study began in Rome
some 500 years ago, and since then excavations have
been carried on almost without intermission; yet never
have these been more successful than in the last four
or five decades. More than a thousand volumes have
been written based upon the excavations which have
been made since 1870; yet the treasures not found by
the archeologists are much greater than those which
have been found. When Rosa in 1866 uncovered a
lime kiln dating from the middle ages filled to the brim
with the most exquisite works of art, it caused a
shudder in the breast of every one interested in the
golden age of Rome. The discoveries mentioned in a
" Op. cit, p. 399.
" Journal of Biblical Literature, 1914, pp. 120-126.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 503
synopsis like this must always seem to many less won
derful than those which have been omitted. To give
even a hint of the marvels which have been uncovered
before the eyes of modern archeologists would seem
almost impossible; yet while we recognize the im
possibility of giving more than an impressionist sketch
of these most recent discoveries, we shall attempt the
task, and enable the reader to visualize the conditions
with which the early Christians were familiar, tho
omitting everything which will not assist the historic
imagination to reconstruct the ancient past.
In 1870 special excavations began, the most spec
tacular discovery that year being the remains of the
house supposed to be that of Pudens, a famous Roman
of the apostolic age and earliest wealthy patron of the
Christians. From 1872-1889, over 275,000,000 cubic
feet of earth were excavated for building purposes in
Rome, and in the course of this civic reconstruction a
vast number of antiquities were discovered. Of the
newly found articles stored in the capitol the Director
mentions 2,360 lamps, 1,824 inscriptions, 77 columns of
rare marble, 405 works of art in bronze, 192 well-pre
served statues, 266 busts and heads — all masterpieces
of art — besides over 700 gems, 36,679 coins, etc.
Libraries have been written on the exquisite works of
art, paintings as well as sculptures, discovered since
1870. On Christmas Eve, 1874 — to mention one in
stance — Professor Lanciani found lying on the marble
floor in one room just uncovered a remarkable portrait
bust of Commodus, flanked by two tritons or marine
centaurs, and by two beautiful statues representing
either the two maiden daughters of Danaos or two of
the Muses. He found also the "Venus Lamiana," a

504 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
head of Diana, a Bacchus of semi-colossal size, with
drapery of gilt bronze (missing), and about twenty-
five exquisite fragments, legs, arms, hands, feet, etc.,
belonging to statues whose drapery was likewise of
bronze.48 During this period the Forum was excavated from
end to end, as well as the Sacra Via, baths of Caracalla,
stadium of Domitian, and a greater portion of the
palace of the Caesars. Among other famous works of
art found in these researches were the two bronze
athletes uncovered on the slope of the Quirinal hill,
the bronze Bacchus of the Tiber, the Juno of the
Palatine, and many statues of the gods and wonderful
bas-reliefs. In 1887 an inscription was found, particularly in
teresting to students of early Christian history, in
which a father had engraved on the tomb of his daugh
ter the statement that she was "a pagan among the
pagans and a Christian among the Christians" — per
haps suggesting that she was a Christian married to
a heathen. In 1881, when the foundations of the
English Chapel were being laid, a remarkable collec
tion of bronze imperial busts was found piled up and
concealed in a subterranean passage. Between 1885
and 1887 the house of the Symmachi was again
thoroughly searched, yielding a broken Victory, the
statue having been smashed into over one hundred and
fifty pieces, probably by the Christians who pillaged
this palace in the fourth century. About this same
date the tombs of the Calpurnii, which had received the
bodies of nobles killed by Nero, Caligula, etc., were
exhaustively excavated, yielding the richest and most
" Rodolfo Lanciani, Ruins and Excavations in Ancient Rome, pp. 407-8.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 505
important discoveries for several decades. Within the
next ten years Cicero's villa, probably, the house of
Pliny the younger, and many wonderful tombs were
discovered, including the supposed grave of Seneca
on the Appian Way, as well as that of the bald and
wealthy shoemaker who had the instruments of his
trade carved on his funeral monument; and the grave
yard near the Coliseum dating from the seventh cen
tury was uncovered, where one tomb was found on which
was carved the warning, "Whosoever shall violate or
injure this tomb, may he share the fate of Judas."
Perhaps the most important single discoveries since
1900 have been those connected with the ancient tem
ples of Rome, and of these none were more important
than those in the temple of Jupiter Dolichenus, the
Syrian Adadus on the Janiculum, the triangular altar
of which was found still standing in its central chapel.
This chapel was surrounded by five or six others, in all
of which triangular-shaped altars were used. One of
these altars discovered February 6, 1909, had a rim or
raised border as if to prevent the blood of the sacrifices
from dripping from it.
It was found that the Mithras worship was closely
associated with Jupiter worship at least as early as the
fourth century. Under the Jupiter temple above men
tioned were found statues of such gods as Bacchus,
Isis, etc., hidden under the floor; and in another little
receptacle a bronze figure of an unidentified male
divinity about which is coiled a serpent. Several egg
shells were found with this figure.48* There was
also discovered right under the feet of Jupiter-Baal
181 Dr. John R. Crawford, of Columbia University, writes me: "No con
nection between this sanctuary of Syrian divinities and Mithras has been
proven,"

506 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
a human skull hidden in a place carefully prepared
for it. This may have been one of the emblems used
in the "mysteries" or may have been connected with
the human sacrifices which were originally a part of
the temple consecration. It is interesting to note that
in the twenty Mithraic sanctuaries found and explored
in Rome recently, the entrance has in each case been
carefully concealed.
Another third century temple of Mithras just found
under the Baths of Caracalla measured 91 x 49 feet,
and contained a circular font and two lavatories, a
sacristy, and a marble statue of Venus Urania. Oppo
site the font were niches for lamps. Mithras was rep
resented in the frescoes with a Phrygian cap on his
head and the disc in his hand, and in one fresco
his head was crowned with seven rays of light. The
pictures showed the god with the raven and lion, and
gave the usual relief behind the altar in which he is
represented as slaying the sacred bull. On the right
of the altar when discovered were found several obla
tion bowls.49 The titles of the deity were given on a
tablet nearby: "Sungod, the Great, God of the Spirits,
Saviour, Giver of Riches, Benefactor," etc.
As the Mithras worship was such a rival of the
early Christian worship, it may be added that in 1915
there was opened under the church of St. Clement at
Rome, and made accessible to visitors, the foundations
of a temple of Mithras built during the reign of
Augustus. The sacred font was found, also a part of
the altar and the remains of ancient sacrifices which
proved to be wild boars.50
" Journal of the British Association, 1914, pp. 15-36.
M C. R. Acad. Insc, 1915, pp. 203-211.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 507
In 1889-90 a temple of Isis was uncovered, showing
the figure of the goddess veiled and crowned with
poppies. In connection with this a wonderful figure of
the cow Hathor was found cut out of spotted granite.
In the sacred place pieces of amethyst columns were
found. The temple of Asclepius, recently excavated, con
tained a curious inscription dating a.d. 138, which
shows the prevalent thought of heathen worshipers at
this period.
"To Valerius Aper, a blind soldier, the god gave command
ment to come and take the blood of a white cock along with
honey, and to mix together an eye salve, and for three days to
anoint the eye with it. And he received his sight and came and
gave thanks publicly to the god." 51
Probably no spot has yielded greater treasure than
the Forum in connection with these modern excava
tions. Explorations here had been begun by the popes
as early as 143 1, and had been continued with inter
missions to the beginning of the nineteenth century,
when the French Government itself made extensive
excavations 1811-14, and Pope Leo XII, 1824-35. But
it was in 1870 that the Italian Government began a
complete clearing of the Forum. In 1888, Otto Richter
discovered the remains of the Triumphal Arch of
Augustus; and in 1898 Giacomo Boni began his re
markable series of excavations which have opened to
us the past of the ancient Forum as we never had
hoped to know it. Perhaps to the classical scholar the
most spectacular discovery has been that of a monu
ment very doubtfully recognized as the cenotaph
" London Expositor, VII : 30.

508 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
and national monument of Romulus, the founder of
the city; but to the Bible student, other matters are at
least equally important. It was in this public resort
that the book-sellers, fruit-venders, fishmongers,
usurers, and pickpockets were clustered when Paul
walked through it. Surely the apostle to the ' Gentiles
must have been interested ih what he saw there. It
was on this Palatine hill nearby that St. Paul "un
doubtedly came to judgment" (Marucchi).
The first Christian monument to be erected near the
Forum was the Arch of Constantine, after which,
as Marucchi well phrases it, "the cross entered
triumphantly the city of the Caesars." For the next
century the emperors diligently cared for the works of
art in the Forum ; but Christianity soon began to appro
priate these, the Church of Santa Maria Antiqua
being established in the library of the temple of
Augustus. This was the first Christian building in
the Forum (Marucchi). Professor Boni in 1898 began
digging on this ancient site and many important dis
coveries were made. The church was found to have
been divided into three naves by marble columns be
longing to the ancient edifice, and its walls were
covered with frescos of the eighth century. Among
the earlier remains was a Christian sarcophagus found
in 1 90 1, dating from the early fourth century. The
figures carved on this sarcophagus are most interest
ing. Two fishermen, almost naked, hold between them
a net containing fish, which Marucchi believes to
symbolize the apostles as fishers of men.52 Next to
this the baptism of Christ is represented, John the
raYet see Charles R. Morey in Supplemental Papers of American
School of Classical Studies, 1905, pp. 148-156.

A UNIQUE SEATED STATUETTE OF CHRIST
AS A YOUTH
Reproduced in "American Journal of Archaeology," (1915, p. 401)

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 509
Baptist standing on a rock and Christ being shown as
a little naked boy standing in the stream, with the
heavenly dove above him.
The Good Shepherd is next shown with the ram
on his shoulders and two sheep standing at his feet
looking up at him. The center is occupied by two
figures, the deceased and his wife (the latter repre
sented as an orans), the faces of neither being yet
finished — the sarcophagus having perhaps been made
previous to any knowledge of what Christian should
occupy it. Beyond these figures is an extensive and
artistic representation of Jonah and the sea monster.
At the extreme left is a sea divinity holding a trident,
which may be here, as elsewhere, a disguised form of
the cross, while before him the sea is lashed into fury
and a ship rides the waves with sails unfurled. The
latter is a new symbolic suggestion, as on all other
sarcophagi the sails are fully set. This is undoubtedly
a survival of the catacomb type of symbolism.53 It
may be added that this is the first sarcophagus to show
a definite separation of scenes, and probably the earliest
to show a picture of the baptism of Christ. Since this
important discovery the Forum has yielded nothing for
us of marked interest, unless it be a well-preserved
private dwelling of the Republican period just brought
to light, and the systematic exploration of the houses
of Livia and the palace of the Flavian emperors, and
several beautiful statues.54 This may be a good place
to mention the discovery in 1907 of the marvelously
artistic bas-relief of Antinous found at Canuvium, the
famous statue of the disc-thrower found at Castel
H Nuovo Bullettino de Arch, cristiani, 1901, pp. 206-216.
" See particularly Nuovo Bullettino, 1914, pp. 73, 74.

Sio THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Porziano in 1909, and the remarkable statuette of a
seated Christ, reported in 1915.
Next to the Forum the baths were places of
public resort, and many masterpieces of Roman art
have lately been found in the baths of Diocletian and
Caracalla. The former of these could accommodate
3,600 bathers at one time and the latter as many as
1,600. There were besides nine other large public
baths from as early as a.d. 300 and multitudes of
smaller ones.
During 1882- 1884 great researches began on the
site of the house of the Vestal Virgins, and these have
been continued. This very celebrated institution,
the restoration of which dates from a.d. 193-212, is now
found to have been built of brick. The atrium of the
house measured 215 feet long by 78 feet wide. It was
elaborately heated by a system of hot-air pipes, and some
of the ancient plumbing and a large section of the fine
old mosaic pavements, of geometric pattern, dating from
the time of Julia Domna, have been discovered, to
gether with many statues, busts, pedestals, inscriptions,
etc. Some of the furniture of the house — including the
handmill of the cook in the kitchen — was found just
where it was left when the house of the Vestals was
destroyed in the fourth century by the Christians.
Professor Lanciani, who was connected with these
later excavations, fortunately found fifteen marble
pedestals, and on these were several eulogistic inscrip
tions celebrating the high priestesses of Vesta. Prob
ably for us the most important of these is the one in
which these pagan priests, a.d. 364, eulogized one
priestess for her "chastity and profound knowledge in
religious matters," but later caused her name to be

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 511
erased — either because of a moral lapse, or more likely,
as Professor Lanciani believes, because she had become
a Christian. The house of the Vestals was situated at the foot of
the Palatine Hill, which was the most sacred place in
all ancient Rome, on which, from the earliest time, the
palaces of the Caesars stood. In our lifetime these
palaces have been dug up and it is thought that
at least the foundations of the house of Augustus have
been found. We can now examine in detail the plans
of the palaces of Augustus, Caligula, Nero, Domitian,
and the Caesars who followed. It is true that what has
been found poorly represents the "Golden House" of
Nero, filled with hundreds of statues from Greece and
Asia Minor, with its world-famous zoological and
botanical gardens, whose waterfalls were supplied by
an aqueduct fifty miles long; yet some important relics
of these ancient wonders have been discovered. The
throne-room of Domitian, the great persecutor of the
Christians — a throne-room measuring 160 x 120 feet,
the wall-paintings of which show its ancient splendor —
has been brought to light, and a beautifully frescoed
treasure room. It is even more remarkable that in con
nection with the palace of Domitian (or Nero) Dr.
Boni found salt water fish-tanks, where unique
varieties of fish could be cultivated for the royal table ;
and also three "elevators" by which luggage could be
lifted from the bottom to the top of the palace.55 This
palace was originally filled with the costliest works of
art, and many exquisitely cut columns and capitals,
in many colored marbles, have come to light, while in
" See Journal of Roman Studies, 1914, p. 244#. Some scholars believe
these strange constructions to be connected with the palace sewerage ; but
Boni's view seems very plausible.

512 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
1888 remarkable frescos were discovered in the
dining-hall, representing the butlers and waiters lead
ing guests to the banqueting chambers over fifteen
hundred years ago. It is interesting to remember that
Domitian's palace received its water supply by means
of a powerful syphon, the pipe of which was made of
solid sheets of lead and measured about a foot in
diameter. This remarkable work of engineering,
bringing water across a valley over 130 feet deep,
was put into the palace by the brother-in-law of Titus,
a.d. 7^. Many fragments of this ancient construction
have been found, and in the palaces of Domitian and
Caligula many pictures and inscriptions particularly
interesting for the light they throw upon the early
Christian era have been discovered. In one of the so-
called "school-rooms" attached to Caligula's palace
there was found long ago a remarkable vignette repre
senting a donkey turning a mill, with the writing of
the supposed school-boy above it, "Work, work, little
donkey, as I have worked myself."
Attached to the palace of the Caesars was a
"stadium" used as a great sunken garden — redecorated
after the great fire a.d. 191 — which was dug up 1892-3,
on the walls of which a considerable number of
scribblings have been found, most of which come from
the soldiers stationed there. These graffiti are traced
with a pointed instrument and interspersed with rough
drawings, among which a helmet and a boat are most
recognizable. Several of these rough barbaric scrawls
are comical, and several represent individuals, probably
athletes ; but the most interesting to us is a rough sketch
of the head of Nero with his name under it. Some of

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 513
the scribblings are too obscene to be quoted, but one,
rather longer and better than the rest, reads :
"I desire to give all things to beautiful girls, but no girl from
the common people ever pleases me." 6G
Another reads:
"May a bear eat him on the trackless mountains."
It should be remembered that even in the first cen
tury "members of Caesar's household" had become
Christians, and there can not be the slightest doubt
that there were Christians among the royal pages when
these scribblings were written.
The Colosseum, which in magnificence can be com
pared only with the pyramids of Egypt, and could seat
somewhere between 45,000 and 87,000 spectators,
was known from the earliest times and was rather
carefully excavated by Testa, 1864-5, and by Rosa,
1875-8. In 1878 Professor Lanciani discovered here
the bones of the animals which had been used in the
gladiatorial shows of the sixth century. The shows
of that time, however, were tame affairs compared with
those of the apostolic era. There have actually been
discovered traces of the more ancient dungeons in
which the wild beasts were kept which tore the early
Christians to pieces ; and in 1874-5 the floor of the old
arena was uncovered, together with the sockets to
which the windlasses and capstans were fixt by which
the cages were raised to the level of the trapdoors of
the arena. The funeral monuments of the gladiators
which have been found show the fierceness of the
fighting in the earlier eras. The shows were so pop-
MSee Latin text of this and others in Marucchi's Roman Forum, pp.
322-357.

514 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
ular that even the Emperor Constantine was not able
to stop them, and as late as a.d. 384-392 a statue was
erected near here to John, a champion fighter of
Jewish or Christian origin, by the Emperor Theo-
dosius. Several mosaics have been found giving fight
ing scenes and many inscriptions eulogizing the
gladiators. No picture of the gladiatorial combats and races
in the circus has come down to us which shows in
such detail the surroundings of the race-course as a
colored mosaic from Carthage (first century) dis
covered in 191 5, which depicts a typical race with
four chariots each drawn by four horses and all going
at tremendous speed, the whole picture being brilliantly
conceived and executed. We can see here dimly out
lined the tiers of seats occupied by the common
citizens, but the official stalls are plainly indicated.
One official is also represented holding out to the suc
cessful contestant the grand prize. Whether St. Paul
ever saw such a race as this or not, there can be no
question about his interest in the race-course, as
proved by his many references to it in his description, of
the Christian life.67
It may be added that no amphitheater in Rome is
as well preserved as the one lately dug up at Pompeii
(1914). It was buried by what seems to have been
a gigantic landslide, and is almost intact. Pro
fessor Spinazzola reports that even the celebrated
Greek theater at Syracuse is nothing when com
pared with this. "Every seat, every wall, the actors'
rooms, the subterranean passages, the wild beasts'
" For a very full and accurate examination of the Roman theater (audi
torium, stage, costumes, actors, etc.), see Art and Archeology, 1915; for
the picture referred to above see Revue Archeologique, 1916, p. 249.'

ANCIENT CHARIOT RACE
From "Revue Archeologlque," (1916, p. 249)

CHRISTIAN BAS-RELIEF
Muse'c du Bardo

PAGAN PRIESTESS
Mus£e Lavlgerie

FRAGMENTS FROM THE ANCIENT TEMPLE OF PERGAMUM
From Julius Leasing

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 515
dens, are all in perfect preservation. The frescos
adorning the walls and the epigrams of witty
visitors carved on the marble rails of the balconies
are now coming to light." As a villa of Cicero was
nearby, he must have attended plays in this theater. St.
Paul on his way to Rome stopt for a week within a
short walk of the town where this theater was located.
Many Christian inscriptions have been found at
Rome, but most of these came from the catacombs
which we have previously described. De Rossi knew
of forty-eight inscriptions earlier than Constantine and
about one hundred and forty which dated from the
Constantine era ; 5S but since his day many hundreds
have been discovered and some' very remarkable
Christian monuments. One of the most interesting of
these is an ancient crypt dedicated to Gabriel, the arch
angel, covered with frescos representing Gabriel with
his hands in the attitude of prayer, and showing the
Redeemer among hosts of angels. This, however, is
rather late in date and can not be compared in value
with the earlier discovery of a cubiculum covered with
paintings of Biblical scenes. The Good Shepherd,
Moses striking the rock, the raising of Lazarus, the
feeding of the five thousand, Daniel in the den of
lions, and Noah and the ark are among the narratives
illustrated. This was the place in Rome where for
eigners were buried, and Lanciani believes that the
crypt adorned with Christian paintings must date as
early as the third century.
The Jewish inscriptions in Rome are very numerous.
The one best-known monument representing the Jews is
probably the Arch of Titus, which shows in its bas-
°" Inscriptiones christiani Urbis Romae, 1857-1861.

516 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
reliefs the triumphal processions in which they
marched as captives, and here the seven-branched
candlestick is prominently delineated among the objects
captured. The Jews in Rome, however, from the second
century before Christ to the time of their expulsion by
Claudius, represented an influential section of the popu
lation.69 The richer Jews lived in aristocratic quarters
of the city, but the poor people clustered mostly in the
southwest across the Tiber on the outer edge of the
city among the slums of the Trastevere. A consider
able district here was given up to foreigners, and in
it all kinds of religious worship were permitted. The
ghetto was in the vicinity of the harbor, a ward in
fested by foreign sailors and pickpockets. There were
landings in the harbor set apart for dealers in marble,
wine, oil, fish, timber, iron, salt, brick, cattle, etc. In
1892 a tablet was discovered which had been erected in
memory of a man named Terens, who is said to have
been a "most famous importer of pigs and sheep."
There was a special wharf for the Egyptian grain
fleet running between Rome and Alexandria. Grain was
one of the chief monopolies of the government, and it
transported annually 144,000,000 bushels of this
precious necessity of life. A bas-relief lately discovered
represents the unloading of one of these ships. In this
disagreeable ghetto — celebrated in classical literature
for its narrow, muddy streets and numerous beggars
and its wreaths of violets and countless little lamps
which on feast days dropt grease and soot on the
passers-by — the Jewish schools, law courts, and central
synagog were situated. There were, however, nine
E' See especially Max Raden, The Jews Among the Greeks and Romans,
1915, chap, xvi; and Jean Juster, Les Juives dans I'Empire Romain, 2 vols.,
1914.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 517
other synagogs in different parts of the city, one of
these being located, as we know from its name, in the
Campus Martius.60
The cemeteries also prove that the Jews over
flowed from the Trastevere not only along the wharfs
where the boats from Ostia were being unloaded
(Martial), but out into the Appian Way, for as many
as three cemeteries have been found on or near this
central highway. Indeed, while these Jewish peddlers
and rag-pickers and dealers in broken glass and cast-
off clothing itinerated everywhere, they must especially
have enjoyed mingling with the throngs on this great
thoroughfare; and we also read in the classics of the
bazaars which they had built on the Via Portuensis.
It must have been in one of these poorer centers, full
of low-priced lodgings, where his fellow Jews were
working at cobbling and tent-making and the manu
facture of scourges, that St. Paul obtained his
"hired house," joining with these day laborers in eating
"mouldy bread and ill-looking cabbage soaked in lamp
oil and drinking poor wine from a cracked glass"
(Abbe Fouard).
St. Paul may have known the fathers and mothers
of some of the people whose inscriptions have come to
us from the cemeteries. There are 119 of these in
scriptions coming from the one cemetery in the Via
Portuensis, which was carefully explored through the
generosity of Pellegrini Quarantotto, the owner, in
1904-5. Pictures of the seven-branched candlestick and
of the dove are carved on the tombs, and the names of
"For a very thorough discussion of the Jewish quarters in ancient
Rome see Signor Pietro Romanelli in Palestine Exploration Fund Quar
terly Report, 1914, pp. 134-140 ; compare also Abbe Constant Fouard, St.
Peter and the First Christians, pp. 249-259.

518 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Jacob, Judas, Anna, Rebecca, Marian, Titania,
Eutropius, Fortunatus, Antipas, Glukus, Alexander,
Euodia (cf. Phil. 4:2), and many more, the sound of
which must have been most familiar to the apostle.
Some of the Jewish tombs are large, one recently dis
covered measuring 18 feet wide by 17 feet deep, being
built by Julius Justus "for himself and his wife, his
freedmen and freedwomen and their descendants."
Several times the "synagog of the Hebrews" is
mentioned, and once Tychicus the "head of the syna
gog" (cf- Acts 20:4; Fph. 6:21); Julianus is also
mentioned as "Gerusiarch of the Sanhedrin," and
a Macedonian is spoken of whose father came from
"Caesarea in Palestine." Perhaps the most interesting,
however, is the epitaph which reads:
"Here lies Prokleina, 18 years and 50 days old. Her mother
Aquileina erected this."
The name of Aquila, the friend of Paul, is closely
associated with Rome (Acts 18:2), and Giorgio
Schneider Graziosi thinks Aquileina is merely the
feminine form of Aquila.61
The Palestine Exploration Fund has lately pub
lished some very interesting Jewish inscriptions recently
discovered in Rome. The largest and most impressive of
these concerns a lady whose wifely qualities and re
ligious faith are thus eulogized by her husband:
"Here is buried Regina concealed in this fair tomb which her
husband built as a mark of his love for her, who had lived with
him twenty years and four months, lacking eight days. She is
sure to live again, and again return to the light (of life) ; for she
can have hope of this, because she shall rise for a promised
eternity, which is the unfailing faith of the worthy and pious.
M Nuovo Bullettino di archeologia cristiani, 1915, pp. 13-56, 152-157

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 519
She deserved to have an abode in the Blessed Country. This will
be assured thee by thy pure life, thy love for thy people, thy
fidelity to law, the worthiness of thy wedded life," etc.62
Joseph Offord points out that the mention of the
resurrection and Paradise is rather novel in a Jewish
epitaph. If just one little sentence could be found on some
relic which St. Paul himself had written, it would be
worth, sentimentally, more than all these many other
Jewish inscriptions; but no such autograph has been
preserved, neither can we be absolutely sure even of the
place where he lived during his residence in Rome.
Lanciani is very certain that it could not have been
at the spot pointed out under the Church of St. Maria
in the Via Lata, because this at that era was not
private property, a public monument standing on this
site; neither should it be sought near the Church of St.
Paolo della Regola, for almost certainly the rich Jews
living in the Campus Martins would not have attracted
the apostle to this official district. He favors the site
recommended a few years ago by Padre Germano, this
being a well-built apartment house of three stories
situated near the ancient ghetto, in the Via degli
Strengari, where Roman tradition locates it.63
"Latin Text in Quarterly Statement, 1914, p. 47, and July, 1916, p. 146;
also this and many others in Nuovo Bullettino di arch, crist., 1915, Nos.
I and II, where a catalog is given of all the Jewish inscriptions now
placed in the new hall recently set apart for Hebrew records in the Lateran
Museum. 03 Except where other works are quoted or the writer has personal in
formation, the statements in this section are all made upon the authority
of Rodolfo Lanciani in his remarkable series of books, Wanderings in the
Roman Campagna (1909) ; New Tales of Old Rome (1901) ; Pagan and
Christian Rome (1893) ; Destruction of Ancient Rome (1899) ; Ancient
Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries (1889) ; and especially The Ruins
and Excavations of Ancient Rome (1897) ; compared with and supple
mented by Orazio Marucchi, Christian Epigraphy (1912) ; and The Roman
Forum and the Palatine (1906) ; and especially his illuminating reports in
the Nuovo Bullettino.

520 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
An ancient tradition identifies the dungeon in which
both St. Peter and St. Paul were incarcerated with
the horrible Mamertine prison in which Lentulus and
the Catiline conspirators, as well as Jugurtha and
other important state prisoners, were killed or starved
to death, altho this identification is by no means con
clusive; but that the burial place of St. Paul has been
found Marucchi does not doubt. In 191 5 Mons. De
Waal gave a great sum to carry on excavations in the
Basilica di S. Sebastiano. About six feet beneath
the floor a pagan columbarium of the first century was
found and some frescos of the third century; but, far
more important than either, graffiti were discovered
scribbled upon the walls of the nearby crypt, proving
that in the fourth century this was regarded as the
cenotaph of the two apostles. This confirms the ancient
traditions which declare that the bodies were taken
here for protection in the third century.64
Another even more certain ancient relic com
memorating the two great apostles are the gilded
glasses, dating from the second half of the second and
the beginning of the third century, on many of which
pictures of Peter and Paul are executed on the flat
bottom in gold leaf. Out of 340 of these glasses pub
lished by Garrucci these pictures are found on eighty.
They also contained such mottoes as: "Mayest thou
live long !" ; "A mark of friendship" ; "Life and happi
ness to thee and thine." These were evidently gifts
for festival occasions, and Marucchi believes, since
there is a uniformity of type in the pictures, that they
originated from real portrait pictures.65
64 Nuovo Bullettino, 1916, pp. 5-61, 159-191, 231-2, 238#.
MSee also T. Livius, 5. Peter, Bishop of Rome (1888), pp. 132#.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 521
Excavations at the church of San Clemente begun
fifty years ago have recently yielded some important
results. Below the eleventh century church a fourth
century basilica was dug up "filled with matter of
greatest interest to the Christian historian." Under
neath this church a Roman house of the imperial
period came to light, one chamber of which was evi
dently regarded as a holy shrine. There is considerable
reason for believing that this was the house of St.
Clement of Rome; but the strange thing is, that not
only a Christian shrine was found there but also a
shrine of Mithras — a pathetic relic of the later years
when this mystic religion made so many converts from
the Christian faith.66
5. Explorations in Various Galatian Cities
The discoveries in Asia Minor rival any in Egypt
or Italy in their value in illuminating the New Testa
ment. The French were the pioneers in scientific work
-here, and the publications of the Ecole Frangaise
d 'Athene s have done more than any other to aid the
student of Asia Minor.67 F. V. J. Arundell, in 1832,
succeeded in discovering Antioch of Pisidia and brought
back to England a number of texts from its ruins, the
most impressive being those in which he mentions an
official who is called:
"High priest for life of the most glorious god Bacchus."
And on the pedestal of a statue :
"To Titus Claudius Paulinus, the heroic philosopher."
Mr Arundell suggestively remarks that the near
relatives of these men or their successors in office may
M See London Expositor, Feb., 1915.
" Ramsay, Historical Geography of Asia Minor, p. 9.

522 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
have "heard the words of life from the priests of the
Most High God." 68
W. J. Hamilton published valuable researches in
1834 with 455 Greek inscriptions gathered in a two
years' journey;69 and Philippe Le Bas and W. H. Wad-
dington issued a much larger and more important work
embodying their researches, 1843-44, and containing
many hundreds of short inscriptions.70 Some other
scholars issued important volumes; nevertheless Asia
Minor was practically an unknown land to Europe
until MM. Duchesne and Collignon in 1876 plunged
into this terra incognita and made detailed investiga
tions and learned reports of such popular value that
soon the entire scholastic world was interested in this
country, which was historically the "bridge" between
Europe and Asia.
Sir William M. Ramsay, however, has done more
than any other man or group of men to investigate
thoroughly the antiquities particularly of Anatolia
(western Asia Minor), and to apply the results in a
very brilliant manner to the illustration and con
firmation of the New Testament records. In com
pany with Col. C. W. Wilson he made his first long
journey into this country in 1881 and 1882; later with
J. R. S. Sterret, D. G. Hogarth, and others, he, as the
chief representative of the Asia Minor Exploration
Fund, liberally supported by the Royal Geographical
Society of England, has visited the country periodically
every few years up to the present time (1916), and
has gathered vast numbers of inscriptions and much
topographical information which have completely
68 Discoveries in Asia Minor. 1 : 272-290.
"* Researches in Asia Minor (2 vols., 1837).
*° Voyage archeologique en Grece et en Asie Mineure (5 vols.), 1870.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 523
changed the views of scholars concerning the
geography and history of Asia Minor in New Testa
ment times, and in many respects have changed the cur
rent views concerning the religious cults of that period.
An enormous body of Christian inscriptions from
the second, third, and fourth centuries have thus been
brought to light, especially in Phrygia and Lycaonia,
some of which have already been made use of in this
work. The education of these early Christians, as con
trasted with that found in certain later centuries, is set
into fine relief when we remember that the Crusaders
who marched through Asia Minor to Palestine left not
one written memorial.71
Sir William M. Ramsay's discovery that the term
Galatia, as used in the New Testament and on certain
popular non-Biblical inscriptions, did not refer to the
northern district but to South Galatia (which district
included the well-known cities of Antioch, Iconium,
Derbe and Lystra), resolved more New Testament
puzzles and eliminated more supposed Biblical "mis
takes" than perhaps any other one discovery made in
the last half century. There are grammatical objec
tions to this explanation of the term;72 but such objec
tions are purely verbal, the historical and geographical
facts compelling archeologists with practical unanimity
to accept Ramsay's theory. While the evidence does not
amount quite to a demonstration, it is nearer to it than
that offered for many other universally accepted
hypotheses ; and the difficulties which it raises are very
few compared with those met by the opposing theory.
" Ramsay, Seven Churches of Asia, p. 110.
"See Ency. Bib., pp. 1592-1616; Moffatt, Introduction to the Literature
of: the New Testament, pp. 90-94, for literature and argument; and add
Robertson, Grammar of the Greek New Testament, p. 863.

524 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
External history, antiquities, and geography are wholly
in favor of the South Galatian view, and the fact that
it removes contradictions from the New Testament
narrative ought not to be considered as militating
against its truth. Sir W. M. Ramsay began his studies
in Asia Minor holding to the old belief concerning the
meaning of the term Galatia and accepting the view,
which was current fifty years ago, that the mistakes in
the book of Acts were due to the fact that the book was
fabricated in the middle of the second century; but his
researches finally drove him to the conclusion that the
author of the book wrote with such admirable knowl
edge that he could not have lived in the second century
and that Luke and Paul spoke about these provinces of
Rome in the same natural and non-technical way that
the Romans themselves spoke and wrote, as was proved
by the inscriptions.73
If Paul made a missionary journey to North Galatia
he almost certainly visited the great cities Ancyra,
Pessinus, etc. — altho he never mentioned them after
ward, — and it is interesting to note that according to
Eusebius the very earliest reference to Christianity in
North Galatia is at Ancyra (cir. a.d. 192) in an anti-
Montanist treatise (Hist, eccl., V, 16). But while the
Northern Galatian antiquities are not insignificant, we
are concerned alone with Southern Galatia and with
the recent discoveries especially at Lystra, Derbe,
Antioch, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch.74
78 See Church in the Roman Empire, pp. 74 ff; Expositor, 1911, p. 258;
Pauline and Other Studies, pp. 199$.
" The skeleton of the following discussion is taken from Ramsay's The
Cities of St. Paul, 1907, and The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the
Trustworthiness of the New Testament, 2d ed., 1915, supplemented from
the recent Biblical encyclopedias, and especially from the Journal of. Heir
lenic Studies.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 525
(i) LYSTRA
Professor Sterrett settled the site of this city in
1884-5, and from an inscription found there not only
identified Khatyn Serai as Lystra but proved that it
was a Roman colony. It was situated about eighteen
miles southwest of Iconium, and was probably made a
Roman colony 6 b.c. No excavation of any great ex
tent, so far as the writer knows, has ever been carried
on here, and very few remains of the old city are now
visible above ground. It was off the main road, being
situated in a secluded, charming spot among the hills,
and was therefore well fitted as a place of refuge, as
was also Bercea (cf. Acts 14: 5 with 17: 10). Modern
discovery has shown a particularly strong influence of
the old native language here, so that it is most natural
to find that this was the only city where Paul came in
contact with an uneducated native population that did
not naturally use the Greek vernacular (Acts 14: 11).
Since Lystra was the seat of a Roman colony and situ
ated near a Roman road, the Latin influence was great.
The coins prove that the art of Tarsus influenced this
town in no small degree. In a neighboring village
two architects named Titus and Gaius, who were
brothers, mention their native place in an inscription,
showing that in the ancient days, as truly as now, civic
pride touched all classes of citizens.
As the Jews usually settled in cities which lay in
the line of commerce, it is natural that no synagog is
mentioned in the narrative of Paul's visit to Lystra.
The general tone of Acts 14:8-19 suggests, as Ramsay
well says, that the surroundings were more thoroughly
pagan and less permeated by Jewish bias than in
Iconium or Antioch. The few Jews who lived here

S26 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
were probably influenced by their surroundings, and
perhaps this accounts for the circumstance that
Timothy, altho his mother was a Jewess, had ¦ never
been circumcised (2 Tim. 3: 10, 11). However, the
fact that a Jewess would marry him indicates, as
Ramsay points out, that the father of Timothy was a
Greek occupying a position of some importance.
One of Sir William Ramsay's latest discoveries,
made in 1909, throws light on the conduct of the
natives of Lystra who called Paul, Mercury and
Barnabas, Jupiter (Acts 14:12); for he found in
a nearby ruin an inscription by native Lycaonians re
cording the dedication of a statue to Zeus (Jupiter)
and Hermes (Mercury). This shows that these two
gods were classed together in the local cult, and again
illustrates the accurate local knowledge of St. Luke.
(2) DERBE
It was Professor Sterrett who in 1885 fixt the
site of Derbe, altho the identification is not absolutely
conclusive. This city was most probably situated
where a great artificial mound appears just north of
the Taurus mountains on the edge of the Lycaonian
plain. The remains are so extensive that almost cer
tainly there were two ancient towns at different dates
connected with a road which in Paul's day was lined
with sepulchers. The surface of these mounds is
covered with fragments of pottery of all periods from
pre-Hellenic time onward. With the exception of a
few hours of digging by a few workmen no excavations
have been made. Unfortunately, the Derbe where
Cice/o was entertained and Paul found refuge is still

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 527
underground.75 On the northwest, Derbe was bor
dered by the Iconium territory, and on the northeast by
the district of Barata, from which it was separated by
a long line of boundary stones erected at intervals of
about 150 feet. An imperial road, built 6 B.C., as
proved by the milestones, ran between Derbe and
Antioch. Just as there is a peak near Iconium which
the early Christians named in remembrance of St.
Philip and one near Ephesus named for St. John, so
here there is one which bears a name probably reminis
cent of its connection in history with St. Paul.
Derbe was the frontier town of the Roman province,
and therefore when Paul reached this town he retraced
his steps to Lystra. An inscription, probably of the
third century, was put up by Nounnos and Valerius in
honor of "Paul the Martyr." This was recently found
in a ruined church nearby. The tombstone had been
purchased ready made and the inscription does not fit
very well; but it is a most pathetic reminder that
altho Paul is not said to have suffered any persecution
here, later disciples of the Nazarene did not escape.
(3) ICONIUM
This city still retains the name Koniyeh (Konia),
and is well described by Hamilton as an "oasis in the
desert." 76 All travelers notice its similarity to Damas
cus, being surrounded by deserts but situated in the
midst of gardens. In each case also a river flows
down into the city, tho here the stream is soon lost in
the sand. It has always been thought of as one of the
" Cities of St Paul, p. 396.
n Op. cit. II, 146.

528 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
most ancient cities of the world, its legendary history
beginning "before the flood."
Iconium in the first century controlled the fertile
district around it for a distance of 200 square miles,
and its mines and great furnaces were very impressive
to the ancient mind. It was surrounded by villages
which were fragments of the central city, each of
these having as its chief officer a "first man." There
is now no doubt that Iconium was a province of
Galatia during the first three centuries, as this has
conclusively been proved by milestones and grave
stones.77 The Romans naturally spoke of Iconium as lying
in the half barbaric Lycaonia; but the people always
distinguished themselves from the Lycaonians, pre
ferring to think of themselves as citizens of a Phrygian-
Hellenic city. Even the cities farther from North
Galatia spoke of themselves as "Galatian" and en
joyed being addrest thus. The city was strongly
Roman and was given an imperial name a.d. 41 ; so
that, as Ramsay suggests, it is now plain that Paul was
complimenting the city when he addrest a letter in
tended for it: "To the Galatians." Luke is also cor
rect when he speaks of an important part of the in
habitants as Hellenes (Acts 14:1) as compared with
other Galatian cities, such as Lystra and Antioch; for
the latter were Roman colonics, but Iconium had not
received that honor in Paul's day, tho it did receive
this title about 100 years later, after which Latin be
came the official language. On one of the coins of
Iconium — perhaps struck while Paul was aliv

77 Ramsay, Cities of St. Paul, pp. 335, 341, and The Bearing of Recent
Discovery, pp. 37, 45 ; and especially Expositor, 1911, p. 257 ; Journal of Hel
lenic Studies, 1911, pp. 161-214.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 529
Poppaea, the wife of Nero, is represented as a figure
of Good Fortune seated on a throne after the fashion
of the Great Mother.
All that we have said above illustrating St. Luke's
exact knowledge of local phrase and popular geography
may at first seem rather unimportant; but when we
remember that when Sir William Ramsay first went
to Asia Minor every authoritative geographer in the
world supposed that Luke's statements to which we
have just referred proved him to be unacquainted with
the conditions around Iconium in Paul's lifetime, we
may then appreciate more fully the importance of the
excavations which have proved the geographers to be
wrong and Luke to be right.770 Indeed, it was the un
expected discovery by Sir William Ramsay that the
book of Acts was correct ih its statement that Paul
crossed the frontier into Lycaonia in going from
Iconium to Lystra, which awakened this distinguished
explorer to the possibility that perhaps, after all, the
Bible historian might have firsthand information be
neath his narrative. It was not until 1910 that
Ramsay found the now famous monument proving that
Iconium was so thoroughly Phrygian that even well-
to-do citizens of wealth and standing were still using
the Phrygian language in dedicatory inscriptions as
late as a.d. 150-250.78 It may have been, as Ramsay
suggests, because it was the frontier that Luke hap
pened to mention the district, for just as soon as the
fugitives had reached this milestone marking their
"" These inscriptions prove that from one point of view (i.e., racially)
Iconium could be spoken of as Phrygian, while from another point of
view (i.e., administratively) it could be spoken of as Galatic.
78 For full description of this remarkable text see Ramsay's The Bear
ing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament,
2d ed., 1915, p. 45#.

530 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
entrance into a new district they were safe from pur
suit. Sir William Ramsay had his headquarters at
Iconium each year from 1901 to 19 10, but of all his
discoveries none were so important as the above unless
it was the finding of the inscription, published in 191 1
in the lournal of Roman Studies, which conclusively
proved that Iconium, and indeed all Phrygia, was
thought of as a part of Galatia.
The inscriptions show that a tremendous Christian
influence spread far and wide from this city of Iconium.
Its magistrates were supreme during their term of
office and could whip and expel without trial any sup
posed criminals, if the people who gave them their
office did not object; but this expulsion would not
necessarily be permanent after public opinion changed
or new magistrates came into office. It is an interest
ing fact that this is the one place in Asia Minor where
early Christian (Byzantine) ceremonial can still be
seen much as it was carried on before Islam overrun
the country. The earliest Iconium saint was a woman
(Thekla), a fact which may possibly, as Ramsay thinks,
suggest the influence of the ancient Great Mother wor
ship, which was the popular cult here, altho the Greeks
worshiped Athena and the Romans adored the em
perors. A great number of inscriptions have been
found in Iconium and in almost all the villages sur
rounding it, forty-nine new texts being reported as
late as 1910. These inscriptions show prosperity,
much interest in good roads, and a real response to
imperial favor. Names often occur on the Christian
inscriptions which sound very familiar to the Bible
reader, such as Publius, Paula, Luke, Rufus, etc. A

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 531
particularly interesting text is on a monument dedi
cated to "a good man" who may have been a Christian
presbyter :
"Gourdas, a good man, lies here. He was as a dove among
men, a priest of the Most High God. (This) stone Trokondas,
his successor and follower, prepared, and adorned his grave for
the sake of his memory." 78
(4) PISIDIAN ANTIOCH
This site is now deserted and while the ruins are
extensive there is only one rather large building, prob
ably an ancient temple or music hall, which seems
imposing. Excavations are much needed here. Great
arches, which were once part of the fine aqueduct, and
a few broken marble columns are all that now indicate
the richness of this celebrated ancient city which was
made a Roman colonia by Augustus and continued for
years to be a great administrative and military center
in Phrygia. During the first and second centuries, as
the inscriptions show, Latin was used in the official
dedications and also in private inscriptions. It was
geographically a Phrygian city but politically a city of
Galatia, as was quite satisfactorily proved by a group
of milestones in 1905. A very large number of in
scriptions have been found upon or near this site.
That the Jews were an important element of the;
population is rendered certain by a most curious fact.
While these people did not often write their public in
scriptions in Hebrew and were careful not to mention
their race in their epitaphs, yet that they held an im
portant place here is proved by the funeral monument
"Journal of Hellenic Studies, XXII: 124, Gk. Text No. 58.

532 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
of a Jewess dating probably from the first century of

our era:
"An Antiochian (by race) sprung from ancestors who held
many offices of state in the Fatherland, by name Debbora, given
in marriage to a famous man Pamphylus (I am buried here), re
ceiving this monument as a return of gratitude from him for my
virgin marriage." 80
Debbora is the ordinary Greek spelling of the
Hebrew Deborah. The public proclamation of this
intermarriage proves both the prominence of Deborah's
family and the breaking down of Jewish exclusiveness.
The men of Deborah's household, being in such close
touch with heathen officials, must necessarily have
acquiesced in much idolatrous ritual; otherwise they
could have had neither political nor social recognition.
"When Paul visited Antioch, the original Jewish
colony had been for three centuries and a half exposed
to the influence which such practises exert on the
characters of men, and a profound effect must have
been produced on a race naturally receptive and
progressive." SOa
There was a native Phrygian element in Antioch,
but the Greek was predominant. The city lay on a
great commercial highway, and was closely connected
with other Greek cities, the population being better
educated than at Lystra or Derbe. The Roman element
of the population doubtless constituted the chief aris
tocracy — composed probably, in large part, of de
scendants of military men who were thrown into the
town when it first became a Roman city — and visiting
Roman princes were given great honor ; but the city as
80 Ramsay, Cities of St. Paul, p. 256.
m* Ramsay, ibid:, p. 258.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 533
a whole was Greek in feeling tho Roman in govern
ment, and Paul appealed most probably to this ele

ment.81

Men was the chief god of Antioch. On the coins
he stands with one foot on a bull's head and wears a
Phrygian cap.82 He was the god of prophecy and
healing. The cock, a figure probably used to avert
evil, is also seen on the coins. But the most popular
deity was Cybele, the Great Mother, who was the lead
ing deity in all Anatolia. She is usually represented
in a modest dress with two lions by her side. A cave
which was sacred to her, centuries before St. Paul
visited the city, is now held sacred in memory of the
Virgin Mary. It must not be forgotten, however, that
the Romans at Antioch, as elsewhere, worshiped the
emperors as their leading cult.
From the more educated among the middle class —
to which class it is now seen primitive Christianity
chiefly appealed — Paul got a quick response, so that
by the second Sabbath he had caught the ear of almost
the entire city. He particularly attracted the Gentiles
to his teaching; perhaps because in his first address he
called them "brethren." Sir William Ramsay believes
that the reason this sermon is given in such detail in
Acts is because it was here that an epochal step was
taken in the proclamation of the gospel, when Paul
opened a "door of the Gentiles directly into the Chris
tian Church instead of having them pass first, as pre
viously, through the synagog" (Acts 13:46). Mr.
Hamilton eighty years ago exprest this same
81 For a description of the city and general conditions at Antioch see
W. M. Ramsay, Epistle to Galatians (1900), pp. 197#.
82 For the coins of Pisidian Antioch, see G. F. Hall, Num. Chron., 1914.
pp. 299-313.

534 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
thought, saying, "From Antioch of Pisidia as from a
sacred Jerusalem we may date the first preaching of
Christianity to the heathen and can not but look upon
the deserted site and fallen ruins with a feeling of
respect and veneration." 83 This was a city where the
Greeks and the Jews were particularly friendly, and
therefore was a good point at which to introduce this
new method of evangelism. The Romans, who in
cluded the women of rank, would naturally be the class
of population least interested at first in the preaching
of St. Paul, and naturally it was this class which the
offended Jews stirred up against the preacher. They
held the reins of government and were quite ready to
please the Jews by stopping such novel and riot-pro
voking utterances.
The sanctuary of Men-Askaenos in Antioch was
fully excavated 19 10- 191 3 by Sir William Ramsay; the
colossal altar, 66 by 41 feet, was found in situ within
the sacred area, the latter measuring 241 by 136 feet
and being surrounded by a wall five feet thick. A
fourth century church nearby had been built of the
stone from this ruined sanctuary. It is suggestive that
no temple of Men was found, but only this holy High
Place on the top of the mountain, open to the sky, in
the center of which was the ancient hall of initiation,
and the high trough or baptismal font where purifica
tions were made by the worshipers. There is no doubt
whatever that we may see in this newly discovered
sanctuary the famous hall of Phrygian mysteries. The
hall proper was, doubtless, the central closed chamber.
The soil above the stone floor of this chamber was full
of animal bones and teeth, and beneath the floor the
88 Researches, 1 : 476.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 535
teeth of pigs and wild boars were found. Emblems of
Men, a horned bull's head, and many engraved tablets
were excavated.84
Sir William Ramsay was able to locate the throne
of the deity in the northeastern corner of the sanctuary,
and also the very spot in the center of the room where
the initiate by a mystic rite entered into the "new life"
where he could be called "holy and blessed . . . god
instead of mortal." Close to this place Sir William
found three of the feet of the "holy bed" used for the
mystic marriage ceremony between the god and his
goddess — in which service, according to immemorial
tradition, Anatolian ladies, even those of highest rank,
were expected to take part.
The god Men at Antioch was paired with Demeter
and closely associated with Artemis (Diana), who was
a Hellenized form of Cybele, also sometimes rep
resented here in the form of Hekate, with six birds
prest to her breast, as is also the case with Artemis
at Ephesus.84" The discovery of this sanctuary is particularly in
teresting because these Phrygian mysteries were so
well known to the early Christians (cf. Col. 2: 18), and
because they were centers of widespread influence
during the first and second centuries. High ecclesi
astical dignitaries doubtless visited this shrine at
Antioch, as the priest of the Pythian Apollo came
from Laodicea to see the mysteries at Klaros, and ap
plicants for initiation and visitors to the oracle must
have come from long distances. The ritual was doubt-
M Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1912, p. 111#.
"'For discussion of Men see H. R. Hall, Ancient History of the Near
East, pp. 330, 331 (1913) ; especially A. B. Cook, Zeus; A Study in
Ancient Religion, Vol. I., consult Index under Men (1914).

536 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
less most impressive, as the chorus at Klaros is known
to have been large and made up of singers brought
from afar.
The earliest inscription found was that of a freed
man of Claudius; the earliest portrait statue also dated
from the first century.85 Sixty-eight inscriptions were
brought away from this shrine, the one which is most
impressive dating from a.d. 250-315, in which the
worshiper of Men and Artemis confesses that he has
sinned and needs atonement or expiation. The con
cept of sin, as exprest here, is so decidedly Christian
that it suggests either that the Christian idea. is imi
tated by this heathen or else that the penitent is pub
licly repenting of the sin of having profest Chris
tianity. The former seems more likely, as this was the
era when paganism was making its last desperate fight
against the new religion of Jesus, and many of the in
scriptions show this tendency to imitate Christian
phraseology. In at least a dozen of the votive tablets
obtained here by Ramsay in 191 1 the strange: word
TexpLOQevaac; was found — evidently an anti-Christian
word reminding one of the pagan libelli.86 It looks as
if these heathen, who for more than a century
had been coming in contact with the Christians, were
finally beginning to imitate Christian phraseology, call
ing themselves "witnesses" and lauding their departed
friends as those who had "borne witness," just as in
India to-day the natives sing:
"Buddha, Lover of my soul,
Let me to thy bosom fly."
88 Journal of Hellenic Studies, XXXII, 1912, pp. 111-142, 390/7.
86 Expositor (London), 1911, pp. 251-275.

TWO GRAVESTONES FROM BLAUNDOS, NOW AT USHAK
From Sir William Ramsay, "The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of
the New Testament," (2d. ed., p. 358)

I

1 DfttOvi;^<OlOUf.

MO<o
rjH<!«
°2i<gOfc
WWw

W

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 537
One Antiochan text reported by W. M. Calder in
19 1 2 8T illustrates this tendency, since the wording is
such that one can not be sure whether it was written
by a heathen or a Christian :
"Ailios ... an elder (oTQScP'UTeQOs) , to the freedman Ailios
... a freedman most highly honored for his memory."
During this revival of paganism, as it made its last
battle against the Nazarene, Christian benevolence was
also imitated, and heathen worshipers not only began to
use in their public inscriptions the higher spiritual
terms introduced by the New Way, but gave their
children religious names and began to speak of the
deity and of the future life as the Christians did. An
inscription (early fourth century) speaks of one
"glorified by the immortal gods (for she) redeemed
many from evil torments. . . . Truly I received the
gift prophetic of truth in my own city." Other pagan
inscriptions use the expressions so common in Chris
tian literature: "slave of God"; "he was perfected,"
etc.88 ' Sir .William Ramsay found in connection with the
heathen sanctuary at Antioch the verb e^PcaeiJco used
in describing how a neophyte (cir. a.d. 150) had "en
tered in" and "seen" the sacred symbols and had heard
an explanation of religious mysteries which could come
only, to an "initiate." This would suggest that in
Col. 2: 18, where the same word is used, the apostle
may be warning the young Christians against this
secret ; teaching of heathen "wisdom" when he says:
"Let no man rob you of your prize by . . . dwelling
"Journal of Roman Studies, II, 79-109. But see note 127, page 576
88 See for other examples Ramsay, Pauline and Other Studies.

S38 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
on the things which he hath seen, vainly puffed up." 89
Probably the most important of all the new inscrip
tions found at Antioch is the one which gives addi
tional confirmation to the view that Quirinius (Luke
2: 2) was twice governor, once 6-4 b.c. and once earlier,
probably 16-12 b.c. There are several ancient in
scriptions that relate to the prefectorate of Quirinius,
but this is the most important. A member of the
family of the Caristanii at Antioch was his repre
sentative, and must have filled the place well, for he
is recorded to be the first man to whom a statue was
ever erected in Antioch at the public expense.
But the facts that this distinguished officer of state
who officially represented Quirinius had a wife named
Sergia Paulla, and that the governor of Galatia visiting
Antioch at this time was named Sergius Paullus, Jr.,
add immeasurably to the value and interest of this
remarkable document.
This brings very near to one the Sergius Paulus of
Cyprus with whom Paul had such a dramatic relation
ship, and who was, according to Sir William's view,
the father of this great man of Antioch who, altho but
a little past thirty years of age, had won such distinc
tion as president of the Board of Road Commissioners
that he had a monument of honor erected to him by
the city, Sergia Paulla being his sister.90
It will be noticed that either Luke or the city scribe
made a mistake in spelling the name of Sergius Paullus
(Acts 13:7) — unless, indeed, the ancient governor,
like Shakespeare, was independent enough to spell his
"In addition to the references given see especially Sir William Ram
say, Annual of the British School at Athens, 1911-12, pp. 37-71.
80 See Journal of Roman Studies, 1913, pp. 262#; 1914, pp. 254$

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 539
name differently at different times. However, Luke
was not with Paul at Cyprus and in any case he would
be very likely, let us hope, to favor phonetic spelling.91
The block of stone on which the above-mentioned
memorial was engraved was found at Antioch by Sir
William Ramsay in 191 2, and reads as follows:
"To Lucius Sergius Paullus, the younger, one of the four
commissioners in charge of the Roman streets, tribune of the
soldiers of the sixth legion, styled Ferrata, questor," etc.92
The other text referred to, which mentions Sergia
Paulla — whose name was correctly read only in 19 13 —
joins with the other in bringing the drama of early
Christian history very close to us:
"The most excellent Sergia Paulla, daughter of Lucius, wife
of Gaius Caristanius Fronto, legatus of the Emperor Csesar
(Domi)tian Augustus, with praetorian rank of Lycia and
Pamphylia. (This monument erected by) Gaius Caristanius
Fronto, son and grandson of Gaius." 93
All of these most fortunate discoveries when care
fully compared with each other have enabled Sir
William Ramsay to draw certain stimulating con
clusions with reference to the thoroughness of the pro
consul's conversion related by Luke. The statement
that he "believed" (Acts 13: 12) does not necessarily
mean much more than his intellectual acceptance of
Paul's victory over Elymas; but if his descendants
"Sir William Ramsay is the supreme authority on Antioch and its re
ligion, and all who wish to continue this study must consult his Cities of
St. Paul and The Bearing of Recent Discoveries on the Trustworthiness
of the New Testament, 2d ed., 1915.
"Sir William Ramsay, The Bearing of Recent Discoveries on the
Trustworthiness of the New Testament, 2d ed., 1915, p. 157.
"Ibid., pp. 154, 155.

540 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
were Christians, the content of the statement may be
much fuller and richer than this.94
We know that the son of the proconsul was prob
ably not a Christian, for the inscriptions show that he
had an official career which required him to participate
in the pagan ceremonies. This son was probably at
Rome, carrying on the studies proper to his rank, when
Paul was in Cyprus (cir. a.d. 47) and as immediately
after the completion of his education, he would soon
have left home to take up official duties, any change in
his father's religious views might not have affected
him very powerfully. But his sister, Sergia Paulla,
must have been only a child, or perhaps not yet born,
at the time of Paul's evangelistic visit, so that she
would have been all her life under the new Christian
influence, if the father had whole-heartedly accepted
Christianity. Sir William Ramsay thinks that the new inscrip
tions give at least an additional hint that Sergia Paulla
was a Christian and that she trained her children to
be Christians. This hint is found in the fact that while
her husband, Gaius Caristanius Fronto, began a sena
torial career (cir. a.d. 73-74) — probably being ad
vanced from the equestrian order through the in
fluence of his noble wife and her brother, the governor
of Galatia — yet from this time forward the Caristanii
drop out of office, presumably because they have be
come Christians. Whatever may be thought of the
force of this argument, it is at any rate a great satis
faction to obtain this new light upon the family and
descendants of a Biblical character like Sergius Paulus.
" For a complete examination of the exact meaning of the leading theo
logical terms in the early Christian vocabulary, see Sir William Ramsay,
Teaching of Paul in Terms of the Present Day, 1914.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 541
6. Side-Lights from Other Cities Visited by
St. Paul
(1) TARSUS
Tarsus imprest the writer as much as Damascus or
Rome. The nearby seacoast and the mountain within
walking distance where, in ancient as in modern times,
the well-to-do families had their summer houses close
to the famous Cilician Gates; and the river Cydnus
with its enticing swimming-pool flowing so close to
, the city — all these things were as familiar to Paul in
his boyhood as to the eighty-eight students in "St.
¦Paul's Collegiate Institute" of Tarsus, who in 19 13
were preparing for life under the wise and brilliant
leadership of President Christie.
The ancient Tarsus had a far larger and more
famous institution of learning than this modern col
lege, for to its university students were drawn from
all parts of the learned world. It was very young and
.neither as rich nor large as the universities of Athens
and Alexandria ; yet it almost rivaled even those great
schools in the fame of its faculty and in its reputation
for doing thorough work. Athenodorus of Tarsus
(74 b.c.-a.d. 7) influenced Seneca so powerfully that
this may account for the resemblance so often noticed
between Seneca and St. Paul.95 Tarsus in the reign of
Augustus was the one example known in history of
a state ruled by its university and, as Ramsay has
so often pointed out, it was a providential place for an
apostle to the Gentiles to be born (cf. Gal. 1: 15). It
could not be ranked in size with Rome or Alexandria,
nor in trade with such centers as Ephesus, Corinth, or
"So Ramsay, The Cities of St Paul, 1907, 222#.

S42. THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Puteoli; but it was a place of importance and it was
an old city having a noble history behind it. A re
cently found text of 740 lines, now in the British
Museum, tells how it had been captured by Senna
cherib, during the lifetime of Hezekiah and rebuilt by
him after the model of Babylon and given a new name
Tarsus (Tharsu). From that time on it could be
called "no mean city" (Acts 21:39), and Xenophon
could speak of it as a "joy of heart."
Paul was by nation Jewish but by family Tarsian.
From childhood he had been a member of the aris
tocracy of the city. He had the Jewish nature but
came into such close contact from earliest boyhood with'
the Graeco-Roman world at its best that he learned
how to make the religion of the Jewish race intelligible
to Gentiles. There was no anti-Semitic crusade in
Tarsus as in so many other Greek cities, but Greek
qualities were guided by the Asiatic spirit. Every
citizen was proud of his city and knew well its ancient
history. The coinage goes back to the sixth century
before Christ, and on her coins Tarsus was proudly
called :
"LOVELIEST GREATEST METROPOLIS."
The so-called tomb of Sardanapalus — which may
have actually been a Roman temple — must have been
familiar to every citizen in the first century, as well
as the ancient legend said to have been sculptured
upon it: "Eat, drink, and play; for everything else
is not worth the snap of one's fingers." But this
maxim did not well represent the religion of the aver
age Tarsian. Sandon-Heracles and Baal-Tarz were
the leading deities. The former was practically asso-

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 543
ciated in the peasant mind with the same ideas of
death and resurrection as pervaded the worship of
Adonis, Tammuz, and Osiris. Baal-Tarz — preem
inently "Lord of Tarsus," — who often holds in his
hands corn and grapes, is the giver of vegetation and
every other good gift, and his picture as seen on the
coins of the fourth century before Christ looks as noble
as the Greek Zeus whom he so greatly resembled in
character. Lie. Hans Bohlig in his recent work has
made it perfectly clear that while St. Paul adopted none
of the heathen conceptions, he nevertheless at times
adapted his terminology and perhaps his method of
unfolding the redemptive scheme of a deified Christ to
the needs and pre-conceptions of his Gentile fellow
citizens, who from childhood had been taught the
mystic religion of Sandon. At any rate Paul certainly
learned here to recognize even in the pagan religion
an element of truth.
Modern investigation has indicated that the Jews,
some two centuries before St. Paul's day, were brought
into Tarsus under special charter and with special
rights. St. Paul was probably descended from these
Jews and his citizenship may have been in the family
for generations.96 Certainly Paul's idea of Christianity
was an imperial idea. He thought of it as a world
religion with Rome as its center. It was as a Roman
citizen in the free city of Tarsus that he obtained this
vision of an imperial world religion, as also his great
emphasis on freedom.
The Tarsian women always drest modestly, being
deeply veiled. The veil was the woman's crown and
protection, and this early education may have affected
"Ramsay thinks it began with Pompey's rule 64 B.C.; ibid., 205.

544 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
St. Paul's teaching (e.g., i Cor. 11:3-10). Roman
citizens always had three or four names, so that their
full name is seldom used. Sir William Ramsay
emphasizes the fact that Paul certainly had both a
Roman and a Jewish name from childhood. Work
upon linen and the making of tent-cloth constituted one
of the most celebrated industries of ancient Tarsus,
and while no Jewish tent-maker could be found in
Tarsus when the writer visited there, it is a fact that
up to within a few years this business was continued
by Jews in modern Tarsus. Every Hebrew, however
rich and whatever his profession, had to learn a trade,
and Paul took the trade which was most common in his
own city.
A Palestinian Jew could never have become, the
evangelist and teacher of the Greek-Roman world. He
could not have touched its heart or even felt its pulse
as Paul could do.97 It was also in Tarsus that Paul
so mastered the Greek philosophy as to be able to mix
on equal terms with educated men, so that he could be
counted a friend of the Asiarchs of Ephesus and talk
as an equal to a Roman centurion or a Syrian gov
ernor. Let it also be remembered that it was here or
near here that Paul began his missionary career and
preached his first evangelistic sermons (Acts 15:28)'
Gal. 1:21 ).98 (2) DAMASCUS
Because of Paul's early acquaintance with this city
it probably ought to be mentioned in this list, altho
" See Ramsay, Teaching of Paul in Terms of the Present Day, 19H
pp. 32#.
" For a striking summary of the influences of Tarsus upon Paul see
Lie. Hans Bohlig, Die Geisteskultur von Torsos, 1913, 67 ff.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 545
its poverty of antiquities is remarkable. However,
some of the walls are ancient ; some of the Roman gates
are well preserved; the "Street Straight" still runs
through the city from the eastern to the western gate;
while the large church of John the Baptist, which was
constructed by Arcadius about a.d. 400, still shows at
one point, notwithstanding the fact that it was turned
into a Mohammedan mosque in the eighth century and
has several times been burned, the following famous
inscription :
"Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting kingdom, and thy
dominion endureth throughout all generations."99
Another interesting inscription (a.d. 318-319) dis
covered near here reads:
"The meeting house (SwaYcoyri) of the Marionists, in the
village of Lebanon, of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Erected
by the forethought of Paul the presbyter." 99a
(3) PHILIPPI
When Paul crossed into Europe the first important
city that he came to was Philippi. From both coins
and inscriptions it is well proved that this was a Roman
colony. But how does Luke dare to speak of this city
as being "the first of the district" ? Even Dr. Hort 10°
thought the author of the Acts had made a mistake
here, using a well-known Greek word in an impossible
sense, since [aeqi£ never means "region." Dr. Hort
"As the writer remembers this inscription it does not read exactly as
quoted here, but Dr. R. A. S. Macalister is responsible for the quotation as
given. "" Quoted by Harnack, The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in
the First Three Centuries, 1908, Vol. II, p. 124.
m Appendix to his New Testament in the Original Greek, p. 96.

546 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
was right so far as any text known at that time could
throw light upon this word. But recently in the Fayum
a number of documents have been found showing that
Luke was better posted on the technical names for the
local divisions of territory in the first century than
even the greatest experts on the Greek language a
generation ago. All scholars are now agreed that this
word was actually used here "in a legitimate sense and
one particularly associated with Macedonia." 1H
But in the Bible narrative there is still another
difficulty. Luke calls Philippi "the first" city of the
district, whereas ancient historians name Amphipolis
as capital of this geographical division of the country.
Has the Bible author made a mistake or is the text
corrupt, as Blass supposed? Probably neither. Luke
being a native of Philippi would naturally claim for
his own town the precedence over this other rival city
which his townsmen were doubtless claiming then,
which claim was acknowledged a little later uni
versally.102 This incidental proof of the local par
tialities of the author of the Acts gives better testimony
to the fact that he was a companion of the apostle in
his journeys and not a second century historian than
any number of direct assertions could do if made in the
narrative. The title given by Luke to the officials of Philippi —
"praetors" — adds to the above argument. The term
was not technically correct, but the inscriptions have
proved that it was "employed as a courtesy title for
the supreme magistrates of a Roman colony; and as
usual Luke moves on the plane of educated conversa-
101 See Hogarth, Authority and Archeology, pp. 349-3S0.
"'Ibid., p. 250; and Ramsay, St Paul the Traveller, p. 206.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 547
tion in such matters, and not on the plane of rigid
technical accuracy.'

. >> 10s

(4) THESSALONICA
From Philippi the apostle went to Thessalonica,
which was not a Roman colony but a free Greek city,
and here again he was supposed, up to a very recent
period, to have made a curious blunder when he re
ferred to the "rulers" of the city. He twice calls them
nohxaQ%r\q "politarchs" (Acts 17:6, 8), a title which
is used nowhere else in the New Testament and does
"not appear in any other place in Greek literature"
(Haver field).
But some years ago a visitor at Salonika, which
now marks the site of the ancient Thessalonica, saw a
marble slab built into one of the mud houses, and
when he had examined it, found it to be part of an
ancient arch which contained engraved upon it certain
remarks about the "politarchs" of the city! Since that
time sixteen other texts from the same site have been
found containing the same confirmation of the local
accuracy of the Lukan narrative.104
Several other illustrations showing indirectly the
unexpected accuracy of the author of the Acts, as
proved by modern discoveries, are given in Hogarth's
work already mentioned: "The whole aspect of what
happened at Thessalonica, as compared with the events
at Philippi, is in perfect harmony with the ascertained
difference in the political condition of the two places.
There is no mention of the rights and privileges of
108 Ramsay, op. cit, 218 ; quoted approvingly by Hogarth, Authority and
Archeology, p. 352.
101 See especially American Journal of Theology, 1897, p. 598.

548 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Roman citizenship; but we are presented with the
spectacle of a mixed mob of Greeks and Jews, who are
anxious to show themselves to be Caesar's friends. No
lictors with rods and fasces appear upon the scene;
but we hear something distinctly of a demus or free
assembly of the people. Nothing is said of religious
ceremonies which the citizens, being Roman, may not
lawfully adopt; all the anxiety, both of people and
magistrates, is turned to the one point of showing
their loyalty to the emperor. And those magistrates
by whom the question at issue is ultimately decided are
not Roman praetors, but Greek politarchs" (Conybeare
and Howson).
"It is well known that the visit to Philippi is de
scribed in the first person plural, while in that to
Thessalonica we get back into the ordinary narrative
in the third person. That is usually held to mean that
in the one narrative we have the evidence of an eyewit
ness, whether worked up or not, in the other we have
not. And the further question arises, Is the author of
the Acts the eyewitness who falls naturally into the
first person when he is describing occasions at which
he was present with St. Paul, or is he a later writer,
who, in an extremely inartistic way, incorporated the
fragment of a diary with other information? On this
we have only one observation here to make. The
narrative of the visit at Philippi is accurate and full of
local coloring. That, it is said, is owing to the fact
that the author had good material here. But when
we pass to Thessalonica, we have the same evidence of
local knowledge, and the same accuracy in constitu
tional points. Does not this suggest that we have here
the work of the same hand in both cases ? If St. Luke

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 549
were a native of Philippi, he would know the constitu
tion of the neighboring city of Thessalonica; and
altho he was not present, his narrative, based on
various information that he received, would be ac
curate, and the local circumstances would naturally
become prominent. The hypothesis that the author
was the same is surely more natural than to imagine
two sources, both the product of authors with good
local knowledge, worked up in the same style by a
tendenz writer of the second century." 1Ma
(5) ANTIOCH IN SYRIA
Of this ancient city* little now remains except some
colossal ruins of aqueducts and Roman walls; yet it
must be mentioned because it was the cradle of Gentile
Christianity and one of the most important centers of
Christian life from the third to the sixth century. Here
it was that the disciples were first called Christians and
it was to this center that Paul and Barnabas reported
their missionary work. It was called "Antioch the
Golden," and only Rome and Alexandria surpassed it
in population and wealth, while it was regnant in
politics, philosophy, and the arts. Many races met
within its walls, the somber cults of the orient being
mellowed through contact with the elegant rites of
Greece. The Jews were especially well received at
Antioch, and the feeling was reciprocated, the Jewish
king giving a portico to the city. Being the seat of
the first Christian patriarchate of the orient, it rivaled
Alexandria in its theological influence, its schools being
more stable and sober than those of Egypt. Its society
was rich, polished, and refined, and Chrysostom became
1M* D. G. Hogarth, Authority and Archeology, pp. 352-354.

550 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
vainly angry against the luxurious dress, false hair,
perfumes, and painted faces of its women, and against
the love of the circus displayed by its supposedly Chris
tian men. Yet every Christian house was marked, by
the sign of the cross, and numerous philanthropic in
stitutions arose, more than three thousand widows and
orphaned maidens being supported at one time by the
church. This city was the home of great engineering
enterprises, and its architects were renowned the world
over, ordinarily following the Greek tradition, tho
adopting the arch and vault from Rome.105
The original city was laid out, as was Alexandria,
with two great colonnaded streets intersecting at the
center. Tiberius built several colonnades and en
larged the theater. A little before Paul's day a large
temple to Jupiter Capitolinus was erected and a mag
nificent forum. A little later Titus, it is said, set up
the cherubim captured from the Jewish temple over one
of the gates. About an hour's walk from the city was
the famous grove of Daphne where Artemis was wor
shiped with choruses of music, licentious rites, and
every extravagance of luxury. It was in this city,
which even excelled Corinth in its temptations, that
Christianity made its greatest impression in the early
centuries. Ten great synods of the Church were held
at Antioch in the third century, and it was here that
Simeon Stylites practised asceticism on the top of his
pillar. A remarkable discovery made at Antioch was that
by some well-diggers in 1910, who found seven silver
objects, probably on the site of the ancient church.
Of these the most important was a silver chalice, con-
105 Cf. a brilliant description by De Vogu€,Syrie CenWale, pp. 13-16.

FRAGMENT OF A RE
CENTLY DISCOVERED
JEWISH
SARCOPHAGUS
From "Nuovo Bullettino di
Archeologia Cristiana,"
(1915)

CHRISTIAN SARCOPHAGUS IN S. MARIA ANTIQUA
From Nuovo Eullettini di Archeologia Cristiana," (1901)

JEWISH MEASURES OF THE FIRST CENTURY RECENTLY FOUND ON OR NEAR 1
HOUSE OF CAIAPHAS, THE HIGH PRIEST, AT JERUSALEM
("Revue Biblique,'' April, 1914)

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 551
sisting of a silver communion bowl, covered with a
silver sheet of beautiful ornamentation, dating, it is
isaid, from a.d. 57-87. This date is possible, as
the chased decorations of grapevines, bunches of
grapes, birds, etc., are done in so exquisite a manner
as to prove that the work was executed by a Greek
artist of remarkable skill. But the chief wonder is yet
to''-.be told — "portrait figures" of Christ and ten of his
ilpostles are worked out in this beautiful design! But
even more remarkable is the fact that these portraits
Miould have been affixt to such a poorly executed inner
bowl. Dr. Eisen's explanation is that the inner bowl
was regarded as the most valuable part of the chalice,
^otherwise the artist who made the figures would have
improved the bowl to harmonize it with the rest.
Dr Gustavus A. Eisen, who in September, 191 6,
reported in detail the particulars of the discovery, and
described the decorations, says: "The face of the
Christ seems divine; no subsequent artist has succeeded
in imparting that sweetness and gentleness which tradi
tion gives to the Saviour's features and which we here
for the first time see realized. The heads of the
apostles are equally remarkable. We seem to read the
character of each of them ; the very soul of man is here
portrayed in the metal as perhaps never before or
after in Christian art." 105a
Every other critic who has seen this truly wonder
ful artistic creation seems to be almost equally en
thusiastic over its technique, it being, as Prof. Geo. W.
Gilmore judges, "The best piece of work from the
standpoint of execution of any early Christian piece
that we have; and certainly the figure which is recog-
m*Am. Jour, of Archeology, Oct.-Dec, 1916, and April-Jund, 1917.

S52 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
nized as that of Peter appears to be the one which has
set the model for subsequent alleged portrait-drawing
of that apostle." 105b If, indeed, scholars shall accept a
first century dating for this chalice — thus pushing its
age back to a point practically contemporary with that
of the Holy Grail — no enthusiasm can be extravagant,
since in that case we would probably possess here a
genuine portrait head of Jesus coming from the
apostolic age. A final decision on this point must be
reserved. (6) CYPRUS
Since Cesnola, the United States consul at Cyprus,
gathered his remarkable collection of precious things
in that island, nothing has been discovered there of
equal interest, altho excavations have been carried on
at many points and a vast amount of material has been
gathered by archeologists, especially from the pre
historic era. When St. Paul came to the island the
great shrine of Aphrodite was . glorious, and as we
now know, the high priest of the goddess had at least
as much authority as the proconsul. Many inscriptions
from Paphos have recently been published.106 Among
these one of the most interesting is a marble block
copied by Cesnola but recently recopied with more care:
"ApoUonius to his father . . . and to his mother . . .
consecrated the enclosure and this monument . . . having filled
the offices of clerk at this market, prefect, town-clerk, and high
priest, and having been in charge of the record office. Erected on
the 25th of the month Demarchusius, in the year 13. He also
revised the Senate by means of assessors in the time of the pro
consul Paulus." 107
""* Extract from a private letter received in January, 1917.
100 Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. IX.
™ Ibid., pp. 114, 115.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 553
There is no good reason for doubting that this pro
consul was the Sergius Paulus mentioned in Acts 13,
he being the only governor of that name, so far as
known, who ever held office in Cyprus. The lettering-
is of the first century, being dated by scholars about
a.d. 55. This inscription shows that the name of the
proconsul was actually spelled in Cyprus as Luke
spelled it. It may be mentioned in conclusion that the
embalmed body of Spyridion, a shepherd bishop of
Cyprus who attended the Council of Nicaea, is to this
day carried twice a year about the streets in proces
sion, so that "one may still look upon the hands which
signed the Nicsean creed." 108
(7) ASSOS
Important excavations were carried out in, 1881-
1889 in Assos by the Archaeological Institute of
America. It was found that around the sides of the
Acropolis — which is located in the crater of an extinct
volcano — ran narrow paved streets rising tier upon tier
in terraces. Upon the top of the Acropolis the temple
of Athena was located. The market-place is the most
complete and interesting Greek agora known. A Greek
bath in three stories was uncovered, and the remains of
a Christian church were found on the site of an old
Roman bath which had been built a.d. 14-37. Dr. A.
G. Clark remarks that Assos became Christian at an
early date "perhaps in some measure as a result of the
visit of St. Paul and St. Luke ... but more probably
from the proximity of the seven churches in Asia."
The temple of Assos, Doric in type like that of the
temple at Pergamum, was dedicated to Athena Polias.
""George Hodges, The Early Church (1915), p. 131.

554 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Among the inscriptions is a decree dating from the
accession of Caligula a.d. 37. The oath of the pagan
citizens is well worth recording:
"We swear by the Saviour and God, Caesar Augustus, and by
the pure Virgin (i.e., Athena Polias), whom our fathers wor
shiped, that we will be faithful to Gaius Csesar Augustus and all
his house." Another inscription of the Roman period found at
Mitylene in 1880 gives a curious funereal monument
to a dog:
"Parthenope his dog, with whom in life it was his wont to
play, Anaxeos here hath buried, for the pleasure that she gave
bestowing this return. Affection, then, even in a dog possesseth
its reward such as she hath whoever in her life kind to her master
now receives this tomb. See, then, thou make some friend who
in thy life will love thee well and care for thee when dead "
Another inscription, of sufficient interest to be men
tioned, tells of Eutyches, who was elected, by a guild
of linen weavers, "director of the market" three terms
in succession; another, a.d. 153, gives the name of the
victor that year in the "boxing contest and race in
armor." 109 (8) MILETUS
Sir Charles Thomas Newton nearly sixty years ago
did some excavating in this city, finding the ruins of
the celebrated temple of Apollo, which was connected
with the port on the north of the Sacred Way, flanked
on each side by a row of tombs and statues. He took ten
statues from this sacred street, and a lion and a sphinx.
These statues were seated in chairs, and it was dis
covered that the citizens of Miletus dedicated them as
1MFor many other inscriptions see Papers of the Archeological In
stitute of America, Classical Series, 1882, 188S, 1890, 1898, 1902.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 555
a tithe to Apollo. This temple was the chief sanctuary
of the island, and Dr. Wiegand, during a long and
successful series of excavations, begun in 1899 and
continued for eleven years, found that the public
treaties and official records of Miletus were kept here.
Five hundred years before St. Paul landed, this
was the chief city of Greece, celebrated for its litera
ture, especially in history and philosophy, but in the
Roman age it dwindled to a commonplace commercial
town. The poet Timotheus (446-357 b.c.) lived here,
and also Aspasia, the famous literary woman who be
came a friend of Pericles. There can still be seen the
magnificent ruins of a Roman theater, excavated by
Wiegand, as large as the largest in Asia Minor, hav
ing 450 feet frontage, and a nymphaeum of the age of
Titus, also a number of other important Roman build
ings which must have come under Paul's eyes.
A Jewish inscription in the theater reads :
"Place of the Jews, who are also God-fearing."
The secularization of the Jews is shown in a most
interesting way by this inscription which was put up in
a pagan theater by worshipers of the one God or put
up for them by the theater authorities.110
In the same theater was a late Christian protective
charm written, in a strange symbolic manner in which
the seven vowels are arranged as would be natural in
incantations, after which comes the prayer:
"0 Holy One, keep the city of Miletus, and all that dwell
therein." At the bottom is written in large letters :
"Archangels, keep the city of the Milesians and all that dwell
therein." . . .
™ See Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, pp. 446-455.

556 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
This is probably a Christian memorial of the period
when the theater was converted into a citadel.
(9) RHODES
Much light has been thrown on Rhodes in late
years. Some 350 inscriptions have been discovered
since Mr. Hamilton found the first in 1837, and a large
number of statuettes, vases, coins, gems, etc., have
been deposited in various museums. These inscrip
tions show that the labor and social guilds were open
to all, women as well as men, slaves and foreigners in
cluded. Helios was the great god of Rhodes, to whom
horses were sacrificed. The Rhodians also sacrificed
to the god of good luck before setting out upon a
voyage, so that Paul and his party may have witnessed
this act. When Tiberius lived in the island there were
many Chaldeans here. The Jewish influence was also
very strong. An ancient tradition declares that Paul
stopt here just before he wrote his pastoral epistles.111
(10) CAESAREA
Vast remains showing many buildings dating from
Paul's day existed here as late as 1884, since which
time they have suffered much mutilation. There can
still be seen, however, remains of a temple dedicated
to Caesar, a theater, a hippodrome, an aqueduct, and a
gigantic mole built of stones fifty feet long to protect
the harbor, on the edge of which is a remarkable ruin
which, tho it may not represent the dungeon where
Paul spent several years, suggests, at least, the kind of
a prison in which' he was incarcerated. We have pre
viously given a Christian epitaph which the writer
brought from this site.
111 See for a fine description, Rhodes in Ancient Times, by Cecil Torn

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 557
(il) CRETE AND MELITA
Nothing needs to be added to the proof furnished
by Mr. James Smith fifty years ago of the nautical
accuracy of Luke's narrative so far as Crete and Melita
and the entire voyage to Rome are concerned. He
proved by admiralty charts and a study of the tides the
remarkable accuracy of the narrative. Modern excava
tions have had chiefly to do with prehistoric or early
historic civilization, showing beyond question that
Homer's stories of Achaean splendor were no idle tales.
In the harbor extension works of 1865, workmen
brought up from a depth of fourteen feet two frag
ments of white marble columns, and the torso of a
statue of Artemis; another fragment was excavated
1877. The chief ancient building near the harbor was
the temple of Astarte (later, Juno). It has been fully
proved that the official title of the leading official in
the Roman era was "chief man" (jtocotoc;). Local tra
dition fixes the site of Paul's landing on the northeast
ern portion of the island, where the bay as well as a
little church bear his name.
(12) SYRACUSE
St. Paul's relations with this city were so brief and
comparatively unimportant that we can no more than
mention a very few facts concerning it, notwithstand
ing the enormous number of antiquities which remain
here. The cathedral, which was erected about a.d. 640,
is built into a noble Doric temple dating from the fifth
century before Christ, which was probably a temple of
Athena; the length of the temple must have been at
least 160 feet, and its breadth 70 feet. Some of the
majestic columns still remain to testify to its ancient

558 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
splendor. Imposing ruins remain of a temple dedicated
to Apollo of even greater magnificence, as well as re
mains of the largest ancient theater in Sicily — about
440 feet in diameter — and of an amphitheater cut out
of the living rock by Augustus. A wonderful fortress
dating from the fifth century before Christ, represent
ing probably the most imposing of all known Greek
fortresses, shows the complicated system of under
ground passages sometimes connected with such build
ings. However, the most interesting constructions in
Syracuse to the Christian visitor are the early Chris
tian catacombs — "the Grottos of St. John." They
really represent an entire underground city with
several stories of streets and squares and circular
halls cut out of the solid rock, with arched tombs and
large funeral chambers, closed by locked doors, lining
the streets. Christian frescos adorn the walls, much
resembling those of Rome; tho as a whole these cata
combs are much superior, showing a degree of wealth
and architectural elaborateness unknown elsewhere.112
(13) PUTEOLI
From the hill close to Puteoli St. Paul would have
obtained his first view of Vesuvius and the most beauti
ful bay in the world; by a short ride or long walk he
could have reached either Pompeii or Herculaneum.
However, this city especially deserves notice because
it was probably the end of St. Paul's sea voyage on
his way to Rome.
This was, indeed, the port of Rome, Ostia being a
rival port tho not so popular because its harbor was
m See especially E. Manceri, Siracusa, 1904.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 559
not so good. When St. Paul landed here, a.d. 61, it
was a beautiful city surrounded by villas, of which
Cicero's is the most noted, and containing great san
itariums connected with the mineral springs located
here. Part of the massive artificial mole connected
with the harbor is still in existence, together with the
fine ruins of a large amphitheater, the market hall,
which was surrounded by a colonnade of thirty-six
columns of marble and granite, a circus, tombs, a
temple of Augustus in which the cathedral of St.
Proculus was built, and a number of other ancient
monuments. The amphitheater was very large, being
comparable to the Colosseum at Rome, and the sub
terranean parts were found intact, even to the holes
which contained the trapdoors by which the wild
beasts were let into the arena. This magnificent build
ing was probably erected in the reign of Vespasian,
but another large amphitheater has just been found,
perhaps the very one in which Nero fought.113 This
newly discovered building shows the upper apertures
of entrances and exits, together with many fragments
of the gilded and colored stucco from the walls, thus
proving the former magnificence of its decorations. In
Paul's day Puteoli (now Pozzuoli) was one of the
most famous commercial ports of the world. The
Puteoli pottery was almost equal to the best made
in Italy. But besides local wares this was the center
from which wheat from Egypt, and iron from Elba,
and other products from far distant lands were dis
tributed. Sulphur, alum, perfumes, mosaics, earth for
ceramics, and glass cups with views of Puteolian
scenery were among the chief objects of local trade.
""Art and Archeology, 1916, p. 179.

560 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
The Eastern merchants found it necessary to establish
residences here, and one text which has been found is
a letter (a.d. 174) from local Phoenician merchants
asking the senate of Tyre to undertake the payment of
the rent of their factory. The fact that the senate
agreed to this shows the value of this trade inter
nationally. The docks in Paul's day were so large as
to accommodate not only the big grain ships but also the
larger boats which carried the obelisks of Egypt to
this port. (14) FROM PUTEOLI TO ROME
It was 170 miles from here to Rome, and Paul prob
ably went by the ordinary route, which was to leave
Puteoli by the Via Consularis, striking the Appian
Way at Capua, twenty miles farther north. Two days
after leaving Capua the party would arrive at Ter-
racina, about seventy-five miles from Rome, and pass
from here through the celebrated Pontine marshes, the
boat being towed by mules through the canal — a long,
dreary journey, of which several ancient travelers com
plain. They must all have been glad to reach the
Appii Forum, forty-three miles from the capitol. From
here, with some fellow Christians who came to meet
them, they passed on to, the Three Taverns, where they
again broke their journey. Both of these places are
well known. The only thing that now remains, of
ancient date, at the Appii Forum is the old milestone;
but we remember that Cicero records that he wrote a
letter from here, and Horace tells how he stayed over
night with a surly landlord at the Three Taverns, the
whole place being "stuffed with sailors." Some of the
tombs which line the highway from here to Rome still

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 561
catch the eye of the traveler, for here were the
sepulchral monuments of Rome's richest and noblest — •
tombs such as those of Gallianus, Pompey, etc. About
four miles from the city they must have passed the
villa of Seneca in which he committed suicide five or
six years later, and at the third mile the well-known
tomb of Cicilia Metella, which yet impresses all ob
servers ; and one mile from the gates the newly erected
tomb of Drusus, brother of Tiberius.
7. Side-lights from Cities Mentioned in the Book
of Revelation or Influential in the
Early Church
(1) ephesus
The remarkable excavations on this site have
already been recounted. (2) SMYRNA
No excavations worthy of the name have as yet
been made here; but visitors can still make out the
plan of the ancient stadium and a few other ancient
buildings, and every visitor is shown the traditional spot
where Polycarp, the friend and neighbor of St. John,
was martyred (a.d. 155), saying: "Eighty and six
years have I served him, and he hath done me no
wrong. How then can I speak evil of my King who
saved me?"
It was a very ancient city, claiming to be the birth
place of Homer. It was on the highway between Lydia
and the West, and so was a commercial city of prom
inence. Above everything else it prided itself upon
its beauty and its faithfulness to all treaties. Every

562 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
traveler even yet is imprest with the sparkling beauty
of the bay and the crown of buildings encircling the
hill, which is the most prominent part of the view from
the harbor. In ancient times this hill was encircled
by a street so glorious that it was called "the Golden,"
and this street was lined by palaces and temples and
crowned by the acropolis, while the temple of Cybele,
the tutelary goddess, situated in the east, just outside
the city proper, was the brilliant pendant to this neck
lace or crown of architectural jewels. Sir William
Ramsay quotes Aristides, who compares this to the
crown of Ariadne in the heavenly constellation; and
he believes the Revelator had this aspect of the city
in mind when he promised to the faithful in Smyrna a
"crown of life."
ApoUonius of Tyana refers to this popular pride
when he advises the citizens, "It is a greater charm to
wear a crown of men than a crown of porticoes* and
pictures and gold.'' ll*
For centuries before the Christian era Smyrna had
been celebrated for its trustworthiness. Cicero calls
it the "city of our most faithful and most ancient
allies," and he who knew better than any other the
struggle of the little primitive Christian church here
had no word of rebuke for it, bflt only says, "Continue
to be faithful" (Rev. 2: 10).
The reference to the "synagog of Satan" with
which the early disciples had to contend reminds Sir
William Ramsay that altho Polycarp was martyred on
the Sabbath day, the Jews broke the law in order to
bring faggots for this human bonfire.
'"Ramsay, The Letters to the Seven Churches, 1906, pp. 251-280.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 563
(3) PERGAMUM
Of the seven cities mentioned in Revelation the
only ones distinguished for their architectural and
artistic remains are Ephesus, Sardis, and Pergamum.
No one of the seven cities could be compared with
Pergamum in the matter of art. In the second century
before Christ a new school of sculpture arose here
which rivaled in achievement anything ever done be
fore or since in this world. A vast quantity of these
art treasures have been excavated; but, unfortunately,
with the exception of some important remains from
the Church of St. John the Theologian, almost all of
the larger monuments are pagan, not Christian.115
Excavations begun here by the Berlin Museum as
early as 1878 have been carried on with little interrup
tion ever since, the later work being done under the
auspices of the Imperial German Institute of
Archeology. The decorations of the "Great Altar" of
Zeus almost rival in strength and artistic power the
famous frieze of the Parthenon. The Battle of the
Giants is perhaps the most terrific scene ever repre
sented in marble.
The ruins of the temple of Asclepios "the Saviour,"
to which royal patients came for healing from every
land, was magnificent beyond all possible description.
Dorpfeld, in 1910, reported finding what was probably a
shrine where the "mysteries" were celebrated under
this temple.116 The city was devoted to the Roman em
perors, and was the first provincial city to establish the
imperial cult. A large temple in Corinthian style has been
1,5 It will be remembered that Pergamum was also the place where
parchment was invented, receiving its name from this city.
"* Felix Sarteaux, Villes mottes d'Asie Mineure, 1916, pp. 43-45.

564 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
found dedicated to the worship of Trajan and Hadrian,
and another honoring Caracalla. The early Christians
were opposed here by the most brilliant form of
paganism. Many of them favored compromise with
the old religion and outward observance of the forms
of worship which would permit them to take their,
places in business and social life; but St. John de
clares in the strongest way against these Nicolaitans.
Sir William Ramsay thinks that when the altar of Zeus
was dug up here a few years ago the excavators were
actually looking upon the very "seat (or throne) of
Satan" of which the book of Revelation speaks. The
four leading deities of the municipality were Zeus,
Athena, Dionysos, and Asclepios. In order to show
the reader something of the splendor of these temples
we give photographs of some recently discovered
works of art.117 (4) THYATIRA
This was, as Sir William Ramsay has pointed out,
a garrison city whose strength lay in its position be
tween the rival powers of Syria and Pergamum. The
coins represent the god of the city with a battle-ax
upon his shoulder; but in reality the city was not
properly symbolized by a sword or battle-ax, but very
appropriately by a blacksmith's bar, since it was famous
for its bronze work (cf. Rev. 2:27). The smiths of
Thyatira were united in a rather celebrated guild or
labor union, and doubtless this was true also of the
manufacturers of garments and of the dealers in purple
cloth such as Lydia sold (Acts 16: 40) ; for there were
"'For fine plans and reproductions of the Agora, altar of Zeus, and
temple of Athena Palias, see Pergame, by E. Pontremoli and M. Collignon,
1900, and especially Konigliche Museum, Altertumer von Pergamon (I-III).

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 565
more trade guilds in this city than in any other in
Asia. The famous purple garments in which Lydia
dealt were not made with Phenician dyes, as was once
supposed, but rather, without doubt, with a Thyatiran
product, probably the "Turkey red" made from the
madder root. The unusual liberty given here to women
is indicated not only by the position attained by Lydia
but also by the tremendous influence in religious affairs
exercised by Jezebel (Rev. 2: 20). This woman teacher
seems to have had a good moral character, but she
believed in compromising with paganism and, probably
as a Gnostic, taught that the material world was
merely a false claim of the senses. As no citizens
could cultivate art or music or mingle in political or
social life without accommodating themselves to pagan
ritual, ,her position must have seemed well taken to
many educated, broad-minded people. But as Sir
William Ramsay says, Christianity would have disap
peared if it had not been brave and outspoken in its
opposition to the popular beliefs and customs.
(5) SARDIS
The very recent discoveries at Sardes (Bible,
"Sardis") have thrown brilliant and unexpected light
upon the Diana worship mentioned in the New Testa
ment (Acts 19:24-35). The excavations began in
March, 1910, being conducted by Prof. Howard Crosby
Butler of Princeton, and were examined by the writer
in 191 3 when the work was well under way. The
ancient Lydian necropolis on the mountainside across
from the temple, with its multitude of Lydian inscrip
tions, particularly the bilingual text from the tenth year
of Artaxerxes written in Lydian and Aramaic, may for

566 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
the historian be the most important of all Professor
Butler's discoveries at this ancient capital of Lydia;
but to the Bible student the majestic temple of Artemis
stands supreme. It will be remembered that Perga
mum, Smyrna, Ephesus, and Sardis were neighboring
cities, the three former each claiming in the first cen
tury the title of "First City of Asia"; but Sardis in
disputably held the highest position of honor in the
ancient history of Lydia. The worship of Diana or
Artemis occupied the same central position and fol
lowed the same cult here as at Ephesus. A few of
the mighty pillars of this ancient temple had been
always visible, but the American expedition cleared the
site completely, finding a marble octastyle building, 320
by 150 feet, with twenty columns on either side, thirteen
of these columns still standing to a height of, thirty
feet and two others to the height of sixty feet. The
architectural details have surprized all observers with
their beauty. The specimens of Ionic ornament dating
from the fourth century before Christ are equal to
anything the writer knows outside of Greece.118 The
temple was roofed and in use 300 B.C., but in a.d. 17 was
badly damaged by the earthquake which destroyed the
city, the calamity being so great that Tiberius remitted
all its taxes for five years and made a gift to the city
of $500,000 for its rebuilding. When the temple was
finally destroyed, it was undergoing repairs and
a number of the carvings were only blocked out
when the worship ceased. It was in July, 1910, that
a mortgage-deed was found dating from 300 B.C.,
which first made known to the excavators the fact that
118 Even the splendid columns laid bare by the Germans at Baalbek do
not equal these.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 567
the building they were examining was a temple of
Artemis. This mortgage was on real estate, and was
given because "the temple wardens are demanding
from me the gold lent on deposit and belonging to
Artemis." The enormous size of these transactions is
indicated by the number of villages near Sardis, in
cluding slaves, which the mortgager, Mnesimachus,
turns over to the temple as collateral.
The "temple wardens" supervised all details con
nected with the rental and cultivation of the temple
land; they had charge of the records and acted as
guarantors of mortgaged land which was foreclosed
and sold by the temple. The "temple-keeper" is also
often in evidence. Timarchus, who served in this office
(second century before Christ), had been royal
treasurer for the entire kingdom. It is a question
whether the high priest was a eunuch, as at Ephesus;
but as the priestesses at Sardis were vestals, who were
not allowed to marry until their term of office expired,
this is probable. The high priestess of Artemis was,
however, the highest official in the Sardis temple and
must have been a woman of superior rank and great
wealth, for she paid at her own cost for the public
sacrifices performed each month by the city.119
Among the many remarkable inscriptions is one on
a block of bluish marble found in 1910 dating from
the first century before Christ, upon which it is de
clared that Iollas, son of Iollas, is entitled to "two-
golden wreaths with a golden portrait-effigy, three
marble portrait images, four painted portraits," etc.
The probability seems to be, however, that the city did
not furnish these portraits and wreaths, but merely
"'See Am. Journal of Archeology, XVII, 31, 355#; XVIII, 321, 425#.

568 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
gave to this honored citizen the right to buy them and
display them. It is also interesting to note that in
scriptions celebrating the temple cook as well as the
singers and harpists of the temple have been discovered
in the ruins. It is found that a singer in fhe temple
was paid better than the teachers of literature and it
is entirely possible that the cook received as much as
either. It ought to be added that a very early Christian
church of brick was found at the east end of the temple
entirely preserved excepting for the loss of its wooded
roof. There came great awe, at least to one visitor,
as he entered this little primitive Christian church with
its ancient altar still standing and looked out through
its three modest arched windows at the magnificence
of the paganism which it had supplanted. The altar
"consists of a crudely cut block of sandstone set upon
a short section of a column about 30 centimeters
diameter. It is a true table altar with a single sup
port" (Butler). It has been suggested that the rough
block was perhaps a relic of a martyr's death.
It is an interesting fact that on the doorpost of
the ancient pagan temple were written certain words
(qpcog, £corj) which afterward became favorite terms in
the mysteries and in Christian literature, notably in
the gospel of John. Even then the term "light" meant
spiritual illumination and the term "life" was used in
the higher sense. An inscription which was found in
19 12 on the tomb of Artemas, a physician, probably
of the first century of our era, but possibly of the first
century before Christ, closes with the statement, "He
is living." 120
™ American Journal of Archeology, XV:401#: XVI:465#: XVIII
(1914) : 35ff, 325#; XVII (1913) : 29#, 353#.

VERY EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH AT SARDIS
From "American Journal of Archeology," (Vol. 16, p. 476)

TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS (DIANA) AT SARDIS
From "American Journal ofArchreology." (Vol. 17. p. 471)

<

CHURCH OF ST. SIMEON STYLITES AT KALAT-SEMAN, SYRIA (6th Century)
American Expedition, 1S99-1900

MOSAIC FROM A CHRISTIAN BATH, SERDJILLA, SYRIA
American Expedition, 1899-1900

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 569
(6) PHILADELPHIA
No excavations of importance have been made on
this site. However, Sir William Ramsay with rare
skill has pointed out certain peculiarities in the ancient
city, previously overlooked, to which references are
certainly made in the address to this church reported in
Revelation 3: 7-13. This was not a military center but,
because of its situation, preeminently a missionary
city, an "apostle of Hellenism," carrying education
and civilization to the surrounding country. The
Jewish national party must have been particularly
strong here, as also in Smyrna, since it is in these two
cities only that this opposition to Christianity is men
tioned. In a.d. 17, as Sir William points out, a terrific
and long-continued earthquake struck the city, which
entirely unnerved the population and caused multitudes
to leave their homes (cf. Rev. 3: 12). Tiberius sent
help and a temple was then erected for his worship
and a new name was taken by the city in his honor.
To consent to the city becoming his namesake was one
of the highest favors the emperor could confer. Yet
this new name disappeared from use presently, and
about twenty-five years before the book of Revelation
was written the city took another "new name" in honor
of another emperor ! It is to this city that the imperial
Christ, who has the "key of David that openeth and
no one can shut," says, "Him that overcometh will I
make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go
no more out, and . . ' . I will write upon him my new

name."

The praise given to this city and to Smyrna is
noticeable, and they have well deserved it throughout
the centuries. "Those are the two cities which have

570 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
been the bulwark and the glory of Christian power in
the country since it became Mohammedan; they are
the two places where the Christian flag floated latest
over a free and powerful city, and where even in
slavery the Christians preserved cohesion among
themselves and real influence among the Turkish con
querors." 121 (7) laodicea
Hundreds of acres are covered with the ruins of
this ancient metropolis. Two theaters and the stadium
are yet in a fairly good state of preservation, but no
extensive excavations have yet been made here. The
church at Laodicea is supposed to have been founded
by Epaphras (Col. 1:7; 4:12), and Paul wrote a
letter to this church which was unfortunately lost
(Col. 4: 16), unless, indeed, it is to be found imbedded
in the Ephesian letter, as is now generally believed.
The prosperity of Laodicea began in Roman time,
and the city grew rapidly rich, largely because it was
situated at an important junction of the imperial road
system. It was a marked administrative and banking
center. Some of its manufactories were also famous,
especially those which produced a particularly fine and
glossy black garment from the wool of a certain pecu
liar breed of black sheep cultivated here. The Jewish
population was quite influential, as is shown from the
fact that Flaccus, the governor of Asia, seized in 62 b.c.
twenty pounds of gold which had been collected in and
around Laodicea to be sent to the poor Jews of
Jerusalem (cf. 1 Cor. 16: 1). In close connection with
the city there was a famous school of medicine which
m Sir William Ramsay, Cities of St. Paul, p. 403.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES $71
was especially renowned for its ear ointment and its
"Phrygian! powder" to cure weak eyes — the latter being
mentioned with respect as early as Aristotle's day. It
can hardly be doubted that these facts influenced the
phrases used concerning this church in the book of
Revelation: "Because thou sayest I am rich ... I
counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire . . .
and white garments . . . and anoint thy eyes with
eye salve that thou mayest see."
8. Other Cities Specially Influential in Early
Christianity
One naturally thinks first of Constantinople since,
for several centuries, it was preeminently the dominant
metropolis of Eastern Christianity; but unfortunately
no serious excavations have been conducted here. In
deed, the archeological results here important to Chris
tianity -are confined to certain ancient walls and fortifi
cations and a few ancient relics such as the pedestal of
the Eudoxia statue and a few churches, such as those
of S. Sergius and S. Bacchus, and especially the church
of St. Sophia, which is the finest existing sixth century
monument of church architecture, originally "the most
beautiful building in the world."
In Asia Minor, in addition to the cities already
mentioned, Aquileia, Nicomedia, and Cyzicus may seem
to demand further mention. Excavations in the former
city have revealed one street and part of the town walls,
while the local museum contains over 2,000 inscrip
tions, besides statues and other antiquities illuminating
ancient life. Nothing whatever of importance has, to
the writer's knowledge, been reported from Nicomedia,
excepting some fifth century columns, a fifth century

572 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
crypt, and the outline of an ancient church. Cyzicus
has yielded a much larger treasure, but the excavations
have already been mentioned sufficiently. Few fine
monuments have been recovered, probably because
Constantine and Justinian carried off the rarest and
most costly marbles to Constantinople. It is an inter
esting theory, recently proposed, that the beautiful
clinging and wind-blown drapery, which came into use
in the middle of the fifth century, originated in
Cyzicus.122 It may be added that the Apology of Aristides, if
delivered upon the dedication of Hadrian's temple, as
usually supposed, can now be exactly dated, since
Hasluck's researches have shown that this temple was
dedicated a.d. 139.
One of the most interesting texts gives a hymn to
Serapis and Isis in a lyrical meter and "excessively
crabbed Greek."123 All that we know about the re
ligion of Cyzicus has been carefully systematized by
Sir William Ramsay. This distinguished scholar also
believes that St. Paul passed close to Cyzicus on his
way to Troas; but this part of the apostle's route is
too obscure to be fixt with certainty.124
Two other cities in Italy ought to be mentioned —
Milan and Ravenna. The church of S. Ambrogio at
Milan, built by Ambrose, still shows the pillar where
the Lombard kings were crowned, and its wooden doors
probably date back to the fourth century. At Ravenna
we can see, better than any place else in the world, the
early Christian basilica of the finest type almost un-
122 American Journal of Archeology, 1915, p. 475.
128 Corpus inscriptionarum Grecarum, No. 3734.
121 See especially Ramsay, Bishoprics of Phrygia, "Hierapolis" ; F. W.
Hasluck, Cysicus in Mysie, 1910.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 573
touched in its architecture and mosaic decorations. The
tomb of Galla Placidia, built a.d. 450, is probably the
earliest building here, a small cruciform structure with
a dome on pendentives over the center. The baptistry
of St. John, dating almost as early, is a plain octagonal
building, forty feet in diameter, containing paintings,
stucco reliefs, and mosaics dating from the fifth cen
tury. Three churches date from the sixth century, one
of which (San Vitale) has a curious dome built of
hollow pots, the other two, tho small, are of especial
importance, since they were originally built of new
materials, and not from more ancient constructions; so
that the Christian architecture of the sixth century can
be examined here without fear of confounding it with
earlier work. It must be acknowledged, however, that
comparatively little remains of the untouched original
buildings. In Africa the two chief centers of early Christianity
were Alexandria and Carthage. So far as Alexandria
is concerned the ancient city lies either beneath the
sea or under modern edifices, so that nothing of great
value can be reported as recently discovered here;125
but ancient Carthage has been resurrected in modern
times. Some one has said that if Palestine may be
called the cradle of early Christianity, Carthage was
its nursery. It was here that Tertullian was born and
Cyprian was martyred ; and it was here that Augustine,
who controlled the theology of Christendom for nearly
1500 years, was educated. The beauty of the short
ride from Tunis to the site of ancient Carthage can
never be forgotten, and as the writer can testify, the
,SB For a statement of what has been done see the author's article, "Alex
andria," in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.

574 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
view from the Brysa hill, the citadel of Dido, is
positively intoxicating. The ruins of the ancient
amphitheater are plainly visible, and in the center is
a marble pillar in memory of the many martyrs who
there suffered death, and also a small chapel in special
memory of the martyrdom (a.d. 203) of St. Perpetua,
St. Felicitas, and their companions. Pere Delattre,
who, representing the White Fathers of Carthage, has
made remarkable excavations here during the past
generation, has found an ancient inscription near this
palace specifically mentioning these martyrs by name.
Three cemeteries have yielded rich treasure to the
White Fathers. Unfortunately the best preserved
sepulchral monuments' are those from the most ancient
period of Carthage's history. Yet it is something to
dig up the life history of this place in the era of
Salammbo and Hannibal, especially as it is now found
that many of the ancient customs were carried over
into the Christian era. So the priests with tonsured
heads — and the sacred razors with which they were
shaved; the golden necklaces and pendants and signet
rings; the rouge boxes, of the era of Jezebel, the disc
of Tanith and the crescent of Astarte, and many other
ancient relics, find their duplicates in North Africa
even in the twentieth century.
The necropolis of St. Louis was first touched as
early as 1880, but the main work there was done
1889-90. The necropolis of Douimes is the oldest of
all. It was in 1892 that an Arab brought to Pere
Delattre, arch-priest of Carthage, some small remains
which led to the first excavation here. By 1893 he had
opened 60 tombs, and by 1894 as many as 150. In 1897
the richest necropolis of all,Bord-el-Djeded, was opened.

NEW LIGHT FROM FAMOUS CITIES 575
It is absolutely impossible to describe in any detail
the wealth of rich material found at Carthage. Per
haps one of the most exciting moments in the life of
Pere Delattre was when he brought to light an ancient
Carthaginian priestess buried in a superb anthropoid
sarcophagus, with the painted representation of its dis
tinguished owner engraved upon it. The priestess'
beauty was a revelation. The brilliancy of coloring
and the fine raiment does not impress the observer as
does the noble dignity and beauty of this ancient high-
priestess. At her right hand was buried a priest, rep
resented as clad in a long tunic, reaching to his feet,
which were shod with red sandals; his right hand was
raised; his left hand held a sacred vessel, while his
toga fell gracefully from his left shoulder. Another
priest in a tomb not far away had his purse around his
neck — as is yet the custom — and wore a gold ring on
which was engraved his own profile
But the Jewish and Christian remains, tho com
paratively few, are to us the most interesting. The
story of finding these is entrancing. One day a little
negro child, who was in the Roman Catholic orphanage,
noticed some Arabs about to destroy a subterranean
catacomb in order to make lime from the marble
sarcophagi and inscriptions. One of the inscriptions
especially struck the attention of the little negro —
in pace — and he hastened to tell the father-director of
what was being done.
Pere Delattre hurried to the place and found that
this tomb, which had been the dwelling-place of hyenas
for centuries, was in the midst of an ancient Jewish
cemetery, where Columbo and Fortunata, Alexander
and many other Hebrews had been buried, with the

576 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
seven-branched candlestick and other Jewish emblems
carved on their tombs. Some Christian graves were
also found, and the museum contains scores and per
haps hundreds of lamps just such as are found in the
catacombs of Rome, some stamped with the cross,
others with the dove. Representations are also found
of Jonah and the whale, the Hebrew children in the
fiery furnace, Daniel in the lion's den, Christ bearing
his cross, etc.
We have already mentioned a mosaic of a
chariot race discovered at Carthage, March, 19 15, and
will now add that many magic spells written on metal
discs were found, which represent the incantations of
jockeys or gamblers who sought in this way to injure
the wind and speed of their opposing horses. Another
exceedingly curious discovery was that of a terra-cotta
figurine showing an organist and organ of the second
century — the organ having many pipes of graduated
length, stops, sound-board, case, etc.126
Many of the later excavations at Carthage have
been paid for by Cardinal Lavigerie out of his own
private purse.
126 The authority for this latter statement is Douglas Sladen, Carthage
and Tunis, 1906, Vol. I, pp. 94-7; for the excavations in general, Mabel
Moore, Carthage of the Phoenicians in the Light of Modern Excavation,
1905; compare Graham Petrie, Tunis, Kaironam and Carthage, 1908; Rene
Cagnat, Carthage, Timgad, Tebessa, 1912.
I!" Sir William Ramsay in a letter dated Sept. 17, 1917, gives the follow
ing additional information regarding the important texts furnished pages 537,
539 : "The text from Antioch which you quote from W. M. Calder was not
correctly published by him. The word 'elder,' presbyter, does not occur in it.
In his published text most of the abbreviated word, 'presb' is a restoration.
([IIPE]CB). The correct reading is 'freedman ([C]EB- AnEAEVQE-
of the emperor' (Sebastos). The whole inscription is now quite cer
tain and clear, and has obviously no possible Christian character or ref
erence. We found another interesting inscription relating to a lady,
probably the niece of Sergia Paulla about whom you speak on p. 539. The
niece was not Christian, as she shows no sign of religion."

Ill

NEW DOCUMENTARY AND OTHER EVI
DENCE THROWING LIGHT UPON THE
EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES
i. The Environment of the Holy Land in the
First Century
The Holy Land is not, as Renan thought, the Fifth
Gospel; but it is the best existing commentary on the
four gospels. It has long been known that the gospel
narratives and the sermons of Jesus lose many of their
most beautiful meanings to one unfamiliar with the
natural scenery and native customs of Palestine. The
language of Jesus, his illustrations and figures of
speech, all show the influence of his surroundings.
Much deeper than this is the undoubted fact of the
psychological influence of these surroundings upon the
disciples and the Master. The ancestry and home of
the early teachers of Christianity affected them in
tellectually and spiritually. As Dr. Dale has said, we
can not isolate the life of Jesus from the preceding his
tory of the Jewish race. Many people seem to suppose
that they may approach the subject as if the Lord Jesus
Christ had appeared "in Spain or China instead of
Judea and Galilee." 1
Jesus' mission would have had another character if
1 Dale, The Living Christ, p. 89. 577

578 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
he had "grown up under the oaks of Germany instead
of the palms of Nazareth." So also, it is indis
putable that for Jesus himself the "facts of his con
sciousness were given him under those forms of view
ing things in which Jewish thought in general was
cast!"2 To be a "son of Abraham" meant something even
to the Son of Man, and Jewish history and literature
were the best part of his early education. From the hill
above Nazareth he could see scores of historical sites,
and in all his boyish wanderings he and his companions
were met with reminiscences of David and Elijah and
Judas Maccabeus and other heroes of Israel. The
modern explorations fixing ancient sites and the recent
valuable studies of the physical features of Palestine
have brought much more vividly to us the historic and
geographical influences which must have affected every
thoughtful Galilean youth.
But these investigations have done much more than
this. It is now seen as never before that Christianity
"at its depths rests upon oriental foundations." Jesus
was an oriental. His religious presuppositions, his
style of argument, his picturesque language, his thought
of nature and of politics, his view of religious truth
and his methods of presenting truth were all oriental.
The modern excavations in Palestine have given to us
a better appreciation of the oriental poverty and com-
fortlessness of the little adobe houses in which Jesus
and his contemporaries of the poorer and middle classes
lived. But perhaps the new discoveries have been most
* See History of New Test. Times, II : 225, quoted by Kelman in his
valuable article "Palestine" in Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 579
important in bringing clearly to light the fact that the
district in which Jesus lived was one which came into
close touch with the currents of a world civilization.
Tho it has been well said that the ordinary travels
of Jesus were limited to a district scarcely larger than
Chicago and its suburban towns, yet one of the great
highways of commerce leading from Egypt to Damas
cus passed up through Galilee by the way of Nazareth,
and from the home of Jesus it was only forty miles to
Tyre, the celebrated Phoenician capitol, and less than
fifty to the great Roman city of Caesarea Philippi,
where the ground is yet covered with the remnants of
ancient palaces which in the days of Christ were more
imposing than any mansions now owned by New York
millionaires. It must be remembered, too, that the influence of
traffic was greater then than now, since travel was slow
and every good-sized town and village became a stop
ping place for caravans which contained not only mer
chants and soldiers but often foreign scholars and
princes. We have said that the travel was slow, but
the Roman roads in the first century were really better
than our best State highways; and while the ordinary
day's travel of a caravan was not more than twenty or
twenty-five miles, special imperial messengers were ac
customed to make from 100 to 150 miles in cases of
emergency. But it was the Mediterranean which was the
swiftest and best highway of the entire civilized world,
and it must not be forgotten that the ocean borders
Palestine and can be seen from the hills of Nazareth.
Those ships were primitive but were often of good
size. St. Paul soeaks of his ship carrying 276 pas-

580 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
sengers (Acts 27:37), and Josephus tells of being
wrecked on a voyage from Palestine to Italy while on
a ship carrying some 600 persons; and there were war
ships at that time which could carry as many as a
thousand soldiers, and other ships capable of carrying
from 250 to 1,500 tons of freight. Pictures of the
ships of this era, perhaps painted within twenty years
of the time of Paul's journey, are common at Her
culaneum and Pompeii, and a vivid description of one
of them comes to us from a Syrian who was born about
fifty years after Paul's shipwreck. Describing one of
the Alexandrian grain ships, such as the one on which
St. Paul sailed, he speaks of the long, rising sweep of
the prow and the figures of her name — Isis — on either
side (cf. Acts 28: 11), and continues:
"As to other ornamental details, the paintings and the scarlet
top sail, I was more struck by the anchors and the capstans and
windlasses and the stern cabins. The crew was like a small army.
And they were saying she carried as much corn as would feed
every soul in Attica for a year. And all depends for safety on
one little atom of a man who controls that great rudder with a
mere broomstick of a tiller !" 3
It is suggestive that the route of this grain ship was
exactly the same as the first stage of Paul's voyage and
that it also encountered adverse winds. The nautical
terms used by St. Luke in his description correspond
very exactly with ancient lists, excepting in one place
where in speaking of the ship being broken by the
waves he says that they needed to bandage it (Acts
27: 17), using here a medical term which must have
made any sailor smile who heard it or read it. A long
' Cf. James 3 : 4, and see Biblical World, XXXIV : 339; and for general
information see Cecil Farr, Ancient Ships.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 581
list of medical terms used in the Acts of the Apostles
by "the beloved physician" (Col. 4: 14) has been
known to scholars for many years, and these have been
increased through a recent critical study of the text by
Professor Harnack; moreover, a celebrated classical
scholar not long ago pointed out that the formal intro
duction to the Third Gospel (Luke 1: 1-4) is so nearly
like that with which Dioscorides began his great work
on materia medica that it is quite probable that Luke
had this work in his library and imitated it.4
As we study these strange conditions and literary
coincidences that illuminate Scripture, we are reminded
of the beautiful bas-relief of a female head found some
years ago in excavations at Athens which was pro
nounced by M. Kavadias, the archeologist in charge, to
be a fragment of the frieze of Phidias on the Parthenon
near by. Other archeologists exprest doubt. After a
good deal of discussion it was recollected that among
the Elgin marbles in the British Museum belonging to
the Parthenon frieze there was a figure of Iris, the
goddess of the rainbow, lacking the head. A cast was
taken of the newly discovered head and sent to Eng
land. This was placed on the part of the frieze from
which the head had been broken away, and fitted it ex
actly. No argument was needed. The demonstration
was perfect that it was the head of Iris.
The priceless jewel, the New Testament, has been
shown by history and archeology to fit its setting as per
fectly as the head of Iris its place on the frieze.5
*W. K. Hobart, Medical Language of St. Luke, 1882; A. Harnack,
Luke, the Physician; Blass, Philology of the Gospels, p. 34.
' Cf. Transactions of the Victoria Inst, XLV : 29.

582 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
2. Some Literary Habits of the First Century
Illustrated in the Papyri
Twenty-five years ago no scholar had ever recog
nized a "profane" document written in the language
of the New Testament. Thousands of such documents
now exist, proving that the New Testament was
essentially written in the language used by the common
people of the first century. The Attic Greek in which
the classical literature was written was "an artistic
language which nobody spoke." 6 It was as different
from the common speech as the writings of Shake
speare from the common speech of his day. The New
Testament language, as we have previously pointed
out, was the vernacular of the world during the apos
tolic era. It was not the literary Greek but the lan
guage of social and business intercourse which the
colonists, merchants, and soldiers, who mingled to
gether all over the world, wrote and spoke. Alexan
der's conquest had made the world -small and changed
the babble of tongues into a world language which was
to be heard in the first century of our era not only in
Greece but also in Egypt, Italy, Palestine, and Asia
Minor. It was in this language that the New Testa
ment was written. It was not Wycliffe who first gave
the New Testament to the world in the language of the
market-place ; it was Mark and Matthew and Paul who
did this — altho Paul in some of his writings, as also Luke
and the author of the Hebrews, used a literary style
higher than that found in the papyri. We may now
know precisely how the New Testament documents
* Jannaris, Hist. Greek Grammar, p. 3.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 583
were written, for we possess many specimens of
papyrus writings which originated at exactly the same
time and were written exactly in the same way.
The poorer classes commonly used ostraka (pot
sherds), or wrote their letters on the back of some old
papyrus which they had found or from which they
could wash out the ancient writings (cf. Col. 2: 14).
As papyrus breaks easily, the beginning and ending of
every papyrus book is usually much frayed and worn;
this would naturally account for the mutilated verses
at the end of Mark's gospel and at the opening of the
Epistle to the Hebrews. Mark's gospel, in the best
copies, closes with a conjunction (16:8) which would
have been impossible, of course, in the original. Dr.
Milligan, an expert on papyri, says of this: "We may
not unreasonably conjecture that the last leaf of the
original manuscript was lost at a very early date, and
that the additional twelve verses with which we are
familiar in our ordinary version and the shorter end
ing which other authorities offer as an alternative, as
well as the expanded account of the newly discovered
Freer manuscript, were all added later at different
times and by different hands to round off the mutilated
Marcan account of the resurrection." 7
When finished, the papyrus roll was usually fas
tened with a thread and often sealed (Rev. 5:1).
Letters were transmitted to their destination by private
messengers, unless through some influence they could
be placed in the royal mails or in that of some large
business firm.
7 Swete, Gospel of Mark, 1905, CIX, thinks the present ending dates to
the second century or earlier. F. C. Conybeare in 1891, in an ancient
Armenian MS. of Mark (a.d. 989), found the authority given for these
additional verses to be "the presbyter Ariston."

584 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Once more we must call attention to the fact that
dictation of letters was almost as common in the first
century as among business men of to-day. Not only
ignorant persons did this, but likewise men who could
write were in the habit of having scribes do this drudg
ery for them. If a man was not rich he might have a
young friend or pupil who would be ready to wield the
pen for him. This is in accordance with the dignity of
age in the East. "The old man strokes his beard and
dictates his words to the scribe. That is what Paul
did, altho I do not know whether or not he had the
beard which Christian art gives him." 8 It is entirely
reasonable to suppose that this common oriental method
of letter writing was followed by the New Testament
writers as by other literary men and letter writers of
the first century.
Shorthand was used not uncommonly in legal cases
and by private literary men, at least three different
systems being in vogue, one contract from a.d. 155
speaking of a two years' term during which the student
is to be taught to read and write these signs fault
lessly. It is plain that the same author might have a
style and vocabulary, when his letter was dictated, very
different from that which was used when he allowed
more freedom to his amanuensis in the words and
phrases employed. It will also be seen that two differ
ent writers might favor each other in style if they
employed the same amanuensis. "The form which
Peter took and the many Pauline echoes it contains
may be due to the fact that Peter employed as his scribe
Sylvanus [Silas], who had already acted in a similar
capacity for Paul . . . and it is at least possible that
8 Gregory, Canon and Text of New Testament, p. 300.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 585
in the dictation and revision of the Fourth Gospel we
may have a partial key to some of the vexed questions
that have arisen regarding its authorship." 9
The fact that the letter is dictated is not ordinarily
stated in the papyri, but is proved by the difference of
handwriting seen in the signature. It was the authen
ticating signature of St. Paul which was necessary to
prove even to his friends that the writing they re
ceived had been made from his own lips (2 Thess.
3: 17, 18; 1 Cor. 16: 21; Col. 4: 18). As the letter to
the Galatians was especially severe, this may have been
written by the apostle's own hand (Gal. 6: 11). It is
possible that the loving paragraphs with which the
letter closes, after the reprimand, were written by the
apostle's own hand "in large characters" in order to
pay a delicate compliment to the church which he had.
criticized. It will be remembered that the rough breathing
was not commonly used until the eleventh century of our
era, while the interrogation mark and the accent arose
respectively in the ninth and seventh centuries, and
no parentheses and very few punctuation marks ever
appear among the papyri of the first century. These
ordinary facts of penmanship, illustrated in all ancient
documents of the first century, account doubtless for
many of the different readings of the New Testament
texts which have previously been assigned to careless
ness or wilfulness on the part of copyists. It is also
now known that the ordinary penman of that era inter
changed the long and short vowels almost at will, and
that certain consonants were often used interchange
ably.
* Milligan, New Testament Documents, p. 30.

586 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
In the sixty or more very ancient New Testament
manuscripts recently brought to light there are almost
innumerable mistakes of spelling. These mistakes may
have been originally made by the Biblical writers or
may have been later phonetic blunders; for it was the
custom of the classical writers, in the first and second
centuries of our era, to have fifty or a hundred copyists
who wrote their book as some one read it aloud. So
copies of the New Testament may have been multiplied.
It is far more likely, however, that the copyist usually
did the work privately with an ancient manuscript
before him; but some of those scribes knew their
New Testament so well that they would only glance
at the original and then write an entire sentence
or more without looking at their model — giving the
sense correctly but committing the same kind of errors
in eyesight and memory that a college class would
make if assigned a similar task.
A comparison of the New Testament letters with
the private correspondence of contemporaries shows
that St. Paul used the customary polite form which was
universal among the middle classes at that period.
There is an opening address or greeting, followed by a
thanksgiving and prayer for the one to whom he writes,
followed by the special message which has caused the
letter to be written, the whole being closed by saluta
tions and perhaps a word of prayer. This polite
epistolary phraseology was stereotyped.
Almost universally the letter which is written in
good form begins with greetings and closes with good
wishes. A recent writer has analyzed several of Paul's
letters showing how carefully he observed the polite
form, except when pulled from it by special stress of

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 587
feeling,11 and gives a number of private letters written
not far from the same era, showing a marked similarity
in style and even occasionally in phrase. One of these
from the first century reads:
"Hermocrates to Chaeras his son, greeting. First of all I pray
that you may be in health . . . and I beg you ... to write
regarding your health, and whatever you wish. Already indeed
I have written regarding the . . . and you neither answered
nor came, and now if you do not come, I run the risk of losing
the lot (of land) which I possess. . . . Your sister Helene
greets you and your mother reproaches you because you have
never answered her ... I pray that you may be well."
Another beautiful letter from the second century,
given by Dr. Milligan, well illustrates this point:
"Ammonous to her sweetest father, greeting. When I received
your letter, and recognized that by the will of the gods you were
preserved, I rejoiced greatly. And as at the same time an oppor
tunity has presented itself, I am writing you this letter, being,
very anxious to pay my respects to you. Attend as quickly as
possible to the matters that are pressing. Whatever the little
one asks shall be done. If the bearer of this letter hands over
a small basket to you, it is I who send it. All your friends greet
you by name. Celer greets you and all who are with him. I pray
for your health."
Another just published in 1914 is addrest "To the
sweetest Apa Domne," and closes:
"Above all I repeatedly salute name by name both Apa Domne
and all those in the household from small to great."
Even as late as the eighth century we find the com
mon people in Egypt beginning their letters:
"First I greet thee and all those that are with thee by their
names." "Wood, Life and Ministry of St. Paul, p. 18.

588 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
At this late date, however, the expressions had
ordinarily become more effusive and a very common
opening sentence is: "I salute the footstool of thy
feet." The postscripts of St. Paul in several epistles, where
he adds some specially loving word or mentions by
name a list of choice friends, is paralleled in many
letters which are practically contemporaneous. Dr.
Milligan has published one private letter (second cen
tury) containing thirty-one lines of Greek text', thirteen
of which are taken up with the closing greetings, and
another of fifty lines in which about half of the letter
is given up to salutations "to members of the house
hold" mentioned by name.12
Every one who has personally examined the papyri
arises from the study with a new appreciation of the
truth that the literary style and method employed in
the New Testament are cut after the pattern most com
mon and popular among the middle classes of the first
century. Perhaps as we end this part of our study we may
again remind the reader that in almost every one of
these ancient documents Biblical words catch the eye
of the New Testament student. Here lying on the
table before the writer are many unpublished papyri
which he obtained a few months ago in the Fayum.
The date upon one of them is December a.d. 182, and
the missive is from a goldsmith by the name of Sabirius
who writes to Serapias, daughter of Philip, stating
that he has paid her 15 minae of "standard gold" — the
Greek word being precisely the same as that used in
Jas. 1 : 3 and 1 Peter 1 : 7.
12 Selections from the Greek Papyri, 1910.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 589
Here is another, of a little later date, beginning :
"Above all I pray for the merciful N  .''
The term used here is precisely the same as in the
beatitude, "Blessed are the merciful." In the margin
is written at right angles to the text: "Mother mine,
do write to me immediately." That word (elavrfjc;) is
the very one that Luke uses four times (Acts 10: 33;
11: 11; 21:32; 23:30).
Here is another papyrus very hard to decipher, tho
the name of the writer seems to be Dioskoros, who
writes a little note to Hermes, and in the midst of it
speaks of an acquaintance saying : "We can not endure
the man !" The pen of this old letter writer made here
exactly the same strokes which Paul's amanuensis made
when at the apostle's dictation he wrote out the sen
tence (1 Cor. 10:13): "God . . . will with the
temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may
be able to endure it." 13
Only one of these letters quoted above is Christian,
and even that is doubtful; but everybody at that era
was using Biblical words. Among the 1,624 ostraka
published a few years ago by Wilcken " not even one
was Christian, yet these little texts are full of New
Testament words and idioms. In just one letter sent
by a prodigal son to his mother there are at least
thirteen Biblical terms used (quoted p. 327).
We close this section by pointing out that private
letters such as those St. Paul wrote would in that era
not only be read by the persons receiving them, but
"The writer wishes to acknowledge his obligation to Prof. Edgar J.
Goodspeed, of the University of Chicago, who has given valuable help in
making out a number of these scrawls, which seemed at first absolutely
indecipherable. " Griechische Ostraka aus Aegypten und Nubien, 2 : 1899.

590 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
would also naturally be copied and sent to other bands
of believers, if they were thought to contain anything of
special interest, as is shown by a letter published in
1914: "To my lady mother, Germania, greetings: Since I came
away from you yesterday without telling you about the pot, take
and copy my letter and give it to my mother Apaxris for my sister
Hagia. Well, do not forget. I pray that you are well." 15
3. A New View of the First Century from a Re
examination of the Classical Texts in
the Light of New Discoveries
It can hardly be doubted that the new views of the
development of Roman history, as given by Ferrero,
and the brilliant descriptions of Roman society in the
time of Nero by several other scholars, have been
largely influenced by the mass of newly found papyri
and inscriptions, which have thrown a vivid light not
chiefly upon the intrigues of the royal palace but upon
the currents of popular life. We can no longer talk
about the wars of the Emperors without examining the
causes of these wars found in the life of the people and
their results in affecting financial and social conditions.
It is now plain that a social revolution was in
progress in the first century. The nobles had lost their
wealth and prestige, and the whole Roman Empire was
being shaken by the grumbling of the "common people,"
who for ages had felt their wrongs but were at last be
ginning to speak and make themselves heard. Within
two generations of the death of Christ vast mobs,
amounting to hundreds of thousands of the unem-
a Oxyrhynchus Papyri, X : 1349.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 591
ployed, burst into Rome and surrounded the imperial
palace howling for bread. The freedmen, whose an
cestors had been slaves but who were now the richest
of the populace, had also become a tremendous political
factor. They had not only money but also trade
experience and a practical education superior to the
nobles. The fact that princes and senators were forbidden
by law to increase their fortunes by commerce, and the
further fact that honest toil even in such professions
as pedagogy and medicine was despised by the "best
families," had produced this sad condition. The Roman
nobles had scorned the drudgery of education, so that
it was the slave who had been taught in the schools and
had become the expert accountant as well as the poet and
literary man of this era. Neither Juvenal nor Quin-
tilian nor Martial came of "good blood." In order to
make the slaves who carried on their financial plans
more energetic in seeking success their owners had of
fered them emancipation, so that the active commercial
work of the first century was being carried on by this re
cently servile class, and these despised people had sudden
ly become the heavy capitalists of the realm. More than
this, because of their training in practical affairs, they
had fitted themselves for high positions in the imperial
service; and a number of these, like Callistus, Nar
cissus, and Pallas, had risen to the rank of great minis
ters and were practically masters of the world.16 Many
of these men, who had begun life without a dollar but
through industry or intrigue had obtained immense
fortunes, were building themselves palaces, almost
M For a most interesting resume, see Dill, Roman Society from Nero to
Marcus Aurelius, 1905, p. 106.

592 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
rivaling the Golden House of Nero, and trying in every
vulgar way to imitate the more refined but equally evil
excesses of their former masters. They gave gorgeous
banquets at which there were unmentionable orgies,
and displayed their vulgarity and ignorance and lack
of refinement in a way which made them hated and
despised by the cultured poor as well as by the titled
nobility. No one can understand the work of the
primitive Christian Church among the freedmen with
out bearing these facts in mind.
But the freedmen with whom the early Christians
chiefly worked were not of this wealthy class. The
proportion of poor to rich in the Roman Empire was
much greater than in the world to-day, and the con
trast between rich and poor was more startling.
Poverty was practically universal, and for almost the
first time in history the poor man had become dan
gerous. The Emperor could no longer spend $15,000
for a vase or $20,000 for a table or $200,000 for a
Babylonian carpet; or waste, as Nero did, $175,000
upon Egyptian roses for a single feast and squander
$90,000,000 in a few months, without the "people feel
ing the sting" of their own poverty.17
Corporations and monopolies had so taken posses
sion of all the foodstuffs that about half a century be
fore the birth of Christ nearly 300,000 persons were
compelled in one year to ask gifts of corn from the
State in order to survive. Every successful politician
coaxed the citizens to support his administration by
giving such gifts and attempting to please the populace
"W. S. Davis, Wealth in Imperial Rome (1910), tells how Claudius
dissolved a pearl worth $40,000 in vinegar and drank it; Csesar, 59 b.c,
bought two pearls for $700,000 ; Lucius Verus gave a feast costing $700,000 ;
Publius Octavius paid $65 a pound for a rare fish (pp. 165-181).

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 593
with free shows. The case had become so desperate
by a.d. 300 that Diocletian, in an effort to bring down
prices to a normal level, not only attempted to suppress
combinations in restraint of trade but actually fixt by
law the maximum price at which the necessities of life
could be sold, any violation of the law to be visited with
the penalty of death. Specific prices were fixt upon
over 700 articles. The highest price allowed for wheat
per bushel was $3.36; beans or salt, 75c; oil per quart,
30.25c; honey, 30.3c; pork per pound, 7.3c; beef,
4.9c ; ham, 12c ; lamb, 7.3c ; butter, 9.8c ; sea fish per
pound, 14.6c; second quality, 9.7c; river fish, 7.3c;
salt fish, 8.3c; oysters by the hundred, 43.5c; sardines,
9.7c ; dry cheese, 7.3c ; fresh cheese per quart, 6c ;
sheep's milk per quart, 6c ; peasants' boots without
nails, 53c; soldiers' boots, 43c; women's boots, 26c,
etc. Transportation was also fixt — one person one
mile, 9c ; rent for wagon one mile, 5c ; freight charge
for camel load of 600 pounds per mile, 3.5c; freight
charge for wagon containing up to 1,200 pounds per
mile, 8.7c; hay and straw three pounds, 9c Wages
were also fixt by law — the "keep" of the workman
being included — as follows: manual laborer, 10.8c;
bricklayer, 21.6c; carpenter, stone mason, wagon-
maker, blacksmith, baker, shipbuilder, elementary
teacher, 21.6c; marble worker, master shipbuilder,
26c; first-class tailor, 26.1c; wall painter, 32.4c;
figure painter, 64.8c ; maker of statues, 32.4c ; barber,
9c; veterinary surgeon, 2.6c; document writer for
record of 100 lines, 4.3c; writer, 100 lines best writ
ing, 10.9c; elementary teacher or writing teacher per
month per pupil, 21.6c; teacher of arithmetic per
month or of stenography, 32.6c; teacher of Greek,

594 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Latin or geometry, 87c; teacher of rhetoric, $1.09;
advocate or counsel for presenting a case, $1.09; for
finishing a case, $4-35.18
Comparing the ordinary income of normal Ameri
can families with their normal outlay for food, Dr.
Abbott finds from the report of the Commissioner of
Labor on the "Cost of Living and Retail Prices of
Food" (1903), and by Bulletin No. 77 of .the Bureau
of Labor (1908) that American laborers, however bad
their present condition may be, are far better off than
the Roman laborer at the above era, since the ancient
laborer received only a ninth or a fifteenth as much as
the modern while the average price of food was about
a third of the average of the same articles to-day.19
If the Roman laborer bought half a dozen geese for
a New Year's feast, it took almost the entire month to
pay for them. If he bought a quart of honey, it cost
him a day and a half of hard work; while a bushel of
beans or barley cost about half a week's income; a pair
of boots two and a half days' wage ; and if he purchased
a pound of purple silk, it took nearly an entire year to
pay for it. He would be compelled to give over a
fourth of his daily wage for a dozen of eggs, and his
wife quite as much for a dozen sewing-needles; if he
bought a pound of pork it cost nearly half a day's
wages, and three and a half pounds of beef took a
whole day's income; while three pounds of ham took
two days' wages.20
Nevertheless many distinguished scholars believe
18 Original document given in Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum, Vol. 3,
pp. 1926-1953; lengthy extract given in translation by Abbott, Common
People of Ancient Rome, 153-178.
" Op. cit, p. 176.
M These prices are taken from Diocletian's list formerly mentioned ;
probably they did not differ greatly from the average in the days of Jesus.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 595
that Jesus of Nazareth in pity for the poor was at
tempting to inaugurate a new social system where the
horror of the old economic system of "grasping" —
which originated in the jungle — should give place to
the comfort of the new Christian economics which had
beneath it the divine principle of "giving."21
The brutality of that ancient world has long been
recognized. The gladiatorial shows, offered to the
people in order to keep them from dwelling upon their
miseries, were prize-fights in which hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of people were killed annually. These were
not simply governmental exhibitions, but were expected
of every rich man at every possible opportunity. Even
the kindly Pliny applauded his friend for giving a
gladiatorial show in honor of his deceased wife, and
wrote sympathetically: "I am sorry the leopards did
not come in time."
In those ancient theaters the actors were killed fre
quently in awful agony and under the most grotesque
and horrible surroundings, while the Roman ladies
laughed and applauded. One of Nero's most popular
exhibitions of this kind was carried on at Rome with
Christians in the center of the stage.22
War is a mild thing compared with murder in the
midst of gaiety. The apostolic age was one of intense
cruelty. Of the first twelve Caesars seven died violent
deaths. Thirty thousand slaves were crucified under
Augustus. Any slave could be crucified at the whim of
his master, tho these slaves were often treated as
trusted friends, like Rhoda the doorkeeper (Acts
21 See especially A. N. Craft's Exodus from Poverty, 1914, edited by
Rev. W. H. Talmage, Flandreau, So. Dakota.
a See M. Renan, English Conferences, pp. 62-65, for a most vivid de
scription.

596 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
12: 13). Under Claudius (a.d. 41-54) 19,000 men
were surrounded and compelled to butcher each other
and fight thousands of wild beasts. Nero assassinated
friends and relatives without number, brutally killing
both wife and mother. An idea of the age may be
gathered from the fact that the Roman Senate thanked
him for the murder of his mother. Yet while Suetonius
called him "a wild beast," and Paul called him a lion
(2 Tim. 4: 17), Domitian (a.d. 81-96) was so much
worse that it is said the populace brought flowers in
sorrow to put upon Nero's grave !
Such was the frightful picture of the first century
offered to the world previous to the new discoveries.
The papyri could not contradict the above facts ; but as
we shall see a little later, they furnish material from
another stratum of the population, showing that the
middle classes even in these most frightful reigns re
tained self-respect and honor and family love and a
sense of sympathy with the poor and opprest. It may
seem an exaggeration when Dr. Dill suggests a doubt
whether private benefactions under the Antonines were
less frequent and generous than in our own day 21 and
when Duruy can hint that the morality of women was
"as high as the morality of any age" ; 25 yet we can not
deny that Pliny's gifts — $45,000 for a town library
with an annual endowment of $4,000 to maintain it;
$20,000 for the support of poor children, $20,000 for
public baths, $40,000 to his freedmen, etc., etc. —
formed a larger percentage of his estate paid out in
charity than most public men of to-day can equal. So
the Pompeian inscriptions show many public buildings
"Roman Society, p. 191.
"History of Rome, Vol. 5, p. 673.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 597
as being the gift of private citizens, and thousands of
tombstones all over the Roman empire testify that the
common people still retained kindness of heart and some
of the old standards of morality. Of Dionysius, the
physician, it is said: "To all the sick who came to him
he gave his services free of charge"; of Sofroniola the
loving husband records "purity, loyalty, affection, a
sense of duty, a yielding nature and whatever qualities
God has implanted in woman"; of another the husband
Valerius inscribes the tribute, "Pure in heart, modest, of
seemly bearing, discreet, noble-minded, and held in high
esteem." 26
It must be remembered, however, that tombstone
testimony can not always be received in court; and
altho Plutarch's ideal of marriage might "have satisfied
St. Paul" 27 and altho Seneca suggests "the single
standard" as his ideal of the marriage state; and altho
even Ovid, notwithstanding his indecent verses, wrote
tenderly to his wife; yet the living testimony coming
from innumerable papyri, while modifying the old con
ception which would make the age absolutely heartless,
does not confirm the too optimistic decisions of recent
scholars. The morals of the common people were not
as degenerate as those of the "smart set," but they
were the morals of a heathen people who possest few
high ideals of purity even in their gods, and had few
impulses to moral self-restraint either from their
heredity, education, or environment.
The religion of the first century must be grasped in
outline before any one can understand intelligently the
" Bucheler, Carmina Latino epigraphica, Nos. 765, 843, 1414, quoted in
Abbott's Common People of Ancient Rome, pp. 85-87; cf. Dill, Roman
Society, 76-87.
" Dill, op. cit, p. 77.

598 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
work done by Christianity or appreciate the revelations
of the home life found in the papyri. It has often been
said that St. Paul's terrific arraignment of the heathen
dom of his day and Christ's charges of irreligion upon
the Jewish officials of his generation were the produc
tions of empassioned rhetoric rather than the keen and
critical diagnosis of diseased conditions; and a few
writers in recent times have ventured to affirm that the
highest realization of religion as well as of civilization
was achieved by that same pagan world at a somewhat
earlier period, while several distinguished Hebrews
have thought themselves able to prove not only that
the Sermon on the Mount was merely a re-utterance of
rabbinic platitudes, but also that the religious life of the
Pharisees, in its humility and spirituality and self-de
votion to God and man, was equal to anything pictured
by the great Nazarene or lived out by his disciples.28
The papyri are a sufficient answer to the one claim,
while answer to the other may be had from the Talmud
where the minute stipulations concerning the ceremonial
washings and the keeping of the Sabbath prove that,
even according to this ancient Jewish record, the words
of Jesus were an understatement rather than an over
statement when he charged the religionists of his day
with mistaking minutiae of ritual for the real essentials
of religion. The Jews were doubtless better than any
other people of the ancient world both in life and religious
doctrines, yet the difference between the cosmic view
of Jesus and the universal Jewish view of that era is
well shown in the new Talmud Dictionary where the
28 Yet against this see Jewish Encyclopedia, "Jesus'' and "St. Paul" ;
and Montefiore, Synoptic Gospels (1909), 11:57, 593, 1098.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 599
Hebrew word "stranger" grows to mean "idolatry"
and "swine."
No heathen religion of the first century could com
pare with the religion of the Hebrews in purity of
doctrine or in the purity of life enforced. The Hebrew
view of God brought a hope and the spirit of song and
a sense of holiness into the domestic and religious life
absolutely foreign to heathendom. Even the legalistic
ritualism observed by the Pharisees was not as cold and
heartless a formalism as the ancient religion of the
Romans.29 It is true that in the first Christian century the old
Roman religion had improved. The doctrine of the
brotherhood and equality of men had been taught by
the Stoics, and in some of the philosophers, such as
Seneca, there may even be heard a note of pity for the
miserable and helpless, while in others there is a recog
nition, in theory at least, of the mental and moral
equality of the sexes; but the doctrine of brotherhood
and of mercy was preached as an unattainable ideal.30
More than this, the introduction of oriental religions
with their mystic impulses and rites and hope of im
mortality had caused better thoughts of God and of
prayer than even philosophy had encouraged; and
especially the Mithras worship with its purifying sac
rifices and its narrative of a divine life, instinct with
human sympathy, was making a very strong appeal in
the first century, particularly to the poorer classes,
stirring through its worship some of the best instincts
of human nature.
But Stoicism was fatalistic and therefore pessi-
29 Cf. Cumont, Oriental Religions in Paganism (1911), Chap, ii, viii.
30 Cf. Carter, Religious Life of Ancient Rome (1911), p. 85.

600 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
mistic, and by its neglect of emotion and sympathy it
failed to rouse any "enthusiasm of humanity." 31 On
the other hand the mystic oriental cults — including even
the superior synthetic religion of Mithras — were mixed
up with monstrous fictions and extravagances which
outraged the common sense of enlightened Romans.
The mysteries of Mithras were frankly astrological and
mythological, tho with certain saving esoteric explana
tions.32 The sense of sin, the ascetic systems of pen
ance, the bath of purification in the blood of the sac
rificed deity, the oriental symbolism and mystic rites —
pictorial representations, many of which were used also
by Christianity — could not save even Mithraism from
annihilation before a better religion. Its strength lay
in the fact that it was a vast improvement in its re
ligious conceptions upon any faith that had preceded it.
With other oriental cults it "made straight the way." 33
It was not an entirely unworthy religion, else would
our faith in the divine warrant of Christianity be dimin
ished ; but it could not conquer because it was separated
from Christianity by "an impassable gulf. ... In
place of the narrative of a divine life, instinct with
human sympathy, it had only to offer the cold symbol
ism of a cosmic legend."
These recent studies by classical students have
shown clearly that no exceptional conditions were
created to help Christianity conquer. It appealed to
the same human nature as the other religions, and was
victor because of the spiritual and historic truth be-
21 See especially Fowler, Religious Experience of the Roman People
(1911), chap. xvi.
82 Cumont, Mysteries of Mithra, pp. 120-148
28 Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, chaps, xi, xii ; cf.
Paul Carus, The Pleroma.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 601
hind it. In the worship of the Magna Mater the wor
shiper, bathed in sacrificial blood, was said to be "born
again into eternity"; but this "new birth" was very
different from that which the teacher of Galilee en
couraged. All of these heathen religions offered salva
tion by reason, ritual or magic; the Christ offered sal
vation by faith — a faith which produced moral and
spiritual transformation.
We have delayed to the end a consideration of the
most important of all the cults of the first century —
Emperor worship. This is the only pagan religion
which constantly meets us in the New Testament, and
it was Emperor worship, not Mithraism, which the
Christian Fathers thought of as the rival of Chris
tianity. Augustus established Emperor worship as the
state religion 12 B.C. and it soon became "the only
universal form of religion in the Roman empire." It
is difficult to realize its power. When first introduced
it produced an effect almost equal to that of the Protes
tant Reformation. It not only revived the ancient
forms, but taught impressively that morality and pros
perity depended upon religion. "By its sacrifices and
prayer, thanksgivings and rhythmic hymns it brought a
revival to the religious life; in its brotherhood feasts
it encouraged a community of religious fellowship; in
its agricultural bearings it taught that practical success
depends upon the will of the gods; in its nightly cere
monies and prayers it sought to give expression to cer
tain feelings and ideas not far removed in kind from
those which in our own day we describe as our re
ligious experience." 34
** W. Warde Fowler, Religious Experience of the Roman People (1911);
chap. 19.

602 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
And yet, as Dr. Fowler well says, "all this taken
together, so far from explaining Christianity, does not
help us much in getting to understand even the con
ditions under which it grew into men's minds as a new
power in the life of the world. The plant, tho grown
in soil which had borne other crops, was wholly new
in structure and vital principles. I say this deliberately
after spending so many years on the study of the re
ligion of the Romans and making myself acquainted
in some measure with the religions of other peoples.
The essential difference, as it appears to me as a
student of the history of religion, is this, that whereas
the connection between religion and morality has so far
been a loose one — at Rome indeed so loose that many
have refused to believe in its existence — the new re
ligion was itself morality, but morality consecrated and
raised to a higher power than it had ever yet reached.
It becomes active instead of passive; mere good nature
is replaced by a doctrine of universal love; pietas, the
sense of duty and outward things, becomes an en
thusiasm embracing all humanity, consecrated by such
an appeal to the conscience as there never had been in
the world before — the appeal to the life and death of
the divine Master. . . . The love of Christ is the
entirely new power that has come into the world; not
merely as a new type of morality but as 'a divine in
fluence transfiguring human nature in a universal
love.' " 35
" Op. cit, pp. 466-467.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 603
4. New Light on the Jewish Literature (non-
Biblical) which Chiefly Influenced the
Theological and Ethical Thought of Pales
tine in the First Century
There have been few surprizes of modern times
greater than that connected with the re-examination
and rediscovery of ancient Hebrew apocryphal and
apocalyptic works dating from 200 b.c. to a.d. 200.
From the times of the primitive Church until a very
recent period it was accepted without question that the
era between Malachi and John the Baptist had been
voiceless so far as any prophetic message was con
cerned. It was noticed that the New Testament showed
a vast divergence from the Old Testament in its treat
ment of the kingdom of God, the Messiah, general
judgment, future life, Holy Spirit, and other funda
mental doctrines. But this was counted merely a
divine inexplicable mystery. The new examination of
well-known Jewish books dating from this "period of
silence," and the recovery of others long lost, have made
it perfectly plain that this period, hitherto practically
neglected by Christian students, was one of eager in
tellectual inquisitiveness and splendid theological and
ethical development. While it is altogether possible
that Professor Cheyne and others may have pushed
too many portions of the canonical scriptures into this
terra incognita, no scholar now doubts that this was an
era of intense activity out of which have come some
most brilliant religious and ethical works. Indeed, Dr.
R. H. Charles, who is the highest living authority on
this subject, has dared to say that the two centuries
immediately preceding the Christian era were "in many

604 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
respects centuries of greater spiritual progress than
any two that had preceded them in Israel." 36
Some of this ancient literature deals wholly with
Jewish history, and therefore does not appeal to us;
while other works, such as Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) and
The Book of Wisdom, Tobit, Judith, etc., had long
been known from ancient versions and had been ac
cepted as "Scripture" by the Roman Church. It is
evident that we need not dwell on the contents of these
books, tho Ecclesiasticus was brought into new
prominence a few years ago by the discovery of the
Hebrew text, which had been lost for eight centuries,
and it is "positively invaluable" as exhibiting the re
ligious views of a cultured Sadducee and priest of
Jerusalem, 200-175 B.C.37
Tobit throws light on the religious and ethical con
dition of the Jews in Egypt 225-200 B.C., being a work
of "singular esthetic beauty and remarkable liberal
sympathies," while Judith gives us a unique example
of a Jewish work of historical fiction, the author being
a Palestine Jew whose theology was strongly Pharisaic.
The Book of Wisdom (written cir. 50 b.c.) is a
most attractive ,work. It was probably composed
originally in Alexandrian Greek (vs. Margoliouth). Its
glorification of the Jewish people and its praise of
wisdom must have been deeply interesting to all Jews
80 Religious Development Between the Old and the New Testaments
(1915), p. 8; cf. Schechter, Studies in Judaism (second series), p. 43.
sr Professor Margoliouth, in 1899 called into question the authenticity of
the newly discovered Hebrew fragments, believing that they represented
merely a re-translation into Hebrew from a Persian version by way of
the Greek and Syriac; but altho Professor Nestle in part accepted this
hypothesis, competent scholars in general have not favored it, and Pro
fessor Margoliouth's far-reaching conclusions concerning "higher critical"
questions have not been confirmed.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 605
of the first century while its discussion of the future
world even yet appeals to us:
"God made not death ;
Neither delighteth he when the living perish :
For he created all things that they might have being:
And the products of the world are healthsome,
And there is no poison of destruction in them :
Nor hath Hades royal dominion upon earth ;
For righteousness is immortal.
The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,
And no torment shall touch them.
In the eyes of fools they seem to die;
And their departure was accounted to be their hurt,
And their going from us to- be their ruin :
But they are in peace.
For though in the sight of men they be punished,
Their hope is full of immortality ;
And having borne a little chastening they shall receive
great good,
Because God tested them and found them worthy of
himself."
Enoch is a work not so well known as the above.
It was lost for nearly fifteen hundred years, and altho
an Ethiopic version was then found, the remarkable
value of the book was not appreciated until this genera
tion. It is of "immeasurable value" as giving to us
"practically the only historical memorials of the re
ligious development of Judaism from 200 b.c. to a.d.
100 and particularly of that side of Judaism to which
historic Christendom in large measure owes its ex
istence" (Charles). In the days of Jesus this was
regarded as an inspired work by many holy men. There
are five places in Jude where this apostle shows un
doubted verbal connection with Enoch. There are at
least nineteen places in the Book of Revelation, thirteen

606 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
in Paul's epistles and thirteen in the gospels where
there are connections in thought or phrase.38
Even this statement does not express fully the obli
gation of early Christianity to this great work. There
can be no longer any doubt that the title, "Son of Man,"
which our Lord so constantly used, while it occasionally
connected itself with Daniel's concept of the Messiah
(Matt. 24: 30, 26: 64), in most instances reflected the
usage of the Book of Enoch. By adopting the current
title it is now clear that our Lord "made from the
outset supernatural claims" ; tho he broke entirely from
certain external Judaistic conceptions with which the
title is often connected in the Book of Enoch. In the
"Parables" three other titles are applied in Enoch for
the first time in literature to the personal Messiah:
"Christ," "The Righteous One," "The Elect One."
Besides this close verbal connection there are
equally close connections of thought between Enoch
and the gospels in the discussion relating to the
Messiah, the resurrection, and the future life (Sheol).
This makes clear to us, what had previously been
obscure, how our Lord could take for granted in his
hearers knowledge on these points not to be found in
the Old Testament. He was in fact setting the seal
of his approval on the general spiritual teaching of
this well-known Book of Enoch, tho — as our quotations
will prove — by no means approving everything. The
following quotations will suggest Enoch's, position re
garding the future world and the kingdom of heaven:
"Then will all the righteous escape and will live until they
beget a thousand children and all the days of their youth and old
,SR. H. Charles, Apocrypha and Pseud epigrapha of the New Testa
ment (1913), Vol. II, pp. 180#; in his Book of Enoch (1893), pp. 41-49,
Dr. Charles traces 26 connections with Revelations, 21 with Paul, etc.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 607
age will they complete in peace . . . and I came to a river of
fire, the fire of which flows like water . . . and from thence
I went to another place which is still more horrible than the
former, and I saw a horrible thing; a great fire was there which
flamed and blazed, and the place was cleft as far as the abyss . . .
and Uriel spake to me, This place is the prison of the angels, and
here they will be imprisoned forever . . . and I saw the spirits
of the children of men who were dead . . . the souls of the
righteous (being) separated from the rest ... the souls (of
sinners) are placed apart in this pain till the great day of judg
ment and punishment torture the revilers forever . . .
And the Lord of Spirits seated him (i.e., the Messiah) on the
throne of his glory, and the spirit of righteousness was poured
out upon him, and the word of his mouth slew all the sinners . . .
and those who rule the earth will fall down on their faces before
him and worship, and set their hope on that Son of Man, and will
petition and will supplicate for mercy at his hands. . . .
Fear ye not, ye souls of the righteous, and be hopeful ye that
die in righteousness. And grieve not if your soul descends into
Sheol and that in your life your body has not fared as your good
ness deserved. . . . Now therefore I swear to you, the righteous
. . . that all goodness and joy and glory are prepared for them,
and are written down for the spirits of those who have died in
righteousness, and manifold good will be given to you in recom
pense for your labor and that your lot is abundantly beyond the
lot of the living."
While the use of this work by New Testament
writers can hardly be doubted in view of the many
parallelisms, we can not fail to admire the fine reserve
and self-restraint shown by them in handling this well-
known material.39
The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs were
originally written in Hebrew 109-106 B.C., by a very
religious Pharisee. This work is of supreme importance
because of its high ethical teaching, which "has ob-
"Compare Jude, 6:17; Rev., 2:7, 3:5, 8:38, 9:5; 1 Cor., 6:11; 2
Cor., 4:6; John, 5:22, with 1 Enoch, chaps. 12, 25, 37, 38, 48, 60, 61, 69,
77, 78.

608 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
tained a real immortality by influencing the thought
and diction of the writers of the New Testament and
even the Sermon on the Mount" (Charles). While
this book was used freely in the first century of our
era, it shortly afterward disappeared and remained for
many centuries unmentioned. In the thirteenth cen
tury a manuscript of the work was recovered but its
value has been properly recognized only in this genera
tion. Its author looked for the speedy coming of the
Messianic kingdom and believed in the resurrection of
the body and a new transformed life after death.
Verbal correspondences have been traced with Matt.
18:15, 35; 22:37-39; 25:35, 36; Luke 2:19, etc.,
while St. Paul "seems to have used the book as a vade
mecum." It may be well to quote some of these great
utterances :
"Then shall the Lord raise up a new priest,
And to him all the words of the Lord shall be revealed ;
And he shall execute a righteous judgment upon the earth for
a multitude of days,
And his star shall arise in heaven as of a king . . .
And there shall be peace in all the earth . . .
And in his priesthood the Gentiles shall be multiplied in
knowledge upon the earth,
And enlightened through the grace of the Lord :
In his priesthood shall sin come to an end. . . .
And he shall give to the saints to eat from the tree of life,
And the Spirit of holiness shall be on them.
And Beliar shall be bound by him,
And he shall give power to his children to tread upon the
evil spirits" (Test, of Levi).
"And now, my children, I say unto you, be not drunk with
wine ; for wine turneth the mind away from the truth, and inspires
the passion of lust, and leadeth the eyes into error, (and) it dis
turbed the mind with filthy thoughts ... but if you would live
soberly, do not touch wine at all, lest you sin in words of outrage

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 609
and in fightings and in slanders and transgressions of the com
mandments of God, and you perish before your time."
"And after these things shall a star rise to you from Jacob in
peace. "And a man shall arise like the Son of Righteousness, walking
with the sons of men in meekness and in righteousness, and no sin
shall be found in him and the heavens shall be open unto him,
. . . and he shall pour out the spirit of grace upon you" ( Test.
of Judah) .
"But love the Lord and your neighbor,
, "Have compassion on the poor and weak." . . . (Test, of
Issachar) .
"And now, my children, I bid you to keep the commands of the
Lord, and to show mercy to your neighbors, and to have com
passion towards all, not towards men only but also towards beasts
. . . and if you have not the wherewithal to give to him that
needeth, have compassion for him in bowels of mercy. ... for
in the degree a man hath compassion upon his neighbors, in the
same degree hath the Lord also upon him." . . . (Test, of Ze-

"Love the Lord through all your life . . .
"And one another with a true heart." . . . ( Test . of Dan) .
"Hatred therefore is evil, for it constantly mateth with lying,
speaking against the truth ; and it maketh small things to be great,
and causeth the light to be darkness, and calleth the sweet bitter,
and teacheth slander and kindleth wrath, and stirreth up war and
violence and all covetousness; it filleth the hearts with evil and
devilish poison. . . .
"Love ye one another from the heart ; and if a man sin against
thee speak peaceably to him and in thy soul hold not guile ; and
if he repent and confess, forgive him. ... If a man prospers
more than you do not be vexed, but pray also for him that he may
have perfect prosperity" (Test, of Gad).
"Ii you work that which is good, my children,
Both men and angels shall bless you ;
And God shall be glorified among the Gentiles through you,
And the devil shall flee from you,
And the wild beasts shall fear you,
And the Lord shall love you.'' . . .

610 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
"Blessed is the man who does not defile the Holy Spirit of God,
which hath been put and breathed into him, and blessed is he who
returneth it to his Creator as pure as it was on the day he entrusted
it to him" (Test, of Naphtali).
In a few instances Christian additions have been
made to this Jewish apocalypse, as can be seen, for ex
ample, in the following:
"In thee shall be fulfilled the prophecy of heaven (concerning
the Lamb of God and Saviour of the world) and that a Blameless
One shall be delivered up for the lawless men, and a Sinless One '
shall die for ungodly men (in the blood of the covenant) for the
salvation of the Gentiles and Israel, and shall destroy Beliar and
his hosts of servants. . . .
"And the twelve tribes shall be gathered together (in the
temple), and all the Gentiles, until the Most High shall send forth
his salvation in the visitation of an only begotten prophet (and
he shall enter into the temple ; and there shall the Lord be treated
with outrage, and he shall be lifted upon a tree, and the veil of
the temple shall be rent, and the Spirit of God shall pass on to the
Gentiles as fire poured forth, and he shall ascend from hades and
shall pass from earth into heaven)" (Test, of Benjamin).
The Book of Jubilees, an Ethiopic version of which
was published 1895, contrasts greatly with the Testa
ments of the Twelve Patriarchs. It was written about
the same period (135-105 b.c), but emphasizes the
supremacy of the law more after the manner of the
Jews against whom Paul directed his scathing dialectic.
It shows how great was the gulf which divided the
legalistic wing of the Pharisees from the branch repre
sented by such works as 1 Enoch and The Testaments
of the Twelve Patriarchs. The author urges that the
law is the complete and ultimate authority of mankind,
being of everlasting validity. He condemns unsparingly
the Hellenistic spirit, believing that the Gentiles must
be eternally reprobate, -no Gentile being even allowed

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 611
to keep the Sabbath. The law being the expression of
absolute truth, there was, according to this writer, no
room for further revelation, not even for prophecy. He
thought of the Sabbath in much the same way as the
Pharisees against whom Jesus directed his epoch-
making word that the Sabbath was made for man and
not man for the Sabbath; while those who were not
circumcised became by divine predestination "children
of destruction." His priestly sympathies were so great
that he taught that the coming Messiah should spring,
not from David, but from Levi. The spirit of the book
is well shown by the prayer,
"May thy name and the name of thy sons go forth and traverse
every land and region.
Then shall the Gentiles fear before thy face,
And all the nations shall quake."
The Psalms of Solomon, often called The Psalms
of the Pharisees, were written 70-40 b.c Some of the
authors believed in a Messiah springing from the royal
line of Judah; others expected him from the priestly
line of Levi. The hope for the Messiah was very intense,
and shows the eager expectation of the people. Altho
the work doubtless had considerable influence in the
century preceding Christ's birth, it made little per
manent impression on Christian thought and soon
passed into an oblivion which continued for some six
teen centuries. A new Greek version came to light in
1908, and a Syriac version in 1909. The spirit of the
book can be seen from the following quotations :
"The nations reproach Jerusalem, trampling it down;
Her beauty was dragged down from the throne of glory;
She girded on sackcloth instead of comely raiment ;
A rope was about her head instead of a crown.

612 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Thou art our God and we the people whom thou hast loved ;
Behold, and show pity, O God of Israel, for we are thine . . .
For thou didst choose the seed of Abraham before all the
nations.
Let the sinners perish together at the presence of the Lord,
But let the Lord's pious ones inherit the promises of the Lord.
The pious of the Lord shall live by it (the law) forever ;
The paradise.of the Lord, the trees of life, are his pious ones.
Behold, O Lord, and raise up unto them their King, the Son
of David. . . .
He shall have the heathen nations to serve him under his
yoke . . .
Nations shall come from the end of the earth to see his
glory . . .
All nations shall be in fear before him. . . .
For God will make him mighty by means of his Holy Spirit."
The above clearly shows the popular expectation as
to the coming Messiah, which Jesus had to combat
during all his life. The Gentiles were not wandering
children whom God, the All-Father, was seeking to
bring back to repentance; neither was it possible for
heretic Jews to be forgiven for their heresy.
It is suggestive to note that The Story of Ahikar,
found by Dr. Rubensohn in his excavations at
Elephantine in 1906-1908,40 — which had been popular
among the Jews for 400 years 41 before Jesus — gave the
story of the Prodigal Son, and tells in a most vivid way
how a wicked boy maltreated his father and wasted his
living; but instead of the father's offering him forgive
ness he put him in chains, gave him a thousand blows
on the shoulders and a thousand and one blows on his
loins, and fed him on bread and water. Nadan, the
40 Published by Sachau in 1911, in Aramaische Papyri und Ostraka aus
Elephantine, and translated by Charles in his Apocrypha and Pseudepi-
grapha, II : 715-784.
" See for early dating, Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha,
II : 715-716.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 613
repentant youth, cried bitterly to his father for for
giveness, saying that he indeed was no more worthy to
be called his son, but that he would gladly be his
servant and tend his horses and feed his pigs; but the
father sternly replied: "To him that doeth good, good
shall be recompensed; and to him that doeth evil, evil
shall be rewarded." The influence of this story and its
recognized connection with our Lord's parable is seen
from the words put into the lips of the prodigal son in
the Syriac version : "Forgive me this folly ; I will tend
thy horses and feed thy pigs which are in thy house." "
It may be added that while the spirit of Ahikar was
very different from the father whom Jesus pictured,
some of his moral maxims are well worth remember
ing:
"My son, it is better to remove stones with a wise man than
to drink wine with a fool."
"My son, draw not near to a woman that is a whisperer, nor
to one whose voice is high."
"My son, the beating of a boy is like manure to a garden."
"My son, the flock that makes many tracks becomes the portion
of the wolves."
"My son, sweeten thy tongue . . . for the tail of a dog
giveth him bread, and his mouth gets him blows."
"Better is one sparrow in thy hand than a thousand on the
wing."
"My son, if thou hear an evil matter, put it seven fathoms deep
under ground."
Altho the above story of Ahikar was very popular
in the days of Jesus, it must be remembered that it
originated at an early period (420-400 B.C.) before the
great ethical reformation out of which came the litera
ture which we have been describing. Very different in
"See Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, 11:775, column 1, first
paragraph, and cf. Luke 15-: 19.

614 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
spirit is The Letter of Aristeas (originated 130-70 B.C.,
but issued in the present form about the commence
ment of the Christian era). This is the first book in
which the law is described as "Scripture" and as the
"Oracles of God," and in it is to be found what may
well be called a negative version of the Golden Rule:
"As you wish that no evil should befall you, but to be partak
er of all good things, so you should act on the same principle to
wards others."
We have now mentioned the more influential works
written in the years immediately preceding the Chris
tian era, with the exception of the Fragments of a
Zadokite Work which has recently been brought to
light by Dr. Schechter.43 This strange Hebrew book
(which Dr. Charles believes to have been written 18-8
b.c by certain reformed Sadducean priests, but some
other scholars, notably Prof. G. Margoliouth, believe
to have been written very early in the first century by
poorly instructed Christians who ' regarded John the
Baptist as the Messiah grid Jesus as the "Teacher of
Righteousness") deserves close inspection, tho its mean
ing may yet remain obscure.
The author evidently was a priest bf the Temple and
belonged to a party called "the penitents of Israel,"
who accepted as leaders "the Star" and "Law-giver"
and had entered into a "New Covenant" and "Covenant
of Repentance," which involved a great moral and
spiritual change. He hated the orthodox Pharisees,
declaring that they made void the written law by rais
ing a body of oral tradition as a "wall" about it. But
he was almost equally opposed to his brethren the
Sadducees, declaring the Prophets as well as the Law
43 Documents of Jewish Sectaries, ed. by S. Schechter, 1910.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 615
to be a religious authority, teaching a blessed immor
tality, the existence of angels, the advent of the
Messiah, a high moral code, and the wickedness of
divorce. We will try to give sufficiently lengthy quota
tions to represent fairly the best teachings of this
strange old document, which almost certainly was
written within the generation in which Jesus appeared.
Even if the scholars are mistaken who think of the
writer of this work as a Christian, there can be no
doubt, as Dr. Charles well says, that such a soul would
eagerly have accepted Christianity when it was offered
(cf. Acts 6:7).
"Because of the trespass of those who forsook him
He hid his face from Israel and from his sanctuary
And gave them over to the sword. . . .
And he raised them up a Teacher of Righteousness
To lead them in the way of his heart.
And now hearken unto me, all ye who have entered into the
Covenant. . . .
Long-suffering is with him,
And plenteousness of forgivenesses,
To pardon those who repent of transgression. . . .
And through his Messiah he shall make them know his holy
Spirit.
And he is true, and in the true interpretation of his name
their names. . . .
But God remembered the covenant with the forefathers. . . .
And he made them to hearken
And they digged the well. . . .
"The well is the Law, and they who digged it are the penitents
of Israel who went forth out of the land of Judah and sojourned
in the land of Damascus, all of whom God called princes . . .
and the nobles of the people are those who came to dig the well by
the precepts, in the which the Law-giver ordained that they should
walk throughout the full period of the wickedness. And save

6i6 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
them they shall get nothing until there arises a Teacher of Right
eousness in the end of the days. . . .
"This is the word which Jeremiah spake to Baruch, the son of
Neriah, and Elisha to his servant Gehazi. All the men who entered
into the New Covenant in the land of Damascus (and yet turned
backward and acted treacherously and departed from the spring
of living waters), they shall not be reckoned in the assembly of
the people and in its register they shall not be written, from the
day when there was gathered in the Unique Teacher until there
shall arise the Messiah from Aaron and from Israel . . . and
when his deeds become known in accordance with the Midrash of
the Law, in which walk the men of the perfection of holiness, no
man shall consent to be with him in wealth and labor, for all the
saints of the Most-High have cursed him . . . and there shall
not come unto them or unto their families a share in the house of
the Law. . . . And on the Sabbath day no man shall utter a word
of folly and of vanity, no man shall lend aught to his neighbor.
None shall dispute on matters of wealth and gain. None shall
speak on matters of work and labor to be done on the following
morning. . . . No man shall eat on the Sabbath day aught save
that which is prepared or is perishing in the field ... he shall
not draw out into any vessel ... no man shall put on garments
which are filthy or were brought by a Gentile unless they were
washed in water or were rubbed with frankincense. ... No
man shall carry anything from the house to the outside, or from
the outside into the house. . . . Let not the nursing father take
the sucking child to go out or come in on the Sabbath. ... No
man shall help an animal in its delivery on the Sabbath day. And
if it fall into a pit or ditch, he shall not raise it on the Sabbath. No
man shall rest in a place near to the Gentiles on the Sabbath. And
if any person fall into a place of water, he shall not bring him out
by a ladder, or a cord, or an instrument."
This completes our examination of the apocryphal
works published previous to the Christian era. There
are a few, however, arising during the first Christian
century deserving of special attention.
The Sibylline Oracles ( 160 b.c-a.d. 400) have been
so long known, and it is so impossible to arrange their

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 617
obscure statements chronologically, that they must be
omitted entirely from this brief summary.44
The Assumption of Moses was probably written a.d.
7-29 in Hebrew. We possess only one manuscript of
this work, a Latin palimpsest of the fifth century, dis
covered and published by Ceriani in 186 1. It was so
popular that a Greek version appeared in the first cen
tury, of which a few phrases are preserved, in Acts
7:36; Jude 9, 16, 18. The work was written by a
Pharisee, a quietist, during the lifetime of our Lord.
The author's hero was not the great soldier Judas
Maccabseus, but the obscure group of unknown martyrs
who in each age offered themselves to Jehovah. His
conception of spiritual religion and his opposition to
the alliance of religion and politics was very much like
that held by his greater contemporary, Jesus of Naza
reth. He was in favor of the simple life, and was
directly opposed to those impious men who are "self-
pleasers, dissemblers . . . lovers of banquets . . .
gluttons, gourmands . . . devour ers of the goods of
the poor." He thoroughly believed in the coming of a
conquering Messiah.
"And then his kingdom shall appear throughout all his creation,
And Satan shall be no more,
And sorrow shall depart with him. . . .
And the horns of the sun shall be broken, and it shall be
turned into darkness;
And the moon shall not give her light, and shall be turned
wholly into blood. . . .
For the Most High shall arise, the eternal God alone,
And he will appear to punish the Gentiles, . . .
And thou shalt look from on high and shalt see thy enemies
in Gehenna,
"The first and most beautiful translation of this work was by Dr.
Milton S. Terry, 1890, 2d ed. (much enlarged), 1899.

618 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
And thou shalt recognize them and shalt rejoice,
And thou shalt give thanks and shalt confess thy Creator."
Second Baruk, of which a Greek fragment was pub
lished from Oxyrhynchus in 1903, was written in the lat
ter half of the first century (a.d. 50-90) by an orthodox
Jew who was a "good representative of the Judaism
against which Paul's dialectic was directed" (Charles).
With the exception of the last nine chapters, this work
was lost sight of for twelve hundred years. A Syriac
version (sixth century) was published by Ceriani in
1883. This book, coming as it does from the very gen
eration out of which the New Testament writings
originated, gives the arguments of a Jewish contem
porary of St. Paul who refused to accept Christianity
and attempted by this document to uphold his declining
faith. This fact certainly gives great interest to the
words which we now quote:
"Then all who have fallen asleep in hope of him shall rise again.
. . . And it shall come to pass that when that appointed day has
gone by that then shall the aspect of those who are condemned
afterward be changed and the glory of those who are justified;
for the aspect of those who now act wickedly shall become worse
than it is, as they shall suffer torment. Also as for the glory of
those who have now been justified in my law . . . they may be
able to acquire and receive the world which does not die, which is
then promised to them. But . . . above all shall those who
come then lament that they rejected my law.
"But those who have been saved by their works,
And to whom the Law has been now a hope . . .
They shall be made like unto the angels
And shall be made equal to the stars . . .
For lo! we see now the multitude of the prosperity of the
Gentiles . . .
But they shall be accounted as spittle. . . .
For though Adam first sinned
And brought untimely death upon all,

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 619
Yet of those who were born from him
Each one of them has prepared for his own soul torment to
come.
And again each one of them has chosen for himself glories
to come . . .
Each of us has been the Adam of his own soul.
"And Zion has been taken from us
And we have nothing now save the Mighty One and his
Law . . .
For the youth of the world is past,
And the strength of the creation already exhausted . . .
And the pitcher is near to the cistern
And the ship to the port . . .
And life to its consummation."
Fourth Ezra was completed about a.d. 120. This
work has been known from the eighteenth century, but
the publication in 1875 of a new manuscript was epoch-
making, changing the whole standpoint of the discus
sion. The work is a Jewish defense of the law, the
acceptance (not observance) of which is the standard
of judgment, the author recognizing the inherent weak
ness of the law as a redemptive power (cf. Rom., chap.
7). There are a number of resemblances to the New
Testament in form and diction, but no direct de
pendence :45
"And I said : O Lord my Lord, out of all the woods of the
earth and all the trees thereof, thou hast chosen thee one vine;
out of all the lands of the world thou has chosen thee one plant
ing ground; out of all the flowers of the world thou hast chosen
thee one lily ; out of all the depths of the sea thou hast replenished
for thyself one river; out of all the cities that have been built
thou hast sanctified Sion unto thyself ; out of the birds that have
been created thou hast called to thyself one dove ... out of
all the peoples, thou hast gotten thee one people; and the Law
which thou didst approve out of all laws thou hast bestowed upon
the people whom thou didst desire. . . . For my Son, the
a Yet see, f dr Paul's familiar acquaintance with this book, Expository
Times, 1916, pp. 551-556.

620 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Messiah, shall be revealed, together with those who are with him,
and shall rejoice the survivors four hundred years. And it shall
be after these years that my Son, the Messiah, shall die and all
in whom there is human breath. Then shall the world be turned
into the primeval silence seven days, like as at the first beginnings ;
so that no man is left ... and the Most-High shall be revealed
upon the throne of judgment; and then cometh the end. . . .
"Think not upon those who have walked in devious ways be
fore thee . . .
But regard them who have gloriously taught thy law ;
Be not wroth with those that are deemed worse than the
beasts,
But love them that have always put their trust in thy glory."
The Book of the Secrets of Enoch (II Enoch) has
been preserved to us only through two Slavonic manu
scripts which came to light in 1880 and 1884. It was
written by a Hellenistic Jew in Egypt a.d. 1-50. It
often exhibits striking parallelisms with New Testa
ment diction and thought, and clears up several dark
Bible passages. It was lost for twelve hundred years,
but was much admired both by Christians and heretics
in the first centuries. The author sees a blessed im
mortality for those who "avert their eyes from iniquity
and make righteous judgment and give bread to the
hungering and cover the naked with clothing and raise
up the fallen and help injured orphans"; but terrific
tortures in fiery rivers and mountains of ice for those
who "seeing the poor, take away their goods and them
selves wax rich; who being able to satisfy the empty,
made the hungering to die; being able to clothe, strip
the naked." One beautiful command is:
"If ill bequitals befall you, return them not neither to neighbor
nor enemy because the Lord will return them for you and be
your avenger on the day of Great Judgment, that there be no
avenging here among men."

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 621
Another beautiful passage is:
"Blessed is he who turns back from the changeable path and
walks along the straight path. . . .
"Blessed is he who sows the seed of righteousness for he shall
reap sevenfold. . . .
"Blessed is he in whom is truth, that he may speak truth to his,
neighbor. . . .
"Blessed is he in whose mouth is mercy and gentleness."
In considering the above works produced by the
Jews in the two centuries nearest to the birth of Jesus,
we are struck by the fact that many of the best pro
ductions were written in Galilee, which is here proved
to have been the home of the religious seer and mystic.
The disciples of our Lord were brought up in an atmos
phere created by these books, and were doubtless them
selves acquainted with many of them, as were the other
writers of the New Testament. In many directions
these writings show an advance upon the religious and
ethical teachings of the Old Testament. Especially do
we find the rather hopeless and gloomy outlook of the
faithful concerning the future world to be transformed
into one of joy almost equal to the New Testament
vision. We now see that the Christian doctrine did
not leap full grown into existence without any prepa
ration for it, but that the God of the centuries had been
providentially preparing the hearts of men for this new
teaching. We see here in some books the legalism in
its full maturity which Jesus condemned; but -on the
other hand, we find some beautiful teachings from a
little group of mystics who, when they heard the words
of Jesus, must have rejoiced with unspeakable joy as
they gladly accepted the words of grace that fell from
his lips.48
"Excepting where otherwise mentioned the translations of the above

622 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
We have now considered all the most influential
Jewish works published before the end of the Apostolic
age, excepting Josephus, Philo, and the Talmud.
We must omit more than a cursory mention of
Josephus and Philo, tho the former throws more light
upon the social, religious and political conditions of the
first century than any other extra-biblical book, and
the latter, as the greatest Hebrew philosopher of the
first century and the chief exponent of the allegorical
method of interpreting the Old Testament, had without
doubt an enormous influence on the development of
early Christian theology and hermeneutics. But the
large influence of these two writers upon Christianity
was pretty fully understood centuries ago.
It may be appropriate, however, to note that modern
criticism, while generally condemning as an interpola
tion the passage in Josephus which speaks of Jesus as
"a doer of marvelous works" and closes with the words
so impossible from the pen of an orthodox Hebrew,
"This was the Christ" (Ant., XVIII: 6, 3/.); yet ac
cepts as genuine the passage in which he speaks of "the
good man," John the Baptist (Ant., XVIII: 116-119),
and also accepts with almost equal certainty the genu
ineness- of the notice of the death of James, "the brother
of Jesus who was called Christ" (Ant., XX: 200/.).
The only new thing that need be mentioned con
cerning Philo is that the theory, once so popular, which
claimed that the Fourth Gospel could not have been
written by St. John because it was full of Philo's later
works have been taken from the authoritative work of R. H. Charles, The
Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Oxford, 1913. The
judgments ventured concerning these works have ordinarily been those
approved by Dr. Charles in his Religious Development between the Old
and the New Testaments, 1915.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 623
neoplatonism, has received a severe shock. The
strength of the theory lay in the fact that the favorite
philosophic terms of Philo, such as life, light, logos
("word"), truth, paraclete ("comforter" or "strength-
ener"), only begotten, firstborn, etc., were also favorite
terms with the author of the Fourth Gospel (who in
this respect wholly differed from the Synoptics) just
as they were favorite terms with Barnabas, Justin
Martyr, and Origen. But modern critical study — in
cluding a thorough analysis of the Stoic doctrine of the
Logos and of the ancient literature of Gnosticism, at
Alexandria and elsewhere — has proved that there was
a much greater divergence in vocabulary and thought
between Philo and the Fourth Gospel than had pre
viously been supposed.47 It now seems reasonable to
conclude, after a study of the literature of the first
Christian century and the one preceding, that most of
the resemblances found are "due to the common stock
of ideas which belonged to thoughtful men at that
period" (Drummond). Even Dr. Moffatt, who still
holds to certain "reminiscences and adaptations" of
Philo's language in the Fourth Gospel, acknowledges the
contradiction in thought between the two — Jesus Christ,
the supreme Logos, being set over against the many
"powers" and "words" of the philosophers.48
Finally, the discovery of rare old non-Christian
works, such as we have described above, has shown
that the religious notions and mystic expressions of
certain previously unknown Jewish writers of Palestine
47 See especially Siegfried, Philo von Alexandria (1875) ; F. Legge,
Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity (2 Vols.), 1915, and a good state
ment of the present state of the controversy by James Drummond,
Hastings, Diet, of Bible, Extra Vol., pp. 197-208.
48 Introduction to the Literature of the New Testament, 1914, pp. 320-
325.

624 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
or Egypt, of the first century or earlier, resemble in an
unexpected degree that of John's gospel.
The Talmud ought undoubtedly to be mentioned as
perhaps the greatest of all the literature influencing
the thought of the first Christian century.
This mammoth work, much larger than the Encyclo
paedia Britannica, has no logical beginning or end, but
is merely a collection of miscellaneous remarks by
ancient Rabbis, mostly concerning theology, ethics,
synagog laws or Jewish civil rights and jurisprudence,
with some gossip about distinguished rabbis. Its com
position may have begun possibly as early as the Exile
and certainly several centuries before the Christian era,
and ended not earlier than a.d. 500 ; yet the first century,
in which the great schools of Shammai and Hillel op
posed each other, is the center of its interest. Its con
tents consist of the Mishna (oral "teaching"), which
include sixty-three tractates embodying the interpreta
tion of Scripture and rabbinic decisions from a.d. 10 to
a.d. 220; and the Gemara, or interpretation of those
earlier decisions by later rabbis who lived from a.d.
220-500. It was in two recensions, the Palestinian and
Babylonian, the former being written in Hebrew and
Western Aramaic and being more precise; and the
latter in Eastern Aramaic, and filled with obscure and
discursive remarks, often very slightly connected with
the text which they are supposed to explain. The latter
recension, however, shows a broader world sympathy
than the former, and we shall hereafter confine ourselves
to its consideration.
It is very easy for a Jew, who loves everything con
nected with Jewish thought, to exaggerate the value
and breadth of interest shown in this national mis-

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 625
cellany. Thus a well-known rabbi has recently declared
not only that the Talmud contains poetry which sur
passes the Iliad of Homer, but that its writers come
from almost every land and walk in life. "You will
find a contribution from a plain, modest, unskilled
laborer who made his livelihood as a burden-carrier,
next to an essay of the great Rabon Gamaliel; a
homiletic explanation from a rabbi next to a story of
a mermaid by an old experienced tar ; a sketch of plant
life by a simple farmer arrayed in line with an essay
about medicinal anatomy by a famous medical sage.
. . . Jesus and Jewish Christians and even pagans have
acquired some place among its contributors, for there
are extracts by Sadducees, Epicureans, Romans, Per
sians and Chaldeans whose opinions are published, even
tho not in harmony with the Talmudic faith or creed." 49
This gives quite an incorrect view of the facts.
Dr. Goldschmidt gives an accurate statement of the
real value of this work in the Preface and Introduction
to his edition of the Talmud. He says wisely that it
should neither be counted sacred nor a book of the
devil; it is as false to claim that it contains all the
treasures of science and religion and to read a high
moral meaning into every foolish story as it is to select
a few places in such a gigantic work for criticism and
ignore its more noble teaching. "The Talmud is a
collection of debates, doctrines, sentences, stories, and
anecdotes of which the greater part were and are in
structive; many, however, remaining, according to our
conceptions, foolish and silly." 50
" Naphtali Herz Imber, in Report of the Commission of Education for
1894-5, Vol. 2, Washington, 1896.
°°Der Babylonische Talmud, von Lazarus Goldschmidt (8 vols.), 1896-
1909, p. xvi.

626 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
The fact is that the Talmud was written wholly by
Jews, for Jews, and about Jews. The contributions on
medicine, history, philology, agriculture, etc., are
merely illustrative, while Gentiles and Christians are
mentioned only to be condemned; but in spite of all
this it is a vast and noble work and worthy of our pro
foundest admiration.51 Altho, as Goldschmidt says,
this vast work until very recently was hidden in an
obscurity more mysterious than any Egyptian hiero
glyphics, yet it is now open to scholars. There is to-day
no written record nor oral tradition known to any
Hebrew rabbi which is not known by some Christian
scholar.62 A verv fine edition of the Talmud in fifteen volumes,
giving variants, has recently been published by Rab-
binovicz; an excellent translation in German by Gold
schmidt; a translation of the Mishnah by Hoffman and
Baneth, and an English translation with a good intro
duction and short "History of the Talmud" by Michael
L. Rodkinson (20 vols.).
While the German translation is much more
minutely critical than the English and also more com
plete, Mr. Rodkinson having used the ordinarily ac
cepted text and having also omitted many phrases and
sections which he believed to be interpolations or un
necessary,63 yet for our purpose the latter is entirely
sufficient to give a vivid and novel impression of the
51 It should always be remembered that the Talmud, like the Bible, was
a book of religion. Almost every item tabulated by Dr. Samuel Krauss, in
his immense Talmudische Archaologie (1910), concerning food, dress,
care of body, games, festivities, schools, family life, burial, etc., might be
put under a religious sub-heading. It was in no true sense a book of
history, biography, or science.
ra Compare especially the wise remarks of Dr. Hermann L. Strack,
Einleitung in den Talmud, Leipzig, 1908, p. vi.
M See Goldschmidt's criticism, op. cit., p. xvi.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 627
Jewish religious teaching in the apostolic age. The
fact that Mr. Rodkinson is an orthodox Jew opposed
to Christianity, who finds fault even with the Golden
Rule, makes it perfectly plain that his translation of
the Talmud may be trusted as one absolutely fair to
Jewish interests and therefore of particular apologetic
value to the Christian. The light which this new trans
lation throws upon the times of Jesus and the centuries
which immediately follow is impressive, as also its con
firmation of the New Testament.
It tells many curious things about the Temple and
the priestly ritual, asks and attempts to answer many
questions which to us seem foolish, e.g., "Why has an
ox a long tail?" "Why has an ass a short tail?" "What
is the reason that the lower eyelids of a hen turn up?"
It has much to say of the ceremonial purification before
each meal; the kind and amount of water that must
be used; which hand must be put first in the basin;
the place to put the napkin, etc. There is much said
also concerning unleavened bread ; how the dough must
be kneaded; how it must be baked, etc.
But perhaps to the New Testament student nothing
else is more interesting than the Talmudic instructions
in regard to keeping the Sabbath. Here are prescriptions
as to what oil and wicks may be used in the lamps on the
Sabbath day; whether a light may be extinguished for
fear of accident or to afford rest for the sick ; whether a
chair may be dragged across the floor ; whether victuals
left in the oven, having been forgotten and therefore
cooked on the Sabbath, ought to be eaten; how long
steps one can take when he goes out for his Sabbath
walk; may a man with a wooden leg go out at all?
Would he not be "carrying his burden with him?" Is

628 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
it permissible to pare the finger-nails or to make beds
or tie knots or to bathe a sore hand in vinegar on the
Sabbath day? Is it wrong to rend one's garments when
he hears of the death of a relative on the Sabbath; or
to close the door on an evil animal that tries to get
into the house? How should bread be cut and is it
lawful to cover a pot on the Sabbath, or to cover a
chest with a goatskin to keep it from burning? What
assistance (if any) may be given a woman about to
give birth to a child on the Sabbath, and what may be
done in the event of an animal falling into the water?
Is it allowable to close the eyes of the dead or to move
a corpse to save it from the fire? Is one allowed to
take a bath on the Sabbath day or only to wash each
limb separately? Is it lawful to use soap on the Sab
bath? May one warm himself by a hearth fire?
Various answers were given by different rabbis to
these questions ; but there seems to have been a general
agreement that no tailor was allowed to go out with
his tools even on Friday evening; nor should one so
late in the week sell anything to a Gentile or lend him
money. No Jew could heat water on the Sabbath, altho
a Gentile cook was allowed to do this for him.
A woman could wear a small golden hairpin, but
could not go out with a seal ring on or carry a perfume
bottle or a key without being liable to a sin offering;
as for the false tooth of metal or of gold, some rabbis
allowed it, but the sages generally forbade the gold
tooth or filling, tho a silver tooth was generally per
mitted. Amulets were usually permitted, one cele
brated rabbi stating explicitly that one could carry with
him on Sabbath "eggs of grasshoppers" (a remedy
for toothache), "the tooth of a fox" (to cure sleepless-

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 629
ness), or "a nail from a gallows" (remedy for tumor).
When one reads these voluminous questions and
answers he gets a new view of the freedom of Jesus
and of the novelty of his new doctrine concerning the
Sabbath day.
Some of the answers are as strange as the ques
tions. You may not chop ice on the Sabbath, but you
may put chopped ice into a pitcher ; a woman can wear
hairpins, since these are ornaments, not burdens; but
a man can not wear iron-riveted sandals unless his foot
is sore; an Israelite can not light a lamp on the Sab
bath, but he can use it after a non-Israelite has lighted
it. Non-Israelite nurses may be procured for the sick.
If an animal fall into a cistern or lake, an Israelite must
not pull it out, but he can push something in for it to
climb out upon.
Some interesting things may be noticed concerning
the relations existing between the Jews and the Gen
tiles :
"If an Israelite says grace, say Amen to it; but if a Gentile
says grace, be careful. (He may be attempting to cause you to
blaspheme.) If a Gentile shaves you, keep your eye on the
mirror." Who are meant by "the idiots" is asked, and the
answer is, "The Samaritans."
In the midst of these narrow and foolish words
there are some beautiful ethical statements that throw a
new light upon the religious sentiments of non-Chris
tian Jews. We quote a few notable sentences :
"He who raises his hand to strike his neighbor is already con
sidered wicked even before he has smitten him."
"The name of the Lord shall be loved (Deut. 6:4) through
thy treatment of thy fellow man."
"Do God's will as thy own will, submit thy will to his will."

630 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
"Do God's will as if it were thine own, that he may do thy will
as if it were his."
"Be not like servants who serve their master for the sake of
reward." "Thy neighbor's honor must be as dear to thee as thy own."
"Keep aloof from grumbling."
"Do not hate the one who reproves thee."
"Be afraid of a light sin."
"If you humble yourself the Lord will lift you up."
"Everything is foreordained by heaven except the fear of
heaven." "What is hateful to thee do not to thy neighbor ; that is the
law. All else is but commentary."
"Pass not judgment upon thy neighbor, until thou hast put
thyself in his place."
"One who is tipsy can not pray; he is blaspheming."
"For him who says, I will sin and the Day of Atonement will
atone for my sin ; the Day of Atonement does not atone."
There are also many good words concerning the
certainty of the future life and the happiness of the
righteous and the duty of taking care of the poor. One
rabbi said as his last word : "Make my funeral sermon
impressive, for I shall be present."
The first question asked of a man by the divine
Judge is, "Hast thou traded in good faith?"
In the tract on idolatry occurs also this striking
statement: "He who occupies himself with the Torah
(Law) but does not observe bestowing of favors, is
similar to him who denies God."
It is distinctly taught that the "appointed times"
for the appearance of the Messiah have already ceased,
and that repentance and good deeds are essential.
One striking statement is, "The measure with which
man measures will be measured out to him." 64
"Many more gems could be given, gathered from the works of men
who have spent years in the study of the Talmud ; but the writer has pre
ferred to give those which struck him most as he read the translation
referred to.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 631
Jesus is often mentioned in the Talmud. The refer
ences have been shown in detail by many scholars, and
the fact is acknowledged by Mr. Rodkinson, tho he
does not translate these passages (XIX: 106). He is
never mentioned by name excepting perhaps once or
twice, e.g., where he is said to have been an idolator
who worshiped a brickbat (Sanh., 107B); but he is
called "that man" or "Son of Stada" or "Son of
Pandera," "dead dog," and "the hanged one" and "the
sorcerer," "Balaam" and "Seducer." His mother also
is mentioned with bitterness; "the hinge of hell's gate
fastened in her ear." 55
There is one instance where it is related that a
rabbi hearing that a relative sick unto death was about
to be cured by the name of Jesus, hoped that the sick
man would die before healing could come to him. The
wonderful works of Jesus were not denied, but it was
said he had learned sorcery in Egypt. The gospel is
referred to not as an evangel or good news but as an
avengil ("blank paper"). Several of the disciples are
mentioned by name, and the death of Jesus by cruci
fixion at the time of the Feast of the Passover is re
ferred to.56
The trial Of Jesus is illuminated by a study of the
Talmud. The tract entitled "Sanhedrin" gives the en
tire procedure necessary to a legal Jewish trial on a
65 The Jewish Encyclopedia tabulates the places where Jesus is men
tioned in the Talmud, saying that it is a mere "subterfuge to attempt to
escape these references as applying to Jesus of Nazareth. It says the
Talmud specifies his healing the halt, blind, and leprous, and mentions
his walking on the sea. Laible in Christus im Talmud (Eng transl 1893)
also gives a full list of the references to the Virgin Mary, wh.le J. Rendel
Harr! 7 (Expositor, London, 5th series, II : 193) explams certain obscure
fnagrams so that Pandera becomes equal to the Greek parthenos (vir
gin), etc.
M See Dalman, Jesus Christ in the Talmud.

632 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
capital offense. Many writers have tabulated the
illegalities connected with the trial of Jesus and there
fore we shall pass that.67 But no one can read this tract
without being struck with the care the Jewish law took
to protect an innocent man from unjust conviction.
Every member of the Sanhedrin was pledged to im
partiality and kindness of thought. There must be a
distinct majority of two in favor of conviction, and the
vote for conviction must be repeated the next day in
order to be effective. If the vote of condemnation was
unanimous, the accused went free, this being taken as
a proof of personal enmity. Gamblers, usurers, tax-
gatherers and government contractors were disqualified
as witnesses. A herald must go before the convicted
one proclaiming his name, the charges upon which he
was condemned, and crying aloud that any one who
knew anything in his defense should speak it out at
once. The procession to the place of execution had to
stop at least twice to give opportunity for such late
testimony, and if it were offered the trial must be taken
up de novo.
There were only four kinds of capital punishment
known to Jewish law : decapitation, burning, strangling,
and stoning. Decapitation, which was the most com
mon method of execution by the Romans, was reserved
for murderers, rebels, etc. Burning was the penalty
for gross sexual crimes, the penalty originally being
carried out by pouring melted lead down the throat, but
later a lighted string was used after the man had been
partially or wholly strangled. Strangling was the
57 The trial by night on the eve of a great festival ; in a private house
instead of the hall Gazith, the conviction occurring on the same day as
the trial ; etc., etc.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 633
penalty for adultery, striking a parent, stealing a living
soul of Israel, giving a false prophecy, prophesying in
the name of an idol. The criminal was choked by a
twisted scarf which was wound around his neck. Ston
ing was the penalty for blasphemy, and the method of
administering the penalty was minutely prescribed.
It is a singular and suggestive fact that in this
greatest trial in the history of jurisprudence the sup
posed criminal did not suffer the penalty of the crime
of which he had been convicted; but was punished by
a foreign power by a penalty unknown to the laws of
his own land. Crucifixion was a penalty unknown to
Jewish law, as the Talmud witnesses. It was used by
the Roman's for piracy, highway robbery, assassination,
forgery, false testimony, high treason and rebellion, as
also for slaves who had murdered their master; but it
was never prescribed by a Jewish court. Yet modern
criticism is sure that the teaching of Jesus had the cross
as its central theme.
The papyri have given us some important new
knowledge concerning the trial of Jesus. These prove
that the legal procedure of the Roman government in
criminal cases differed in the provinces from what was
universal in Italy. In the provinces a preliminary hear
ing by the local authorities— exactly corresponding to
the action of the Sanhedrin — was customary, after
which the case was handed over to the prefect for
formal trial. Richard Wellington Husband, after a
very thorough study of all the data involved, is able to
find in the New Testament narratives of the trial a
strong new proof of their extraordinary fidelity to fact.
He says: "The course of trial in the Roman court . . .
harmonized with the procedure shown in the sources to

634 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
be that pursued by governors of provinces in hearing
criminal cases." 58
We might add as another curious confirmation of
the New Testament narrative — a fact omitted by Mr.
Husband — the newly discovered decision of an
Egyptian governor, a.d. 85, in the case of Phebion, in
which he renders his sentence in a way to strikingly
remind us of Pilate: "Thou hadst been worthy of
scourging . . . but I will give thee to the people." m
Pirke Aboth. — Altho this is the most celebrated part
of the Mishna as we have it to-day, it is a chapter which
we can not be sure was originally in the Babylonian
Talmud.60 It was written by many authors 30 b.c-a.d.
300. It is to-day part of the authorized Prayer Book of
the orthodox Jewish Church and many of its mottos
are well worth remembering by all :
"All my days I have grown up among the wise and I have not
found anything better than silence; not study is the chief thing,
but action, and whoso makes many words occasions sin." . . .
"Talk not much with thy wife. ... So long as the man
talks much with the wife he causes evil to himself and desists
from words of Torah and his end is that he inherits Gehen-
nah." . . .
"A rude man fears not sin, and no vulgar person is pious . . .
not he that hath much business becomes wise. In a place where
there are no men strive to be a man" (R. Hillel). "Be not easily
wroth, and repent one day before thy death" (R. Eleazar). "Let
the wealth of thy associate be dear to thee as thine own" (R.
Jose). "The day is short, and the work is great, and the laborers
88 The Prosecution of Jesus, 1916, pp. 281-2. Mr. Husband gives a
complete bibliography of works on the Trial of Jesus, pp. 283-295. From
astronomical data fixing the full moon each year from a.d. 27 to a.d. 33, he
concludes that the crucifixion occurred April 3, a.d. 33, since only in that
year did the Passover supper (fourteenth of Nisan) come on a Friday.
He decides that the charge against Jesus was treason — treason in Roman
law meaning anything done "inimical to the welfare of the Roman people."
e° Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 267.
raH. L. Strack, Pirqe Aboth (1915), p. 424.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 635
few, and the hire is much, and the master of the house is urgent"
(R. Tarhon). "When ten are seated and occupied with Torah,
the Shechinah is among them" (R. Halaphta). "Every one whose
wisdom is more than his deeds, his wisdom does not endure" (R.
Heinena). "Every one whose wisdom is greater than his deeds
to what is he like? To a tree whose branches are many and
whose roots are few; and the wind comes and roots it up" (R.
Eleazar). "At five years old one is fit for scripture, at ten for
Mishna, at thirteen for the commandments, at fifteen for the
Talmud, at eighteen for marriage, at twenty for retribution, at
thirty for power, at forty for discernment, at fifty for council,
at sixty for elderhood, at seventy for gray hairs, at eighty for
strength, at ninety for decrepitude" (R. Judah).
Other rabbis offer wise sayings from which we
select the following:
"There are four types of men: (1) He that says what is mine
is mine, and what is thine is thine. This is the average type ; some
say it is the type of Sodom. (2) What is mine is thine, and what
is thine is mine. This is the word of the vulgar. (3) What is
mine and what is thine are thine. He is pious. (4) What is thine
and what is mine are mine. He is wicked."
"There are four types of men who sit before the wise: a
sponge, a funnel, a strainer, and a sieve. A sponge, because it
sucks up everything; a funnel, because it receives at one end and
lets out at the other ; a strainer, because it lets out the wine and
keeps back the dregs ; a sieve, because it lets out the coarse meal
and keeps back the fine flour."
"Great is Torah because it gives them that practise it life in
this world and in the world to come."
5. Intellectual, Social, and Religious Life of
the First and Adjoining Centuries
as Seen in the Papyri, etc.
The early Christian centuries were creative. The
whole civilized earth throbbed with a sudden liberated
energy. It seemed as if a new intellectual dynamic had
been injected into the blood of the race. Pioneers of

636 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
science like Strabo were inventing geological theories
which strangely resemble those of modern times;
scholars like Tacitus and Livy were writing histories
of such elegance and philosophic insight that they are
yet classics of their kind; educators like Quintilian
were originating methods of pedagogy which are
only now in the twentieth century being carried into
effect. The astronomers in Alexandria were calculating
eclipses, determining the equinoctial points, solstices,
etc., much as is done to-day, and were reaching de
cisions concerning the size of the earth and the moon
and the distance of the earth from the sun which were
not far removed from those obtained by modern
scholars. The sphericity of the earth was taught and
illustrated in the schools, as we know from a fresco on
which a terrestrial globe is represented, recently found
in Rome, Nero had a pipe-organ worked by machinery,
a circular dining-room which revolved like an astro
nomical dome with the sun, and a bronze hydraulic
engine — found only recently in the ruins of his palace;
and Dr. Boni has just discovered an elevator 120 feet
high connected with the emperor's palace.61
The inventions of the mechanical engineers of that
era have been famous ever since, and it is plain that
they had been struggling somewhat successfully to
master the problems connected with the power of sun
light and of confined steam which have been solved
only within the last century. Hero of Alexandria is
said to have constructed during the apostolic age the
61 Journal of Roman Studies, IV: 251. Some scholars believe this was
a latrine rather than an elevator, but the probability is that the distin
guished Italian excavator was right in his decision.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 637
first hydraulic engine and the earliest penny in the slot
machine. The gage of our modern railroad tracks is
almost in exact conformity to the wheel tracks of the
Roman chariot, while the Director of Public Roads in
the United States has lately declared that if modern
road builders were to reproduce a highway like the
Appian Way, it would cost over $50,000 a mile.
Even in medicine something was done. While there
was usually much magic mixed up with ancient medi
cine, it is suggestive that Hippocrates admitted no
superstition into his practise; that he correctly made
hygiene the proper basis of medicine; that he discust
the quality of the water supply; and that he set down
critical records of cases of fever — typhus, puerperal,
malarial, and the like.62
Many remains of fine surgical instruments have long
been known to archeologists. The medical profession
was divided into many branches, in each of which
specialists were doing a good business. An oculist's
seal of the first century, recently found at Este, gives
the specialist's name; the seal is so, cleverly con
structed that four different remedies can be marked
with it. In a papyrus, dating a.d. i, a man puts in an
order for drugs, with the very modern postscript : "No
stale stuff accepted!" In another papyrus of the third
century mention is made of "medicated lozenges";
in one of the second century a prescription for sore
eyes and a recipe for tooth powder are given; while a
fragment now in the British Museum almost certainly
represents an ancient work on dentistry.
Music was one of the common accomplishments of
the first century. Some of the best poems ever written
M Mahaffy, op. cit., 179.

638 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
date from this era, and Statius (a.d. 45-96) even wrote
memorial elegiac verses in honor of his parrot!
We have already mentioned Nero's pipe-organ, pic
tured on a monument, and it is interesting to note that
he was conducting a cantata in the Music Hall of
Naples when the great earthquake interrupted the per
formance (a.d. 63).
That the Jews were a music-loving people is shown
not only by the poetry in the gospels, but also by the
many fine specimens in uncanonical gospels (for. ex
ample in the newly studied Protevangelium of Jacob),
where some good specimens of true poetry are recorded.
One piece of music dating as early as the fifth cen
tury before Christ has been made known to us through
a papyrus — the Orestes of Euripides, the first Greek
writer who set his poetry to popular tunes; — and
Wessely in 1889 had the good fortune to decipher the
ancient system by which such tunes were recorded, so
that we now possess the musical notes to several
ancient pieces of music. These ancient tunes — with
which our Lord may have been familiar — very much
resemble the older Arabic and Hebrew melodies, being
written in a key which is not naturally appreciated by
Europeans. We make a difference between majors and
minors; but the Greeks had eleven scales and had
.quarter as well as half tones in their music.63
While Suetonius tells us that among the Romans
teaching, as a profession, was despised so that a pan
tomime actor or boxer might turn teacher, yet we also
remember that, occasionally at least, a Roman knight
"" See Carl Wessely, Aus der Welt der Papyri, pp. 53-57 ; for the instru
mental music of the Roman Era see Journal of Hellenic Studies,
XXIII :160#; and for ancient Hebrew music see, Jewish Encyclopedia,
passim.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 639
entered this position; and Persius (a.d. 34-62) writes
to his teacher: "It is my joy to show, O sweet my friend,
To you, how a large part of me is yours."
There were twenty flourishing grammar schools at
Rome when St. Paul visited the city, and for over a
hundred years girls as well as boys had been allowed
the privileges of the schools. In many lands women
had become fascinated with Greek studies, and oc
casionally they were employed as professors in the
grammar schools. Dr. Petrie in 1889 found at Hawara,
under the head of a learned woman, a fine copy of the
second book of Homer's Iliad, thumb-marked by care
ful study and with various critical readings marked in
the margin.
It is noteworthy that Pliny the elder quotes a
woman author among the two thousand authorities
mentioned in his celebrated "Natural History" ; and the
wife of Pliny the younger set his poems to music. Even
Martial ranks culture as one of woman's charms, tho
Juvenal condemns a blue stocking as hotly as he does
the wife who delivers curtain lectures to her lord or
elopes with a gladiator.
It must be acknowledged, however, that the larger
part of cultured society agreed with Juvenal in that
judgment. The women were supposed to be the eaves
droppers and gossips of the world:
"They know what Juno chatted of with Jove.
What never was or is — they know it, though!"
Menander was quite in fashion when he wrote that
to marry was "taking arms with no good reason against
a sea of troubles"; for while three out of every thirty

640 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
ships that went to sea were wrecked, "scarcely one poor
husband escaped." Another poet wails:.
"O,. wretched are we, husbands who have sold
All liberty of life, all luxury,
And live as slaves of women, not as freemen."
In view of this, it is not surprizing that all the
papyri which have to do with the schools speak only
of the boys and do not mention the girls. While
women of the upper class might sometimes be well
educated, the common working girls had not the slight
est opportunity for education. And it must be remem
bered that it is almost exclusively the working people
who have left to us these papyrus letters. Most of
these poor people seem to have had little difficulty in
getting papyrus or in using it after it was obtained,
altho one ^>oor man of the third century writes:
"Do please send me some unwritten papyrus that I may be
able to write you."
A boy (third century) writes to his father: "Do
not be anxioUs about , my mathematics ; I am indus
trious"; and a most interesting letter (second century
before Christ), that of a mother to her student son,
has been preserved in which she congratulates him on
having completed his education, saying, "You will have
now a maintenance for your old age" ; while in another
letter a boy's father expresses regret because his
teacher (SiSdcxodoc;) had left him, but gladness be
cause his trusty old servant (3x0:180.7(0761;) was with
him and would take him to find another worthy in
structor (cf. Gal. 3:24).
The British Museum possesses many school exer-

RECENTLY' DISCOVERED SARCOPHAGUS FROM NORTH PALESTINE
From "Zeitsc-hnTt des deutschen Paliistina-Yereins," 37, Taf. xvili

ART FRAGMENTS
Recently recovered at Ascalon
From "Zeitschrift des deutschen Paliistina-Vereins,"
XXXVIT, 1914, Table XV

SCULPTURES FROM ASCALON
1. Hellenistic Grave Relief. 2. Piece of an Old Christian
Altar. 3. Crusader's Coat of Anns.
From "Zeitschrift des deutschen Paliistina-Vereins/ '
XXXVII, 1914. Table XVI

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 641
cises coming from the second century, which still show
the hard usage they received from their ancient owners.
Some of these contain the alphabet, the order of letters
being imprest by a catalog of familiar names. Then
there are syllable lists, each letter being combined with
different vowels; then there are lists of polysyllables.
There are various copy-books in which the same
epigram or sentence is copied six or seven times. Two
very fine grammatical tablets of wood about as large
as the modern American slate and also a wooden school
book, of eight tablets containing verbal declensions have
recently come to light, as well as a trilingual "Conver
sation Book."
In one of the school exercises the student has
written at the end:
"Good luck to the writer !" 6*
Practically all the letters and most of the school
exercises are written in Greek. Latin, however, was
also widely used. Indeed, colloquial Latin was prob
ably almost as widely used, geographically speaking, as
colloquial Greek. While in India only a hundred in
every ten thousand can read and write English — tho
this country has been occupied by the English for 150
years, — yet Latin, which in 400 B.C. was spoken in a dis
trict of less than a hundred square miles, had expanded
until at the beginning of the Christian era it had over
spread all countries almost as completely as the Roman
arms. Not only in Italy but in most of the provinces all
"We do not know much about the prizes offered for excellence in
study and contests of endurance, but the sickles received in Sparta by
boys from ten to thirteen years of age who were victors m athletics
and contests of endurance, have come down to us, these having been dedi
cated as votive offerings. Xenodes and Lochares ^"^^J^68
victors (Jour, of Brit School at Athens, 1905-6, p. 314; 1908-9, p. 45J

642 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
government business, all military, legal, and large
monetary affairs were conducted in Latin; all imperial
proclamations and formal addresses were in Latin.
Even Constantine, when he presided at the Council of
Nicsea, addrest the assembly in Latin, and the Emperor
Claudius cancelled the Roman citizenship of a Greek
because he had proved himself unable to write in good
Latin.65 Not only Paul and every other Roman citizen would,
of necessity, understand this language, but as native
Roman traders and soldiers were covering Palestine,
Syria, and Egypt during the early Christian centuries,
the common people also must have generally had some
understanding of the Roman tongue — and this is shown
by many Latin inscriptions in every land, tho doubtless
ordinary domestic correspondence and local business
were commonly carried on in Greek.66 There is one
letter, however, written in Latin (21-18 b.c), which
fortunately comes to us from Egypt, enabling us to see
exactly how the original manuscripts of Vergil and
Horace looked. Macedo in this letter is told by a friend
of some scandal reported in the home of his acquaint
ances Jucundus, Dido, and Nireus; but far more
valuable than this bit of local gossip is the appearance
of this ancient letter, where the writing shows scarcely
any separation of words, no capital letters, and no
punctuation marks.67
But we must not overrate the importance of our
™ For many other illustrations of this see Abbott, Common People of
Ancient Rome, 1911, Chap. 1.
00 M. Seymour de Ricci has just published an important Latin will, almost
certainly written for an Italian, from Egypt, Ancient Egypt, 1916, p. 18.
"For many examples of Roman script from a.d. 55 to a.d. 572, see
Wessely, Aus der Welt der Papyri, 148#, and references.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 643
few Latin scripts.68 Of all the hundreds of letters
written from one end of the Roman world to the other,
only a very few were ever written in Latin. Every
body was writing ; but everybody was writing in Greek.
We possess several bundles of official letters from a
military prefect and other officers of government in
Egypt; a large package of personal notes from a keen
old farmer; a marriage contract in which the amount
of the bride's adornment is given and the statement
that if she shames her husband she shall forfeit all she
has brought, while if the husband brings a mistress
into the house he shall repay the dowry and add to it
a thousand drachmas; an affectionate letter to a child
containing the impressive remark, "Be sure the reason
why I and the rest love you so much is that you obey
them in all things" ; a letter of a son to his father clos
ing, "Write to us that we may not be anxious (cf. Luke
22:44). Take care of yourself . . . and come to us
in good health"; a letter of a wife to her husband who
says she is in the last extremity, "because of the high
price of corn," yet complaining that he has "never even
thought of returning"; and multitudes more of the
same sort.
The papyri show us the home life of the common
people of the first century even better than the graffiti
of Pompeii. The latter were scribblings in public places,
but these private letters and business documents show
the hidden thoughts and home occupations of the
people. They are written carelessly and impulsively,
raDr. Victor Martin of Geneva, in a private letter, kindly warns me
that "all official business in Egypt was conducted in Greek, with the only
exception of matters concerning the army. The number of Latin papyri
compared to Greek is very small and the people ignored Latin, and the
fact that best proves this is that the New Testament was spread over the
world not in Latin but in Greek."

644 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
often in barbarous grammar, and without literary
charm, but they open out to us the social and religious
conditions of the middle and lower classes as could be
done in no other way. Alciphron, a Greek author of
the second century, published some 1,700 years ago a
"Model Letter-writer," containing a hundred or more
letters supposed to be written by fishermen, country
folk, parasites, and courtezans. It is interesting read
ing; but it is instructive to compare his artificially
constructed letters with those we are about to read.
Take, e.g., the description supposed to be written
by a farmer concerning his neighbor, "smelling of
raisins and dust." It is a cleverly formed sentence,
but no farmer would ever have written it. In the
papyri we see how farmers really write. A bundle of
fourteen letters has come down to us from an old man
born about a.d. 14, written probably to his nephew in
a shaky and almost illegible hand, telling him in words
very badly misspelled, "I blame you greatly for having
lost the two little pigs," etc., and intimating very posi
tively his surprize that young folks are such poor
farmers nowadays as compared with the time when
he was a boy.69
Among these scraps of ancient papers picked up
miscellaneously from many collections are monthly meat
bills; wedding invitations; a marriage contract (a.d.
200), in which "a white striped frock" and "a white
veil with purple border" and several pieces of jewelry
are mentioned as part of the dowry; the watchman's
contract, pledging himself to be honest and not let
"On the model letter writer see H. W. Smyth, Harvard Essays on
Classical Subjects, 1912, Essay III. We will not indicate the location of
the papyri quoted excepting in extraordinary cases, as they are gathered
from scores of collections.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 645
thieves enter the storeroom; a farce and mime from
the second century, full of coarse wit, with the musical
and stage directions in shorthand; a second century
almanac, containing directions too gross to be quoted;
a poll-tax register from the first century; a legal ac
cusation against a husband affirming that he had "ap
plied fire to his foster daughters, having stript them
quite naked" ; salutations in a private letter to Theonis'
children, "whom the evil eye shall not harm"; lease of
a dining-room (a.d. 173), with explicit contract that
the key must be given back and the room left "free
from dirt and filth"; question to an oracle (first cen
tury), "Shall the son agree with his father or not?";
other questions (second century), "Shall the slave be
bought or not!" "Is it granted to me to marry?" etc.,
etc. One rather comical note from a school boy urges
that his teacher be fed well, so that he may be better
natured. Some very modern methods of primary in
struction have recently been brought to light, as for
example a "Nursery Acrostic" (probably first century),
in which the loss of a garment is told in short lines be
ginning with successive letters of the alphabet:
"Alion it was who took it : a fool who lost it," etc.
The ordinary Christian boy at this early era seems
to have been able at least to read and write. This
may seem at first sight a small accomplishment, but
will appear more surprizing when we remember that
not a single letter or inscription remains from
the crusaders who marched through Asia Minor
(Ramsay). We can now see clearly that the Christians of the

646 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
first three or four centuries encouraged learning and
that the new teaching appealed with special force to
educated people, tho later the average of education was
lower. The commonplace and trifling nature of the
ordinary correspondence in the early Christian cen
turies is sufficient proof of the common and easy use
of the pen at that time. Among the unpublished docu
ments obtained by the writer in Egypt are two letters
written almost entirely about a hoe which, it seems, one
of the parties had taken and the other thought he had
not returned. Shenute writes:
"I let you know about the hoe which I gave them. They sent
to me another time about it . . . remember so they do not
bother me about it."
Abraham answers this note on the opposite side of
the parchment:
"As to the matter of the hoe, I told N  that I received
it," etc. It may seem, however, as if the above notes may
possibly have had some necessity of business behind
them and there may be some business excuse also even
for the list of donkey boys scrawled on an ostracon
(first century), and an excuse equally valid for the love
letter of the second century, in which the disappointed
lover sighs:
"Ah me ! You have left me alone in my misery !"
But what can be said of this letter (second or third
century) ?
"Having spoken, he smote three times and laughed seven
times Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha. And when he had laughed,
seven gods were born !"

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 647
It not only shows that the ancients laughed as we
do, but it also shows that they wrote easily and care
lessly as we do.
The ancient sense of humor is also quite often seen
in the papyri, and even occasionally in the tomb in
scriptions. In one will, recorded 23 b.c, it looks as if
a father had allowed his satiric wrath against 'his two
sons, presumably prodigals, to follow him to the grave,
for he wills each of them "a bed" — as if that were all
either of them were capable of using to good ad
vantage.70 On one gravestone appears this satiric in
junction: "Lawyers and the evil eye, keep away from
my tomb." In a papyrus letter (second or third century)
a man sarcastically writes: "It was good of you, you
sent me a gift, such a beauty — just weeds !" Was this
a young man's anger aroused at receiving an unac
ceptable wedding present? In a memorandum of the
first century Hirax mentions some thirty-six different
items that he must not forget, marking an oblique
stroke in the margin as each matter is attended to.
When one reads among other items that he must not
forget to "get a license," to go to "a meeting," to see
Philona, to "get some leeks and sandals," etc., one at
first might imagine that this was the private domestic
record of a young husband; but the mention of an
"aqueduct" and "wheel" shows that this was a business
memorandum. How very modern the tone of the following letters :
a note from one man to another instructing him to get
a better file, "one that would file iron," as the one he
had brought in would "file only wood"; a medical
papyrus of the second century in which the doctor dis-
™ See Wilcken, Archiv filr Papyruskunde, 1 : 63.

648 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
sents from the ancient dictum that ripe fruit was harm
ful, saying that he believed it was certainly "good for
digestion" ; a complaint made by an "unpaid policeman"
concerning a priest, who struck him with a stick and
"tore his shirt"; a will made by Pekysis in Hadrian's
reign written (as usual then and now) "in the street"
by a street notary, in which this Egyptian lawyer starts
out with the declaration that the testator is "sane and
of sound mind"; and another careful legal document
in which a firm of embalmers, of the guild of
Cholchytse, take a lien on certain mummies — proving
that the undertakers of that era were prudently guard
ing against unpaid bills!
There are many begging letters addrest to mem
bers of the clergy, in one of which Paula, a widow, is
urged for charity on the ground that "she and the
children, each one of them, have pains in the neck, and
I know that thou lovest the poor." Pious ejaculations
are very frequent in these begging letters, as "The
Lord shall bless thee and thy cattle. Kindly have
pity." The series of twenty-one letters which Dr. Deiss
mann has recently given, dating from the early cen
turies, illustrates in a beautiful way the correspondence
between the New Testament writings and the writings
of non-Christians who were contemporaries of the
apostles.71 In one of these, which was written on a
leaden tablet found near Athens, the man writes home
saying, "Send me some covering ... as plain as you
have and not broidered with fur" (cf. 2 Tim. 4: 13).
Another from a broken papyrus tells of a festival that
is soon to come, and asks Ptolemseus to send quickly
"Light from the Ancient East, pp. 148-217.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 649
"the piper Petoys with the Phrygian pipes and the
others" and "Zenobius the Malakon" (cf. 1 Cor. 6: 9),
"with tablet and cymbals and rattles; for the women
have need of him at the sacrifice. . . . And send us
also cheeses, as many as thou canst, and new earthen
ware and herbs of every kind, and delicacies if thou
hast any. Farewell." Another private letter written
on a potsherd is really a receipt in which occurs the
formula, "I have received from thee the fruit that
falleth to me" (cf. Luke 15: 12). Still another, dated
September 13, a.d. 50, is a papyrus in which Mysterion
says, "I have sent unto you my Blastus (cf. 1 Cor.
4: 17 and Acts 12: 20) for forked sticks for my olive
garden (cf. Acts 1:12). . . . See then that thou
stay him not for thou knowest how I need him every
hour. Farewell."
In another letter of July 24, a.d. 66, a farmer swears
that he has had only seven lambs born in the flock since
the previous enrolment; this is autographed with the
signature of an official, and the date is given in the
handwriting of the official: "In the twelfth year of
Lord Nero" — exactly the same title of deity being given
to the Emperor which the New Testament constantly
gives to Jesus. An Egyptian soldier in the Roman
army writes to his father in the second century saying:
"Many greetings : Before all things I pray that thou art in
health, and that thou dost prosper and fare well continually, to
gether with my sister and her daughter and my brother. I thank
the Lord Serapis that when I was in peril in the sea he saved me
immediately. ... I beseech thee . . . father, write unto me
a little letter firstly of thy health, secondly of that of my brother
and sister, thirdly that I may do obeisance to thy hand because
thou hast taught me well, and I therefore hope to advance

650 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
quickly if the gods will. ... I am sending thee by Euctemon
a little picture of me. Moreover my name is 'Antonis Maximus.' "
In addition to the opening formula here, which re
minds us of St. Paul's greetings and prayers in all his
letters, there is a true touch of life in the pride which
this young soldier shows in his new Roman name and
in the picture, perhaps in his new uniform, which he
sends back home. The piety of the day is shown by a
note from the shipmaster Irenaeus written to his
brother (second century), saying he has arrived safely
with his cargo of corn at Rome, "and the place wel
comed us, as God wills." 72
Many other examples in the social and religious
history of the first century might be given from the
new texts illustrating the New Testament. Several in
scriptions speak of the sparrows sold in the market in
packages of ten (Matthew 10:28; Luke 12:6).
So the phrase "Deliver unto Satan" ( 1 Tim. 1 : 20)
corresponds exactly to the formula in a magical
papyrus which attempts to render the cursed one unable
to speak: "Daemon of the dead ... I deliver unto
thee N. N., in order that . . . " ; while the "bond of
his tongue was loosed" (Mark 7: 35), is exactly illus
trated from a magic spell which reads: "Bound and
fast held through the mouth and fast held the tongue."
The phrase used by Mark is one often used in the
magical texts, and shows that the writer of the gospel
supposed that in this miracle demonic fetters were
broken and a work of Satan undone.73 So the "marks
of the Lord Jesus" (Gal. 6: 17) probably referred to the
brand of freedom placed upon the slave when he was
72 Milligan, Greek Papyri, No. 41 ; Deissmann, op. cit, pp. 167-171.
7t See for full discussion, Deissmann, op. cit., pp. 304-310.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 651
sold to the temple and thus liberated from his master.
The usual formula for this reads :
"N. N. sold to the Pythian Apollo a male slave named 
at a price of  minae for freedom."
In another inscription the god is said to have
"bought with a price 'this slave' for freedom." 7i
Everywhere the belief in magic meets us in the
papyri in connection with the religions of the first and
adjoining centuries. The heathen had always trembled
before these demonic powers. A charm recently pub
lished well represents a common form:
"Get thee back, thou enemy, thou dead man or woman, who
dost cause pain. . . . Thou hast no power over his toes, legs,
arms, spine, head." 75
Another even more lately published reads:
"I give thee (queen of Hades) his ears, nose, nostrils, tongue,
lips, and teeth, so that he may not speak his pain; his neck,
shoulders, arms, and fingers, so that he may not aid himself ; his
breast, liver, heart, and lungs, so he may not locate his pain ; his
bowels, belly, navel, and flanks, so he may not sleep the sleep of
health; his thighs, knees, legs, shanks, feet, ankles, heels, toes,
and toe nails, so he may not stand of his own strength. . . .
Mayest thou irrevocably damn him that his eyes may never see
the light of another month." u
Above an ancient structure has recently been found
this curious curse:
"Whoever steals the pails from this structure, may he thrust
them into his eyes !" n
"Cf. 1 Cor., 6:20, 7:23; Gal. 5:1, 13: Deissmann, op. cit., pp. 303,
325, 334.
n Theban Ostraca, 1913, CI.
™ Art and Archeology, 1915, p. 206. «
"In a recently discovered magical text the word "gospel" is inserted,
showing the thought of its power even by its enemies (J. G. Milne,
Hawara Papyri, pp. 338-397).

652 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES •
But such curses were not confined to heathen
writers. It is very common to find upon Christian
tombs a curse upon the man who shall disturb the
bones, and in early Christian literature this belief in
demons seems almost as universal, among the unedu
cated classes, as among the opponents of the gospel.
Nor was this confined to the grossly ignorant. The
Hermetic books — which throw precious light on pre-
Christian times — were so famous that in the early
Christian centuries many writings grew up, under the
same title, seeking to provide an acceptable substitute
for Christianity by "combining the Neo- Platonic phi
losophy, Philonic Judaism and cabalistic theosophy." ^
The credulous faith in occult and demonic power meets
us everywhere in these works. The early Gnostics, tho
professing earnest allegiance to Christianity and claim
ing to adhere in a superior way to philosophic method,
were equally superstitious. Their most renowned work,
Pistis Sophia, was first fully translated in 1850, and
in 1 89 1 a papyrus was published by Amelineau, con
taining two documents disclosing more perfectly the
secrets of this esoteric system. The Gnostics brought
with them into the new faith "the use of pictures and
statues, of incense and of all the paraphernalia of the
worship of the heathen gods" (F. Legge), including
this firm belief in magical powers. The Pistis Sophia
pretends to give the secret teaching of Jesus to his dis
ciples during eleven years which he spent with them
after the resurrection, and certain other revelations
made after his ascension. The five most mysterious
* ** F. L. Griffith ; for the Egyptian elements in these writings and their
influence oh early Christianity see W. M. Flinders Petrie, Personal Religion
in Egypt, 1909, and other literature given by S. J. Case, Evolution of Early
Christianity, 1014, p. 192n.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 653
words which he explains and makes the basis of this
esoteric teaching are zama, zama, ozza, Rachama, ozai.
The character of this teaching may be seen from a quo
tation in which the author explains the glory of the
"first mystery," which is as the two vestures of Christ :
"In the first is the glory of all the names of all the mysteries
and of all the emanations which are in the ranks of the two re
ceptacles of the First Mystery. And in this vesture ... is the
name of the Recorder who is the First Precept, and the mystery
of the Five Marks, and the mystery of the great Legate of the
Ineffable One who is the same as the Great Light, and the
mystery of the Five Prohegumeni, who are the same as the Five
Parastatae." 79
The influence of this mystical and magical teaching
upon Christianity was immeasurably great. All these
synthetic systems taught that it was through the secret
knowledge of hidden names and through the perform
ance of certain sacraments, known only to the initiated,
that the highest rank could be obtained by the believer,
in this world and in the next. This idea was very
prominent in all the religions which were popular in
the first century. The Mithras worship, which was the
most popular of all, contained much astrology and much
magic, tho the pictures connected with its' shrines doubt
less showed to the initiate divine secrets concerning the
nature of God and his relation to man and salvation.
One of the most surprizing single discoveries of this
generation connected with this ancient cult is that of
Dr. A. Dieterich, who in 1903 published, with learned
notes, what he considered to be substantially "an entire
liturgy of Mithras," the "only one which we have re-
"For a very learned attempt to explain the exact meaning of all these
terms and of the system as a whole, see F. Legge, Forerunners and Rivals
of Christianity, 1915, 2 vols.

654 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
ceived essentially entire" from the ancient past.80 This
document, written according to Dieterich about a.d.
300 and arising not later than a.d. 200, clearly proves
to us that tho these ceremonies and beliefs were mixed
with many magical names and much senseless super
stition; yet they presented in a really spiritual way the
"raising of the soul to the divine light and into union
with God," actually using in this effort some of the
same symbols in which the Christian church has em
bodied its highest thoughts." 81
In his struggle for the knowledge of the truth the
disciple of Mithras seeks a new birth:
"If it indeed seems good to you, permit me, though now held
down by my lower nature, to be reborn to immortality . . .
that I may become mentally reborn, that I may become initiated,
that the Holy Spirit may breathe in me." 82
These words, which have become so familiar to
Christian worshipers, must not, however, blind us to
the vast difference in meaning between the two teach
ings. This "new birth" is to be accomplished largely
by magic ceremonies and comes in any case through a
mystic knowledge, not through a transformation of the
moral personality. The expectation of the future also
is as different from that of the Christian as can well be
conceived :
"Hail to thee, lord, ruler of the water ;
Hail to thee, lord, establisher of the earth ;
Hail to thee, lord, disposer of the spirit.
"Lord, I that am born again take my departure, being exalted
on high, and since I am exalted, I die; born by the birth which
80 Eine Mithrasliturgie, Leipzig, 1903.
81 Dieterich, op. cit, pp. 26-29.
a Dieterich, op. cit, p. 4 ; Case, Evolution of Early Christianity, p. 329.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 6SS
engenders life, I am redeemed unto death, and go by the way
which thou hast appointed, as thou hast made for a law and
created the sacrament," etc.83
Whether this be in reality an original Mithraic
liturgy, as Dieterich supposed, or only a Mithraic
charm, as others have since affirmed, in either case it
shows the religious influences molding the early Chris
tian centuries.
Even the Jews, who for many centuries had been
the chief exponents of one omnipotent God, were caught
in the swirl of magical beliefs— just as were the Roman
Catholics and Protestants of the middle ages. They
depended for power over disease, etc., largely upon
books of magic and magical spells.84 In the. recently
published Book of the Key of Solomon (1914), which
was the ancient authority on magic rites, is an injunc
tion to guard the secrets of the book as one "would
guard his own soul" — which shows how fearful the
power of these secret names were supposed to be. The
phylacteries dating from the first century recently
found by M. Gaster — which represent the very same
phylacteries that St. Matthew mentions (23: 5) — testify
to the same dread, as seen in the combinations and
permutations of the letters of the alphabet in represent
ing the divine name.85 In Phrygia, where the Jews
were very rich and influential in the early Christian
centuries, Sir William Ramsay found in May, 1914,
two gravestones, each about five feet high and finely
88 See for this quotation, Albert Schweitzer, Paul and His Interpreters,
1912, p. 187; for a full discussion of the Mithras religion, F. Legge, Fore
runners and Rivals of Christianity, 1915, 11:224-276; and W. J. Phythian-
Adams, Mithraism, 1915; and for a summary, New Schaff-Hersog Ency
clopedia, VII : 419#.; cf. literature previously referred to, pp. 505#., 600.
84 See Schiirer, op. cit, III : 151-5.
85 Society of Biblical Archeology, Proceedings, March, 1916, etc.

656 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
ornamented, on one of which (a.d. 220-250) was in
scribed the following unique curse:
"If any one after their burial . . . shall inter another corpse
or do injury in the way of purchase, then shall he bring upon him
the curses written in Deuteronomy." 85a
The owner of this tomb is said to have "filled all
municipal offices," having been "strategos, steward of
the market-place," etc.
It is interesting to note that this influential Jew
wrote worse Greek than even his Christian contempo
raries; yet no one can doubt that the Jews in Phrygia
at this time were rich and powerful. Indeed, it would
be hard to find a place in the Roman Empire where
the Jews were not influential; tho they were probably
more favored in Egypt than anywhere else. In con
sidering the social and religious influences of the first
century, historians must give the Jew a prominent
place. It has long been known that Alexandria in
Ptolemaic times was the home of the largest Hebrew
population in the world, one of its four chief quarters
being inhabited exclusively by Jews. It was here that
the financiers of this race received their initial educa
tion as the bankers and money lenders of the civilized
world. At Oxyrhynchus, Grenfell and Hunt found a
number of fragments of an official letter (cir. a.d. 400)
which mentions the "heads of the congregation" and
"elders of the synagog"; and another legal document
of perhaps the fifth century to which several Jews
had fixt their signatures. The Jewish Quarterly Re
view, October, 191 5, fills thirty pages with the names
of the towns in the Roman Empire in which the Jews
858 Expository Times, 1915, p. 170.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 657
are known to have lived and prospered in the first cen
tury, and about fifty places can be mentioned in Egypt
where they are known to have flourished. That they
were organized in Egypt as a religious community as
far south as Abydos as early as the third century before
Christ is proved by a will in which the testators, who
were "heads of the congregation," left as one of their
most important legacies a valuable manuscript of the
Torah, specifying that it should be divided among cer
tain relatives or friends.86
Under Vespasian the temple of Onias, which had
been founded several centuries before, was closed. In
Trajan's reign because the Jews rose and massacred
the Greeks they were practically exterminated in Alex
andria; but at a later period they repopulated Egypt
and recovered many of their ancient privileges.87
An interesting illustration of the influence of the
Jews within half a generation of the apostolic age has
just been published— a third century papyrus telling of
a delegation 'of Greeks and Jews who came opposing
each other in a case before the Emperor Trajan (cir.
a.d. 114). One of the chief men against the Jews was
"Paulus," a Tyrian by birth but by profession a lawyer,
from Alexandria. Both Jews and Greeks are said to
carry "their gods" with them to Rome. The Jewish
representatives were from Antioch in Syria— where
the disciples of Jesus were first called Christians— and
"Society of Biblical Archeology, Proceedings, 1915, pp. 217-220.
-The classical work discussing the condition of the Jews in the early
Christian centuries is Schiirer, History of the ^wishPeop le tho t us has
now been largely supplemented by the great work of Juster, LtsJutfs
now uecu ""s^v- °_ff .... — ,.ora0rehensive information con-
dans I'empire Romam, 2 vols., 1914. for comPi?°™"!c Mi„inn and Ex_
1908; also G. H. Box, London Expositor, July, 1916.

658 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
were named Simon, Glaucon, Theudas, Onias, Colon,
Jacob, and Sopater. Trajan is represented as favoring
the Jews at first because of his Hebrew wife Plotina;
and when one of the Greek advocates says, "We are
distrest that your council chamber has been filled with
godless Jews," the Emperor replies in wrath, "You are
studying how to die, being so contemptuous as to
answer me insolently." But the Greek replies, "Then
help your own people and do not defend the godless
Jews" — and as he speaks the sweat, according to this
papyrus, breaks out on the bust of Serapis which the
envoys carried; whereupon Trajan marveled greatly
and a tumult of fear followed!
Another most interesting notice referring to the
Jews was published in 1912, telling of the ransom by
the Jewish synagog of a middle-aged Jewess with her
two children, the younger of whom was named Jacob.
Another very different reference comes from a private
letter written a.d. 41 by a man in money difficulty, who
urges his friend to borrow some money for him if
possible but adds, "Beware of the Jews!"
Signor Dr. E. Breccia, director of the Alexandrian
Museum, reported in 19 12 a Greek inscription which
is not only of some importance for the history of the
Jewish residents in the Delta in Ptolemaic times, but
is interesting because of the famous names mentioned.
It is engraved on a block of marble, and informs us
concerning a new site of a Hebrew settlement and
synagog :
"In honor of the King Ptolemy and of Queen Cleopatra, his
sister ; and of the Queen Cleopatra, his wife, the Jews of Xene-
phyris (have consecrated) the portal of the Synagogue, the presi
dents being Theodorus and Achillion." 88
88 Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement, January, 1914.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 659
Many Hebrew manuscripts have recently been re
covered from the Ezra synagog in Cairo. While the
Genizah in this synagog was discovered by a learned
traveler as early as 1864, and was visited by Dr. E. N.
Adler in 1888, it was not until later that its treasures
began to appear in European collections. Prof. A. H.
Sayce obtained some important fragments from it, and
Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson bought from some officer
connected with it a valuable ancient copy of Sirach;
but it remained for Dr. S. Schechter, in 1896 and 1897,
to obtain permission from the synagog authorities to
remove to Cambridge University whatever he thought
to be valuable in those millennium-old closets. He has
told in a fascinating way his experience in doing this.88
He obtained not only some 12,000 Arabic documents,
but a vast quantity of Hebrew manuscripts of a value
beyond all price. He carried away only MSS. which
he felt sure were over 400 years old; yet obtained as
many as 100,000 fragments of these ancient documents.
He found "rationalistic works denying the existence of
either angel or devil glued to amulets in which God and
angels are besought to protect the bearer from
demons"; he uncovered from the dust of ages a whole
series of Hebrew psalmists hitherto unknown, together
with fragments of both Talmuds, many autobiographic
and medical works ; some very ancient Hebrew liturgies,
and a very large collection of Biblical texts, some of
which are earlier than any Old Testament MSS.
hitherto known. It was such a hoard of ancient docu
ments as no other man had ever been permitted to ex
amine, and we may expect for the next generation
** S. Schechter, Studies in Judaism, 2d series, 1908.

660 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
annual news of unlooked-for treasure dug out of this
pile of as yet unedited documents.90
Of course, a number of ancient schoolbooks were
among the material found by Dr. Schechter in the old
synagog at Cairo. The Jews were always near to the
front so far as child instruction was concerned. An
ancient Jewish maxim reads: "The school teachers
are the city's watchmen"; and a distinguished rabbi is
reported as once saying: "The world is upheld by the
breath of the children in the school house; their in
struction must not be interrupted even for the rebuild
ing of the temple"; while Jehovah is represented as
saying: "Dearer to me is the breath of the school
children than the savor of sacrifices."
At the very beginning of the Christian era the
young were instructed systematically in the schools of
Jerusalem, and this was extended to all parts of Pales
tine shortly after the lifetime of Jesus. Everybody
learned to read and write and studied the history of
the Jewish people; but foreign languages or foreign
histories were not taught, and very little mathematics.
Every Jewish child had to be taught a trade, for
the rabbis said: "He who does not teach his son a
trade virtually teaches him to steal." 91
During the first half of the first century the Jews,
as the New Testament indicates, were in many places of
influence throughout the entire Roman world. After
"Even Dr. Schechter did not, however, get all that was of value.
Either another synagog has given up its Genizah or else some valuable
things were strangely missed in the Ezra synagog, for in 1913 the pres
ent writer obtained in Cairo, a considerable part of one of the oldest
Hebrew liturgies known. This will soon be edited by Dr. R. Butin, of
the Catholic University, of Washington.
0J Cf. besides Schiirsr, op. cit., especially, Ency. Religion and Ethics,
V ; 195#; Max Radin, The Jews Amongst the Greeks and Romans, chap.
xvi ; Jester, op. cit, and Krauss, Talmudische Archaologie, 1910, III : 230^.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 661
the shock of Jerusalem's destruction had somewhat
abated, we find them still holding high positions at
court and distinguishing themselves in many dignified
callings; but after Justinian's reign (a.d. 527-565), tho
they continued to be celebrated as physicians, they were
debarred from official position and even from all the
more honored professions, including that of the army.
The papyri have given us most valuable information
concerning the trades and professions of the early
Christians. Lefebvre, who has cataloged the employ
ments of all the Christians who have left inscriptions,92
finds, to our surprize, that while there were many very
humble men among the early Christians, such as black
smiths, gardeners, and bakers, there were also archi
tects, sculptors, writers, and an unusual number of
physicians. There were not, however, many soldiers,
there being only 545 epitaphs of soldiers in all the
10,050 Christian inscriptions.93 This was probably be
cause of the idolatrous oath which every soldier was
required to take, recognizing the Emperor as divine.
In the wealthier districts of the Roman Empire,
slave labor, as Wilcken has shown, monopolized almost
all trades, so that all the fishermen, farmers, shepherds,
hand laborers, and artizans in bronze, iron, and wood,
and even the merchants, money-changers, bankers,
physicians, manuscript writers, and teachers were
slaves. This, however, does not apply to the fishermen
and shepherds of Galilee.94
82 Recueil des inscriptions grecques-chretiennes d'Egypte.
83 Lefebvre, op. cit, p. xxxv.
"Among the Jews the tanners, perfumers, butchers, camel drivers,
and publicans were generally recognized as being engaged in unclean
trades and sometimes the physicians were included, as their profession led
to materialism and loss of reverence for the human body.

662 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
It would be interesting to know with absolute cer
tainty that the trade unions which were so common in
other parts of the empire were equally popular in
Palestine. At least 2,500 inscriptions and other docu
ments have come down to us dealing with these. Al
most every trade had its guild or union. From Thyatira
we hear of the organization of the tanners (who were
also sometimes cobblers), leather workers, slave dealers,
etc. From Italy and Egypt about a hundred different
occupations have been found connected with these
secret societies, among which we can reckon the guild
of shepherds, the highest official of which was called
the "chief shepherd" (cf. Heb. 13:20). Each trade
union was under some particular patron deity, Bacchus
being naturally favored by the innkeepers, and Her
cules, quite as naturally, by the cabmen. There were
certainly doctors' unions, but probably no lawyers', the
lawyer giving his services gratuitously in the first cen
tury. These societies made no provision for the widow
or orphans, neither did they have a sick benefit con
nected with them, nor did they ever make the useless
attempt to get an increase in wages, so far as we know.
They were influential mainly as social organizations.
They first originated as "burial clubs," but soon
grew into more complex trade organizations. The only
way even a hard-working laborer could be sure of a
decent burial in the first century was by joining one of
these clubs. They were common both among Jews and
heathen, and the first Christian legal organizations
were probably formed under this guise. These "unions"
were authorized by law 22 b.c, after which they spread
rapidly during the first and second centuries of our
era, and with these "all that was best in the life of the

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 663
common people was bound up." 95 The entrance fee, so
far as can be learned, was about four or five dollars,
and besides this there were monthly assessments. These
clubs provided not only for a decent burial, but gave a
new impulse to life to their members, who here could
breathe as nowhere else the atmosphere of freedom
and self-respect. When an extra fee was paid a
memorial feast was held by the club on the anniversary
of the brother's death.
Corporations of capital, which monopolized every
possible industry and food product, had been general
for hundreds of years, but by the end of the first or
middle of the second century, labor was quite at the
mercy of unscrupulous "trusts," which controlled prices
and the transmission of food products. Even as early
as 191 B.C. a play speaks of the "mountains of grain"
which the dealers had in warehouses; and a papyrus
some centuries later speaks of the high price of meat
as due to the fact that the butchers were in league with
the city fathers. Josephus tells of 18,000 laborers out
of work in Jerusalem and in danger of dying with their
families, so that the treasures of the temple were drawn
upon in order to support them; but this was no unusual
condition. Hundreds of thousands were forced to re
ceive gifts of corn from the State in order to live during
the first century, and it was not in every city that the
officers acted as generously as in Jerusalem, where the
authorities made provision for a living wage for all
artizans.98
" Pelham, Essay f on Roman History, p. 701 ff.
MIn Oxyrhynchus, also, superintendents of food supply were constantly
on 'duty (second century) guarding the distribution of grain so that the
people could get bread at a moderate price, Journal of Egyptian Arche
ology, 1915, p. 43.

664 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
The poor people, both in Palestine and Egypt, were
ground to the earth by excessive taxation. The tax
collectors had so evil a reputation that few decent men
could have been willing to hold the office. Many
papyri and ostraka contain complaints against the
illegal "bleeding" of these publicans. So numerous and
violent were these charges that a little before the days
of Jesus an official letter was sent by the imperial
authorities to these publicans:
"Do not all the time be on the point of levying blackmail, nor
of slandering, but carry on your business according to the laws." 9T
The Jewish authorities had the same low opinion
of the men engaged in this bad business. The rabbis
universally class publicans with robbers and men with
out honor. No Jew in good standing was allowed to
get money changed from a publican's cash box, since,
presumably, it contained stolen property. Intercourse
with these men was sternly forbidden as with "sin
ners." 98 It is noticeable that the publicans were more
severely censured by the rabbis than the knights to
whom the tax was "farmed out" by the Romans.
The ostraka which come from the first and adjoin
ing centuries throw a vivid light upon the conditions
of taxation at that time. Everything was taxed. Here
are receipts for the bath tax, the olive oil tax, the
natron tax, the land tax, the grain tax, the tax on ferry
boats and ferrymen, the dyke tax, the salt tax and the
tax on bricks (both of which were royal monopolies
and must have yielded a handsome income), the crown
tax, the wine tax, and the tax on cobblers, strangers
" See texts and important comments in Wilcken's Ostraka, 1 : 568-9.
88 Krauss, Talmudische Archdologie, 1910, Vol. II, pp. 374#.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 665
and weavers. Many receipts from weavers have been
found, and there need be no doubt that St. Paul had to
pay some tax such as this.
Unfortunately the tax upon many commodities, such
as vegetables, clothes, cattle, etc., could not be
standardized, so that the amount of such taxation was
left to the judgment of the individual publican— this
leading to constant injustice and recrimination.
Very many of the ostraka are receipts for the poll
tax. One of these which was given to Psemmonthes
and his wife Talhoulis, July 29, a.d. 68, is dated in the
fourteenth year of Nero — which seems to indicate that
these poor people at Thebes had not heard of Nero's
death seven weeks after it had occurred.99
The only business which was not taxed in Palestine
seems to have been the fishing.100 If Peter carried on
his trade in other lands, as tradition affirms, he prob
ably found the conditions less favorable than in
Galilee.101 The tax upon wine shops is almost as much in
evidence as the poll tax. Religious organizations
were also compelled to pay a tax; indeed, the place
of prayer (n,QOO£V)rf\) was taxed higher than either
the manufactories or "saloons." Was this because
the religious corporations were more honest in re
porting the value of their property? Almost the
only business which had to pay a larger tax than
these churches or "places of prayer" were the houses
of prostitution. Dr. Petrie found at Koptos a tax re-
" For many such examples see Theban Ostraka, Toronto, 1913.
100 Delitzsch, Jewish Artisan Life, p. 47.
101 For the extraordinary accuracy of the New Testament terminology
where it mentions the fishing industry, see Expository Times, 1917, pp.
229-31.

666 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
port in which seamen were taxed five drachmae, skilled
artizans eight, prostitutes one hundred and two.102
The life of the common slave was unspeakably hard.
While the first century was one in which the tombstones
record many gifts from wealthy men — gifts to cities
and schools — there were no gifts to establish hospitals
and almshouses for the needy, and no one seems ever
to have thought to make provision for the comfort of
the slave population.
We are not denying that in that age, as now in
Turkish countries, the attractive slave was sometimes
treated with tenderness. Lady Ramsay has just shown
in an interesting discussion that occasionally it is almost
impossible in Asia Minor to distinguish now between
the daughter of the house and some trusted female
slave;103 and a few papyrus letters have come to us
confirming this judgment. Among these the following
is the most satisfying:
"Ta-ys to her master Apollonios, heartiest greetings. Before
all I salute (with a kiss) you, Master, and I ever pray for your
good health. I was not a little distressed to hear that you have
not been feeling well, but thanks to all the gods that they keep
you without stumbling. I pray them to send you to us, if it seem
good to you ; otherwise we are dying because we do not see you
daily. I would that we were able to take wings and come and
greet you. . . . Farewell, Master," etc.
Beautiful as this letter is, it must not be forgotten
that notwithstanding special favors that might be
proffered by the master or mistress to slaves who for
some reason had won momentary esteem, yet the life
108 In the third century before Christ certain officials at Crocodilopolis
built up the doors of their houses and set altars against them to avoid
having crown officials billeted on them. Taxation was so high it hardly
paid a farmer to plant an orchard— as now under Turkish rule.
103 See Expository Times, February, 1916.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 667
and limb of every slave was wholly at the mercy of
their proprietors, and slaves were ordinarily regarded
as being on "the level of the brute." "* It was not ex
pected that they should be either moral or religious
and, without any question, Plautus has exprest their
ordinary moral condition when he writes:
"A wedding among slaves ?
A strange thing this to play, that's nowhere done !"
Nor are we able to accept certain modern scholastic
conjectures that morals in general in that era might
have compared unblushingly with the present. It is
true that spotless and high-minded women were some
times to be found, as Ovid allows, and that certain
philosophers, like Seneca, demanded of the husband an
equal faithfulness; but even the religion of the masses
encouraged impurities, and the most popular poetry
and novels were too vile to be legally sent through our
mails. While the papyri have little, if anything, to say
on the subject, it can not be doubted from other evi
dence that the temples were houses of assignation, and
that even the priestesses of Isis were known to be the
mistresses of certain men of letters in the Augustan
age; it was actually counted a sin for a husband to
object to his wife taking her turn in offering her body
for hire in the name of the goddess.105 It is true that
Mithraism with its blood purification, its hope of im
mortality, and its belief in future punishments and re-
101 Marucchi, Christian Epigraphy, p. 11. The ordinary feeling is well
expressed in a recently discovered inscription when during a four-days
show eleven slave gladiators were killed, whereupon the master sets up
this tablet saying: "Noble fellow citizens, you will remember this in my
honor." 105 For the low moral standards of paganism see especially Hastings,
Diet, of Bible, Extra Vol., pp. 109-155.

668 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
wards, centering around the miraculous birth and
ascension of Mithras, may have offered a moral tonic
to the devout believer; similarly the Emperor worship
was doubtless a moral advance on what preceded;
nevertheless the rapid growth of Christianity was un
doubtedly due to its moral and religious superiority to
the religions which it superseded.106
That the common people had a strong religious in
stinct is, of course, perfectly evident from their faith
fulness to the religious ceremonial in which they trusted
and from their immense gifts to the temples;107 yet it
would seem almost in spite of the religious influences of
that era, rather than in response to them, that so much
of the common life was tender and worthy. Certainly
the papyri have proved that the love of husband for
wife and parents for children was often tender and
devoted. One mother, for example, in the third cen
tury writes in illiterate Greek, sympathizing with her
boy because of the splinter that had injured his foot,
and saying in mother language:
"Do not forget, my child, to write me regarding your health,
for you know the anxiety of a mother for a child. Your children
greet you."
Many such pathetic letters could be quoted. So
a wife writes to her husband concerning their child
(second or third century) :
"I fear he may die while you are not here."
108 See J. F. Carter, Religious Life of Ancient Rome, 1911, pp. 90#; and
Harnack, Spread of Early Christianity, II : 29-177, 325.
Mr These temples were ordinarily much larger and finer than either that
of Solomon or Herod. The Parthenon only measured 228 by 100 feet;
but the temple at Sardes was 300 feet long, and that at Miletus, 359 by
171 feet. All of these were more elaborately decorated than the Hebrew
temple, and were literally crowded with votive offerings.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 669
And a little girl writes to her father :
"Ammonous to her sweetest father, greeting. Now that I
have got your letter and have learned that by the will of the gods
you have been kept safe, I have been made very glad. And find
ing opportunity the same hour I have written you this letter
hastening to greet you. All yours individually send greetings to
you. ... I pray that it be well with you."

RECAPITULATION
Because of their importance it may be well to re
peat a few of the main facts brought out in the last few
sections of our discussion, adding a few new illus
trations. Making a broad examination of the papyri gathered
from the rubbish heaps and comparing them with other
material, we are now able to throw a flashlight upon
the early Christian centuries such as was never possible
before. For the first time modern historians are able to
read references to Jesus and the early Christians cen
turies older than have ever before been known. It is
true that from a late manuscript of Lucian, a writer
of the second century, we had learned of Peregrinus
Proteus (a.d. 165), who is described as a rather un
worthy follower of the "crucified sophist," and from a
second or third century Syriac document, first made
known in 1865, we had received the testimony of Mara,
who compares Christ to Socrates and Pythagoras, call
ing him the "Wise King" and speaking of his "new
laws," and from various Roman writers such as Tacitus
and Pliny we had received most valuable information
concerning the early Christians ; but none of these had
given us the autograph testimonies concerning early
Christianity which have in such multitudes been dug
up in recent years. The names of Jesus and Paul have
met us very often in the course of our study, while
multitudes of the documents which we have examined
670

RECAPITULATION 671
were written by early Christians, and many others
mention Jews or heathen who were contemporaneous
with the primitive Christians.
A document just discovered mentions Nero the
famous contemporary of St. Paul. This infamous ruler,
whom some modern scholars have attempted to eulogize
as the champion of domestic reform and universal be
nevolence, may not have "fiddled while Rome was burn
ing," but he certainly followed wherever passion led
him and had in his blood the ferocity of a wild beast;1
yet in the autograph copy of the notification of his ac
cession, written November 17, a.d. 54, he is spoken
of as follows:
"The Caesar who had to pay his debt to his ancestors, god
manifest, has joined them, and the expectation and hope of the
world has been declared Emperor, the good genius of the world
and source of all good things, Nero, has been declared Caesar.
Therefore ought we all wearing garlands and with sacrifices of
oxen to give thanks to all the gods."
A new light has also been thrown upon literary
conditions among the poorer classes.
It has never, been doubted that the "Augustan age"
which gave to us the classical literature now studied
in our colleges was an age of mental power. No more
celebrated professors can be found in any university of
the world to-day than could then be found at Alexan
dria and Athens and Tarsus. •
Pliny in his "Natural History" — which was com
pleted a.d. 77 — consulted 2,000 volumes. Vespasian
in this golden age of Latin literature founded the uni
versity of Rome with immense libraries and originated
the "Carnegie endowment" idea, establishing pensions
'See e.g., Pelham, Essays on Roman History, 1911, pp. 43#,

672 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
for professors of the liberal arts. Quintilian, the man
first pensioned, in a great work still valuable for its
pedagogical teachings, argued for the superiority of
public schools over private education, condemned cor
poral punishment, taught that amusements should be
turned to account as a means of education, argued that
children should begin early with a foreign tongue,
emphasized the fact that different natures demanded
different treatment on the part of the teacher, and in
fact gave "the first scientific statement of the problems
of education." 2
Yet notwithstanding this, and the further fact that
Epictetus had told us that every second woman in Rome
might be seen reading Plato's Republic, the new dis
coveries concerning the practical universality of read
ing and writing among all classes of the population has
come upon us as a great surprize. It is, on the whole,
comparatively rare to find a man unable to sign his
name to a legal document or to find it stated in a
papyrus that the sender of the letter can not write.
Shorthand, as we have seen, was used in taking
notes by literary and professional men such as Cicero,
Pliny, and Galen — experts in the art being named as a
class, "notarii," — but it would be an almost equal sur
prize to many to know that "letter books" were in use
in antiquity containing copies of letters sent and letters
received, portions of at least three of these having come
down to us. Every class of people could write, even
those who were so poor that they could not afford a
sheet of papyrus, but had to write their notes on scraps
of broken pottery. Numbers of students write home
to their parents telling of their studies. In one of these
5 See Monroe, History of Education, 199-208.

RECAPITULATION 673
(third century), the text of which was published in
1914, Aurelius, Jr., writes to Aurelius, Sr.:
"My sweetest father, many greetings : I perform the act of
veneration for you every day before the gods of this place. Do
not be anxious, father, about my studies. I am industrious and
take relaxation. All will be well with me."
Another letter (fourth century), the text of which
was published at the same time, tho full of misspelled
words, seems also to be from a schoolboy, tho perhaps
one in the lower classes, for one of his most urgent
requests in the letter is:
"Bring the milk cakes when you come. . . . Not the
papyrus." A contemporary of the above, who was evidently a
better student, writes to his teacher Gonatus calling
him "My incomparable master" (despota), "the con
solation of all his friends." So a father writes to his
son (first century), "I have received the boxes with
the books," and tells him that he will soon receive "the
variegated wrist bands."
As we read these many documents from the first
and adjoining centuries, written in the language of the
New Testament, we are imprest with the truth of the
apostolic statement, "To us the toll of all ages has
come as our inheritance" (1 Cor. 10: n).3
Much new light has been thrown upon the economic
and social conditions among the poor of the first cen
tury. While one court physician in the days of the
elder Pliny had an income of $25,000 a year, and a
successful charioteer was able to leave his children a
* This is the translation of Drs. Rendel Harris and James Hope Moul
ton, Egyptian Rubbish Heaps, p. 30.

,674 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
legacy of $1,400,000, and while fortunes were so com
mon among the rich that Augustus (a.d. 6) laid a tax
of 5 per cent, on bequests of $4,000 or over, and num
bers of millionaires put up inscriptions telling of their
benevolent gifts, and splendid funereal monuments on
which they show themselves counting their money; yet
the poor were so poor that thousands of them were
compelled to go without burial, thrown into pits like
dogs and cattle, while those of the middle classes,
farmers and artizans, were compelled to pay enormous
taxes, and when they ran in debt were compelled to pay
12 per cent., 18 per cent., and 22 per cent., and oc
casionally 48 per cent, interest per annum.4
It must be remembered that altho there were eighty
different trade unions in Rome alone, yet these made
no effort to raise wages or improve wage conditions —
these being considered beyond hope. Such unions were
organized solely for social companionship and to give
a little help in some cruel emergency such as death;
yet even burial expenses were forfeited if the member
failed to pay his dues for six months. These were not
charitable organizations, but were for social and con
vivial enjoyment. It was the social feature which was
most important, even the slaves having guilds of their
own in which the officers held pompous titles.
Wherever . Paul traveled he could meet other
weavers of tent cloth in fraternal fellowship, while
Luke would naturally go with the physicians.5
The superstition of the first century has been con
stantly evident. Not only amid the orgies of the
* Lanciani, Ancient Rome, chap, iii ; Kenyon, Greek Papyri, ccii.
* However, it is possible that in the first century the best physicians, like
teachers, felt it a disgrace to charge for their services, and therefore may
not have joined together in a "trade" fraternity.

RECAPITULATION 675
oriental worshipers can it be said the "air thrilled with
demonic terror, [and] witches and lewd sorceresses
abounded"; but in all classes of the population the fear
of demons was a constant terror. No texts are more
numerous than those which have to do with incanta
tions and charms. There were few medical recipes
that did not include "the blood of a white cat" or some
other magical ingredient. Altho Augustus burned
2,000 books of unlicensed divination, yet even he be
lieved in the astrologers, while Tiberius used the sacred
lot, Cicero consulted the Pythia, Nero used magic to
protect him from the ghosts of the women he had mur
dered, Domitian seems to have been literally scared to
death by an astrological omen, and Marcus Aurelius
consulted a charm doctor in order to cure his wife's
infatuation for a gladiator.8
If the best educated were thus controlled by super
stitious terrors, we must not wonder at the common
people nor be surprized if we find some Christians, not
withstanding their faith in the Christ, whose "Name
was above all names," yielding sometimes to super
stitious fear. Von Dobschtitz, however, believes that
magic had very little hold upon the Christian Church
previous to the fourth century, when martyr worship
and the use of relics encouraged this; and he shows
conclusively that "the morality of early Christianity,
notwithstanding its imperfections, was unmistakably
higher than all the Greek civilization could achieve."7
This judgment we believe the study of the papyri has
confirmed. Previous to the fourth century, the poorly educated
"Dill, op. cit, pp. 446-450. .
'Ency. of Religion and Ethics, "Charms and Amulets ; and Christian
Life in the Primitive Church," IX: 363-379.

676 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
Christians naturally used such local charms as were
not against their religion, but made war on everything
that seemed connected with the adoration of demons.
While after that time Bible texts and the name of
Jesus and the sign of the cross are used as protective
charms, it is quite possible that the multitude of
magical texts discovered in which Isis and Horus are
mentioned side by side with Jewish archangels, and
other imprecations and spells in which Christian and
Jewish and heathen sacred names occur together, may
generally have been of Gnostic origin, adopted by
heathen magicians after they began to acknowledge
the power of Jewish and Christian deities.8 In any
case no one can fully understand Christianity's battle
as the conquering "religion of the spirit" without recog
nizing the universal dominance of these fleshless "world
rulers of this darkness" against which the Christians
wrestled (Eph. 6: 12).
It must not be denied that appeals to magic became
very frequent in and after the sixth century, and that
morality was correspondingly affected in some in
stances. A Coptic text of about a.d. 600, which cor
rectly speaks of the current "madness of idolatry" in
Egypt and asks, "Who shall be able to persuade the
people to despise demons?" mentions in the same con
nection healing by "spittle" and by the "Word" of
Jesus.9 The common people then were much as the
common people are now in Palestine and Egypt. The
modern Arabs who visit the excavations to-day wear
charms against fever and ophthalmia ; so, like their con
temporaries, many ignorant Christians in the early
'See Zeitschrift fur Archaologie, XXXII: 47.
' Anecdota Oxoniensia, 1913, No. 15.

RECAPITULATION 677
centuries sought charms against the demons asthma,
croup, hydrophobia, insanity, and indigestion.
An interesting, altho rather obscure love-charm
reads :
"Kronos who holds in check the spirit (breath) of all men,
hold in check the spirit of Hori. O Lord whom Mary bore, do
not permit him to speak to him whom Taises bore ; because I con
jure thee by the finger of God not to open your mouth to him,
because Krinoupelike is subject to Kronos. Do not permit him
to speak to him neither night nor day. . . . " 10
Yet the ministry, even down to the sixth and
seventh centuries, altho in some cases very ignorant,
were, as we have previously seen, compelled in
some cases to have a better knowledge of Scripture
before ordination than many of our theological students
receive now. This is abundantly proved from various
ostraka where Samuel, Jacob, Aaron, and others
promise "to master the gospel of John" and Papas and
another bind themselves to learn by heart either the
gospel of John or the gospel of Matthew; and still
another agrees in the same way to memorize the
"gospel according to Mark." u So Ammonius (cir. a.d.
390) is said to have been able to repeat the Old and
the New Testament by heart.
The religious condition of the common people in the
first century has been fully exposed by the revelations
in the papyri. That the pagan world has been painted
too dark by earlier Christian scholars all historians now
acknowledge. The crimes and abnormal wickedness
of the court circles made known to us in the classics
do not appear in the same prominence among the
10 Greek text in Coptic Ostraca, No. 522.
11 Crum, Coptic Ostraca, Nos. 29, 30, 34-39.

678 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
middle and lower classes made known to us through
the papyri. The world into which the gospel came was
really "very religious" (Acts 17:22). The people as
a whole believed not only in God, but in many. gods;
they had, too, a sense of sin and a desire to escape
from a just judgment which they feared. The follow
ing specimen, found ready for use in an ancient model
letter writer, shows how in private life this sense of
sin against one's neighbor sometimes exprest itself:
"I know that I erred in that I treated thee ill. Wherefore
having repented I beg pardon for the error. But for the Lord's
sake delay not to forgive me. For it is just to pardon friends who
stumble, and especially when they desire to obtain pardon" (cf. 1
Cor. 4: 10; 2 Cor. 4: 11 ; Phil. 3:7-8; Luke 17:4).
There is no doubt that many, even among the com
mon people, were, however, losing their faith in the
gods they were taught to worship. In one papyrus re
cently published, a man writes:
"Come at once. If you neglect this, as the gods have not
spared me, so will I not spare the gods." 12
How very different from this is the joyous state
ment of the New Testament that "faith is the title deed
of things hoped for" (Heb. 11: i).13
The Christian seriousness of faith and love for God
and fellow man must have been surprizing and almost
amusing to their contemporaries. One papyrus shows
a certain Pamphilus (sixth century) borrowing twelve
pieces of gold at 33% per cent, interest for the sake of
" Oxyrhynchus Papyri, VII, No. 1065.
18 This is the meaning of the Greek text, cf. Moulton, From Egyptian
Rubbish Heaps, p. 28.

RECAPITULATION 67g
distributing these among the poor! Such an act would
have been impossible until the new doctrine had taken
deep hold upon society. We had known, before the
papyri gave up their testimony, something of these
Christian benefactions of the early centuries; but these
autograph memoranda add to our respect for the
"brotherhood" sentiment among the early followers of
Jesus.14 These early believers also show a higher average
type of morality than could have been expected. Among
all the cases of church discipline opened up in the
papyri, no single instance of a grave charge is now re
membered by the writer, except one case of "blasphemy"
and another of "ill-using the poor." It is certainly
suggestive of a rather high ideal to find even as late as
the sixth century that a man who divorced his wife,
except for adultery, was excluded from communion,
together with the man writing the divorce; and that
one who marries a brother or sister's daughter could
not have communion "be he alive or dead"; neither
could any one come to communion who was at "enmity
with his neighbor." 15
The heathen thought of God differed so diamet
rically from that of the Christian that it was impossible
for them to have the same divine' ideal of purity,
righteousness, and humanity, as that which came with
the faith that the meek and holy Jesus was the highest
"In a house in Algeria — used as a church during the reign of Diocle
tian — has been found in connection with the chalices of gold, silver, lamps,
etc., used with the ancient church ritual, thirteen pairs of men's boots,
forty-seven pairs of women's shoes, sixteen male tunics, and eighty-two
female tunics — Pagan and Christian Rome, p. 42. Were these used in the
church services, or were they for distribution to indigent Christians?
15 Crum, Coptic Ostraca, Nos. 71-73 ; a most curious case of church dis
cipline is that in which, when Onesimus is late for service, his ox is chas
tised (Ramsay, Bishopricks of Phrygia, p. 149).

680 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
conceivable representative of the heart and personality
of God. While the ordinary Roman of the first cen
tury had advanced morally to a point where he could
no longer accept unspeakably wicked deities as his
models, yet he was still accepting Osiris and the
Emperor as divine ideals. The Emperor worship,
was very different in Egypt from the Ptolemaic
"Kaiser-cult;16 yet in most parts of the empire it was
more deep and serious, and certainly more popular,
than that of any other deity. But the Emperors were
not leading ideal lives and did not possess characters
which could encourage morality. It was in spite of
such worship that many noble virtues lingered among
the middle classes.
Many, perhaps most, of the people whom Paul met
had fairly good moral character and were honestly
desirous of living upright lives. It is a fact em
phasized not only by the papyri, but also in the literary
works of the first century, that almost all of the vices
enumerated by Paul (i Cor. 6:9-10) were recognized
as evil by the pagans, while most of his virtues, such
as temperance and faith, were being praised. God had
not left himself without a witness even among those
who had lost faith in written revelation.
While we must read Ovid and Petronius in ex
purgated editions and while many of the epigrams of
Martial "should be effaced from human memory," com
paratively few of the papyri and inscriptions show the
same putridity of imagination. The common people in
every age have represented the best morality of the age.
Juvenal's description of the women he knew as "lewd,
petulant, and reeling, rife with wine," does not repre-
M See especially F. Blumenthal, A. f. P-F, V, 317/.

RECAPITULATION 68l
sent the women whom we meet in these texts, which
sprang out of the life of the common people. Every
where we find husbands and wives praying for their
friends and leading useful and hard-working, depend
able lives, caring lovingly for their families, and giving
amazing gifts out of their poverty in votive offerings
to the temples.
Nevertheless, when we remember the wall-paintings
and public inscriptions of Pompeii and recall the
character of the shows which were most popular among
all classes in the first century; when we remember the
way in which the slaves were treated, and notice that
in almost every slave contract published scars are men
tioned, and that the guaranty must be included against
epilepsy or some worse disease; we must acknowledge
that heathen civilization in the first century, at its best,
does not compare very favorably with Christian civiliza
tion at its worst.
It would be instructive to a certain class of his
torians to be compelled to live for a while in the atmos
phere of ancient heathendom and study the ancient
letters and plays and court records and life. The most
beautiful pagan letter of consolation coming from
ancient times is perhaps the following, from the second
century :
"Irene to Tacunophria and Philo, good cheer! I was much
grieved and wept over the blessed one, as I wept for Didymus,
and everything that was fitting I did, and all who were with me.
But truly there is nothing any one can do in the face of such
things. Do you therefore comfort one another. Good-bye." 17
Compare such a letter with Paul's tender words
(2 Thess. 4: 14-18), and notice the infinite difference.
" Milligan, Greek Papyri, No. 38.

682 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
While undoubtedly most of the Romans of the first
century believed in an existence of some sort in the
world beyond — a belief due in part, it may be, to the
Jews but chiefly to the teaching of the oriental re
ligions, — yet the common funereal inscriptions were not
joyous :
"Into nothing from nothing how quickly we go."
"Once we were naught, now we are as we were."
"I was not, I was, I am not, I care not."
The last expression (non fui, fui, non sum, non
euro) was so commonly used that it is sometimes in
dicated merely by the intial letters "n.f.f.n.s.n.c." Even
at the best the hope of such a future life as the heathen
of the first century accepted could not bring the helpful
sympathy in hours of bereavement, and the joyous cer
tainty of future blessedness which was the unique pos
session of the Christians.
The grossest sexual crimes are publicly referred to
without shame in the witticisms written upon the walls,
in the private letters, and in the dramatic plays. A
farce coming from the second century is not only
full of the coarsest allusions, but the plot hinges
on the base proposal made to a slave by his young
mistress, leading, after the proposal is declined,
to an order for his crucifixion along with the female
slave whom he is supposed to love. To this
same century belongs the speech of an advocate
who affirms publicly in court that the chief judge
has had improoer relations with a seventeen-year-old
boy. But no text the writer has ever seen has so imprest
upon him the difference between the ancient and modern

RECAPITULATION 683
civilization as the letter from Hilarion, an Egyptian
laborer, written to Alis, his wife, June 17, 1 b.c, con
cerning his own child and concerning a babe probably
about to be born to his daughter:18
"Hilarion to Alis, his sister. Many greetings. . Be not
distressed if at the general coming in I remain at Alexandria I
pray thee and beseech thee take care of the little child. And as
soon as we receive wages I will send them to thee (?).... If
. . . is delivered, if it be a male baby let it live, if it be a female,
expose it."
Look at that awful Greek word, expata, "cast it
out," "expose it!" What could put in stronger relief
the horrors of that age in which the lover of little
children came preaching the "Good News" than just
the letters which form that commonplace word, written
with such utter indifference and without the slightest
apology or excuse to that far-off mother.
But this is not the only case of child exposure made
known to us in the papyri. It was such a common
thing that a large number of documents have come to
us from Alexandria, dating near the birth of Christ,
all of which prove to be contracts with women who
acted as nurses for these little babies picked off the
rubbish heap, to be kept for slaves or used for immoral
purposes.19 As we compare even the best teaching — not to speak
of the practise — revealed in these ancient heathen writ
ings, with the New Testament gospels and letters, we
18 Oxyrhynchus Papyri, IV : 744.
"Menander's chief comedy is based on the story of an exposed child
which a shepherd has found in the wilderness, with which was found also
a necklace and ring. Onesimus finds the ring and recognizes it as the
property of his master, and then the fun begins !

684 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
appreciate as never before the words of Athanasius
(a.d. 367) in his recently recovered Festal Letter:
"These are springs of salvation, so that he
WHO IS ATHIRST MAY BE FILLED WITH THE ORACLES
IN THEM. IN THEM ALONE IS THE TEACHING OF
PIETY PROCLAIMED AS GOOD NEWS. LET NO ONE ADD
TO THEM, OR TAKE AWAY AUGHT FROM THEM."20
M Zahn, Geschichti des neutestamentlichen Kanons, II : 210»

SCRIPTURE TEXTS ILLUSTRATED
AND
INDEX

'[•685]

SCRIPTURE TEXTS ILLUSTRATED

Gen. 26:22  370
Josh. 15:44  359
2 Kings 10:27  27
Esther 2: 18  35
Ezra 6: 11  27
Dan. 2:5  27
49  38
Matt. 1: 16  184
18-20  184
Matt. 3: 11  129
16-17  336
Matt. 4:25  372
Matt. 5:40  130
Matt. 6:2  122
5  122
7  130
16  122
Matt. 7:3  130
18  159
Matt. 9:36  120
Matt. 10:26  217
28  650
Matt. 15: 1-20  230
21ff  286/F
Matt. 16: 18  197
Matt. 19: 16-22  217
Matt. 20: 1-16  284
Matt. 23: 5  655
Matt. 24:24  227
30  606
Matt. 26:29  130
64  606
Matt. 28:19  xvii
Mark 1:4  197
Mark 4: 11  124
22  217
24  196
Mark 5:3  116
Mark 7: 1-23  230
35  650
Mark 10:31  217
38  229
Mark 12:38  116
Mark 13:22  227
Mark 14:25  130
26  335
Mark 15:40  35
Mark 16:9  583
14ff  164
17  194
Luke 1: 1-4  581
Luke 2:2  46
5  183
34   335
36 ::::  «»
Luke 4:24  197
29  183
Luke '6:4.'  138
28  !9?
37  196

Luke 7: 22  xvii
29  183
Luke 11:2  138, 196
3  196
Luke 12:2  217
6  650
Luke 15: llff  327
12  649
21  197
Luke 16:8  150
25  182
Luke 17:4  678
10  182
21  217
Luke 18: 5  120
Luke 19:20  150
21  129
22  182
29  355
Luke 22:49  151
51  151
55  151
Luke 23:34  181
53  116
Luke 24: 18  120
John 1:4  196
John 3: 5  197
13  182
John 5:22  607
John 6:44  196
John 7:53 — 8: 11  187|
John 8:1-11  187
12  196
34  181
John 9:3  343
7  358
39  335
John 10:1-10  152
J 5  152
24':  196
45  153
John 11 : 16  130
31  183
John 12:6  129
John 13:14  197
John 14:24  197
John 15: 5  116
14  128
John 'l8:'l3  181
John 20:31  197
John 21:15-17  181
16  279
Acts 1:3  280
12  649
Acts 2:6  190
Acts 4: 13  •• 129
Acts 6:7  615
Acts 7:2  190
Acts 8:10  191
Acts 9:16  229
[687]

Acts 10: 33  589
36  191
39  129
Acts 11: 5  190
11  589
20  191
Acts 12: 13  595
20  649
Acts 13: 1  38
7  538
12  539
Acts 14:5  414
8-19  525f
12  526
Acts 15:22  120
Acts 16: .6  415
13  191
37  129
40  564
Acts 17:5  129
6  126
16  488
17  492
19  489
21  488
22  490, 678
28  491
Acts 18: Iff  494
2  518
4  501
5  191
9-10  494
24  120
Acts 19: 5  229
9  473
18-20  474
24  476, 479, 482
24-35  565
35  469/., 476
Acts 20:4  517
28  191
35  211
Acts 21:16  129, 191
29  11
32  589
39  542
Acts 22:16  190
35  129
Acts 23:30  589
Acts 27:17  580
37  580
Acts 28: 11  580
Rom. 4:15  281
Rom. 6:3  229
Rom. 7: Iff  619
Rom. 8: Iff  «*
14  120
20 '.'.  155
Rom. 10: 12  xvii

688 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES

Rom. 15:28  36
Rom. 16: 7  120
25  124
1 Cor. 1: 14-16  494
26-31  501
1 Cor. 2: 7  124
1 Cor. 3: 10  129
16  494
1 Cor. 4: 10  678
17  649
1 Cor.. 6:9  649
9,10  680
11  607
15  494
20  651
1 Cor. 7:22  128
23  651
1 Cor. 8:5-6  128
1 Cor. 9:24-26  495
27  120
1 Cor. 10: 11  673
13  589
21  127
1 Cor. 11: 3-10  543/
1 Cor. 12: 3  128
1 Cor. 13: Iff  114
1 Cor. 15:33  43
1 Cor. 16: 1, 35, 125/. 570
15  494
21  585
2 Cor. 2: 12  419
2 Cor. 3:8-10  114
2 Cor. 4: 6  607
11  678
2 Cor. 6:9/  114
2 Cor. 8:23  500
2 Cor. 9: llff.  114
2 Cor. 11:4  155
6  114
Gal. 1: 15  541
Gal. 2:6-9  114
Gal.. 3: 1  123
10  37

24  123
27  229
Gal. 5: 1  651
12  126
13  651
Gal. 6: 11  38, 585
17  38, 650
Eph. 3:3  124
6  xvii
Eph. 6: 12  676
19  124
21  518
Phil. 1:4  130
12  327
Phil. 2:9  128
11  128
Phil. 3:7-8  678
8  123
Phil. 4:2  518
18  122
Col. 1:7  570
Col. 2: 14  128, 583
18  537
Col. 4: 12  570
14  581
16  118, 570
18  585
1 Thess. 1:9  ..... 329
1 Thess. 4: 14-18  681
1 Thess. 5:27  118
2 Thess. 3: 17-18  585
1 Tim. 1:20  650
1 Tim. 2: 8  130
2 Tim. 2: 14  Ill
2 Tim. 3: 10-11  526
2 Tim. 4: 7  130
8  347
13  648
17  596
Titus 1:4  500
8  347
12  491
Titus 2: 13  127

Titus 3: 12-13  120
Philemon, 17  329
18  126
Heb. 2:2  130
7  347
10  129
Heb. 6:6  252
17  130
Heb. 11: 1  678
Heb. 12: 17  252
Heb. 13: 5  116
20  662
James 1:3  37, 588
12  347
1 Pet. 1:7  37, 588
1 Pet. 2:2  37
2 Pet. 1:1  127
10  130
3 John 1  322
Jude 6  607
7  130
17  607
Rev. 2:7  607
10  562
13  120
20  565
27  564
Rev. 3: 5  607
7-13  569
12  569
Rev. 5:1  583
Rev. 8:38  607
Rev. 9:5  607
20  191
Rev: 11: 18  191
Rev. 13: Iff.  37
16-17  37
18  191
Rev: 14:9  37
19  Ill
Rev. 17: 5  192
Rev. 18: 14  116
Rev. 19:20  37

INDEX

Abbott, Dr., 594, 642.
Abbott, E. A., 309, 311.
Abbreviations in papyri, 120.
Abgar-Christ correspondence, 41/., 474.
Abraham, Testament of, 235.
Achilles Tatius, Work by, 59.
Acrostic hymn, 303.
Acts of John. 233/.
— Martyrdom, 338/., 344.
— Paul, 236/.
— Peter, 233.
— Philip, 244.
— the Apostles, 103, 414, 581.
Adams, J.. 491.
Mgean civilization, originated in Crete,
xiii.
Agape, 267, 408.
Agnosticism in early centuries, 58.
Ahikar, Story of. 612.
Akhmim, cemetery at, 408 ff.
Alcseus, work by, 59.
Alciphron's Letter-writer, 644.
Alcman, work by, acquired, 7.
Alexander of Alexandria, sermon by,
288/.
Alexandria, 68/., 573.
Alexandrine codex, 136ff.
Algerian Fathers, 358.
Altar of Zeus at Pergamum, 563.
— triangular, 505.
Amenemhat III. and the Fayum, 25/.
Amente (Hades), 239/., 286.
Amethysts, 295.
Amherst papyri, 41, 65, 142.
Amulets, ancient, 290ff., 295ff.
Amusements, 90/.
Ananias of Shirak, sermon by, 279.
Anderson, J. C, 430.
Andrews, 492.
Angels, in apocryphal gospels, 232.
Anti-Jewish bias of Gospel of Peter, 223.
Antinoe, cemeteries at, 403/.
Antioch in Asia Minor, 531 ff.
— Syria, 549 ff.
Antiquity, study of, and archeology, xiii.
Apa Eusebius, sermon by, 286/.
Aphrodite papyri, 48.
— statues of, 498/.
Apocalypse of Baruch, 235/.
— Peter, 219/., 225ff.
Apocryphal Acts, 233.
— gospels, 219/F., 224ff.
— writings, character of, 241 ff.
Apologetic, early Christian, 257.
Apology of Aristides, 245ff., 572.
Apostles, in Didache, 269.
— pictures of, 390.
— statutes of, 340.

Apostolic doctrine in Didache, 262.
— preaching, by Irenaeus, 255/.
Apprenticeship, 56/., 93.
Aquila, 495.
Aquileia, 571.
Arabic text of Diatessaron, 203, 205.
Aramaic inscriptions, 361.
— language, 175.
Archeology and authorship, xvi, xxii.
— and geography, xxii.
— and Greek civilization, xiiiff.
— and higher criticism, xv, xxiv, 10.
— and historical research, xxii.
— and Scripture, xiiiff., xv.
Architecture at Athens, 483/F.
— at Corinth, 497ff.
— at Cyzicus, 433ff.
— at Ephesus, 462ff.
• — at Pompeii, 374ff.
— at Salona, 439.
— in Syria, 440 ff.
— in the Fayum, 67.
Areopagus, 489/.
Aretas, 369.
Aristeas, Letter of, 613.
Aristides, 246.
— Apology of, 254ff., 572.
Aristotle "On the Constitution," 8ff.
Armenian Acts of Apostles, 200.
— translation of Ephraem Syrus, 203.
Arsinoe (Crocodilopolis), 66.
— papyrus finds at, 8.
Artemis, images of, 470, 477ff., 499.
— temples of, 461ff., 566.
— worship of, 465, 565/.
Art objects at Rome, 503ff.
Arundell, F. V. J., 521.
Asclepius, temples of, 486, 507, 563.
Asia Minor and Archeology, xiv, 412ff.(
521 ff.
— Phrygian, 415ff.
Asiarchs, 467.
Assos, 553/.
Assumption of Moses, 617.
Assumptionist Fathers, 357/.
Astrological documents, 53.
Astronomical works, 49.
Athanasius, Canons of, 340.
— sermon by, 284/.
Athens, discoveries at, 482ff.
Attic and vernacular Greek, 582.
Auguries from birds, 474.
Austrian excavations at Ephesus, 471 ff.
Authorship and archeology, xvi, xxii.
Avircius, 425/.

Baal-Tarz, 543.
"Babbler," 489.

[689]

690 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES

Bacchylides, Odes of, 14.
Balanos, M., 483.
Balestri, P. J.. 187.
Baptism, 266/., 341, 400.
Baptismal pictures, 400.
Baptizo metaphorized, 229/.
Barnabas, son of Nebo, 38.
— epistle of, 134.
Bartholomew. 238.
Barton, Dr. Geo. A., 369, 502.
Baruch, Greek Apocalypse of, 236/.
Basil, Canons of, 340.
Basilicas, Christian, in Syria, 444ff.
Baths, public, 83, 90, 95, 374, 446, 448,
452, 510, 553.
"Beast," reference of, 37.
Beatus, presbyter, 197/.
Begging letters, early, 330ff.
Behnesa (Oxyrhynchus), xiv, 19.
Belief of sub-apostolic Church, 261.
Benndorf, O., 471ff., 480.
Bensly, R. L, 184.
Bernard, Bishop, 309/., 312.
Bethesda, pool of, 358.
Bethphage, stone of, 355.
Beza, Theodore, 138.
Birds, auguries from, 474.
Bishops, in Didache, 270.
Blass, F., 36, 111, 113.
Bliss, F. J., 357, 359.
"Blunders" in New Testament language,
111.
Bohlig, H., 543/.
Bohairic Coptic dialect, 186.
— sermons of Chrysostom, 289.
— version of New Testament, 188, 210.
Boni, G., 507/.
Book of the Resurrection, 238.
Bosio, A., 385.
Botanical work by Dioscorides, 59.
Breccia, E., 658.
Briggs, R. A., 376.
British Museum publications of papyri,
10/., 12ff., 44/., 47/.
"Brother," meaning of, 34.
Bryennios, P., 260ff., 277.
Buchanan, E. S., 195/.
Budge, E. A. W., 189, 283, 307.
Bulic, F., 433, 438/.
Burial associations, 96, 275, 424ff., 662/.
Buried cities, light from, 351ff.
Burkitt, F. C, 176, 179, 184/.
Business letters, Christian, 323/.
Butler. H. C, 442ff., 483, 565.
Caesarea, 135, 556.
Cassars, palaces of, 511ff.
Cagnat, R., 576.
Cairo genizah, 659.
Calder, W. M., 537.
Calendar, Church, 61, 337.
Callimachus, writings by, 55.
Calpurnii, tombs of the, 504/f.
Canaan, exploration of, xiiiff., 351ff..
363/., 577ff.
Canon of Scripture, 333.
Canticles, Christian, 308.
Capernaum, location of, 366/.
Capital punishment, 632/.
Capitalism, ancient, 663, 673/.

Carrara, F., 432.
Carter, J, F., 599, 668.
Carthage, 573/.
Carus, P., 600.
Casanowicz, I. M., 368.
Case, S. J., 128, 652/.
Catacombs, Roman, 383ff.
Cavvadias, P., 483.
Cemetery, Christian, at Cyzicus, 435ff.
Cemeteries, Christian, in Egypt, 402.
Census, Roman, 46, 78/., 538.
Cercidas, "Meliambi" by, 57.
Chabot. 186.
Chalice of Antioch, 550/.
Charles, R. H., 259, 603ff., 613, 622.
Charms, Christian, 295ff. See also Magic.
Charta hieratica (Augusta), 5.
— Livia, 5.
Chassinat. E„ 189.
Chirography of Fayum documents, 170.
Chrestomathy of notables, 59.
Chrestophorus, 324/.
"Chrestus" for "Christus." 423.
Christ as rock, 279.
— 'correspondence of Abgar with, 41/.
— date of birth of, 47.
— date of death of, 633ff.
— ideal portraits of, 42, 389, 395/., 550/.
Christian churches in Egypt, 95.
Christianity, Oriental, 578.
Christians, employed environment, xix.
— in Aristides' Apology, 248ff.
— persecutions of, 66/., 272, 275, 434ff.,
513.
— under Moslems, 48/.
Christology of Odes of Solomon, 319.
Chrysostom, sermons of, in Bohairic, 289.
Church a mystery-fraternity, 124.
— calendar, 61, 337.
— discipline, early, 340/., 346.
— early, light on, 577ff.
— names, 61, 337.
— the, in Shepherd of Hermas, 254.
— services in sixth century, 61.
Churches in Syria, 444ff.
Cisterns in Jerusalem, 357.
Clark, A. G., 553.
Clarke, S., 97.
Classics and modern discovery, 590ffi
Cleanthes, Hymn of, 490/.
Clemen, C, 491.
Clement of Alexandria, 211/.. 216. 244.
300.
— of Rome, First Epistle of, 152.
— of Rome, Second Epistle of, 336.
Clermont-Ganneau, C, 355.
Cock as emblem, 360, 533.
Codex Alexandrinus, 136ff.
— Bezae, 138/.. 212.
— Claromontanus, 139.
— Corbeiensis, 199.
— Dublinensis, 139.
— early papyrus, date of, 4.
— Fuldensis, 203.
— Laudianus, 139, 199.
— Nitriensis, 139.
— Sinaiticus, xv, 133ff.
— Vaticanus, 135ff. ;
Collignan, M., 564.
Colosseum, Roman, 513/.

INDEX

691

Communal houses, 82.
Coins, 382, 496, 528/., 533, 542, 564.
Commandment, second great, 262.
"Common people" in first century, 590.
Conder, C. R.. 355, 357. •
Confession at baptism, 341.
— of faith, early, 344.
Conflict of Severus, 240.
Confusion of Jesus and the Spirit, 252.
Constantine, arch of, 508/.
Constantinople, 571.
Conybeare, F. C, 254, 583.
Cook, A. B.. 535.
Cooley. A. S., 501.
Coptic dialog, 343.
— language and dialects, xix/., 186.
— (Sahidic) liturgy, 340.
— private letters, 329/.
— sermons in, 280/.
— texts of New Testament, 149, 152/.,
186ff.
Corinth, discoveries at, 493 ff.
Cowley, A., 369.
Craft, A. N., 595.
Creed of Early Church, 247.
Crete, xiii, 557.
Crime, 85/.
Crocodiles and papyri, 40.
Crocodilopolis (Arsinoe), 66.
Cross, 295, 299, 360, 392, 480.
Crown, golden, 476.
Crucifixion as a penalty, 633.
— of Jesus, date of. 634.
Crura, W. E., 166, 280, 331/., 340, 343/.,
679.
Cryptograms, 456.
Cumont, F.. 430. 599/.
Cureton, W., 176.
Cybele, 417. 533. 535.
Cyprian, 193.
Cyprus, 552ff.
Cyzicus, 430/.. 572.
Dale. R. W., 577.
Dalman, G., 370, 631.
Damascus. 544ff.
Damasus, Pope, 387.
Damianus, sermon by, 280.
Daphne, grove of, 550.
David. J.. 189.
Davis, W. S., 592.
Deacons, in Didache, 270.
Death, early Christian view of, 399.
— personified, 239.
— way of, in Didache, 264.
Decian persecution, 272, 275/.
Deissmann, A., xviff., 23, 30ff., 39, 47,
106, 114, 119, 126. 128. 141, 142, 165/.,
216. 325, 327, 346, 474, 490. 496, 501/.,
555. 648, 651.
Deity of Jesus, 214, 224, 285, 401.
Delattre, Pere, 574/.
Demetrius, 482.
Demons, fear of, 295ff.
Derbe. discoveries at, 526ff.
De Ricci. S., 411.
Der il-Kahf. 455.
De Rossi, G. B., on the Catacombs, xix,
383ff., 386, 515.
De Vogiie, C. J., M., 441ff.

Devotional collections, 52.
De Waal. 391, 520.
Diaconate in early centuries, 326.
Diana, see Artemis.
Diatessaron, 199ff.
Dictation of letters, 100ff., 584.
Didache, 260ff.
Dieterich, A., 653/.
Dignity of New Testament Greek, 117,
121.
Dill. S.. 591, 596.
Dining, posture at, 375.
Diobouniotis, C, 257.
Diocletian, 433ff.
Diognetus, Epistle to, 251.
Dioscorides, 59, 113, 581.
Divination, 296. See also Magic.
Divorce decrees. 81/.
Djebel Halakah, ruins at, 453.
Dobschiitz, E. von. 675.
Dorpfeld, W., 483, 497, 563.
Dolls, magical, 360.
Domestic architecture in Syria. 444ff.
Donehoo, J. De, 241.
D'Ooge, M. L., 483.
Doxology, earlyj 277.
Dreams, 297.
Drummond. J., 623.
Eastern Church, hymns of, 304/.
"Eastern" text. 171, 173.
Ecclesiastical Canons. 339/.
— history, early book on, 339.
Ecclesiasticus, 604.
Edgar, C. C, 14.
Egypt and archeology, xiii.
— Greek language in. xviii.
Egyptian religion and Christianity, 404ff.,
411/.
Eisen, G. A.. 551.
Election notices, 379ff.
Elephantine papyri, xiv,
Elgin, L«rd, 483.
Elliott, W. A., 150, 324.
Emperors, worship of, 127/., 533, 554,
601. 680.
Enoch, Book of. 220, 605ff.
Enrolment document, 47.
Ephesians, Pauline authorship of, 101.
Ephesus, churches at, 471.
— discoveries at, 461 ff.
Ephraem Syrus, commentary of, 202/.
Epicharmus, poem of, 42.
Epimenides, 491.
Epistle to Diognetus, 251.
Epistolary literature, 53/., 72/., 86ff.,
100ff., 584ff., 640ff., 646ff., 668/., 673,
681.
Epitaphs, Christian, 347, 369/., 386, 388,
392ff., 411ff., 419/F., 425/., 456ff., 480/.
Eschatology of Apocalypse of Peter, 226/.
Ethiopic Liturgy, 342.
Eucharist, in Didache, 266ff.
Eucharistic symbols, 397.
Eulogius, 44.
Euphemia, Saint, 337.
Euripides, fragments from, 16, 43, 53.
— Satyrus' life of, 58.
Excommunication, 345/.
Exile, Christian, in Egypt, 322/.
Ezra, a learned man, xxi.

692 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES

Family and social life, 10ff., 23, 28/., 44ff.,
55, 70ff., 86/., 91/., 123, 321/., 330/.,
_ 395. 399, 445ff., 459, 635ff., 663, 673/.
— infelicities revealed. 29.
Farm records, 11/., 86/. .
Fasts, in Didache. 266.
Fayum, architecture in, 67,
— described, 65 ff., 168/.
— isolation of the, 74, 88, 96. 168/.
— life in the, 69ff„ 168/.
— papyri finds in, 8ff., 26. 168ff.
— population of, 67.
— topography of. 25, 65 ff.
Fayumic version of New Testament, 188/.
Finance in early centuries, 72, 81/., 88,
94.
First century illustrated, 577ff.
Fish as symbol, 397/.
Flats in antiquity, 82.
Flavius Abinaeus, 324.
Forgiveness, sermon on, 283.
Forum, Roman, excavation of, 507ff.
'Fossores, 323.
Fourth Ezra, 619.
— Gospel, early date of, 401/.
Fowler. W. W.. 600ff.
Freedmen in Roman Empire, 591/.
Freer, C. L., 160/., 307.
"Friend," meaning of, 35.
Fronto, Gaius Caristanius, 540.
Funeral associations, 83. See also Guilds.
Galatia, Phrygian, 415ff., 523ff.
Galatians, character of, 417/.
— date of Epistle to, 502.
Gallio, 494. 502.
Gardner. E. L.. 465, 486.
Gaster, M., 362. 655.
Gaume, Abbe, 383.
Gemara, 624.
Gemellus, letters by, 28.
Genealogies omitted in Diatessarofi. 208.
Genizah Hebrew manuscripts, 659ff.
Geography and archeology, xxii.
Gerasa, in Decapolis, 372.
German Oriental Society, 366/.
Gezer, excavations at, 363/.
Ghettos. 79, 516.
Gibson, Mrs., xv, 176ff.
Gifts to temples, 77, 476ff.
Gilmore, G. W., 551.
Gladiatorial combats, 375, 513/., 595/.
Glasses, pictured, from Rome, 520.
Gnostic hymn, 301ff.
Gnosticism, 301ff., 407, 410, 652ff.
Goldschmidt, L., 625/.
Good Samaritan, parallel to parable of,
232.
— Shepherd, representations of, xix, 398,
403, 436, 438, 492. 509.
Goodspeed, E. J., 162, 240, 255, 371, 589.
Gospel according to the Egyptians, 216.
— of Nicodemus, .243/.
— of Peter, 219ff.
— of the Hebrews, 216, 244.
— of Thomas, 216.
— to the Egyptians, 69.
Gospels, Syriac codex of, 51.
Graffiti, 362, 377, 379, 388, 391, 512/., 520.
Grammar of New Testament, 106ff.

Graves, Christian, 351ff., 402ff.
Gravestones, Phrygian Christian, 412ff.
Greek civilization and archeology, xiii.
— language in Egypt, xviii.
— Manuscripts of New Testament, 132ff.,
209.
Gregg, J. A. F., 276.
Gregory, C. R., 105, 139, 140, 142ff., 150,
166/., 186. 205.
Gregory Nazianzen, sermon by, 281.
— Thaumaturgus, sermon of, 278/.
Grieg, F. C. S., 356.
Grenfell, B. P., 162.
— B. P., and Hunt, A. S., 6, 18ff., 39, 54.
140, 154, 211, 215, 228/., 231ff., 251,
300, 320, 336.
Griffith, F. L., 652.
Grottos of St. John, 558.
Guerin (H. V.), 355.
Guilds, 48, 83/., 426/., 564, 662, 674.
Guillaume, E., 430.
Gurob, papyri at, 16ff.
Guthe, H.. 357.
Gwynn, J., 176.
Hall, H. R., 294, 345, 535.
Hamilton. W. J.. 522.
Harmony of the Gospels, 185, 200ff.
Harnack, A., 103, 213/., 230, 244/., 259,
261, 265. 309. 335/., 657.
Harris, J. R, 179, 184, 200, 213, 219,
245/.. 251, 308, 312ff., 631, 673.
Hasluck, F. W., 430/., 572.
Hauran, architecture in, 454ff,
Hawara, papyri finds at, 16.
Heathenism, immorality of, 264.
Heberdey. R.. 471/.
Hebraisms, 36.
Hebrews, not used by Irenaeus, 257.
— style of. 113.
Helene, Epitaph of, 348.
Herculaneum, manuscripts found at, 7.
Hermas, a slave, 251/.
— Shepherd of, 41, 134, 251ff.
Hermetic books. 652.
Herodas, poems of, 12/.
Herodian temple at Samaria, 362.
Hezekiah, Testament of, 41.
Hibeh papyri, 43.
Hicks, E. L., 463, 478, 481/.
Hieracles, work by, 59.
High prices in early centuries, 592ff.
Higher criticism and archeology, xv, xxiv,
10.
Hill, J. H, 204.
Hippolytus, canons of, 339.
Historical research and archeology, xxii.
Hobson, A. A., 205.
Hodges, G., 553.
Hogarth, D. G., 422, 424, 430, 468/., 546ff.
Holtzmann, 0., 502.
Holy land in first century, 577ff.
Homer, text of, 198.
— views of, and archeology, xiii.
Horner, G, 165, 340.
Hoskier, H. C, 138, 173.
Hospitality, early Christian, 328.
Humility, sermon on, 282/.
Humor, ancient, 647.
Hunt, A. S., 158, 231, 234.

INDEX

693

Husband, R. W., 633/.
Hymns, ancient Christian, 300ff., 456.
Hypereides, orations of, 7, 14, 65.
Hyvernat (H.), 186, 290, 329, 339/.
Iconium, 527ff.
Idol worship, in Didache, 265.
Ignatius, 259.
— letters of, 259ff.
Iliad, commentary on, 58.
— part of, found at Elephantine, 7.
 of, found at El Hibeh, 43.
Illiteracy in early centuries, 45, 82.
Il-Magharah, tombs, at, 444.
Imber. N. H.. 625.
Immoralities at Pompeii, 376ff.
Immorality in mystery cults, 124/.
Imprecations, Christian, 424. See also
Magic.
Imouthes-Asclepius, 63.
"In the name," meaning of, 35.
Incubation, 431. 486.
Industries in early centuries, 77, 89ff.
Infanticide, 683.
Inns in Syria, 450/.
Inscription, earliest Christian, 394.
Inscriptions, 34, 342, 347, 351ff., 368ff.,
387, 390ff., 411ff., 419ff., 437ff., 445,
450, 453, 455ff., 463, 472ff., 477ff.,
499ff., 504, 507, 515/., 517ff., 530/.,
536ff., 545, 552ff., 565ff., 568, 647,
655.
Inspiration, Tyconius on, 277.
Intellectual life in early centuries, 635ff.
Interest rates in early centuries, 45.
Inventions in early centuries, 636ff.
Irenaeus, 256. „
— against Heresies 336.
— apostolic preaching of, 255/.
Iris, statue of, 581.
"Isis," invocation to, 62.
— Worship of, 62/.> 507.
Israel and Egypt, xiv.
Jacquier, 119,
James, Epistle of, and Hermas, 253.
James, M. R., 225.
Jar handles, stamped, 361/.
Jericho, excavations at, 361.
Jerome's text, 193ff.
Jerusalem, explorations in, 354, 356ff.
Jesus and Palestine, 577ff.
— deity of, 214, 224, 285, 401.
— in the Talmud, 631.
— Trial of, 63 Iff.
Jewish amulets, 300.
— catacombs, 384,
— colonies, 79f.
— influence, 657/.
— inscriptions, 479, 500/., 515/., 555, 655/.
— literature, pre-Christian, 603ff.
— manuscripts, 659ff.
Jews in Alexandria, 656/.
— in Antioch,, Asia Minor, 531/.
— in Antioch in Syria, 549/.
— in Athens, 492/.
— in Carthage, 575/.
— in Corinth, 500/.
— in Laodicea, 570.
— in Lystra, 525/.

Jews in Miletus, 555.
— in Phrygia, 428.
— in Rome, 515ff.
— in Smyrna, 562.
— in Socnopaei Nesus, 79ff.
— in Tarsus, 543.
Johannine theology in Odes of Solomon
309, 311.
John, Apostle, Acts of, 233/.
 date of death, 204.
 picture of, 163.
— style of Gospel of, 115.
— St., Grottos of, 558.
— Rylands library papyri, 15, 49, 274.
— the deacon, epitaph of, 348.
Josephus, 622.
Jubilees, Book of, 610.
Judith, 604.
Jiilicher, G. A., 118.
Judas, Thomas, 181.
Juster, J., 516, 657.
Justin Martyr, 201, 207, 213.
Kasr Ibu Wardan Church, 449.
Katura, rock tombs at, 453.
Kennedy (H. A. L.), 119.
Kenyon, F. G, 8ff., 12, 98, 138/., 143/.,
145, 148, 165, 167, 174, 218, 336.
Kerratin, cathedral at, 451.
Khan Minyeh not Capernaum, 366.
Koine, Greek, xviiff., 30ff., 108ff., 119ff.,
582ff.
Krauss, 660.
Krebs, F., 272.
Kurios implies deity, xix.
Lachish (Tel el Hesy), 358/.
Laible, 631.
Lake, K., 251.
Lambros, Professor, 41, 251.
Lanciani, R., 390, 503/., 510, 513, 515,
519.
Lanza, C, 432.
Laodicea, 570/.
Last judgment, sermon on, 282.
— supper, picture of, 396.
Latin New Testaments, 192ff.
— use of, 641.
Lavigerie, Cardinal, 576.
Le Bas, P., 522.
Lectionaries, 165.
Lefebvre, G., 293, 329. 342.
Legal documents, 16, 21/., 27/., 40, 43, 47,
55ff., 68, 80ff., 85f., 377, 566/., 643.
Legge, F., 623, 653, 655.
Leon, copyist of Didache. 261.
Lethaby, W. R., 472.
Letters, early Christian, 320ff. See also
Epistolary literature.
— of Ignatius, 259ff.
Lewis, A. S., xv, 175ff., 184/.
Lexicons, New Testament, 107.
Libelli, 271 ff.
Liberius, homily of, 343.
— sermon of, 278.
Life, conditions of, shown by papyri, xviii.
— way of, in Didache, 262.
Lightfoot, J. B., 106.
Literary habits of first century, 582ff.
Literature, rewards of, 68.
Littmann, E., 459.

i694 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES

Liturgical fragments, 334ff.
Livius, T., 520.
Livy, epitome of, 147.
"Logia," meaning of, 35..
— date of manuscripts of, 216, 218,
— of Jesus, 23, 21 Iff.
"Lord" an ascription of deity, 127/.
"Lord's Day," 36, 128, 270.
Lot as patron saint, 368.
Louvre, papyri in,. 7, 13/.
Luke, accuracy of, 526, 529, 546.
— spelling of name, 200.
— style of, 113, 116.
Lynch. Lieut., 355.
Lystra, discoveries at, 525ff.
Macalister, R. A. S., 359. 363.
Madeba, mosaic at, 367.
Magic, 11, 52, 294ff., 298/., 360/., 371,
601, 649ff., 655, 675/.
Magical dolls, 360.
— texts, 11, 52, 294ff., 650.
Magie, D., 459.
Mahaffy, J. P., 16.
Maiden's Lament, 50.
Mamertine prison, 520.
Man, A., 373.
Manaen, 38.
Manceri, E., 558.
Manumission, 55, 128, 396.
Manuscripts, dating of, 98/.
Mara's testimony to Christ, 241.
Marcion, 201.
Marcionitic synagog, 367.
Marcus Aurelius as persecutor, 275.
Mareshah, 359.
Margoliouth, G., 185, 604.
Marionos, epitaph of, 347.
Mar-Iochanis, sermon by, 279.
Mark, ending of Gospel of, 104, 203, 583.
— the evangelist, picture of, 163.
Mark's Gospel originally Latin?, 199.
— style of, 113.
Martin. V., 320, 643.
Martyrs, lives of, 337ff.
— prayers to, 395.
— tributes to, 347.
Marucchi, C, 383/., 389ff., 508/., 519/.,
667.
Mary, Virgin, Damianus on, 281.
Maudslay, 357.
Mearns, J., 308.
Medical documents, 49/., 58.
— science, 637.
— terms in Acts, 581.
Melita, 557.
"Memoirs of the Apostles," 208.
Memphitic texts, 210.
Men, god in Pisidian Antioch, 533ff.
Mena, epitaph of, 348.
Menander, writings by, 21, 54, 59.
Mercer, S. A., 342.
Messiah, in Odes of Solomon, 319.
Meyer, P. M., 273, 276, 325/.
Milan, 572.
Mileham, G. L., 97.
Miletus, 554ff.
Milligan, G„ 98, 103, 143, 165, 587/.
Milne. J. G., 651.
Mingana, A., 176.

Mishna, 624,
Mithraism, 505/., 600, 653ff., 667/.
Moeris, Lake, 65ff., 75.
Moffat, J., 173, 417.
Montefiore, 598.
Montgomery, J. A., 371.
Moore, M., 576.
Morals in first century, 597ff.
Morey, C. R., 508.
Morgan collection, 340.
Morosow, N., on the Apocalypse, 104.
Mortuary inscriptions, 347ff., 351ff., 369ff.,
387ff., 390ff., 411ff., 419ff., 425/.,
438, 455ff., 480, 500ff., 517ff., 647,
655/., 682.
Mosaics, 367/., 437, 452, 514, 576.
Moses, assumption of, 617.
— literary activity of, xxi.
Moulton, J. H., 101, 106/., 110, 220, 491,
673, 678.
Moulton, J. H., and Milligan, G., 129, 131.
Moulton, W. J., 360.
Mummification, Christian, 404ff.
Mummy cases, made of papyri, 16/.
— magically invoked, 298/.
Music, early, 638.
— in Ephesian temple, 467.
"Mysteries," 123ff., 535, 537ff., 563.
Names, Aramaic forms of, 180/.
— magical use of, 297, 361.
— of churches in Egypt, 62, 337.
Naville, E., xiff., 14, 407.
"Neutral" New Testament text, 112, 136,
172.
Newcombe, S. F., 356.
New Testament, accuracy of, 489, 526,
529, 546.
 and archeology, xiv, xviiff., 30ff.
 and the Koine, xviiff., xxiii., 30ff.
 authors used vernacular, 112, 583.
 dated in first century, 103.
 grammar, 106ff..
 peculiarities of, 109.
 Greek manuscripts, 132ff., 174.
 in Didache, 265.
 language, xviff., 30ff.
 lexicons, 107.
 r manuscripts, numbers of, 105.
 style, 112ff., 588.
 text, certainty of, 209.
 vocabulary, 113, 119ff.
Newton, C, 430.
Newton, C. T., 554.
Nicene creed, 51, 336.
Nicodemus, Gospel of, 243/,
Nicola, council of, 339.
Nimbus, 398/.
Number of New Testament manuscripts,
174, 193, 209/.
Numbers, symbolism of, 377/.
Odes of Solomon, 219, 308/F.
Odyssey, 50.
CEcumenius, commentary on Apocalypse,
336.
Offord, J., 519.
Old Latin text, 194/.
— Testament and archeology, xiii.
 in Didache, 265.

INDEX

695

589. xiv,

Olmstead, A. J., 429.
Onias, temple of, 657.
Orphanages, Christian, 427.
Orpheus as a symbol, xix.
Osiris, 409/.
Ostraka, 80/., 164ff., 330ff., 345,
Oxyrhynchus (Behnesa) papyri, xiv, 6,
19, 26/., 39, 54ff„ 211ff„ 215ff., 228ff..
233ff.
— church services in, 337.
— described, 66, 68, 88ff.
— life in, 89ff., 663.
Origen, 244.
— commentary on Revelation by, 257ff.
— Scholia on Apocalypse, 336.
— voluminous works of, 258.
Pachomius, 97.
Paintings, wall, 375/., 379, 395ff.
Palestine Exploration Fund, 355ff.
— exploration of, xiv, 355ff., 577ff
— light from, 351/7., 577ff.
— maps of, 356.
— Syriac lectionary, 218.
Papnoutios, Acts of martyrdom of, 338.
Papyri at Oxyrhynchus, variety of, xiv.
— collections of, 64/.
— durability of, 24.
— illustrate common life, xviii.
— in Louvre, 7, 13/.
— published by British Museum, 10, 12ff.
— support Westcott-Hort text, 173.
— historical value of, 670ff.
Papyrus books, 104.
— early use of, 3.
— finds at Arsinoe, 8
 at Gurob, 16ff.
 at Hawara, 16.
 at Hibeh, 42.
 at Oxyrhynchus, xiv, 6, 19, 26/.,
39.
 at Tebtunis, 39/.
— languages used on, 3.
— manufacture of, 4.
— - sheets, sizes of, 5, 99.
Parchment = sheepskin, 4, 104.
Parthenon, 483, 485.
Parusia, the, 271.
Pastoral epistles substantially genuine,
102.
Paul, Acts of, 236/.
— at Athens, 483ff.
— at Corinth, 494ff.
— at' Derbe, 527.
— at Ephesus, 473/.
— at Iconium, 528/.
— at Lystra, 525/.
— at Pisidian Antioch, 533/.
— at Rome, 517ff. _
— education of, xxi.
— pictures of, 396, 520.
— style of, 114ff.
— used Koine, xviii.
— use of symbols bv, 124.
Pauline letters. 31ff„ 100/., 118.
Peake, A. S., 204.
Pergamum, 563/.
Perrot, G., 413, 430.
Persae, the, of Timotheus, 14.

272,

Persecutions of Christians, 66/
275/. 434ff., 513.
Peshito, 176, 202.
Peter, Acts of, 233.
— Apocalypse of, 219/., 225ff.
— Gospel of, 219.
— pictures of, 396, 520.
Peters, J. P., 360.
Petrie, G., 576.
Petrie, W. M. F., 16/., 218, 358, 652.
Petnne Epistles, 103, 115.
Phaedo of Plato, 16.
Philadelphia, 569/.
Philanthropy, early, 596/., 678/.
Philemon, epistle to, 117
Philippi, 545ff.
Philo, 622ff.
Philoxenian Syriac text, 176.
Phylacteries, 363, 655.
Phrygia, 414/7.
Phrygian gravestones, Christian, 412ff.
Physicians, documents by, 21/.
Physiological treatise, 49.
Phythian-Adams, W. J., 655.
Pick, B., 233, 241.
Pindar, poems by, 20, 59/.
Pirke Aboth, 634ff.
Pisa, A., 376, 381.
Pistis Sophia, 652.
Plato, works of, 16, 59.
Police, 85/.
Polycorpus, 176.
Pompeii, discoveries at, 373ff.
— theater at, 514.
Pontremoli, E., 564.
Popular character of N. T. language, 30ff.
— language, beauty of, xx.
Population in the Fayum, 67.
— in Pisidian Antioch, 531ff.
Portraits of Christ, ideal, 42, 389, 395/.
Postscripts to letters, 588.
Potsherds, see Ostraka.
Prayer, post-communion, in Didache, 268.
Prayers, ancient, 290.
— to martyrs, 395.
Pre-Constantinian texts, 170, 172/.
Prentice, W. K., 442, 455.
Prepositions, use of Greek, 110.
Priesthood in the Fayum, 76ff.
Priests of Artemis, 464ff.
Princeton Syrian Expeditions, 442ff.
Priscilla, 495.
Private versus official Bibles, 167, 172.
Proclus, sermon by, 285.
Prodigal son, parable of, 327, 612/.
Prophets, in Didache, 268ff.
Prostitution at temples, 465, 496.
Provenance of Syriac manuscripts, 175.
Psalms of Solomon, 611/.
Psalters, Coptic, 307/.
Psenosiris, Epistle of, 322.
Ptolemaic documents found, 7.
Punctuation in Ancient Times, 102, 170.
Purple dyes, 565.
Puteoli, 558/?.
Quirinius, 46, 538.
Quotation Marks, 102.
Quotations from Scripture, 334ff., 342,
345ff.
Radet, G., 413.

696 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES

Radin, M., 516, 660.
Rainer collection of papyri, 189, 260, 335.
Ramsay, Sir William, xv, xvi, 38, 46,
412ff., 481/., 521 ff., 528ff., 533ff.,
537ff., 541, 546, 562, 564/., 569, 572,
655, 679.
Ravenna, 572/.
Real estate values, 72, 81/., 95.
Reinach, J., 467.
Reinhardt, Dr., 236.
Reisner, G. A., 361.
Reitzenstein, 125.
Religion in first century, 597ff., 677ff.
Renan, E., 595.
Resurrection, Book of the, 238.
Revelation, Book of, 104, 115.
— not used by Irenaeus, 257.
— Origen's commentary on, 257ff.
— of Peter. See Apocalypse.
Revenge dolls, 360.
Revival sermon, early, 282.
"Reward" — receipt in full, 122.
Rhodes, 556.
Ricci, M. de, 347.
Richardson, R. B., 497ff.
Richter, O., 507.
Ring of Pope Xystus, 254ff.
Robertson, A. T., 107, 109/., 114, 119,
121.
Robinson, E., discoveries of, 354ff.
Robinson, J. A., 223, 245/., 251, 261, 335.
Robinson, W. H., 368.
Rock, Christ as, 279.
Rodenwalt, G., 376.
Rodkinson, M. L., 626/.
Roesch, 152.
Rolls, manuscript, 100.
Roman religion, 597ff.
Rome, discoveries at, 502ff.
Ropes, J. H., 212.
Ross, C. F., 371.
Rulers, early prayer for, 291.
Ruweha, structures in, 445, 452.
Sabazius, 417/.
Sabbath, 610/., 627ff.
"Sabbatize the Sabbath," 213.
Sacraments, early doctrine of, 401.
Sahidic Coptic dialect, 186.
— manuscripts, 187, 189ff., 210.
— version of New Testament, 188.
Saints, lives of, 337ff.
Salona, Dalmatia, 432ff.
Samaria, excavations at, 361/.
Samaritan Pentateuch, 51.
Sanctus, ancient, 344.
Sanday, W., 204.
Sanders, H. A., 160ff.
Sanitation in Syria, 453/.
Sappho, poems by, 20, 21, 59.
Sarcophagi, 365/., 389/., 436, 438, 451,
508/.
— Jewish, 365.
Satyrus' life of Euripides, 58.
Savary, A„ 173.
Schaff, P., 262, 264/., 290.
Schechter, S., 604, 614, 659/F.
Schleifer, 186.
Schmidt, C, 237, 293.
Schmidt, N., 370.

School exercises, 51, 345, 640ff.
"Schoolmaster," 123.
Schools, 638ff., 660, 672ff.
Schroeder, P., 372.
Schiirer, E., 657.
Schweitzer, A., 491, 655.
Scott-Moncrieff, P. D., 404, 407ff.
Scripture and archeology, xiii, xv.
— in Egyptian sermons, 284.
"Seal," 36/.
Second Baruk, 618.
— century conditions, 12/.
Secrets of Enoch, 620/.
Sellin, E., 361.
Semitisms in New Testament, HOff., 119.
Septuagint, 32ff., 106, 119.
Serapeum at Memphis, documents found
at, 7, 10.
Serapion at Antioch, 220.
— at Ephesus, 473.
Sergius Paulla, 538ff.
— Paullus, 538ff., 552/.
Sermons, early Christian, 277ff.
— Egyptian, use of Scripture in, 284.
Severus, Conflict of, 240.
— hymn of, 308.
Shepherd of Hermas, 41, 134, 25 Iff.
Ships in first century, 579/.
Shorthand, 57, 59, 100, 584, 672.
Sidonian tombs, 360.
Siegfried, 623.
Simeon Stylites, church of, at Kal'at Si-
man, 444.
Simon Magus, 233.
Sinaitic codex, 133ff.
— Syriac codex, xv, 176ff.
Sins, in Didache, 263.
Skins, tanned, early use of, 3.
Slang in New Testament, 120.
Slavery, 55, 395, 591, 595, 666, 681.
Sloden, D., 576.
Smith, J., 557.
Smyth, H. W., 644.
Smyrna, 561/.
Social and family life illustrated, 10ff„
23, 28/., 44ff., 55, 70ff., 86/., 91/.,
123, 321/., 330/., 395, 399, 445ff., 459,
635ff., 663, 673/.
Socnopaei Nesus, 65, 68, 75ff., 168.
 documents found at, 8.
 religious rites at, 75.
Soldiers, Christian, graves of, 388.
— Christians as, 424, 429, 437/.
Solomon, Book of key of, 655.
— Odes and Psalms of, 219, 308ff. ¦
— Psalms of, 611/.
"Son of Man," 606.
Sophocles, fragments from, 43.
— manuscripts of, 105.
Soul, Syriac hymn of the, 302.
Souter, A., 131, 139, 229.
South Galatian theory, 416ff.
Spafford, J. E., 365.
Spelling in early MSS., 585/.
Spider as emblem, 371.
Spinazzola, Prof., 514.
"Spiritual," meaning of, 37.
Spiritualizing of New Testament terms,
121.
Spyridion, bishop of Cyprus, 553.

INDEX

697

Statues from Ephesus, 471.
Statutes of the Apostles, 340.
Stearns, W. N., 141, 142, 152.
Sterrett, J. R„ 429, 525/.
Stigmata, 38.
Stone of Bethphage, 355.
Storied houses, 453.
Strachan, R. H., 310.
Strack, H. L., 626. 634.
Strong, H. A.. 481.
Stuart. D. R.. 459.
Style in New Testament, 112ff.
Stylistic differences in letters, 100.
Superstition in early centuries, 52/., 93,
290/., 294ff. See especially Magic.
Swete, H. B., 583.
Sylvia, St., 178/.
Symbols, Christian, 397/., 409, 421.
Synagog at Tell-Hum, 366.
Syracuse, 557/.
Syria, Christian monuments in, 440ff.
Syriac apocrypha, 241.
— codex of Gospels, 51.
— Hymn of the Soul, 302.
— hymns, 308ff.
— language, 175.
— New Testaments, 175ff.
— translation of New Testament, date of,
179/., 204/.
Syrian Church, prosperity of, 459.
Talmud, 624ff.
Tarsus, 541ff.
Tatian and his harmony, 200ff.
Taxation, 76ff., 84/., 664/.
Taylor, C, 142, 254.
Teaching of Twelve Apostles. See Di.
dache.
Tebtunis papyri, 39, 65.
Tekmorian Guest Friends, 416.
Tel-el-Amarna tablets, xiv.
Tel el Hesy (Lachish), 358ff.
Tel Sandahannah, 359ff.
Tell-Hum, excavations at, 366.
Temple industries, 77.
— offerings, 77, 92/.
— treasure at Ephesus, 468ff.
Terminology, Christian, 120/.
Terry, M. S., 617.
Testament of Abraham, 235.
— of Hezekiah, 41.
Testamentary literature, 58, 94.
Testaments of Twelve Patriarchs, 607ff.
Texts, types of New Testament, 171.
Textual criticism and the fragments,
166ff.
— form of MS. and papyri, 98ff.
Thaneas, 10/.
Thaus, 10/.
Thayer, J. H., 119.
Theadelphia, libelli from, 273/.
Theaetetus, commentary on, 65.
Theaters, ancient, 375, 472/., 475, 484,
487, 514, 555. 558/.
Thekla, 237, 530.
Theocritus, Idyls of, 59.
Theodore of Egypt, 333/.
Theon, letter of, 23.
Thessalonica, 547ff.
Thiersch, H., 360.

Thmuis, papyri in, xviii, 14/.
Thucydides, works by, 60.
Thumb, 106, 107.
Thyatira, 564/.
Tiberias of Galilee, 372.
Timotheus, poems of, 14, 65.
Timothy, 101.
Tischendorf, C, xv, 41, 133ff., 251.
Titus, arch of, 515/.
Tobit, 604.
Tobler, T., 355.
Todd, M. N., 369.
Tombs, 360, 365, 387ff., 403, 408, 420ff.,
504ff., 561, 574ff.
Tombs, painted, 360.
Torr, C, 556.
Torrey, C. C, 116.
Trade unions. See Guilds.
Trades and professions. Christian, 661.
Town clerk of Ephesus, 466.
Trajan persecution, 275.
Travel in first century, 103, 579.
Trinity, the, 319, 344, 401, 459.
Twelve Patriarchs, Testaments of, 607ff.
Tyconius, on inspiration, 277.
Types of New Testament texts, 171.
Tyrannus, school of, 473.
Umm il-Kutten, 455.
— is-Surab, church at, 454.
Uncial versus cursive texts, 172.
University of Tarsus, 541.
Valentine, 201.
Valid traditions in apocryphal works,
243/.
Vaschalde, A. A., 191/.
Vatican codex, 135ff.
Vaults, architectural, in Syria, 448ff.
Vellum (calfskin), 4.
Vergilian manuscripts, 105.
Vestal virgins, house of, 510/.
Vestals of Artemis. 465.
Vettii, house of, 376.
Virgin birth, 184, 195.
Virgin Mary, reverence for, 337, 481.
 hymns to, 304ff.
— pictures of, 398.
Vocabulary, Lucan, 113.
— of Didache, 261.
— of New Testament, 113, 119ff.
Vogiie. C. J. M. de. 441.
Von Soden (H. K. H), 171ff.
Vulgate manuscripts, number of, 193, 195.
— text, 193.
"Wallet," 126.
Wardens of Ephesian temple, 467/.
Warren, C, 357.
Washington codex, 143, 160ff.
Ways, the two, 262.
Wedding invitations, 22.
Wessely, C, 140/., 150/., 153/., 157/.,
174, 187, 190, 231, 260, 272, 335, 638,
642.
"Western" text, 171, 173, 198, 200.
White Monastery, 186.
Widows, 340.
Wiedemann, A., 14.
Wiegand, Dr., 555.
Wilcken, U., 166, 647.

698 THE NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES

Wilson, C. W., 357, 522.
Wisdom, Book of, 604/.
Women, culture of, 639.
— honored in Phrygia, 428.
Wood, E. D., 485, 491, 495.
Wood, J. T., 461 ff., 481.
Woodward, S. W., 367.

"Writing," meaning of, 34.
Xystus, ring of, 254ff.
Zadokite work, 614ff.
Zahn, T., 204, 228, 259, 684.
Zeus, Athenian temple of, 485.

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