Hystaspes ('T(Tra(T7r;jc> also Hystaspas, i. e. //?/- damper), A pniiilic'tieo-apocalyptic work among the early Christians, thouglit to contain predictions of Christ and the future of his kingdom, so called from a Persian sa- vant (Jlagus), Hystaspes, under whose name it was cir- culated. As in the case of the Sibyllines (q. v.), the work in question seems to have been an attempt made by the early Church fathers to find in the religion and philosophical systems of the heathen predictions of and relations to the Christian religion. The first mention of these vaticinia Hi/staspis we find in two passages of Justin {Apolog. i, 20, cap. 21, p. G6 c, ed. Otho, i, p. 180, and cap. 44, p. 82 c, ed. Otho, p. 226). According to the first passage, the destruction of the world is predicted by Hystaspes as it is foretold by the Sibylla (Kai Si- ^vWa Kai 'YffrdcTmQ ytviiaea^ai twi' (pbaprSjv ava- Awfftv Cut TTvpbg t<pi]aai'). In the second passage Jus- tin asserts that the bad daemons, in their efforts to pre- vent man's knowing the truth, succeeded in establishing a law which forbids the reading of the /3(/3Xo( ' Voraff- irov fi SifSijWrig ij tiov 7rpo0j;rwi' under penalty of death; but the Christians, notwithstanding this law, not only read the books themselves, but even incited
the heathen to study them, IMore particular informa- tion in regard to their contents is given us by Clement of Alexandria (Stromata, v, 6, § 43, ed. Potter, p. 7G1). But so varying have been the interpretations of this passage that it is difficult to determine definitely wheth- er the book is of older origin than the first half of the 2d century. To this opinion Wagenmann (in Ilorzog's Real-Enaiklop.) inclines. The information which Clem- ent furnishes us is: 1. There existed in the 2(1 century a (HjiXoQ 'EWrji'iKr'i, a work written in Greek, and cir- culated in Christian and heathen circles, entitled 6 'Ttr- TCKT-KrjQ. 2. The Christians found in it, even more plainly than in the books of the Sibjdlines, references to Christ and the future of his kingdom, and especially a reference to Christ's divine sonship, to the sufferings which awaited him and his followers, to the inex- haustible patience of the Christians, and the final return of Christ. The third and last of the Church fathers who make mention of the Hystaspes is Lactautius. He speaks of it in three different passages (Insfit. div. vii, cap. 15, cap. 18; Epitom. ii, 09). In the first passage Lactantius speaks of the Hystaspes in connection with the Sibyl, and in the two other passages he speaks of it in connection with the Sibyl and Hermes Trismegistus. According to the first passage, Hystaspes, like the Sibyl, predicts the extinction of the empire and name of Rome. According to the second passage (cap. 18), the troubles and warfares which shall precede the final day of the world have been prophesied of by the projihelm ex Dei spiritu ; also by the rates ex instinctu ckemonum. For instance, Hj'Staspes is said to have predicted and de- scribed the iniquitas sceculi hiijiis extremi, how a separa- tion of the just from the unjust shall take place, how the pious, amid cries and sobs, will stretch out their hands and implore the protection of Jupiter (imploratn- rosjideni Jovis), and how Jujiiter wUl look down upon the earth, hear the cry of men, and destroy the wicked.
With regard to the person of Hystaspes, who is said to be the author of the work containing these i redic- tions, Justin and Clement of Alexandria have left us no information, and we depend, therefore, solely on Lactan- tius, according to whom he was an old king of the Medes, who flourished long beibre the Trojan v\-ar, and after whom was named the river Hystaspes. In all probability, Lactantius here thinks of the father of king Darius I, known to us from the writings of Herodotus, Xenophon, and other Greek authors, but to whom the prophetic talents of Hystaspes were entirely foreign. Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii, 6), who flourished in the 4th century of our jera, informs us that one Hvstaspes had studied astronomy with the Brahmas of India, and had even informed the ]\Iagi of his ability to know the futtu-e. Agathias, the Byzantine historian of the 6tli century, knows of a Hystaspes who was a contemporary.' with Zoroaster, but he does not dare to assert that this Hystaspes was the same as the one spoken of as the fa- ther of Darius I. See Parsisji. In view of the un- certainty of the authorship, it is wellnigh impossible to determine fully the origin, contents, form, and tenden- cy of the Vaticinia J/f/staspis. We know not even whether it emanated from Jewish, Christian, or heathen writers, although all our present knowledge points to the last as its probable origin. That the author was a Gnostic, as Huetius thinks {Quast. Alnet. I, iii, ep. 21, p. 280), is possible, but cannot be definitely stated, nor at all proved ; beyond this, the only answer left us to all questions that might be put is a non liquet. See Her- zog, Eeal-Encijklop. xix, 660 sq. ; Walch, De Hystaspe ejmque vaticinii,'!, in the Comment. Societ. Gotting. hist. et pkil. (1779), ii, 1-18 ; Fabricius, Biblioth. Grcec. i, 93 sq. ; Lilcke, Einkitung in d. Offenb. Joh. (2d ed. 1848), p. 237 ; Keuss, Geschichte d. heil. Schrift. d.N. T. (4th edit. 1864), p. 270 ; Neander, Ch. Hist, i, 170 sq. (J. H. W.)