Here end the Acts of Sharbil the confessor.
------------------------
[3147] There are twomss. from which this piece is taken. The first is Cod. Add. 14,644, fol. 72 vers. This, which is referred to as A., has been copied exactly, except that a few manifest errors have been corrected and some deficiencies supplied from the other. This latter, quoted as B., is Cod. Add. 14,645. It is some three or four centuries later than the first. They were first taken down by shorthand-writers, called notarii (notaries), or exceptores, by which name they are mentioned towards the end of this extract; the Greeks called them tachugraphoi. They were then arranged in proper order by persons called by the Greeks hupomnematographoi, and by the Romans Ab Actis.--The use of hupomnemata and other Greek words seems to show that these Acts were originally written in that language. Notaries, i.e., actuarii, or at a later day exceptores.--Tr.
[3148] The Latin Acta, to which the Greek hupomnemata here employed corresponds, was used to denote the authorized records of judicial proceedings.--Tr.
[3149] Autokrator .--Tr.
[3150] That is, a.d. 112. But the Greek era commences 311 or 312 b.c., and therefore a.g. 416 would answer to a.d. 105. There appears to be some error in the date.
[3151] The king reigning in the fifteenth year of Trajan was Maanu Bar Ajazath, the seventh king of Edessa after Abgar the Black.
[3152] It would thus appear that Paganism and Christianity were tolerated together in Edessa at this time, equal honour being attributed to the head of each religious party. Cf. Teaching of Addæus, p. 661: "Neither did King Abgar compel any man by force to believe in Christ."
[3153] A little before the passage quoted in the last note it is said that this altar was left standing when the altars to Bel and Nebu were thrown down.
[3154] Perhaps this is the same as the "Archives" mentioned p. 007, note 14.
[3155] B. adds, "before the god Zeus."
[3156] B. adds here: "And in all these things thou hast forgotten God, the Maker of all men, and because of His long-suffering hast exalted thyself against His mercy, and hast not been willing to turn to Him, so that He might turn to thee and deliver thee from this error, in which thou standest."
[3157] Lit. "thy old age."--Tr.
[3158] The Peshito, for Zeus in Acts xiv. 12, has "Lord of the gods."
[3159] B. has "the work of men's hands." [Jer. xvi. 20.]
[3160] B. makes a considerable addition here, which it is hardly necessary to quote, the words being in all probability only an interpolation. Cureton elsewhere remarks: "I have almost invariably found in these Syriac mss. that the older are the shorter, and that subsequent editors or transcribers felt themselves at liberty to add occasionally, or paraphrase the earlier application in regard to early Christian literature.--Tr. [But Cureton is speaking for his pet idea.]
[3161] Or "destitute of."--Tr.
[3162] Lit. "a hidden dead man."--Tr.
[3163] B. adds, "from Sharbil, his tears flowed and he wept."
[3164] B. adds, "of baptism, baptizing him." The "seal" (sphragis) is probably explained by such passages as Eph. iv. 30, that which bore the seal being regarded as the property of him whose seal it was. Thus Gregory Naz. (Orat. 40) speaks of baptism. See Riddle's Christian Antiqq., p. 484.--Tr.
[3165] [This identifies the "seal" with baptism.]
[3166] B. adds, "and he sat and listened to the Scriptures of the Church, and the testimonies which are spoken in them, touching the birth and the passion and the resurrection and the ascension of Christ; and, when he saw those that came down to him--"
[3167] In B., in a passage added further on, he is styled "Lysinas," and in the Martyrdom of Barsamya, infra, "Lysinus" or "Lucinus." In the Martyrologium Romanum he is called "Lysias præses." Tillemont supposes him to be Lusius Quietus. But the time does not agree. The capture of Edessa under this man was in the nineteenth year of Trajan, four years later than the martyrdom.
[3168] B. adds, "from the Sharirs of the city."
[3169] B. has added several lines here.
[3170] B. adds, "the Sharirs of the city."
[3171] Lit. "in which they stand."--Tr.
[3172] Lit. "kings:" and so throughout.--Tr.
[3173] The Syriac is *** (toris), and is a foreign word, probably the Latin loris, which the Syriac translator, not understanding it or not having an equivalent, may have written loris, and a subsequent transcriber have written toris. It is plain that the latter copyist to whom the text B. is due did not know what is meant: for he has omitted the word, and substituted "Sharbil."
[3174] B. reads "governor" (hegemon), and so generally in the corresponding places below.
[3175] B. reads "discern."
[3176] Or "judgment."--Tr.
[3177] The word used is the Latin "officium" (= officiales, or corpus offialium--Tr.), which denoted the officers that attended upon presidents and chief magistrates. The equivalent Gk. taxis is used below [in the Martyrdom of Habib, "attendants"].
[3178] Or "soul."--Tr.
[3179] Those who officiated at a "quæstio," or examination by torture.--Tr. The Latin "quæstionarii."
[3180] i.e., Heb. 'lvl from the new moon of September to that of October. [See p. 666, supra.]
[3181] Lit. "to be a plea."--Tr.
[3182] Or "thou art not the avenger of."--Tr.
[3183] Lit. "candles of fire."--Tr.
[3184] The passage from this place to "in the eyes," below, is lost in A., and supplied from B.
[3185] Or "dealer in fables," if the word employed here, which is a foreign one, be the Latin "fabularius," which is not certain.
[3186] Ps. x. 5.--Tr.
[3187] So Cureton. Dr. Payne Smith remarks: "Cureton's chest' is a guess from ***. The only sense of *** with which I am acquainted is cadus, a cask." The word occurs again in the Martyrdom of Habib. In both places it seems to refer to some contrivance for holding fast the person to be scourged. The root appears to be ***, custodivit, retinuit (Castel).--Tr.
[3188] The martyr Minias, about a.d. 240, had the same torture inflicted on him: "ligneis verubus præcutis sub ungues ejus infixis, omnes digitos ejus præcepit pertundi." See Surius, Sanctt. Vit. Not "the same," perhaps.--Tr.
[3189] Or "bitterly."--Tr.
[3190] Here a few lines have been torn out of A., and are supplied from B.
[3191] "Which" is not in the printed text.--Tr.
[3192] The word used looks like a corruption of the Latin craticula. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. v. 1, uses the Gk. word for this (teganon) in describing the martyrdom of Attalus, who "was set in the teganon, and scorched all over, till the savour of his burnt flesh ascended from his body."
[3193] [St. Paul's Stigmata. Gal. vi. 17; Phil. iii. 11.]
[3194] Or "bitter."--Tr.
[3195] Or "beam."--Tr.
[3196] Rom. v. 4.--Tr.
[3197] Lit. "of confessorship."--Tr.
[3198] Lit. "of confessorship."--Tr.
[3199] The Latin "velum," or rather its plur. "vela."
[3200] The Gk. apophasis.
[3201] This expression chalinon embalein is used similarly in the life of Euthymus in Eccl. Græc. Monumenta, vol. ii. p. 240.
[3202] See Teaching of the Apostles, Ord. 1, p. 668, note 1.--Tr.
[3203] Lit. "have pity on my salvation."--Tr.
[3204] By a transposition of letters, B. reads "laics."
[3205] B. has several lines here in addition.
[3206] The passage hence to the end is evidently a later addition by a person unacquainted with chronology: for it is stated at the beginning of these Acts that the transactions took place in the fifteenth year of Trajan, a.d. 112; but Fabianus (see next note) was not made bishop of Rome till the reign of Maximinus Thrax, about the year 236. [An index of the history of this postscript.]
[3207] B. reads "Fabianus:" in A. the first syllable, or rather letter, has been dropped.--The mention of Fabianus probably arose from the fact of his having instituted notaries for the express purpose of searching for and collecting the Acts of Martyrs.
[3208] The Greek eparchos.-- Tr.
Further, the Martyrdom of Barsamya, [3209] the Bishop of the Blessed City Edessa.
In the year four hundred and sixteen of the kingdom of the Greeks, that is the fifteenth year of the reign of the sovereign ruler, our lord, Trajan Cæsar, in the consulship of Commodus and Cyrillus, [3210] in the month Ilul, on the fifth day of the month, the day after Lysinus, [3211] the judge of the country, had heard the case of Sharbil the priest; as the judge was sitting in his judgment-hall, the Sharirs of the city came before him and said to him: We give information before thine Excellency concerning Barsamya, the leader of the Christians, that he went up to Sharbil, the priest, as he was standing and ministering before the venerable gods, and sent and called him to him secretly, and spoke to him, quoting from the books in which he reads in the church where their congregation meets, and recited to him the belief of the Christians, and said to him, "It is not right for thee to worship many gods, but only one God, and His Son Jesus Christ"--until he made him a disciple, and induced him to renounce the gods whom he had formerly worshipped; and by means of Sharbil himself also many have become disciples, and are gone down to the church, and lo! this day they confess Christ; and even Avida, and Nebo, [3212] and Barcalba, and Hafsai, honourable and chief persons of the city, have yielded to Sharbil in this. We, accordingly, as Sharirs of the city, make this known before thine Excellency, in order that we may not receive punishment as offenders for not having declared before thine Excellency the things which were spoken in secret to Sharbil by Barsamya the guide of the church. Thine Excellency now knoweth what it is right to command in respect of this said matter.
And, immediately that the judge heard these things, he sent the Sharirs of the city, and some of his attendants with them, to go down to the church and bring up Barsamya from the church. And they led him and brought him up to the judgment-hall of the judge; and there went up many Christians with him, saying: We also will die with Barsamya, because we too are of one mind with him in respect to the doctrine of which he made Sharbil a disciple, and in all that he spoke to him, and in all the instruction that Sharbil received from him, so that he was persuaded by him, and died for the sake of that which he heard from him.
And the Sharirs of the city came, and said to the judge: Barsamya, as thine Excellency commanded, lo! is standing at the door of the judgment-hall of thy Lordship; [3213] and honourable chief-persons of the city, who became disciples along with Sharbil, lo! are standing by Barsamya, and crying out, "We will all die with Barsamya, who is our teacher and guide."
And, when the judge heard those things which the Sharirs of the city had told him, he commanded them to go out and write down the names of the persons who were crying out, "We will die with Barsamya." And, when they went out to write down the names of these persons, those who so cried out were too many for them, and they were not able to write down their names, because they were so many: for the cry kept coming to them from all sides, that they "would die for Christ's sake along with Barsamya."
And, when the tumult of the crowd became great, the Sharirs of the city turned back, and came in to the judge, and said to him: We are not able to write down the names of the persons who are crying aloud outside, because they are too many to be numbered. And the judge commanded that Barsamya should be taken up to the prison, so that the crowd might be dispersed which was collected together about him, lest through the tumult of the multitude there should be some mischief in the city. And, when he went up the gaol, those who had become disciples along with Sharbil continued with him.
And after many days were passed the judge rose up in the morning and went down to his judgment-hall, in order that he might hear the case of Barsamya. And the judge commanded, and they brought him from the prison; and he came in and stood before him. The officers said: Lo, he standeth before thine Excellency.
The judge said: Art thou Barsamya, who hast been made ruler and guide of the people of the Christians, and didst make a disciple of Sharbil, who was chief-priest of the gods, and used to worship them?
Barsamya said: It is I who have done this, and I do not deny it; and I am prepared to die for the truth of this.
The judge said: How is it that thou wast not afraid of the command of the emperors, so that, when the emperors commanded that every one should sacrifice, thou didst induce Sharbil, when he was standing and sacrificing to the gods and offering incense to them, to deny that which he had confessed, and confess Christ whom he had denied?