[1297] A Sagaris, bishop and martyr, and probably the same man, is mentioned by Polycrates in his epistle to Victor (Euseb. V. 24) as buried in Laodicea. This is all we know of him. The date of his martyrdom, and of the composition of the work On the Passover, depends upon the date of the proconsulship of Servilius (or Sergius) Paulus (see above, note 5). The words empesontos kata kairon have unnecessarily caused Salmon considerable trouble. The words kata kairon mean no more than "properly, regularly, according to appointment or rule," and do not render ekeinais tais hemerais superfluous, as he thinks. The clause kai egr?phe tauta ("and these were written") expresses result,--it was in consequence of the passover strife that Melito wrote this work.
[1298] This work of Clement's, On the Passover, which he says he wrote on occasion of Melito's work, was clearly written in reply to and therefore against the work of Melito, not as a supplement to it, as Hefele supposes (Conciliengesch. I. 299). The work of Clement (which is mentioned by Eusebius, VI. 13, in his list of Clement's writings) is no longer extant, but some brief fragments of it have been preserved (see Bk. VI. chap. 13, note 8).
[1299] This statement of Melito's is a very remarkable one. See chap. 8, note 14.
[1300] The resemblance between this extract from Melito's Apology and the fifth chapter of Tertullian's Apology is close enough to be striking, and too close to be accidental. Tertullian's chapter is quite different from this, so far as its arrangement and language are concerned, but the same thought underlies both: That the emperors in general have protected Christianity; only Nero and Domitian, the most wicked of them, have persecuted it; and that Christianity has been a blessing to the reigns of all the better emperors. We cannot doubt that Tertullian was acquainted with Melito's Apology, as well as with others of his works.
[1301] euktaios
[1302] The reference here seems to be to the common belief that the Christians were responsible for all the evils which at any time happened, such as earthquakes, floods, famines, etc.
[1303] aph' hon kai to tes sukophantias alogo sunethei& 139; peri tous toioutous rhuenai sumbebeke pseudos. The sentence is a difficult one and has been interpreted in various ways, but the translation given in the text seems to me best to express the writer's meaning.
[1304] engr?phos: i.e. in edicts or rescripts.
[1305] This epistle to Fundanus is given in chap. 9, above. Upon its genuineness, see chap. 8, note 14.
[1306] On these epistles of Antoninus Pius, see chap. 13, note 9. These ordinances to the Larissæans, Thessalonians, Athenians, and all the Greeks, are no longer extant. What their character must have been is explained in the note just referred to.
[1307] peri touton.
[1308] en de tais grapheisais auto eklogais. Jerome speaks of this work as 'Eklogon, libros sex. There are no fragments of it extant except the single one from the preface given here by Eusebius. The nature of the work is clear from the words of Melito himself. It was a collection of testimonies to Christ and to Christianity, drawn from the Old Testament law and prophets. It must, therefore, have resembled closely such works as Cyprian's Testimonia, and the Testimonia of Pseudo-Gregory, and other anti-Jewish works, in which the appeal was made to the Old Testament--the common ground accepted by both parties--for proof of the truth of Christianity. Although the Eclogæ of Melito were not anti-Jewish in their design, their character leads us to classify them with the general class of anti-Jewish works whose distinguishing mark is the use of Old Testament prophecy in defense of Christianity (cf. the writer's article on Christian Polemics against the Jews, in the Pres. Review, July, 1888, and also the writer's Dialogue between a Christian and a Jew, entitled 'Antibole Papiskou kai philonos, New York, 1889). On the canon which Melito gives, see Bk. III. chap. 10, note 1.
[1309] This Onesimus is an otherwise unknown person.
[1310] Some mss., with Rufinus, place Leviticus before Numbers, but the best mss., followed by Heinichen, Burton, and others, give the opposite order.
[1311] psalmon Dabid. Literally, "of the Psalms of David" [one book].
[1312] he kai Sophia: i.e. the Book of Proverbs (see above, p. 200).
[1313] Literally, "in one book" (ton dodeka en monobiblo).
[1314] Esdras: the Greek form of the Hebrew name zr', Ezra. Melito refers here to the canonical Book of Ezra, which, among the Jews, commonly included our Ezra and Nehemiah (see Bk. III. chap. 10, note 1).