09-28-2008, 07:29 PM
Again, following from http://christianism.com
Lots of stuff but it's really funny. How coinage tells us about the Christian Communities And Churches That Weren't There.
Weird weird weird. So much doesn't add up.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->[footnote (not referenced above)] '2There is no doubt but that in the study of Greek archaeology we are more indebted to GREEK COINS than any other one thing, THE EXTENT AND VARIETY OF WHICH ARE MARVELOUS. THEY WERE ISSUED IN EVERY LITTLE TOWN, IN EVERY CORNER OF THE GREEK WORLD, AND THEY ARE FULL OF INFORMATION AS TO ANCIENT RELIGIOUS CULTS, MANNERS, AND ARTS. M. de Longpérier [Adrien de Longpérier 1816 - 1882] says: "Coins are serious monuments of public use, bearing on them indications of time and place either quite exact, or at least quite approximate; this is an immense advantage over all other monuments. By studying the types, the style, the inscriptions of coins, we may gain a key to many other antiquities." The coins of Antioch are the most important, next to the Alexandrian, known to us; not, however, in their variety, but in chronological importance. They are principally of bronze, copper, and baser metal, few only in silver. From the Seleucido, B.C. 37; the Pharsalian era, B.C. 38 to B.C. 22; the Actian era, B.C. 6 to A.D. 55 to the third century, and even of later date, the coins of Antioch prove that city to have remained during that period a pagan center. The types represented on these coins are the city of Antioch personified as a female figure seated on a high rock, from under which issues the river Orontes, personified in the form of a youth in the attitude of swimming. This legend seems fully to establish the pagan era of the city of Antioch. While these are interesting and significant archaeological facts, they are not very important as historical testimony, and would have no significance at all were it not that the records of Antioch have been destroyed so thoroughly. There were ancient coins of Antioch with the head of Pallas and the owl, like those of Athens, with whom they claim a common descent. There are a few other types as: A Ram Running, Head turned toward a Crescent and Stars; these are numerous. The art is rude and is wanting in Hellenic refinement. The principal abbreviations on the Roman coins of Antioch are: A.M.B., Antiochiae Moneta Officina Secunda; A.N.B. or A.N.T.B., Antiochiae Officina Secunda; A.N.F.F., Annum Novum Felicem Faustum; A.N.T.P., Antiochiae Percussa; A.N.T.S., Antiochiae Signata.--Humphrey's Coin Collector's Manual, 2 vols. (London), vol. ii. p. 552.
<b>There was nothing to prevent the Christians of Antioch, if their historians are not in error, to have discontinued striking pagan coins, and coining money with the emblems of their own religion, a thing which did not take place until several hundred years after [see #2, 20-22 (numismatics)].' [62-63]. </b>
[footnote (not referenced above)] "1But not in Athens, nor in any part of Greece, did the spoliation of the emperors compare with the utter destruction of works of art by the early Christians in their hatred of idolatry [competition!]. Nero [Emperor 54 - 68 (37 - 68)] and Domitian [Emperor 81 - 96 (51 - 96)] stole and appropriated them because of their love of art. The Christians destroyed them in barbarous ignorance." [9].
[footnote (not referenced above)] "1Strabo [64 or 63 B.C.E. - after 23 C.E.], the geographer and historian, a native of Pontus, died about A.D. 30. He was a grave and solid writer, a great traveler, and a stoic. He refers to the prevailing superstitions of his day. He is SILENT CONCERNING CHRISTIANITY." [67].
PAGE 1223
[footnotes (not referenced above)] '1During the year A.D. 40 the Jews of Egypt sent Philo [c. 20 B.C.E. - c. 50 C.E.] on an embassy to Rome to represent their grievances to Caligula (the grievances of Alexandrian Jews, none other). Philo was a Platonist, although by birth and faith a Jew, born in Egypt; he was a man of unblemished character and a writer of great note, and a man of learning. Caligula would not give audience to their complaints, and Philo withdrew. PHILO WROTE ON ALL THE EXTANT RELIGIONS OF HIS DAY EXCEPT CHRISTIANITY. HE DIED ABOUT A.D. 50, HAVING NEVER HEARD OF CHRISTIANITY.
2The coins of Caligula [Emperor 37 - 41 (12 - 41)], although of elegant workmanship, bear out the charge of infamy against him; his three sisters, with whom he is said to have been criminally intimate, appear on nearly all his coins. The first bronze coins of his reign, which confirm his imperatorship, are extremely rare; the senate called them in [,] in execration of his memory. They bear the inscription "Caius the God."' [68]. [See: Addition 21, 1076; etc.].
[footnote (not referenced above)] "3That the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch (a heathen city) about A.D. 43, rests upon the sole authority of the book of Acts, which Dr. Davidson concedes was not written earlier than A.D. 125. But THERE IS NO POSITIVE PROOF THAT IT ["BOOK OF ACTS"] WAS WRITTEN AS EARLY AS A.D. 200 [see 1206]. Therefore its value, as establishing the fact about Antioch, is quite apparent.--Revelations of Antichrist, p. 98.
It is a great pity that we have no more reliable data concerning this interesting city [Antioch]; nearly all the records concerning it stop short and abrupt just before the Christian era. And Antioch the great, the second city of the Roman empire, the oldest Christian city on earth, is blotted from the page of history for over five hundred years, for it does not appear again until the middle of the fifth century. There is a record of an earthquake there A.D. 37; another during the reign of Claudius [Emperor 41 - 54 (10 B.C.E. - 54 C.E.)], and another A.D. 115. But everything resembling consecutive history has been carefully laid aside beyond the reach of the historian.--See Encyclopaedia Brit., art. Antioch. The stories of the great splendor of Antioch, of its palaces and triumphal arches, sacred images in the groves, and costly pictures and statues in private apartments, are tantalizing in their meagerness, and yet, gleaning from the poets and other pagan sources, its general features may be discerned enough to confirm its greatness." [77-78].
[footnote (not referenced above)] "1There appears to be a great hiatus in the profane history of <b>Ephesus</b>; nothing is related of it with certainty of history from some time before the Christian era to the fifth century. <b>Ecclesiastical history, however, says that Paul preached there, and wrote some of his epistles there, 55, 56, and 64 A.D. (Encyclopaedia Brit.; Haydn's Dic. of Dates); not sustained by contemporaneous facts</b> [see #4, 105-151, passim (Paul); etc.]. J.T. Wood [1820 or 1821 - 1890], in his great work, Discoveries at Ephesus, including the Great Temple of Diana of Ephesus [1877], declined throwing any light upon this subject, or giving us any history of this famous city during a period of eight hundred years, so complete and thorough had been the work of the literary despoiler. <b>Nor that the town wanted importance for it was an important place up to the eleventh century, and a pagan city during the eighth century." [86].</b>
[footnote1 (not referenced above)] "....The importance paid to the worship of Diana of the Ephesians is evidenced by the great number of Ephesian coins and medals bearing her image; it was styled ...[Greek word], chief city of all Asia, on coins and medals, and Diana, the greatest of all the gods. A bee was always the symbol of Diana; as early as the middle of the fifth century B.C., the Ephesian Artemis was symbolized by a bee, and the city of Rhodes has two specimens with the same symbol, also Cnidus, and Smyrna, and Syracuse; this is a proof of the alliance between these four cities. The same symbol was found on the coins of Croton in Italy B.C. 389. Philostratus says that when the Athenians led their colony to found the city of Ephesus the Muses, in form of bees, flew about them, directing the course of the fleet. Hence this symbol on Ephesian coin. There is an extant Ephesian coin bearing the image of Septimius Severus, another of Jupiper [Jupiter], but all bearing the image of Diana. There is a coin of Ephesus, also of Athens, bearing a stag, and Diana, significant of the Elaphobolia, wherein a pair of stags were sacrificed to Diana. The coins of Ephesus are numerous, and confirm many alliances with many cities of Asia, principally for commercial purposes.--Rara Magnae Graeciae numismata nune curante Georgio Volchamero denuo recusa (1683). Great confusion has been occasioned by some Greek historians interpreting Melissae,...[Greek word], Bee.--Inman's [Thomas Inman 1820 - 1876] Ancient Faiths [see Appendix VI, 777], vol. ii. p. 351. Herodotus [c. 484 - 430-420 B.C.E.] says that all the northern side of the Danube was occupied by bees. Jove, also, upon Mount Ida, was said to have been nourished by bees. The building of the temple of Delphi the second time was by bees. The Melissae were the attendants upon Demeter and Persephone, and hence when they migrated or introduced their rites it was misinterpreted into the doings of bees." [88].
PAGE 1225
[footnote (extends to 1227, 1229 (1228 = Excursus)) (not referenced above)] '1Philostratus [c. 170 - c. 245] claims that PAGANISM at Ephesus, Antioch, Smyrna, Corinth, and Athens (all claimed to have been Christian centers in Paul's day) was remodeled and reformed through the preaching of Apollonius, and that churches and bishops were established there long before Paul's time. All this seems quite rational enough when we consider that there is no account of any Christian teachers visiting Rome, Ephesus, Antioch, etc., prior to Paul. And yet Paul addresses large congregations and prosperous churches there. <b>WHAT CHURCHES?</b> There is no evidence outside of merely Paul's word or the interpolator [writer!] that these churches, bishops, deacons, presbyters were Christians; on the contrary, they appear to be strongly pagan. For Paul refers to their institutions as of long standing and of no novelty. (CHRISTIAN CHURCHES AND OTHER EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY AT EPHESUS DISCOVERED BY MR. WOOD ["Discoveries at Ephesus, etc. (J.T. Wood, 1877)" [31]] DO NOT ANTEDATE THE NINTH CENTURY.) NOR WERE THEY BEING DEMOLISHED AND THE INMATES BURNED, AS PAUL (OR HIS INTERPOLATORS [Ecclesiastical Corporation (see #4, 123, 534., etc.)]) DECLARES WAS THE FATE OF ALL THE CHURCHES. Philo Judeas [Judaeus] [c. 13 B.C.E. - 45-50 C.E.] speaks of these things as of long established notoriety and venerable antiquity in his day, A.D. 37, and Philo wrote before Josephus, and when Jesus was not more than 15 years of age. Philo was a member of a religious community, having parishes, churches, bishops, priests, and deacons, pretending to have apostolic founders, using scriptures which they believed to be divinely inspired, and which Eusebius himself believed to be nothing else than the substance of the gospels. They also had missionary stations and colonies at Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Collossae, and Thessalonica; all this was nothing new in Philo's day. This was probably as early as A.D. 18. Now it is infinitely absurd, nay it is absolutely impossible, that a body of ignorant believers in a new and alien religion of an alien and despised race had formed themselves into such wealthy and powerful church organization amid the most violent persecutions and martyrdoms. Paul writes "I beseech Eudoias and beseech Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord, and I intreat thee also, true yokefolk, help those women which labored with me in the gospel," etc.--Phil. iv. 2, 3. There is no pretense that the earliest Christian gospel appeared sooner than sixteen years after this, and yet Paul declares that he was made a minister of the gospel which had already been preached to every creature under heaven.--Col. i. 23. "The brethren which are with me greet you. All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household."
--Phil. iv. 22. It must be a source of infinite amusement to the man of learning to read the article on Episcopacy, by Rev. Canon Venables, in Encyclopaedia Brit. Its evident effort at disguising truth or its utterance of willful falsehood is too apparent to deceive the most ordinary scholar. This is the Canon's contribution to the cause. Now, if what the Christians claim be true of Nero, Vespasian, and Domitian, I submit that Caesar's household must have been a highly uncomfortable dwelling-place for Christian saints.
From the epistles of Paul we learn that in the two great cities of Ephesus and Philippi, also on the island of Crete, and in fact throughout all Asia Minor, there were well organized and matured Christian communities, bishops, deacons, presbyters, ministering and governing under the ancient forms and ceremonies of churches which appear to be held in both royal and popular favor; while from the same authority we learn that the emperors were torturing and burning every man, woman, and child who was suspected of entertaining Christian doctrines. THESE EPISTLES NEED REVISION. And again, the incredibly short space of time in which these things were accomplished, places the account entirely without the pale of even possibility.
BEFORE THE PRETENDED DATE OF ANY ONE OF THE GOSPELS which have come to us, before any one of the disciples had suffered martyrdom, before any one of them had completed his mission, we find a spiritual dynasty established, exercising the most tremendous authority ever grasped by man, not merely over the lives and fortunes, minds, and persons, but over their prospective eternal destinies. We find (BY THE CHRISTIAN RECORD) a church at Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, and Thessalonica, rooted and grounded in the faith, called of Jesus Christ, in everything enriched, in all utterances and in all knowledge, beloved of God and in favor with the king. And if an apostle himself or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel than that which they had received let him be accursed.--Gal. i. 8, 9.
CHRISTIAN CHURCHES DID NOT BEGIN TO APPEAR UNTIL THE TIME OF ALEXANDER SEVERUS [Emperor 222 - 235 (208? - 235)], A.D. 220 [A.D. 250, and A.D. 330 (see 1228)].--Der Fall des Herdenthurus, von Dr. H.G. Tschinier, 8vo. (Leipsig, 1829).
Histoire de la Destruction de Paganisme en l'Occident, ouvrage couronné par l'Académie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, en l'année 1832, par A. Beugnot, de l'Institut de France, 2 tomes (Paris, 1835).
"[See following Excursus (1228 (Church.))]
IN AN ANALYSIS OF THE CHARACTER OF PAUL [see #4, 105-151, passim (Paul); etc.] AS GIVEN TO US IN THE REVEALED WORD, WE FIND HIM A STRANGE COMPOUND OF PAGANISM BY BIRTH, JUDAISM BY ARTFULNESS, AND A CHRISTIAN I WONDERFULLY SUSPECT BY INTERPOLATION AND LITERARY TOUCHINGS OF THE RECORDS BY SUBSEQUENT REVELATORS. Tarsus, the birthplace of Paul, was not a Jewish but a Roman town. Paul is not a Jewish but a Roman name [see #5, 153 (Paul)], and the protestation of Paul that "my manner of life was first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee,"--Acts xxvi. 4, 5,--needs attestation, for he confesses that the Jupiter of Aratus, the poet, was the god whom he adored.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Lots of stuff but it's really funny. How coinage tells us about the Christian Communities And Churches That Weren't There.
Weird weird weird. So much doesn't add up.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->[footnote (not referenced above)] '2There is no doubt but that in the study of Greek archaeology we are more indebted to GREEK COINS than any other one thing, THE EXTENT AND VARIETY OF WHICH ARE MARVELOUS. THEY WERE ISSUED IN EVERY LITTLE TOWN, IN EVERY CORNER OF THE GREEK WORLD, AND THEY ARE FULL OF INFORMATION AS TO ANCIENT RELIGIOUS CULTS, MANNERS, AND ARTS. M. de Longpérier [Adrien de Longpérier 1816 - 1882] says: "Coins are serious monuments of public use, bearing on them indications of time and place either quite exact, or at least quite approximate; this is an immense advantage over all other monuments. By studying the types, the style, the inscriptions of coins, we may gain a key to many other antiquities." The coins of Antioch are the most important, next to the Alexandrian, known to us; not, however, in their variety, but in chronological importance. They are principally of bronze, copper, and baser metal, few only in silver. From the Seleucido, B.C. 37; the Pharsalian era, B.C. 38 to B.C. 22; the Actian era, B.C. 6 to A.D. 55 to the third century, and even of later date, the coins of Antioch prove that city to have remained during that period a pagan center. The types represented on these coins are the city of Antioch personified as a female figure seated on a high rock, from under which issues the river Orontes, personified in the form of a youth in the attitude of swimming. This legend seems fully to establish the pagan era of the city of Antioch. While these are interesting and significant archaeological facts, they are not very important as historical testimony, and would have no significance at all were it not that the records of Antioch have been destroyed so thoroughly. There were ancient coins of Antioch with the head of Pallas and the owl, like those of Athens, with whom they claim a common descent. There are a few other types as: A Ram Running, Head turned toward a Crescent and Stars; these are numerous. The art is rude and is wanting in Hellenic refinement. The principal abbreviations on the Roman coins of Antioch are: A.M.B., Antiochiae Moneta Officina Secunda; A.N.B. or A.N.T.B., Antiochiae Officina Secunda; A.N.F.F., Annum Novum Felicem Faustum; A.N.T.P., Antiochiae Percussa; A.N.T.S., Antiochiae Signata.--Humphrey's Coin Collector's Manual, 2 vols. (London), vol. ii. p. 552.
<b>There was nothing to prevent the Christians of Antioch, if their historians are not in error, to have discontinued striking pagan coins, and coining money with the emblems of their own religion, a thing which did not take place until several hundred years after [see #2, 20-22 (numismatics)].' [62-63]. </b>
[footnote (not referenced above)] "1But not in Athens, nor in any part of Greece, did the spoliation of the emperors compare with the utter destruction of works of art by the early Christians in their hatred of idolatry [competition!]. Nero [Emperor 54 - 68 (37 - 68)] and Domitian [Emperor 81 - 96 (51 - 96)] stole and appropriated them because of their love of art. The Christians destroyed them in barbarous ignorance." [9].
[footnote (not referenced above)] "1Strabo [64 or 63 B.C.E. - after 23 C.E.], the geographer and historian, a native of Pontus, died about A.D. 30. He was a grave and solid writer, a great traveler, and a stoic. He refers to the prevailing superstitions of his day. He is SILENT CONCERNING CHRISTIANITY." [67].
PAGE 1223
[footnotes (not referenced above)] '1During the year A.D. 40 the Jews of Egypt sent Philo [c. 20 B.C.E. - c. 50 C.E.] on an embassy to Rome to represent their grievances to Caligula (the grievances of Alexandrian Jews, none other). Philo was a Platonist, although by birth and faith a Jew, born in Egypt; he was a man of unblemished character and a writer of great note, and a man of learning. Caligula would not give audience to their complaints, and Philo withdrew. PHILO WROTE ON ALL THE EXTANT RELIGIONS OF HIS DAY EXCEPT CHRISTIANITY. HE DIED ABOUT A.D. 50, HAVING NEVER HEARD OF CHRISTIANITY.
2The coins of Caligula [Emperor 37 - 41 (12 - 41)], although of elegant workmanship, bear out the charge of infamy against him; his three sisters, with whom he is said to have been criminally intimate, appear on nearly all his coins. The first bronze coins of his reign, which confirm his imperatorship, are extremely rare; the senate called them in [,] in execration of his memory. They bear the inscription "Caius the God."' [68]. [See: Addition 21, 1076; etc.].
[footnote (not referenced above)] "3That the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch (a heathen city) about A.D. 43, rests upon the sole authority of the book of Acts, which Dr. Davidson concedes was not written earlier than A.D. 125. But THERE IS NO POSITIVE PROOF THAT IT ["BOOK OF ACTS"] WAS WRITTEN AS EARLY AS A.D. 200 [see 1206]. Therefore its value, as establishing the fact about Antioch, is quite apparent.--Revelations of Antichrist, p. 98.
It is a great pity that we have no more reliable data concerning this interesting city [Antioch]; nearly all the records concerning it stop short and abrupt just before the Christian era. And Antioch the great, the second city of the Roman empire, the oldest Christian city on earth, is blotted from the page of history for over five hundred years, for it does not appear again until the middle of the fifth century. There is a record of an earthquake there A.D. 37; another during the reign of Claudius [Emperor 41 - 54 (10 B.C.E. - 54 C.E.)], and another A.D. 115. But everything resembling consecutive history has been carefully laid aside beyond the reach of the historian.--See Encyclopaedia Brit., art. Antioch. The stories of the great splendor of Antioch, of its palaces and triumphal arches, sacred images in the groves, and costly pictures and statues in private apartments, are tantalizing in their meagerness, and yet, gleaning from the poets and other pagan sources, its general features may be discerned enough to confirm its greatness." [77-78].
[footnote (not referenced above)] "1There appears to be a great hiatus in the profane history of <b>Ephesus</b>; nothing is related of it with certainty of history from some time before the Christian era to the fifth century. <b>Ecclesiastical history, however, says that Paul preached there, and wrote some of his epistles there, 55, 56, and 64 A.D. (Encyclopaedia Brit.; Haydn's Dic. of Dates); not sustained by contemporaneous facts</b> [see #4, 105-151, passim (Paul); etc.]. J.T. Wood [1820 or 1821 - 1890], in his great work, Discoveries at Ephesus, including the Great Temple of Diana of Ephesus [1877], declined throwing any light upon this subject, or giving us any history of this famous city during a period of eight hundred years, so complete and thorough had been the work of the literary despoiler. <b>Nor that the town wanted importance for it was an important place up to the eleventh century, and a pagan city during the eighth century." [86].</b>
[footnote1 (not referenced above)] "....The importance paid to the worship of Diana of the Ephesians is evidenced by the great number of Ephesian coins and medals bearing her image; it was styled ...[Greek word], chief city of all Asia, on coins and medals, and Diana, the greatest of all the gods. A bee was always the symbol of Diana; as early as the middle of the fifth century B.C., the Ephesian Artemis was symbolized by a bee, and the city of Rhodes has two specimens with the same symbol, also Cnidus, and Smyrna, and Syracuse; this is a proof of the alliance between these four cities. The same symbol was found on the coins of Croton in Italy B.C. 389. Philostratus says that when the Athenians led their colony to found the city of Ephesus the Muses, in form of bees, flew about them, directing the course of the fleet. Hence this symbol on Ephesian coin. There is an extant Ephesian coin bearing the image of Septimius Severus, another of Jupiper [Jupiter], but all bearing the image of Diana. There is a coin of Ephesus, also of Athens, bearing a stag, and Diana, significant of the Elaphobolia, wherein a pair of stags were sacrificed to Diana. The coins of Ephesus are numerous, and confirm many alliances with many cities of Asia, principally for commercial purposes.--Rara Magnae Graeciae numismata nune curante Georgio Volchamero denuo recusa (1683). Great confusion has been occasioned by some Greek historians interpreting Melissae,...[Greek word], Bee.--Inman's [Thomas Inman 1820 - 1876] Ancient Faiths [see Appendix VI, 777], vol. ii. p. 351. Herodotus [c. 484 - 430-420 B.C.E.] says that all the northern side of the Danube was occupied by bees. Jove, also, upon Mount Ida, was said to have been nourished by bees. The building of the temple of Delphi the second time was by bees. The Melissae were the attendants upon Demeter and Persephone, and hence when they migrated or introduced their rites it was misinterpreted into the doings of bees." [88].
PAGE 1225
[footnote (extends to 1227, 1229 (1228 = Excursus)) (not referenced above)] '1Philostratus [c. 170 - c. 245] claims that PAGANISM at Ephesus, Antioch, Smyrna, Corinth, and Athens (all claimed to have been Christian centers in Paul's day) was remodeled and reformed through the preaching of Apollonius, and that churches and bishops were established there long before Paul's time. All this seems quite rational enough when we consider that there is no account of any Christian teachers visiting Rome, Ephesus, Antioch, etc., prior to Paul. And yet Paul addresses large congregations and prosperous churches there. <b>WHAT CHURCHES?</b> There is no evidence outside of merely Paul's word or the interpolator [writer!] that these churches, bishops, deacons, presbyters were Christians; on the contrary, they appear to be strongly pagan. For Paul refers to their institutions as of long standing and of no novelty. (CHRISTIAN CHURCHES AND OTHER EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY AT EPHESUS DISCOVERED BY MR. WOOD ["Discoveries at Ephesus, etc. (J.T. Wood, 1877)" [31]] DO NOT ANTEDATE THE NINTH CENTURY.) NOR WERE THEY BEING DEMOLISHED AND THE INMATES BURNED, AS PAUL (OR HIS INTERPOLATORS [Ecclesiastical Corporation (see #4, 123, 534., etc.)]) DECLARES WAS THE FATE OF ALL THE CHURCHES. Philo Judeas [Judaeus] [c. 13 B.C.E. - 45-50 C.E.] speaks of these things as of long established notoriety and venerable antiquity in his day, A.D. 37, and Philo wrote before Josephus, and when Jesus was not more than 15 years of age. Philo was a member of a religious community, having parishes, churches, bishops, priests, and deacons, pretending to have apostolic founders, using scriptures which they believed to be divinely inspired, and which Eusebius himself believed to be nothing else than the substance of the gospels. They also had missionary stations and colonies at Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Collossae, and Thessalonica; all this was nothing new in Philo's day. This was probably as early as A.D. 18. Now it is infinitely absurd, nay it is absolutely impossible, that a body of ignorant believers in a new and alien religion of an alien and despised race had formed themselves into such wealthy and powerful church organization amid the most violent persecutions and martyrdoms. Paul writes "I beseech Eudoias and beseech Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord, and I intreat thee also, true yokefolk, help those women which labored with me in the gospel," etc.--Phil. iv. 2, 3. There is no pretense that the earliest Christian gospel appeared sooner than sixteen years after this, and yet Paul declares that he was made a minister of the gospel which had already been preached to every creature under heaven.--Col. i. 23. "The brethren which are with me greet you. All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household."
--Phil. iv. 22. It must be a source of infinite amusement to the man of learning to read the article on Episcopacy, by Rev. Canon Venables, in Encyclopaedia Brit. Its evident effort at disguising truth or its utterance of willful falsehood is too apparent to deceive the most ordinary scholar. This is the Canon's contribution to the cause. Now, if what the Christians claim be true of Nero, Vespasian, and Domitian, I submit that Caesar's household must have been a highly uncomfortable dwelling-place for Christian saints.
From the epistles of Paul we learn that in the two great cities of Ephesus and Philippi, also on the island of Crete, and in fact throughout all Asia Minor, there were well organized and matured Christian communities, bishops, deacons, presbyters, ministering and governing under the ancient forms and ceremonies of churches which appear to be held in both royal and popular favor; while from the same authority we learn that the emperors were torturing and burning every man, woman, and child who was suspected of entertaining Christian doctrines. THESE EPISTLES NEED REVISION. And again, the incredibly short space of time in which these things were accomplished, places the account entirely without the pale of even possibility.
BEFORE THE PRETENDED DATE OF ANY ONE OF THE GOSPELS which have come to us, before any one of the disciples had suffered martyrdom, before any one of them had completed his mission, we find a spiritual dynasty established, exercising the most tremendous authority ever grasped by man, not merely over the lives and fortunes, minds, and persons, but over their prospective eternal destinies. We find (BY THE CHRISTIAN RECORD) a church at Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, and Thessalonica, rooted and grounded in the faith, called of Jesus Christ, in everything enriched, in all utterances and in all knowledge, beloved of God and in favor with the king. And if an apostle himself or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel than that which they had received let him be accursed.--Gal. i. 8, 9.
CHRISTIAN CHURCHES DID NOT BEGIN TO APPEAR UNTIL THE TIME OF ALEXANDER SEVERUS [Emperor 222 - 235 (208? - 235)], A.D. 220 [A.D. 250, and A.D. 330 (see 1228)].--Der Fall des Herdenthurus, von Dr. H.G. Tschinier, 8vo. (Leipsig, 1829).
Histoire de la Destruction de Paganisme en l'Occident, ouvrage couronné par l'Académie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, en l'année 1832, par A. Beugnot, de l'Institut de France, 2 tomes (Paris, 1835).
"[See following Excursus (1228 (Church.))]
IN AN ANALYSIS OF THE CHARACTER OF PAUL [see #4, 105-151, passim (Paul); etc.] AS GIVEN TO US IN THE REVEALED WORD, WE FIND HIM A STRANGE COMPOUND OF PAGANISM BY BIRTH, JUDAISM BY ARTFULNESS, AND A CHRISTIAN I WONDERFULLY SUSPECT BY INTERPOLATION AND LITERARY TOUCHINGS OF THE RECORDS BY SUBSEQUENT REVELATORS. Tarsus, the birthplace of Paul, was not a Jewish but a Roman town. Paul is not a Jewish but a Roman name [see #5, 153 (Paul)], and the protestation of Paul that "my manner of life was first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee,"--Acts xxvi. 4, 5,--needs attestation, for he confesses that the Jupiter of Aratus, the poet, was the god whom he adored.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->