theologia

Here is an interesting record in Usher's The Annals of the World. (Master Books Edition): It concerns Cambyses, emperor of Persia, 524-523 BC:

Cambyses wanted to prepare a navy to go against the Carthaginians, but gave it up when the Sidonians, upon whom he relied for naval service, refused to go against their own colony and kindred. Meanwhile, he sent for some of the Fish Eaters from the city of Elephantine, who were well versed in the Ethiopian language. He sent them as spies to the Ethiopians, who were known as the Long Lived. These are a generally very long-lived people who dwell in the parts of Africa south of Egypt. . .The spies went under the pretence of bearing gifts for their king. . .In their presence, the king of Ethiopia took his bow and bent it, and then straightened it again. He handed it to them to carry to Cambyses, and asked them to tell him that when his Persians were able to bend such bows as these with ease, then and not before, would he be able to gather a large army and fight against the long-lived Ethiopians.

Cambyses' full brother, Smerdis or Tanyoxarces, tried to bend this bow and came within two fingers' breadth of the notch, but none of the other Persians came that close. Out of envy, Cambyses dismissed him and sent him to Persia.

In a rage, Cambyses ordered an expedition against Ethiopia, without making any provisions for grain or food. Like a mad man, as soon as he had heard what his Fish Eaters has said, he immediately marched off with all his own foot soldiers, ordering the Greeks to stay behind.

When he came as far as Thebes in Egypt, he selected about fifty thousand of his army and sent them to rob the land first, and then to burn the temple of Jupiter Ammon, making slaves of all the inhabitants of the place as they did so. Then he marched on toward Ethiopia. . . .

The army, which set out from Thebes against the Ammonians, travelled seven days across the sands before coming to the city of Oasis. . . .As they marched from there across the sandy plains and were midway between Oasis and Ammonia, it is said that while they were eating, a very strong wind arose out of the south. It brought those shifting sands upon them and overwhelmed them all. Fifty thousand men died in the sand storm.

The army which was going with him against the Ethiopians ran out of provisions after five days. When they had lost hope of any food, they cast lots and started to eat one another. When Cambyses saw this, he returned to Thebes, having lost most of his army. . . .

When Cambyses returned to Memphis, he discharged his Greeks and shipped them home. He saw the Egyptians keeping a holy day because their god Apis had appeared to them. Apis was a sacred bull worshipped in the temple of Ptah in Memphis. Cambyses thought they had celebrated for joy at his disastrous journey. He sent for Apis and killed the animal with his sword. He commanded all his priests to be scourged with whips, and the rest of the Egyptians who were found keeping the holy day were to be killed by his soldiers. . . .

The Egyptians said the Cambyses, who was mentally unstable, now went stark raving mad. This first manifested itself when he killed his own brother. After he had sent him to Persia (as was said before), Cambyses dreamed that a messenger arrived from there to tell him that Smerdis, his brother, was sitting on the regal throne and touching the heavens with his head. He was astonished by this dream and immediately sent Prexaspes, his most trusted friend, to kill his brother Smerdis. When he came to Susa, he had him murdered. Some say he took him on a hunting trip, others report that he lured him along as far as the Persian Gulf and drowned him in it. . . .

When Cambyses saw his wife Meroe grieving for her brother Smerdis, he killed her too. . . .

Cambyses killed Prexaspes' son, who was his cup bearer, with an arrow. The next day he had twelve principal men of the Persians buried alive with their heads downward, though they had done him no harm. He ordered that Croesus, who had for some time been king of Lydia, be executed because he had admonished him, in a fair and friendly manner, not to do such things. He changed his mind before the execution, but killed those whom he had appointed to kill Croesus. He played many similar mad pranks on the Persians and on his friends while he stayed at Memphis. He opened many of their sepulchres to see the bodies of those who lay buried there. He went into the temple of Vulcan, where he laughed exceedingly and mocked his image. Another time he went into the temple of the Cabeiri, where only the priests were to go. After jeering their images, he had them all burned. He either burned down, pulled down, defaced or destroyed the remainder of their temples and did the same to their obelisks.

Last Sunday my Pastor (Joel Smith) preached a sermon endeavoring to provide a Biblical view of entertainment, particularly focusing on many of its dangers:

Renewing a Biblical View of Entertainment (mp3)

Several months ago I stopped watching television and movies altogether. Some of my motivations for that decisions happen to be the same as some of the points mentioned in this sermon, though there were a few others besides which are not mentioned in it.  Pastor Smith does not argue for the complete abandonment of entertainment or forbid Christians from partaking; nevertheless, he addresses the issue in a broad variety of it's Biblical aspects. This holistic approach should allow the listener to be persuaded through the diversity of his arguments, even though he or she may not agree with one or two particular points.

An interesting thought was brought to my attention by a short section in Eusebius (IV.III):

When Trajan had reigned for nineteen and a half years Aelius Hadrian succeeded to the sovereignty [i.e., became emperor of Rome]. To him Quadratus addressed a treatise, composing a defence for our religion because some wicked men were trying to trouble the Christians. It is still extant among many of the brethren and we have a copy ourselves. From it can be seen the clear proof of his intellect and apostolic orthodoxy. He shows his early date by what he says as follows in his own words: "But the works of our Saviour were always present, for they were true, those who were cured, those who rose from the dead, who not merely appeared as cured and risen, but were constantly present, not only while the Saviour was living, but even for some time after he had gone, so that some of them survived even till our own time."

When we think of the early witnesses to Christianity, we naturally think of the apostles and their disciples preaching through out the world, as well the newly written Scriptures, and the miracles performed by the apostles and other Christians in the various places they went, and even the testimony of those who knew Christ personally. But another early witness that perhaps we have not considered is the witness of all the people whom Christ miraculous healed, fed, and even raised from the dead. For example, Matthew 4 tells of Christ "going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people" (NASB, emphasis mine). Thousands were fed with the loaves and fish. The New Testament names a number of individuals that Christ raised from the dead (Lazarus, the daughter of Jairus, and so forth) but also indicates unnamed groups of people, such as those saints who were raised from the dead when Christ died and the veil of the temple was torn. (Matthew 27).

What we forget, more specifically, is that all these people who benefited from Christ's miracles did not simply disappear the moment he ascended to heaven. Rather, it is more natural to believe that many of them lived for decades to come. Those that were believers would have provided a vital testimony to Christianity during those early years. Imagine all the church speaking invitations you would get if you had been raised from the dead by Christ himself! Indeed, it does not seem difficult for me to believe that at least a small handful of those cured by Christ might have lived even into the second century.

Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History I.II.:

It must now be demonstrated why this announcement [the full revelation of the Logos, i.e., Christ as a pre-existent member of the Trinity] was not formerly made, long ago, to all men and all nations, as it is now. The life of men in the past was not capable of receiving the complete wisdom and virtue of the teaching of Christ. For at the beginning, after the first life in blessedness, the first man, despising the command of God, fell at once to this mortal and perishable life, and exchanged the former divine delights for this earth with its curse; and after him those who filled all our world were manifestly much worse, with the exception of one or two, and chose some brutal habit of life, unworthy of the name. They gave no thought to city or state, to art or knowledge, they had not even the name of laws and decrees or virtue and philosophy, but they lived as nomads in the wildernesses like savage and unbridled beings; they destroyed by their excess of self-chosen wickedness the natural reasonings, and the germs of thought and gentleness in the human soul; they gave themselves up completely to all iniquity so that at one time they corrupted one another, at another they murdered one another, at another they were cannibals; they ventured on conflicts with God and on the battles of the giants famous among all men; they thought to wall up the earth to heaven, and in the madness of a perverted mind prepared for war against the supreme God himself. While they were leading this life, God, the guardian of all, pursued them with floods and conflagrations, as though they had been a wild forest scattered throughout the whole earth; he cut them off with perpetual famines and plagues, by wars and by thunderbolts from on high, as if he were restraining by bitter chastisement some terrible and grievous disease of their souls. Then, indeed, when the great flood of evil had come nigh overwhelming all men, like a terrible intoxication overshadowing and darkening the souls of almost all, the first-begotten and first created Wisdom of God, the pre-existent Logos himself, in his exceeding kindness appeared to his subjects, at one time by a vision of angels, at another personally to one or two of the God-fearing men of old, as a saving power of God, yet in no other form than human, for they could not receive him otherwise.

But when the seeds of true religion had been strewn by them among a multitude of men, and a whole nation, sprung from the Hebrews, existed on earth, cleaving to true religion, he handed on to them, through the prophet Moses, images and symbols of a certain mysterious sabbath and of circumcision and instruction in other spiritual principles, but not unveiled initiation itself, for many of them had still been brought up in the old practices. Their Law became famous and spread among all men like a fragrant breeze. Beginning with them the minds of most of the heathen were softened by the lawgivers and philosophers who arose everywhere. Savage and unbridled brutality was changed to mildness, so that deep peace, friendship, and mutual intercourse obtained. Then, at last, when all men, even the heathen throughout the world, were now fitted for the benefits prepared for them beforehand, for the reception of knowledge of the Father, then again that same divine and heavenly Logos of God, the teacher of virtues, the minister of the Father in all good things, appeared at the beginning of the Roman Empire through man. In nothing did he change our nature as touching bodily substance; his acts and sufferings were such as were consistent with the prophecies which foretell that man and God shall live together to do marvellous deeds, and to teach to all Gentiles the worship of the Father, and that the marvel of his birth and his new teaching and the wonder of his deeds will be made manifest together with the manner of his death and resurrection from the dead, and, above all, his divine restoration to Heaven. Daniel the prophet, in a moment of inspiration, saw by the divine spirit his final sovereignty, and describes the vision of God in human wise: "For I beheld," he said, "until thrones were set and an Ancient of Days did sit. And his garment was white like snow and the hair of his head was like pure wool; his throne was a flame of fire, his wheels were flaming fire, a river of fire ran before him, thousand thousands ministered unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him, the judgement sat, and books were opened." And he goes on to say, "I beheld, and lo, one like to a son of man coming with the clouds of Heaven, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was brought before him. And to him was given the sovereignty and honour and kingdom, and all the people, tribes, and tongues shall serve him. His power is an everlasting power, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom shall not be destroyed." Clearly this would apply to none but our Saviour, the God-Logos who was in the beginning with God, called "son of man" because of his ultimate incarnation.

YouTube video "J.S.Bach. Partita for flute solo" is embedded below. No commentary is necessary, I think.

I happened across a beautiful hymn, called "Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain", in a borrowed copy of the Lutheran Hymnal. It has a simple melody in C that is easy to play on my flute.

Come, ye faithful, raise the strain of triumphant gladness;
God hath brought His Israel into joy from sadness.
'Tis the spring of souls today: Christ hath burst His prison
And from three days' sleep in death as a sun hath risen.

All the winter of our sins, long and dark, is flying
From His light, to whom we give laud and praise undying.
Neither could the gates of death nor the tomb's dark portal
Nor the watchers nor the seal hold Thee as a mortal.

But today amidst Thine own Thou didst stand, bestowing
That Thy peace which evermore passeth human knowing.
Come, ye faithful, raise the strain of triumphant gladness;
God hath brought His Israel into joy from sadness.

Following is an embedded YouTube video with a rendition for the organ:

In the Summa, Aquinas is defending the understanding of theology as a science, that is to say, as a body of knowledge that can be learned and taught systematically. One objection he addresses is put forward as so:[1]

This teaching (doctrina, referring to theology) is acquired through study. Wisdom (sapientia) however, is received through the outpouring (infusionem) of the Spirit, and as such is numbered among the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, set forth by Isaiah.[2] This teaching, then, is not wisdom.

In other words, God's wisdom comes to us either as a gift from the Holy Spirit, or from our own study of theology. Which is it?

Aquinas responds:

Since having a formed judgment (judicium) characterizes the wise person (pertineat ad sapientiam) so there are two kinds of wisdom according to the two ways of passing judgment. This may be arrived at from a bent that way (per modum inclinationis) as when a person who possesses the habit of virtue (habitum virtutis) rightly commits himself to what should be done in consonance with it, because he is already in sympathy with it; hence Aristotle remarks that the virtuous man himself sets the the measure and standard for human acts.[3]

So the first way of recognizing the virtue of a matter, or the lack thereof, is through already having an established tendency or inclination to do good.

Alternatively, the judgment may be arrived at through a cognitive process (per modum cognitionis) as when a person soundly instructed in moral science can appreciate (posset iudicare, is able to judge concerning) the activity of virtues he does not possess.

In short, there is a difference between being inclined to do good, and knowing theoretically what it is.

The first way of judging divine thing (de rebus divinis, concerning things divine) belongs to that wisdom which is classed among the gifts of the Holy Ghost ; so St. Paul says, The spiritual man judges all things[4] and Dionysius speaks about Hierotheus being taught by the experience of undergoing divine things, not only by learning about them.[5] The second way of judging is taken by sacred doctrine to the extent that it can be gained by study.

So study gives one the cognitive knowledge of what is good or virtuous. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, however, that gives one an inclination to do it. This seems to me like a workable approach to understanding this issue, for it harmonizes well with the doctrine of regeneration (you must be born again, John 3) yet does not deprecate the need for the study of sacred doctrine.

Lastly, Aquinas notes:

Even so the premises (principia) are held by revelation (ex revelatione).

He notes that even the foundational principles of this "studied" science have been given to us by God through special revelation, and so in that respect they also are a gift from the Holy Spirit.

--
1. Translation and references taken from Gibly's Latin text and English translation. (Cambridge University Press)
2. Isaiah 11.2
3. Ethics x, 5. 1176a17
4. 1 Corinthians 2.15
5. De Divinis Nominibus II, 9. PG 3, 648.

CAN IT BE? I found a Web site which contains the entire Latin New Testament (from the Vulgate) and the entire Greek New Testament read aloud in MP3 format, available for free download:

greeklatinaudio.com

The Latin audio seems to be following the ecclesiastical pronunciation, as best I can tell.

By chance I came across this hilarious video about Feminism:

http://youtu.be/05ro6fcj6Ek

From Eusebius:

In the time of [the aforementioned bishops], when the churches everywhere were at peace [under emperor Gallienus], a man at Caesarea in Palestine called Marinus, honoured by high rank in the army and distinguished besides by birth and wealth, was beheaded for his testimony to Christ, on the following account. There is a certain mark of honour among the Romans, the vine-switch, and those that obtain it become, it is said, centurions. A post was vacant, and according to the order of promotion Marinus was being called to this advancement. Indeed he was on the point of receiving the honour, when another stepped forward before the tribunal, and stated that in accordance with the ancient laws Marinus could not share in the rank that belonged to Romans, since he was a Christian and did not sacrifice to the emperors; but that the office fell to himself. And (it is said) that the judge (his name was Achaeus) was moved thereat, and first of all asked what views Marinus held; and then, when he saw that he was stedfast in confessing himself a Christian, gave him a space of three hours for consideration.

When he came outside the court Theotecnus, the bishop there, approached and drew him aside in conversation, and taking him by the hand led him forward to the church. Once inside, he placed him close to the altar itself, and raising his cloak a little, pointed to the sword with which he was girded; at the same time he brought and placed before him the book of the divine Gospels, and bade him choose which of the two he wished.

Without hesitation he stretched forth his right hand and took the divine book. "Hold fast then," said Theotecnus to him, "hold fast to God; and strengthened by Him, mayest thou obtain that thou hast chosen. Go in peace." As he was returning thence immediately a herald cried aloud, summoning him before the court of justice. For the appointed time was now over. Standing before the judge he displayed still greater zeal for the faith; and straightway, even as he was, was led away to death, and so was perfected.[1]

--
1. Eusebius. Ecclesiastical History, VII. XV. (Loeb)