Onesimus

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Abbott Edwin Abbott. Onesimus

THE FIRST BOOK

§ 1. OF MY CHILDHOOD

§ 2. HOW I FIRST SAW THE HOLY APOSTLE PAULUS

§ 3. OF THE STRANGER, AND OF DIOSDOTUS THE PRIEST OF ZEUS

§ 4. HOW WE GREW UP AT LYSTRA

§ 5. HOW AMMIANE DIED AND MY BROTHER AND I WERE SOLD FOR SLAVES

§ 6. OF THE DEATH OF CHRESTUS

§ 7. OF MY LIFE IN THE ERGASTULUM

§ 8. HOW I WAS SOLD TO PHILEMON OF COLOSSÆ

THE SECOND BOOK

§ 1. HOW I RETURNED TO THE WORSHIP OF FALSE GODS

§ 2. HOW SOME OF PHILEMON’S FRIENDS AVOWED A BELIEF IN ONE GOD

§ 3. HOW NICOSTRATUS URGED THAT, WITHOUT THE BELIEF IN THE GODS, THE LIFE OF MAN WOULD BE VOID OF PLEASURE

§ 4. HOW PHILEMON, FALLING SICK, INCLINED TO SUPERSTITION

§ 5. HOW I ACCOMPANIED PHILEMON TO PERGAMUS

§ 6. HOW I WENT DOWN INTO THE CAVE OF TROPHONIUS

§ 7. HOW ARTEMIDORUS SPOKE AGAINST THE BELIEF IN GODS

§ 8. HOW I JOURNEYED WITH PHILEMON TO ANTIOCH IN SYRIA

THE THIRD BOOK

§ 1. OF MY FIRST THOUGHTS CONCERNING THE CHRISTIANS

§ 2. OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHRISTIANS

§ 3. HOW ARTEMIDORUS QUESTIONED ME FURTHER CONCERNING THE CHRISTIANS

§ 4. HOW THE CHRISTIANS HONORED THE PROPHETS OF THE JEWS

§ 5. OF THE ANCIENT HISTORIES OF THE JEWS

§ 6. HOW ARTEMIDORUS QUESTIONED ME FURTHER, AND OF HIS RELATION CONCERNING THE CASTING OUT OF THE SWINE

§ 7. OF THE TRADITIONS OF THE CHRISTIANS AND OF THE NATURE OF CHRISTUS

§ 8. OF THE RISING OF CHRISTUS FROM THE DEAD

§ 9. HOW ARTEMIDORUS BADE ME CEASE FROM FURTHER INQUIRY

§ 10. HOW I STUMBLED AT THE THRESHOLD OF THE DOOR AND WENT NOT IN

THE FOURTH BOOK

§ 1. HOW WE CAME TO ATHENS

§ 2. HOW ARTEMIDORUS REBUKED ME, SUPPOSING THAT I WAS IN DANGER OF BECOMING A CHRISTIAN

§ 3. OF MY REPLY TO ARTEMIDORUS

§ 4. OF EUCHARIS AND OF MY LIFE AT ATHENS

§ 5. HOW I RETURNED TO COLOSSÆ, AND OF MY NEW LIFE WITH PHILEMON

§ 6. CONCERNING MY VISIT TO EPICTETUS

§ 7. HOW I TRIED THE PHILOSOPHY OF EPICTETUS

§ 8. HOW I WAS ACCUSED OF THEFT BY THE DEVICES OF PISTUS

§ 9. HOW EPICTETUS FURTHER EXPLAINED HIS PHILOSOPHY

§ 10. OF METRODORUS AND HIS ADVICE

§ 11. OF THE DEATH OF EUCHARIS AND HOW I WAS AGAIN ACCUSED OF THEFT

THE FIFTH BOOK

§ 1. HOW I ESCAPED FROM THE HOUSE OF PHILEMON

§ 2. OF MY LIFE AT PERGAMUS

§ 3. HOW I CAME TO CORINTH AND SAW THE TOMB OF EUCHARIS

§ 4. HOW I SAW THE HOLY APOSTLE PAULUS BUT KNEW HIM NOT

§ 5. HOW I LEARNED THAT PAULUS WAS THE PROPHET THAT I HAD SEEN IN MY CHILDHOOD, THE SAME THAT HAD CURED LAME XANTHIAS

§ 6. HOW I WAS LED INTO THE NET OF THE GOSPEL

THE SIXTH BOOK

§ 1. OF THE TEACHING OF PAULUS

§ 2. HOW I RETURNED TO PHILEMON AT COLOSSÆ

§ 3. OF MY DISCOURSE WITH ARTEMIDORUS CONCERNING THE FAITH

§ 4. OF THE DOUBTINGS OF ARTEMIDORUS

§ 5. OF THE LAST WORDS AND DEATH OF ARTEMIDORUS

THE SEVENTH BOOK

§ 1. HOW I CAME TO ROME TO SEE THE BLESSED APOSTLE

§ 2. HOW I SAW PAULUS IN PRISON

§ 3. HOW PAULUS RELATED TO ME THE STORY OF HIS LIFE

§ 4. HOW PAULUS CONSENTED TO THE DEATH OF THE BLESSED MARTYR STEPHANUS

§ 5. HOW THE LORD APPEARED TO PAULUS

§ 6. HOW PAULUS WAS PREPARED FOR THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL

§ 7. THE LAST WORDS OF PAULUS

THE EIGHTH BOOK

§ 1. OF THE DEATH OF NERO AND HOW ROME WAS DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF

§ 2. OF THE JEWISH FACTION

§ 3. OF MENAHEM, THE EBIONITE

§ 4. HOW THE CHURCH WAS GUIDED AT THIS TIME BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD

§ 5. HOW I CAME TO PHILOCHRISTUS, A DISCIPLE OF THE LORD IN BRITAIN

§ 6. OF THE CHURCH IN ROME, AND OF THE NEW GOSPELS

§ 7. HOW I LABORED IN BERŒA

§ 8. THE LAST WORDS OF PHILOCHRISTUS

§ 9. OF MY JOURNEY TO SMYRNA, AND HOW THE LORD HATH HELPED EVEN ME TO THE END

§ 10. CONCERNING THE PASSION OF THE BLESSED MARTYRS TROPHIMUS AND ONESIMUS

THE DISCOURSE OF LUCIUS OF CYRENE

NOTES

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In the last year of the Emperor Tiberius I and my twin-brother Chrestus were found lying in one cradle, exposed with a great number of other babes upon the steps of the temple of Asclepius, in Pergamus, a city of Bithynia. Sign or token of our parents, whether they were free-born or slave, there was none; but only a little silver seal hung round my neck, and on the seal these words in Greek characters, I LOVE THEE, and on my brother Chrestus another of the same fashion, bearing the inscription, TRUST ME. Many a time during the days of my wanderings have I spoken reproachfully in my heart, saying that our parents gave us small cause for trust, and that it was poor love to send out into the rough world two innocent babes with no other equipment against evil than these slight toys. But the hand of the Lord was in it, to turn this evil into good in the end.

Ammiane the wife of Menneas was the name of our new mother. Her own son Ammias was but lately dead; and that which drew her kind heart to us more than to any other among so large a multitude of poor babes there pitifully lying on the temple steps, was that in my brother Chrestus she seemed to discern a likeness to her lost one.

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As soon as the season of the year came round for a sea voyage, we sailed across to Athens, and thence to Lebadea, where we were to make ready for descending beneath the earth. When the day approached, Philemon was advised by some of his friends (and also by the ministers of the god) not himself to go down, because of his age and infirmities, lest the suddenness of some voice or apparition in the darkness beneath the earth, should affright him and drive him out of his wits or even slay him outright. For although no one that had at any time consulted the oracle had ever suffered anything fatal (save only one Macedonian of the body-guard of Antigonus who had descended for sacrilegious purpose, and in despite of the sacred ministers, with intent to seek for hid treasure, and he had been cast forth dead by some other passage and not by the way he went down) yet did all, whether strangers or natives, look upon the descent as a matter of some peril not to be lightly taken in hand. So when I perceived that Philemon desired me to go down in his place but would not urge nor so much as ask me, lest I should think myself enforced to consent, I willingly adventured to descend.

But I found it was no such short and simple matter as I had supposed. For on presenting my petition to the priests I was caused to wait many days, first of all in a kind of House of Purification, which was dedicated to Good Fortune, and during all these days I offered up several sacrifices, not only to Trophonius, and to his children, but also to Apollo and to Cronus, and to Zeus the King, and to Hera the Driver of Chariots, and to Demeter called Europa; and even when all these sacrifices had been inspected by the priests and pronounced propitious, yet my good fortune must needs still depend upon one last sacrifice of all. This was to be a ram offered on the last night, whose blood was caused to flow into a trench while invocation was made to Agamedes; which, if it had been unpropitious, would have made all the other sacrifices of no effect, and all my master’s money and my pains would have been spent for naught. Although I was in no humor for scoffing at that time, yet on that last evening, while I awaited the report concerning the entrails, I could not but marvel that any god should desire mortals to approach him by paths so costly and so tedious. For had I been a poor man, I had long ago spent all and more than all my substance in the sacrifices which I had offered, and the purifications I had undergone, and the fees I had paid to the ministers of the god. During the period of purification I had abstained from warm baths, and had bathed only in the cold waters of the stream called Hercyna; but on the last night of all, I was bathed with a special solemnity in the same stream by two priests called Hermæ. Then I was made to drink of two fountains flowing forth, one on either hand, whereof the former was called the fountain of Forgetfulness, the other the fountain of Remembrance. All this was done, they told me, that I might forget the past and remember the future and in particular the response of the god. Last of all they took out of a veil a certain very ancient image of the god, said to have been wrought by Dædalus; and on this they bade me look very reverently and intently even till my eyes were weary. This done, I was clad in a white linen tunic, curiously girt round with garlands, and led towards the cavern.

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