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fice; but in the verses it is 'Abaratos, God, which may seem better to agree with usyano S that went before. One might conjecture that at first it was thus: Αὐτίκα δ' ΑΘΑΝΑΤΟΙ μεγάλην ΕΠΕΘΗΚΑΝ ανάγκην Πνεύμασιν, αὐτὰρ ἔπειτ' ἄνεμοι μέγαν ὑψόθι πύργον Ρίψαν, καὶ θνητοῖσιν ἐπ' ἀλλήλοις ἔριν ὥρσαν.

By this change, 'Abávara may be the nominative case to prav, instead of are, and it seems more reasonable that the gods than the winds should set the men at variance. It is in a Pagan style, and yet a Jewish forger might write it, and take the bold liberty to say 'Alavara, meaning God and his angels, or the angels. Angels are sometimes called gods, and in Genesis xi. 7. whence this account is taken, The Lord said, Let us go down, and there confound their language; in which words, according to many of the Rabbins, God speaks to his angels. Josephus himself now and then uses expressions bordering upon Paganism.

It is not safe to trust one's memory in things of this kind; but I think that profane authors, though they sometimes say 'Abávaro, for the gods, and make it a substantive, yet never say 'Abivatos, simply, for God, or the supreme God. The Sibylline oracles more than once use this word in this manner, and shew by it that they are not the work of a Pagan.

The supposition which some have made, that Justin Martyr was guilty of forging the Sibylline oracles, is groundless and perverse. Justin has written his own character in every page of his works, and shews himself pious, warm, sprightly, fearless, open, hasty, honest, inquisitive, sincere, and as void of dissimulation and hypocrisy as a child. Add to this, that he writes like a man who had no turn for such things, and was not only no poet, but not a

verse-maker. But though he was incapable of forgery, he was deluded by these forged oracles, and perhaps by his authority led the fathers who lived after him into the same error.

Tatian makes no use of the Sibylline oracles, and only just mentions the Sibyl amongst the writers who were before Homer, and after Moses. Orat. contr. Græc. § 41.

Athenagoras, to shew that the gods of the Gentiles were men, produces six verses from the Sibyl. Legat. § 30.

Theophilus gives us no less than eighty-four Sibylline verses, ad Autol. ii. the same which stand in the beginning of the editions of these oracles, and which are mere patch-work of Scripture-phrase. When the Greek poets said things consonant to the holy Scriptures, Theophilus observes that they stole their knowledge from the law and the prophets, κλέψαντες ταῦτα ἐκ νόμο και τῶν προφητῶν. It is strange that he did not suspect the same thing of the Sibyl, whose thefts are so open and glaring. ii. 37.

The Sibylline verses cited by the fathers, and those which are preserved in our present collection, are often the same, and always of the same stamp and value, and liable to the same objections. It is a vain thing to receive the one, and reject the other: it is better to defend them all heroically in the lump, and not to do the work by halves, nor make a distinction where there is no difference.

Clemens Alexandrinus was learned, and willing to shew his learning, and to let the world see that he had perused all sorts of authors; and therefore could not possibly omit the Sibyl.

He

He produces these verses (from the Sibyl, thought he names her not) in praise of the Hebrews, Cohort. 60.

Οἵ τινες οὐκ ἀπάτησι κεναῖς, εδ ̓ ἐργ ̓ ἀνθρώπων
Χρύσεα και χάλκεια, καὶ ἀργύρη, ἠδ ̓ ἐλέφαντος,
Καὶ ξυλίνων λιθίνων τε, βροτῶν εἴδωλα θανόντων,
Τιμῶσιν, ὅσαπέρ τε βροτοι, κενεόφρονι βουλῇ.
̓Αλλὰ γι' αἵρουσιν πρὸς ὐρανὸν ὠλένας ἁγνὸς,
Ὄρθριοι ἐξ εὐνῆς, αἰεὶ χρόα αγνίζοντες

Ὕδασι, καὶ τιμῶσι μόνον τὸν ἀεί μεδέοντα
̓Αθάνατον.

Qui nusquam vanis erroribus inducti, hominum opera
Ex ebore argentoque, ex auro denique et ære,
E saxis lignoque hominum simulacra peremptorum,
Horrent, et qurecumque alii, vanissima turba.
At contra puras tollunt ad sidera palmas,

Mane ubi membra levant strato, quæ virgine lympha
Perfundunt: unumque colunt, qui cuncta gubernat,
Usque immortalem.

I give this version, as I find it in the Oxford edition, and shall not trouble myself to mend it. The fifth verse seems to be taken from St Paulἐπαίροντας ὁσίως χώρας. 1 Tim. ii. 8. Perhaps, πρός γ' ὐρανὸν, for the sake of metre, and also ὠλένας ἁγνὸς, from ὠλὴν ; for the last syllable of ὠλένας from ὠλένη is long. In the last verse for ̓Αθάνατον, Sylburgius would read ̓Αθανάτων, Ι know not why. This passage may be found in the Sybill. Or. L. iii.

Amongst the Sibylline verses cited by Theophilus and Clemens, are these :

Εἷς Θεός έσι, βροχάς, ἀνέμους, εισμὸς ἐπιπέμπων,
Αςεροπάς, λιμός, λοιμός, και κήδεα λυγρά...

Καὶ νιφελές, κρύςαλλα· τί δὴ καθ' ἓν ἐξαγορεύω ;

Unus

Unus Deus est, imbres, ventos, terræ motus im

mittens,

Fulgura, fumes, pestes, et luctus tristes,

Et nives, et glaciem. Et quid singula commemoro? This is taken from the Psalms. Το διδόντος χίωνα βάλλοντος κρύςαλλον αὐτα-Χάλαζα, χιών, πρύςαλλος, πνευμα και Tayidos-cxlvii. cxlviii.

Minucius Felix mentions not the Sibyl, though he was invited to it by his subject, where he defends the Christians for teaching the doctrine of a conflagration and a future judgment, and appeals to the poets and philosophers who had said the same thing. c. xxxiv. &c. I am glad of it, for the sake of that ingenious and agreeable author.

The Phrygian Sibyl is said to have been called Diana, "Apreus, and to have uttered these verses at Delphi :

Ο Δελφοί θεράποντες εκηβόλον ̓Απόλλωνος,

Ηλθον ἐγω χρήσουσα Διὸς νέον αιγιόχοιο,
Αὐτοκασιγνήτῳ κεχολωμένη ̓Απόλλωνι.

O Delphi, Phabi ferientis qui eminus estis Servi, veni ad vos Jovis expositura potentis Mentem, germano succensens plurima Phœbo. Thus Clemens Strom. i. p. 384. and Pausanias also says that the Sibyl calls herself Herophile, and Diana, and the sister, and sometimes the wife, and sometimes the daughter of Apollo. See the notes.

We have here, I think, the fragment of a true old Sibylline oracle made by a Pagan. It looks as if it were composed by some priest, who had a mind to set up an oracle in opposition to the Delphic, and to draw the trade to another shop.

Pausa

Pausanius in Phoc. gives us this Sibylline oracle predicting a defeat of the Athenians, and made, I suppose, after the event;

Καί τότ' Αθηναίοισι βαρύτονα κήδεα θήσε
Ζεὺς ὑψιβρεμέτης, ὅπερ κράτος ἐςὶ μέγισον.
Νηυσὶ φέρε πολέμοιο μάχην και δηϊοτῆτα
Ὀλλυμέναις δολεροῖσι τρόποις, κακότητι νομίων.

Ac tum Cecropidis luctum gemitusque ciebit
Jupiter altitonans, rerum cui summa potestas.
Navibus exitium, et crudelia funera bello

Ille feret, culpaque ducum dabit omnia pessum. Dio, or Xiphiline, mentions a verse, pretended to be a Sibylline oracle, concerning Nero, which was handed about when Nero had burnt the city of Rome; and which, to be sure, was composed after he had killed his mother* ;

Εσχατος Αἰνεαδῶν μητροκτόνος ἡγεμονεύσ4.

Ultimus Eneadum matrem necat induperator. But, says the historian, it was really fulfilled. Indeed! As if it required divination, to foresee that such a debauched, miserable, odious wretch as Nero would in all probability die without heirs, or be cut off by some conspiracy, and that with him the Julian family would be extinguished! Nero married Sporus, upon which one of the wits of those days observed, that it had been well for mankind, Si pater ejus Domitius talem duxisset uxorem.

કે

—ἕτερον λόγιον, ὡς καὶ Σιβύλλειον ὄντως ὂν, ᾔδον. ἔτι δὲ τότο, Εσχαίος

Καὶ ἔσχεν ὕτως. εἴ τε καὶ ὡς ἀληθῶς θερμανθείᾳ τινὶ προλεχθέν, εἴτε καὶ τότε ὑπὸ τὸ ὁμίλα πρὸς τὰ παρόντα θειασθέν. τελευταῖος γδ τῶν

Ιουλίων

• Nero killed his mother, A. D. 59, and burnt the city A. D. 64

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