Chapter XV: Progress Of The Christian Religion.—Part IX. 第十五章基督教的传播——第九节

Chapter XV: Progress Of The Christian Religion.—Part IX.

第十五章基督教的传播——第九节

From this impartial though imperfect survey of the progress of Christianity, it may perhaps seem probable, that the number of its proselytes has been excessively magnified by fear on the one side, and by devotion on the other. According to the irreproachable testimony of Origen, ¹⁸³ the proportion of the faithful was very inconsiderable, when compared with the multitude of an unbelieving world; but, as we are left without any distinct information, it is impossible to determine, and it is difficult even to conjecture, the real numbers of the primitive Christians. The most favorable calculation, however, that can be deduced from the examples of Antioch and of Rome, will not permit us to imagine that more than a twentieth part of the subjects of the empire had enlisted themselves under the banner of the cross before the important conversion of Constantine. But their habits of faith, of zeal, and of union, seemed to multiply their numbers; and the same causes which contributed to their future increase, served to render their actual strength more apparent and more formidable.

以上对基督教发展的考察虽不完备，却力求公允；从中或许可以推想：关于皈依者的人数，反对者出于恐惧、信徒出于虔敬，两方面都把它夸大得离了谱。奥利金的证言无可指摘，¹⁸³据他所言，与那不信教的芸芸众生相比，信徒所占的比例微不足道；然而既无确切的资料可凭，早期基督徒的真实数目便无从断定，甚至连推测都难以着手。不过，即便照安条克与罗马的先例作最宽的估算，我们也不能设想：在君士坦丁那次意义重大的皈依之前，投身于十字架旗帜下的人会超过帝国臣民的二十分之一。然而他们信仰笃诚、热忱如火、彼此团结，这些习性仿佛使其人数倍增；而促成他们日后壮大的种种缘由，也叫他们眼下的实力显得愈加触目、愈加可畏。

Such is the constitution of civil society, that, whilst a few persons are distinguished by riches, by honors, and by knowledge, the body of the people is condemned to obscurity, ignorance and poverty. The Christian religion, which addressed itself to the whole human race, must consequently collect a far greater number of proselytes from the lower than from the superior ranks of life. This innocent and natural circumstance has been improved into a very odious imputation, which seems to be less strenuously denied by the apologists, than it is urged by the adversaries, of the faith; that the new sect of Christians was almost entirely composed of the dregs of the populace, of peasants and mechanics, of boys and women, of beggars and slaves, the last of whom might sometimes introduce the missionaries into the rich and noble families to which they belonged. These obscure teachers (such was the charge of malice and infidelity) are as mute in public as they are loquacious and dogmatical in private. Whilst they cautiously avoid the dangerous encounter of philosophers, they mingle with the rude and illiterate crowd, and insinuate themselves into those minds whom their age, their sex, or their education, has the best disposed to receive the impression of superstitious terrors. ¹⁸⁴

文明社会的常态便是如此：少数人凭财富、荣誉和学识出人头地，而广大民众却注定湮没无闻、愚昧无知、困顿贫寒。基督教既然面向全人类招徕信众，从下层收得的皈依者，自然远多于上层。这本是无可厚非、势所必然的情形，却被人做足了文章，构陷成一桩十分可憎的罪名——而对这项指控，护教士的辩驳，似乎还不及信仰的敌手攻讦得那样卖力。他们说：基督徒这个新兴教派，几乎清一色是市井败类——农夫工匠、妇孺孩童、乞丐奴隶；那些奴隶有时还会把传教士引进自己所属的豪门望族。这些卑微的教师（这便是恶意与不信者加给他们的罪状）当众噤若寒蝉，私下却口若悬河、武断专横。他们小心翼翼，回避与哲学家正面交锋的凶险，只一味厮混于粗鄙无文的群氓之间，专向那些因年岁、性别或教养而最易接受迷信恐吓的心灵暗中渗透。¹⁸⁴

This unfavorable picture, though not devoid of a faint resemblance, betrays, by its dark coloring and distorted features, the pencil of an enemy. As the humble faith of Christ diffused itself through the world, it was embraced by several persons who derived some consequence from the advantages of nature or fortune. Aristides, who presented an eloquent apology to the emperor Hadrian, was an Athenian philosopher. ¹⁸⁵ Justin Martyr had sought divine knowledge in the schools of Zeno, of Aristotle, of Pythagoras, and of Plato, before he fortunately was accosted by the old man, or rather the angel, who turned his attention to the study of the Jewish prophets. ¹⁸⁶ Clemens of Alexandria had acquired much various reading in the Greek, and Tertullian in the Latin, language. Julius Africanus and Origen possessed a very considerable share of the learning of their times; and although the style of Cyprian is very different from that of Lactantius, we might almost discover that both those writers had been public teachers of rhetoric. Even the study of philosophy was at length introduced among the Christians, but it was not always productive of the most salutary effects; knowledge was as often the parent of heresy as of devotion, and the description which was designed for the followers of Artemon, may, with equal propriety, be applied to the various sects that resisted the successors of the apostles. “They presume to alter the Holy Scriptures, to abandon the ancient rule of faith, and to form their opinions according to the subtile precepts of logic. The science of the church is neglected for the study of geometry, and they lose sight of heaven while they are employed in measuring the earth. Euclid is perpetually in their hands. Aristotle and Theophrastus are the objects of their admiration; and they express an uncommon reverence for the works of Galen. Their errors are derived from the abuse of the arts and sciences of the infidels, and they corrupt the simplicity of the gospel by the refinements of human reason.” ¹⁸⁷

这幅丑陋的画像，虽不无几分依稀的形似，但那阴暗的着色与扭曲的面目，却泄露出它是出自仇敌的画笔。随着基督卑微的信仰传遍天下，也有若干凭天赋或际遇而略有身份地位的人皈依了它。阿里斯提德斯本是雅典哲学家，曾向皇帝哈德良呈上一篇雄辩的护教辞。¹⁸⁵ 殉道者查士丁曾遍访芝诺、亚里士多德、毕达哥拉斯和柏拉图诸门，探求神圣的真知，直到有幸遇见那位老者——或者不如说是天使——才把他的心思引向对犹太先知的钻研。¹⁸⁶ 亚历山大里亚的克莱门斯博览希腊群籍，德尔图良则精熟拉丁文献。尤利乌斯·阿非利卡努斯与奥利金都深具当世的学养；而西普里安的文风虽与拉克坦提乌斯大相径庭，我们却几乎能看出：这两位作家都当过公开授徒的修辞学教师。哲学的研习最终也进入了基督徒中间，只是未必总能结出最有益的果子；学识催生异端，与催生虔信一样频繁。当年为阿尔特蒙的信徒所作的那番描画，用在抗拒使徒继承者的形形色色的教派身上，也一样恰如其分：“他们竟敢擅改圣经，抛弃古老的信仰准则，全凭逻辑学那些精微的规条去构筑自己的见解。教会的学问遭到冷落，几何学却大行其道；他们埋头丈量大地，却把天堂丢在了脑后。欧几里得的书他们手不释卷，亚里士多德和泰奥弗拉斯托斯是他们膜拜的偶像，对盖伦的著作更是敬奉有加。他们的谬误，皆源于滥用异教徒的种种学术与技艺；他们以人类理性的种种精巧，败坏了福音的质朴。”¹⁸⁷

Nor can it be affirmed with truth, that the advantages of birth and fortune were always separated from the profession of Christianity. Several Roman citizens were brought before the tribunal of Pliny, and he soon discovered, that a great number of persons of every order of men in Bithynia had deserted the religion of their ancestors. ¹⁸⁸ His unsuspected testimony may, in this instance, obtain more credit than the bold challenge of Tertullian, when he addresses himself to the fears as well as the humanity of the proconsul of Africa, by assuring him, that if he persists in his cruel intentions, he must decimate Carthage, and that he will find among the guilty many persons of his own rank, senators and matrons of noblest extraction, and the friends or relations of his most intimate friends. ¹⁸⁹ It appears, however, that about forty years afterwards the emperor Valerian was persuaded of the truth of this assertion, since in one of his rescripts he evidently supposes that senators, Roman knights, and ladies of quality, were engaged in the Christian sect. ¹⁹⁰ The church still continued to increase its outward splendor as it lost its internal purity; and, in the reign of Diocletian, the palace, the courts of justice, and even the army, concealed a multitude of Christians, who endeavored to reconcile the interests of the present with those of a future life.

当然，也不能一口咬定，出身与财富的优越就总是与信奉基督教无缘。曾有几名罗马公民被押到普林尼的法庭受审，他很快便查明：在比提尼亚，各个等级、形形色色的人竟纷纷背弃了祖先的宗教。¹⁸⁸ 就这件事而言，普林尼这份并无成见的证词，或许比德尔图良那大胆的挑衅更可采信——德尔图良既想打动阿非利加行省代执政官的恻隐之心，又想触动他的畏惧，便对他放言：倘若他一意孤行，坚持其残暴的图谋，就势必要处死迦太基十分之一的居民；而在这些“罪人”当中，他会发现许多与自己身份相当的人物，有元老，有出身最高贵的贵妇，还有他至交好友的亲朋。¹⁸⁹ 不过看来，约四十年之后，瓦勒良皇帝倒是信了这一说法，因为在他的一道敕令里，便分明认定元老、罗马骑士乃至名门贵妇都已投身基督教派。¹⁹⁰ 教会在丧失内在纯洁的同时，外表的荣光却仍与日俱增；到戴克里先在位时，宫廷、法庭乃至军中，都暗藏着为数众多的基督徒——他们力图让今生的利害与来世的指望两不相误。

And yet these exceptions are either too few in number, or too recent in time, entirely to remove the imputation of ignorance and obscurity which has been so arrogantly cast on the first proselytes of Christianity. ¹⁹⁰¹ Instead of employing in our defence the fictions of later ages, it will be more prudent to convert the occasion of scandal into a subject of edification. Our serious thoughts will suggest to us, that the apostles themselves were chosen by Providence among the fishermen of Galilee, and that the lower we depress the temporal condition of the first Christians, the more reason we shall find to admire their merit and success. It is incumbent on us diligently to remember, that the kingdom of heaven was promised to the poor in spirit, and that minds afflicted by calamity and the contempt of mankind, cheerfully listen to the divine promise of future happiness; while, on the contrary, the fortunate are satisfied with the possession of this world; and the wise abuse in doubt and dispute their vain superiority of reason and knowledge.

然而这些例外，要么寥寥无几，要么年代太近，终究抹不掉那顶扣在基督教最初一批皈依者头上、说他们无知卑贱的帽子——那指控本就下得傲慢。¹⁹⁰¹ 与其搬出后世的种种虚构来替我们辩护，不如更明智些，把这桩看似有损体面的话柄，转化为一段可资教化的题材。只要我们郑重想一想便知：使徒本身也是天意从加利利的渔夫中拣选出来的；我们把早期基督徒的现世境遇贬得越低，就越有理由叹服他们的德行与功业。我们理应时时铭记：天国原是应许给虚心之人的；饱受灾祸摧折、又遭世人鄙夷的心灵，最乐于聆听那关于来世幸福的神圣应许；反过来，境遇顺遂之人满足于坐拥今世，而智者则在怀疑与争辩中，白白挥霍了他们在理性与学识上那点自负的优越。

We stand in need of such reflections to comfort us for the loss of some illustrious characters, which in our eyes might have seemed the most worthy of the heavenly present. The names of Seneca, of the elder and the younger Pliny, of Tacitus, of Plutarch, of Galen, of the slave Epictetus, and of the emperor Marcus Antoninus, adorn the age in which they flourished, and exalt the dignity of human nature. They filled with glory their respective stations, either in active or contemplative life; their excellent understandings were improved by study; Philosophy had purified their minds from the prejudices of the popular superstitions; and their days were spent in the pursuit of truth and the practice of virtue. Yet all these sages (it is no less an object of surprise than of concern) overlooked or rejected the perfection of the Christian system. Their language or their silence equally discover their contempt for the growing sect, which in their time had diffused itself over the Roman empire. Those among them who condescended to mention the Christians, consider them only as obstinate and perverse enthusiasts, who exacted an implicit submission to their mysterious doctrines, without being able to produce a single argument that could engage the attention of men of sense and learning. ¹⁹¹

我们正需要这样一番思量，来宽慰自己——因为有些声名显赫的人物，在我们看来本最配领受这份天赐之礼，如今却与之失之交臂。塞涅卡、老普林尼与小普林尼、塔西佗、普鲁塔克、盖伦、身为奴隶的爱比克泰德，还有皇帝马可·安敦尼，这一个个名字，都为他们所处的时代增光添彩，也抬高了人性的尊严。他们或投身事功，或潜心沉思，各在其位，无不建树辉煌；他们悟性超群，又因勤学而愈见精进；哲学已涤净了他们心头民间迷信的种种偏见；他们的岁月，全花在探求真理、践行美德上。然而——这既叫人惊讶，也叫人痛惜——所有这些哲人，竟都对基督教体系的完满视而不见，或断然拒斥。无论他们出言讥评，还是缄口不谈，都同样流露出对这个新兴教派的轻蔑；而那教派，在他们的时代已然传遍了罗马帝国。他们当中偶有屈尊提及基督徒的，也只把他们看作一群顽固乖张的狂热之徒——这些人强要世人对其神秘的教义盲从无违，却拿不出一条能让有识之士稍加留意的论据。¹⁹¹

It is at least doubtful whether any of these philosophers perused the apologies ¹⁹¹¹ which the primitive Christians repeatedly published in behalf of themselves and of their religion; but it is much to be lamented that such a cause was not defended by abler advocates. They expose with superfluous wit and eloquence the extravagance of Polytheism. They interest our compassion by displaying the innocence and sufferings of their injured brethren. But when they would demonstrate the divine origin of Christianity, they insist much more strongly on the predictions which announced, than on the miracles which accompanied, the appearance of the Messiah. Their favorite argument might serve to edify a Christian or to convert a Jew, since both the one and the other acknowledge the authority of those prophecies, and both are obliged, with devout reverence, to search for their sense and their accomplishment. But this mode of persuasion loses much of its weight and influence, when it is addressed to those who neither understand nor respect the Mosaic dispensation and the prophetic style. ¹⁹² In the unskilful hands of Justin and of the succeeding apologists, the sublime meaning of the Hebrew oracles evaporates in distant types, affected conceits, and cold allegories; and even their authenticity was rendered suspicious to an unenlightened Gentile, by the mixture of pious forgeries, which, under the names of Orpheus, Hermes, and the Sibyls, ¹⁹³ were obtruded on him as of equal value with the genuine inspirations of Heaven. The adoption of fraud and sophistry in the defence of revelation too often reminds us of the injudicious conduct of those poets who load their invulnerable heroes with a useless weight of cumbersome and brittle armor.

这些哲学家究竟有没有读过早期基督徒一再刊布、为自身及其信仰申辩的护教辞，至少是大可存疑的；¹⁹¹¹然而更令人扼腕的是，这样一桩事业，竟没有更高明的辩士来担纲。他们逞其过剩的机锋与辩才，极力铺陈多神教的荒诞；他们描摹受屈的弟兄何等无辜、备受何等苦难，博得我们的同情。可是一旦要论证基督教的神圣来历，他们所倚重的，与其说是伴随弥赛亚降临的种种神迹，不如说是预告其降临的种种预言。他们最得意的这套论证，或可坚定一个基督徒的信心，或可劝化一个犹太人，因为这两者都承认那些预言的权威，也都不得不怀着虔敬去探究其含义与应验。可这套劝服之法，一旦拿去对着那些既不懂、也不敬摩西律法体制与先知文体的人讲，分量与效力便大打折扣。¹⁹² 到了查士丁及其后继护教士那笨拙的手里，希伯来神谕那崇高的意涵，尽消散于牵强的预表、矫饰的巧喻和枯冷的寓意之中；更有甚者，他们混入种种虔诚的伪作，托名俄耳甫斯、赫尔墨斯与西比拉，¹⁹³硬塞给一个未受启蒙的外邦人，声称这些与上天真正的启示价值相等，反倒使这些神谕的真确性在他眼中变得可疑。为维护天启而搬出欺诈与诡辩，往往叫我们想起某些诗人那不明智的做法：明明给英雄铸就了刀枪不入之身，却偏要再给他披挂上一身笨重易碎、毫无用处的甲胄。

But how shall we excuse the supine inattention of the Pagan and philosophic world, to those evidences which were represented by the hand of Omnipotence, not to their reason, but to their senses? During the age of Christ, of his apostles, and of their first disciples, the doctrine which they preached was confirmed by innumerable prodigies. The lame walked, the blind saw, the sick were healed, the dead were raised, dæmons were expelled, and the laws of Nature were frequently suspended for the benefit of the church. But the sages of Greece and Rome turned aside from the awful spectacle, and, pursuing the ordinary occupations of life and study, appeared unconscious of any alterations in the moral or physical government of the world. Under the reign of Tiberius, the whole earth, ¹⁹⁴ or at least a celebrated province of the Roman empire, ¹⁹⁵ was involved in a preternatural darkness of three hours. Even this miraculous event, which ought to have excited the wonder, the curiosity, and the devotion of mankind, passed without notice in an age of science and history. ¹⁹⁶ It happened during the lifetime of Seneca and the elder Pliny, who must have experienced the immediate effects, or received the earliest intelligence, of the prodigy. Each of these philosophers, in a laborious work, has recorded all the great phenomena of Nature, earthquakes, meteors, comets, and eclipses, which his indefatigable curiosity could collect. ¹⁹⁷ Both the one and the other have omitted to mention the greatest phenomenon to which the mortal eye has been witness since the creation of the globe. A distinct chapter of Pliny ¹⁹⁸ is designed for eclipses of an extraordinary nature and unusual duration; but he contents himself with describing the singular defect of light which followed the murder of Cæsar, when, during the greatest part of a year, the orb of the sun appeared pale and without splendor. The season of obscurity, which cannot surely be compared with the preternatural darkness of the Passion, had been already celebrated by most of the poets ¹⁹⁹ and historians of that memorable age. ²⁰⁰

可是，对于那些由全能者亲手陈示的证据——不是诉诸他们的理性，而是径直诉诸他们的感官——异教与哲学界竟如此懒散地视而不见，我们又该如何为之开脱呢？在基督及其使徒、还有最初那批门徒的时代，他们所传的教义，曾有无数奇迹为之印证。瘸子行走，瞎子看见，病人痊愈，死人复活，魔鬼被逐，自然的法则也屡屡为教会之故而暂告中止。然而希腊与罗马的哲人，却从这令人悚然的景象前扭头走开，照旧料理生活与治学的寻常事务，仿佛世界在道德或自然秩序上并未起过任何变动。就在提比略在位期间，整个大地¹⁹⁴——至少是罗马帝国一处著名的行省¹⁹⁵——曾笼罩在一场长达三小时、超乎自然的黑暗之中。这样一桩神迹，本该激起世人的惊异、好奇与虔敬，却在一个崇尚科学与史学的时代里悄然过去，无人理会。¹⁹⁶ 此事发生在塞涅卡与老普林尼在世之时，这两人对这一奇象，或曾亲身领受其直接的影响，或当最早听闻其消息。这两位哲人，各自都在一部呕心沥血的著作里，把他们那不知疲倦的好奇心所能搜罗到的自然界重大现象——地震、流星、彗星、日食——尽数记录在案。¹⁹⁷ 然而，自地球创生以来，凡人肉眼所曾目睹的最伟大的天象，两人却都只字未提。普林尼另辟专章¹⁹⁸，论述那些性质异常、持续超乎寻常的日食；可他所满足于描述的，不过是恺撒遇刺之后那次奇特的光亮亏缺——当时在一年的大半光景里，日轮都黯淡无光。那段晦暗的时节，无论如何总不能与受难时那超乎自然的黑暗相提并论，可它却早已被那个值得纪念的时代里大多数诗人¹⁹⁹与史家²⁰⁰争相传诵了。

Notes 注释

183

Origen contra Celsum, l. viii. p. 424.

184

Minucius Felix, c. 8, with Wowerus’s notes. Celsus ap. Origen, l. iii. p. 138, 142. Julian ap. Cyril. l. vi. p. 206, edit. Spanheim.

185

Euseb. Hist. Eccles. iv. 3. Hieronym. Epist. 83.

186

The story is prettily told in Justin’s Dialogues. Tillemont, (Mem Ecclesiast. tom. ii. p. 384,) who relates it after him is sure that the old man was a disguised angel.

这个故事在查士丁的《对话录》里讲得颇为动人。蒂耶蒙（Mem. Ecclesiast. tom. ii. p. 384）转述其说，并断定那老者乃是天使化身。

187

Eusebius, v. 28. It may be hoped, that none, except the heretics, gave occasion to the complaint of Celsus, (ap. Origen, l. ii. p. 77,) that the Christians were perpetually correcting and altering their Gospels. * Note: Origen states in reply, that he knows of none who had altered the Gospels except the Marcionites, the Valentinians, and perhaps some followers of Lucanus.—M.

Eusebius, v. 28。但愿除异端分子外，别无他人给了塞尔苏斯（ap. Origen, l. ii. p. 77）以口实，让他抱怨基督徒总在不停地校订和篡改自己的福音书。﹡ 编者按：奥利金在答辩中声称，据他所知，除马西昂派、瓦伦廷派、或许还有卢卡努斯的几个门徒之外，并无人篡改过福音书。—M

188

Plin. Epist. x. 97. Fuerunt alii similis amentiæ, cives Romani—-Multi enim omnis ætatis, omnis ordinis, utriusque sexus, etiam vocuntur in periculum et vocabuntur.

Plin. Epist. x. 97. Fuerunt alii similis amentiæ, cives Romani——Multi enim omnis ætatis, omnis ordinis, utriusque sexus, etiam vocuntur in periculum et vocabuntur.

189

Tertullian ad Scapulum. Yet even his rhetoric rises no higher than to claim a tenth part of Carthage.

Tertullian ad Scapulum。不过，即便他极尽夸张之能事，也至多声称迦太基有十分之一的人（属基督徒）罢了。

190

Cyprian. Epist. 70.

1901

This incomplete enumeration ought to be increased by the names of several Pagans converted at the dawn of Christianity, and whose conversion weakens the reproach which the historian appears to support. Such are, the Proconsul Sergius Paulus, converted at Paphos, (Acts xiii. 7—12.) Dionysius, member of the Areopagus, converted with several others, al Athens, (Acts xvii. 34;) several persons at the court of Nero, (Philip. iv 22;) Erastus, receiver at Corinth, (Rom. xvi.23;) some Asiarchs, (Acts xix. 31) As to the philosophers, we may add Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus of Antioch, Hegesippus, Melito, Miltiades, Pantænus, Ammenius, all distinguished for their genius and learning.—G.

这份并不完整的名单，还应补上基督教发轫之初皈依的若干异教徒；他们的归信，削弱了本书作者似乎有意支持的那项指责。这样的人有：在帕福斯皈依的代执政官塞尔吉乌斯·保卢斯（Acts xiii. 7—12）；在雅典与另几人一同皈依、身为亚略巴古议员的丢尼修（Acts xvii. 34）；尼禄宫廷中的若干人（Philip. iv. 22）；在科林斯掌管银库的以拉都（Rom. xvi. 23）；以及几位亚细亚祭司长（Acts xix. 31）。至于哲学家，则可再添上塔提安、阿特那哥拉、安条克的塞奥菲鲁斯、赫格西普斯、墨利托、米太亚德、潘代努斯、阿摩尼乌斯——个个都以天才与学识著称。—G

191

Dr. Lardner, in his first and second volumes of Jewish and Christian testimonies, collects and illustrates those of Pliny the younger, of Tacitus, of Galen, of Marcus Antoninus, and perhaps of Epictetus, (for it is doubtful whether that philosopher means to speak of the Christians.) The new sect is totally unnoticed by Seneca, the elder Pliny, and Plutarch.

拉德纳博士在其《犹太与基督教见证集》第一、二卷中，收录并阐释了小普林尼、塔西佗、盖伦、马可·安敦尼、或许还有爱比克泰德的相关记述（这位哲学家是否有意谈及基督徒，尚难断定）。至于塞涅卡、老普林尼与普鲁塔克，则对这个新兴教派全然不置一词。

1911

The emperors Hadrian, Antoninus &c., read with astonishment the apologies of Justin Martyr, of Aristides, of Melito, &c. (See St. Hieron. ad mag. orat. Orosius, lviii. c. 13.) Eusebius says expressly, that the cause of Christianity was defended before the senate, in a very elegant discourse, by Apollonius the Martyr.—G. ——Gibbon, in his severer spirit of criticism, may have questioned the authority of Jerome and Eusebius. There are some difficulties about Apollonius, which Heinichen (note in loc. Eusebii) would solve, by suppose lag him to have been, as Jerome states, a senator.—M.

哈德良、安敦尼等皇帝，读到殉道者查士丁、阿里斯提德斯、墨利托等人的护教辞时无不惊叹。（见 St. Hieron. ad mag. orat.；Orosius, lviii. c. 13。）优西比乌明确说，殉道者阿波罗尼乌斯曾在元老院面前，以一篇极为典雅的演说为基督教申辩。—G ——吉本秉其更为严苛的批判精神，或许会质疑哲罗姆与优西比乌之说的可信。关于阿波罗尼乌斯尚存若干疑难，海尼兴（对优西比乌该处的注释）主张：一如哲罗姆所言，把他看作一位元老，疑难便可迎刃而解。—M

192

If the famous prophecy of the Seventy Weeks had been alleged to a Roman philosopher, would he not have replied in the words of Cicero, “Quæ tandem ista auguratio est, annorum potius quam aut rænsium aut dierum?” De Divinatione, ii. 30. Observe with what irreverence Lucian, (in Alexandro, c. 13.) and his friend Celsus ap. Origen, (l. vii. p. 327,) express themselves concerning the Hebrew prophets.

倘若有人把著名的“七十个七”预言拿去讲给一位罗马哲学家听，他岂不要用西塞罗的话来回敬：“Quæ tandem ista auguratio est, annorum potius quam aut rænsium aut dierum?”（《论占卜》ii. 30。）且看琉善（in Alexandro, c. 13）及其友塞尔苏斯（ap. Origen, l. vii. p. 327）谈及希伯来先知时，措辞是何等不恭。

193

The philosophers who derided the more ancient predictions of the Sibyls, would easily have detected the Jewish and Christian forgeries, which have been so triumphantly quoted by the fathers, from Justin Martyr to Lactantius. When the Sibylline verses had performed their appointed task, they, like the system of the millennium, were quietly laid aside. The Christian Sybil had unluckily fixed the ruin of Rome for the year 195, A. U. C. 948.

那些讥笑西比拉更古老之预言的哲学家，本可轻而易举地识破犹太与基督教的伪作——从殉道者查士丁到拉克坦提乌斯，众教父曾洋洋得意地引用它们。西比拉的诗篇一旦完成了派给它的差事，便如千禧年之说一般，被悄然束之高阁。基督教那位西比拉，不巧把罗马的覆亡定在了公元 195 年，即罗马建城 948 年。

194

The fathers, as they are drawn out in battle array by Dom Calmet, (Dissertations sur la Bible, tom. iii. p. 295—308,) seem to cover the whole earth with darkness, in which they are followed by most of the moderns.

卡尔梅神父（Dissertations sur la Bible, tom. iii. p. 295—308）把众教父排成战阵，仿佛要以黑暗笼罩整个大地；大多数近人也随之附和。

195

Origen ad Matth. c. 27, and a few modern critics, Beza, Le Clerc, Lardner, &c., are desirous of confining it to the land of Judea.

奥利金（ad Matth. c. 27）以及贝扎、勒克莱尔、拉德纳等少数现代批评家，则想把这黑暗限定在犹地亚一地。

196

The celebrated passage of Phlegon is now wisely abandoned. When Tertullian assures the Pagans that the mention of the prodigy is found in Arcanis (not Archivis) vestris, (see his Apology, c. 21,) he probably appeals to the Sibylline verses, which relate it exactly in the words of the Gospel. * Note: According to some learned theologians a misunderstanding of the text in the Gospel has given rise to this mistake, which has employed and wearied so many laborious commentators, though Origen had already taken the pains to preinform them. The expression does not mean, they assert, an eclipse, but any kind of obscurity occasioned in the atmosphere, whether by clouds or any other cause. As this obscuration of the sun rarely took place in Palestine, where in the middle of April the sky was usually clear, it assumed, in the eyes of the Jews and Christians, an importance conformable to the received notion, that the sun concealed at midday was a sinister presage. See Amos viii. 9, 10. The word is often taken in this sense by contemporary writers; the Apocalypse says the sun was concealed, when speaking of an obscuration caused by smoke and dust. (Revel. ix. 2.) Moreover, the Hebrew word ophal, which in the LXX. answers to the Greek, signifies any darkness; and the Evangelists, who have modelled the sense of their expressions by those of the LXX., must have taken it in the same latitude. This darkening of the sky usually precedes earthquakes. (Matt. xxvii. 51.) The Heathen authors furnish us a number of examples, of which a miraculous explanation was given at the time. See Ovid. ii. v. 33, l. xv. v. 785. Pliny, Hist. Nat. l. ii. c 30. Wetstein has collected all these examples in his edition of the New Testament. We need not, then, be astonished at the silence of the Pagan authors concerning a phenomenon which did not extend beyond Jerusalem, and which might have nothing contrary to the laws of nature; although the Christians and the Jews may have regarded it as a sinister presage. See Michaelis Notes on New Testament, v. i. p. 290. Paulus, Commentary on New Testament, iii. p. 760.—G.

弗勒贡那段著名的文字，如今已被明智地弃置不用。德尔图良向异教徒担保说，这一奇象曾见诸“你们的秘籍”（in Arcanis——而非 Archivis——vestris，见其《护教辞》c. 21），他所援引的，多半是那些西比拉诗篇，而诗篇对此事的叙述，恰与福音书的措辞如出一辙。﹡ 编者按：据某些博学的神学家说，福音书原文遭人误解，才生出这桩错误；它使无数勤勉的注释家为之殚精竭虑、疲于奔命，尽管奥利金早已不辞辛劳，事先提醒过他们。他们坚称，那措辞指的并非日食，而是大气中因云翳或其他缘故所生的任何一种昏暗。这种日光晦暗，在巴勒斯坦本就罕见——那里四月中旬通常晴空万里——因此在犹太人和基督徒眼中，它便获得了一种与流行观念相称的分量：日头当午隐没，乃是不祥之兆。参见 Amos viii. 9, 10。当时的作家常在此义上使用这个词；《启示录》讲到烟尘所致的昏暗时，也说太阳被遮蔽了（Revel. ix. 2）。再者，希伯来词 ophal（在《七十子译本》中与那个希腊词相对应）本可指任何黑暗；而福音书作者既是仿照《七十子译本》来措辞立意的，想必也是在同样宽泛的意义上理解它的。天色如此变暗，通常是地震的前兆（Matt. xxvii. 51）。异教作家给我们提供了不少这类实例，当时人都对之作了神迹式的解释。参见 Ovid. ii. v. 33, l. xv. v. 785；Pliny, Hist. Nat. l. ii. c. 30。韦特施泰因在其《新约》校订本中，把这些实例悉数收集在一起。既然这一现象并未越出耶路撒冷一带，又未必有悖于自然律，那么异教作家对它保持缄默，我们也就不必惊讶了——尽管基督徒与犹太人或许把它看作了不祥之兆。参见 Michaelis Notes on New Testament, v. i. p. 290；Paulus, Commentary on New Testament, iii. p. 760。—G

197

Seneca, Quæst. Natur. l. i. 15, vi. l. vii. 17. Plin. Hist. Natur. l. ii.

198

Plin. Hist. Natur. ii. 30.

199

Virgil. Georgic. i. 466. Tibullus, l. i. Eleg. v. ver. 75. Ovid Metamorph. xv. 782. Lucan. Pharsal. i. 540. The last of these poets places this prodigy before the civil war.

Virgil. Georgic. i. 466. Tibullus, l. i. Eleg. v. ver. 75. Ovid Metamorph. xv. 782. Lucan. Pharsal. i. 540。上列诗人中最后一位（卢坎），把这一奇象置于内战之前。

200

See a public epistle of M. Antony in Joseph. Antiquit. xiv. 12. Plutarch in Cæsar. p. 471. Appian. Bell. Civil. l. iv. Dion Cassius, l. xlv. p. 431. Julius Obsequens, c. 128. His little treatise is an abstract of Livy’s prodigies.

参见安东尼的一封公开信，载于 Joseph. Antiquit. xiv. 12；另见 Plutarch in Cæsar. p. 471；Appian. Bell. Civil. l. iv；Dion Cassius, l. xlv. p. 431；Julius Obsequens, c. 128。奥布塞肯斯这部小书，乃是李维所载奇兆的节录。

Chapter XV: Progress Of The Christian Religion.—Part IX. 第十五章 基督教的传播——第九节