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Some say the Erythraean sibyl prophesied at this time. Now Varro
declares there were many sibyls, and not merely one. This sibyl of
Erythrae certainly wrote some things concerning Christ which are quite
manifest, and we first read them in the Latin tongue in verses of bad
Latin, and unrhythmical, through the unskillfulness, as we
afterwards learned, of some interpreter unknown to me. For
Flaccianus, a very famous man, who was also a proconsul, a man of
most ready eloquence and much learning, when we were speaking about
Christ, produced a Greek manuscript, saying that it was the
prophecies of the Erythraean sibyl, in which he pointed out a certain
passage which had the initial letters of the lines so arranged that
these words could be read in them: 'Ihsous Xristos Qeou uios
spthr, which means, "Jesus Christ the Son of God, the
Saviour." And these verses, of which the initial letters yield that
meaning, contain what follows as translated by some one into Latin in
good rhythm: I Judgment shall moisten the earth with the sweat of its
standard, H Ever enduring, behold the King shall come through the
ages, S Sent to be here in the flesh, and Judge at the last of the
world. o O God, the believing and faithless alike shall behold Thee
U Uplifted with saints, when at last the ages are ended. S Seated
before Him are souls in the flesh for His judgment. c Hid in thick
vapors, the while desolate lieth the earth. P Rejected by men are
the idols and long hidden treasures; E Earth is consumed by the
fire, and it searcheth the ocean and heaven; I Issuing forth, it
destroyeth the terrible portals of hell. S Saints in their body and
soul freedom and light shall inherit: T Those who are guilty shall
burn in fire and brimstone for ever. o Occult actions revealing, each
one shall publish his secrets; S Secrets of every man's heart God
shall reveal in the light. Q Then shall be weeping and wailing,
yea, and gnashing of teeth; E Eclipsed is the sun, and silenced the
stars in their chorus. o Over and gone is the splendor of moonlight,
melted the heaven, g Uplifted by Him are the valleys, and east down
the mountains. o Utterly gone among men are distinctions of lofty and
lowly. I Into the plains rush the hills, the skies and oceans are
mingled. o Oh, what an end of all things! earth broken in pieces
shall perish; S Swelling together at once shall the waters and flames
flow in rivers. S Sounding the archangel's trumpet shall peal down
from heaven, W Over the wicked who groan in their guilt and their
manifold sorrows. T Trembling, the earth shall be opened, revealing
chaos and hell. H Every king before God shall stand in that day to
be judged. P Rivers of fire and brimstone shall fall from the
heavens.
In these Latin verses the meaning of the Greek is correctly given,
although not in the exact order of the lines as connected with the
initial letters; for in three of them, the fifth, eighteenth, and
nineteenth, where the Greek letter g occurs, Latin words could not
be found beginning with the corresponding letter, and yielding a
suitable meaning. So that, if we note down together the initial
letters of all the lines in our Latin translation except those three in
which we retain the letter T in the proper place, they will express in
five Greek words this meaning, "Jesus Christ the Son of God, the
Saviour." And the verses are twenty-seven, which is the cube of
three. For three times three are nine; and nine itself, if tripled,
so as to rise from the superficial square to the cube, comes to
twenty-seven. But if you join the initial letters of these five
Greek words, 'Ihsous cristos Qeou uios swthr, which mean,
"Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour," they will make the
word ikdus, that is, "fish," in which word Christ is mystically
understood, because He was able to live, that is, to exist, without
sin in the abyss of this mortality as in the depth of waters."
But this sibyl, whether she is the Erythraean, or, as some rather
believe, the Cumaean, in her whole poem, of which this is a very
small portion, not only has nothing that can relate to the worship of
the false or reigned gods, but rather speaks against them and their
worshippers in such a way that we might even think she ought to be
reckoned among those who belong to the city of God. Lactantius also
inserted in his work the prophecies about Christ of a certain sibyl,
he does not say which. But I have thought fit to combine in a single
extract, which may seem long, what he has set down in many short
quotations. She says; "Afterward He shall come into the injurious
hands of the unbelieving, and they will give God buffets with profane
hands, and with impure mouth will spit out envenomed spittle; but He
will with simplicity yield His holy back to stripes. And He will
hold His peace when struck with the fist, that no one may find out
what word, or whence, He comes to speak to hell; and He shall be
crowned with a crown of thorns. And they gave Him gall for meat, and
vinegar for His thirst: they will spread this table of inhospitality.
For thou thyself, being foolish, hast not understood thy God,
deluding the minds of mortals, but hast both crowned Him with thorns
and mingled for Him bitter gall. But the veil of the temple shall be
rent; and at midday it shall be darker than night for three hours.
And He shall die the death, taking sleep for three days; and then
returning from hell, He first shall come to the light, the beginning
of the resurrection being shown to the recalled." Lactantius made use
of these sibylline testimonies, introducing them bit by bit in the
course of his discussion as the things he intended to prove seemed to
require, and we have set them down in one connected series,
uninterrupted by comment, only taking care to mark them by capitals,
if only the transcribers do not neglect to preserve them hereafter.
Some writers, indeed, say that the Erythraean sibyl was not in the
time of Romulus, but of the Trojan war.
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