TYRRHENUS
April 9th, 2005, 05:15 AM
One of the younger Pliny's letters came up in another thread. After rereading it I noticed something I had completely missed until now. So I post this if anyone is interested. Here is a breakdown of Pliny the Younger's Epistula 10.96:
Writing from Pontus (northern Turkey) in 112 A.D. Pliny asks the Emperor Trajan for advice in trying Christians. Pliny asks the Emperor if a person who repents Christianity should still be punished, or if a person has even once been a Christian, that even if they repent, they should still be considered guilty.
Pliny accuses the Christians of 'inflexible obstinancy' (inflexibilem obstinationem). He goes on to say that he gave Christians three chances to refute their faith: to offer prayer, incense and wine, all provided by Pliny himself, before statues of the emperor and the gods, then finally to curse Christ. Those who refused all three chances were sent off to be executed, unless they were citizens, in which case Pliny sent them to Rome for trial.
Pliny mentions two women who were called 'ministers' (quae ministrae dicebantur). He also states that some Christians halted the exercise of their faith after he had forbidden, according to Trajan's instructions, 'political associations' (hetaerias). Pliny then ends his letter by hinting that there was a large number of people who were involved.
The Emperor Trajan wrote back stating Pliny had done well, and that so long as a person prays to their gods (i.e. those of Rome), that they should pardoned.
The line which escaped me until now is this:
They affirmed however that the sum of their faults or errors had been that they used to convene on a fixed day before sunrise, chant to Christ as if a god, and to take an oath, not to some crime... but not commit fraud nor theft nor adultery, nor falsify trust, nor refuse to return trust when called upon.¹Notice how Pliny lists together theft, adultery and falsifying trust. Using a contemporary English version of the Bible, Exodus 20, we have:
Be faithful in marriage.
Do not steal.
Do not tell lies about others.The first two are not in the same order, but all three are grouped together, both in the 10 Commandments and Pliny's letter.
Could this be a reference to Exodus? Or perhaps I have taken pattern recognition to a ridiculous extreme?
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¹) From the Latin Library (http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/pliny.ep10.html):
Affirmabant autem hanc fuisse summam vel culpae suae vel erroris, quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire, carmenque Christo quasi deo dicere secum invicem seque sacramento non in scelus aliquod obstringere, sed ne furta ne latrocinia ne adulteria committerent, ne fidem fallerent, ne depositum appellati abnegarent.
Writing from Pontus (northern Turkey) in 112 A.D. Pliny asks the Emperor Trajan for advice in trying Christians. Pliny asks the Emperor if a person who repents Christianity should still be punished, or if a person has even once been a Christian, that even if they repent, they should still be considered guilty.
Pliny accuses the Christians of 'inflexible obstinancy' (inflexibilem obstinationem). He goes on to say that he gave Christians three chances to refute their faith: to offer prayer, incense and wine, all provided by Pliny himself, before statues of the emperor and the gods, then finally to curse Christ. Those who refused all three chances were sent off to be executed, unless they were citizens, in which case Pliny sent them to Rome for trial.
Pliny mentions two women who were called 'ministers' (quae ministrae dicebantur). He also states that some Christians halted the exercise of their faith after he had forbidden, according to Trajan's instructions, 'political associations' (hetaerias). Pliny then ends his letter by hinting that there was a large number of people who were involved.
The Emperor Trajan wrote back stating Pliny had done well, and that so long as a person prays to their gods (i.e. those of Rome), that they should pardoned.
The line which escaped me until now is this:
They affirmed however that the sum of their faults or errors had been that they used to convene on a fixed day before sunrise, chant to Christ as if a god, and to take an oath, not to some crime... but not commit fraud nor theft nor adultery, nor falsify trust, nor refuse to return trust when called upon.¹Notice how Pliny lists together theft, adultery and falsifying trust. Using a contemporary English version of the Bible, Exodus 20, we have:
Be faithful in marriage.
Do not steal.
Do not tell lies about others.The first two are not in the same order, but all three are grouped together, both in the 10 Commandments and Pliny's letter.
Could this be a reference to Exodus? Or perhaps I have taken pattern recognition to a ridiculous extreme?
----------
¹) From the Latin Library (http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/pliny.ep10.html):
Affirmabant autem hanc fuisse summam vel culpae suae vel erroris, quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire, carmenque Christo quasi deo dicere secum invicem seque sacramento non in scelus aliquod obstringere, sed ne furta ne latrocinia ne adulteria committerent, ne fidem fallerent, ne depositum appellati abnegarent.