{"commodian-carmen/1":{"o":"Quis poterit unum proprie Deum nosse caelorum,\nNisi quem is tulerit * * ab errore nefando?\nErrabam ignarus spatians, spe captus inani,\nDum furor aetatis primae me portabat in auras.\nPlus eram quam palea levior; quasi centum inessent\nIn umeris capita, sic praeceps quocumque ferebar.\nNon satis; his rebus criminosus denique Marsus\nPaene fni factus herbas incantando malignas.\nSed gratias Domino — nec sufficit uox mea tantum\nReddere — qui misero uacillanti tandem adluxit!\nAdgressusque fui tradito in codice legis,\nQuid ibi rescirem; statim mihi lampada fulsit.\nTunc uero agnoui Deum (unum) summum in altis,\nEt ideo tales hortor ab errore recedant.\nQuis melior medicus nisi passus uulneris aestus?\nMulti quidem bruti et ignoti, corde sopiti,\nNil sibi proponunt cognoscere; more ferino\nQuaerunt, quod rapiant aut quorum sanguine uiuant.\nDummodo laetentur saginati uiuere porci,\nIngerunt ut tumulum ferculum, dum diuitiis plaudent.\nf Mutabuntur paupera ueste fastidiis.\nSufficeret illis utique, quod promptius edunt.\nSi pinguis est opibus, sibi sit; si Caesari dignus,\nQuid sua praeponit fragilis nec respicit ullum?","t":"Who can truly know the one God of the heavens,\nunless he has drawn him … away from accursed error?\nI wandered ignorant, roaming, caught by empty hope,\nwhile the frenzy of my early years bore me on the winds.\nI was lighter than chaff; as if a hundred heads\nwere on my shoulders, so I was swept headlong anywhere.\nNor was that enough: in these things I became at last a criminal Marsian,\nalmost made one by chanting over evil herbs.\nBut thanks be to the Lord — nor is my voice enough\nto render so much — who at last shone on me, wretched and wavering!\nI took up the law in the book handed down,\nto learn what was there; at once a lamp shone for me.\nThen indeed I recognized God, the one most high in the heights,\nand so I urge such people to turn back from error.\nWhat better physician than one who has felt the burning of the wound?\nMany indeed, brutish and unknowing, asleep at heart,\nset themselves to know nothing; like wild beasts\nthey seek what to plunder or on whose blood to live.\nSo long as they may rejoice to live like fattened pigs,\nthey heap dishes up like a mound, applauding their riches.\n… they will be changed, in poor clothing, by disdain.\nSurely what they eat so readily would suffice them.\nIf a man is fat with wealth, let it be his; if he is worthy of Caesar,\nwhy does the frail man set his own first and regard no one?","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 1 (CSEL 15:116lines 1–24–117; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/1)."},"commodian-carmen/1003":{"o":"Sol fugit incaute, subito fit noctis imago,\nEt Deus exclamat: Quamdiu me ferre putasti?\nCuius signo dato pestis ruet aethere toto,\nCum strepitu tonitrui descendit impetus ignis.\nTunc aliud atque aliud fulmen iactatur ab astris,\nIgnea tempestas furit reseruata tot annis.\nRugit pestifera clades, tremit excita tellus,\nNec, quo se auertat, prouidet gens omnis humana.\nStellae cadunt caeli, iudicantur astra nobiscum:\nTurbantur caelicolae, agitur dum saecli ruina.\nSuppetium nullum tunc erit et clamor inanis;\nNon nauis accipiet hominem, non ulla latebra;\nNec illi subueniunt, quos ante pro magno colebant:\nQuisque sibi satagit, sed nil profic⟨i⟩et illi;\nHis tantum proficiet, qui fuerint Christo notati;\nRos ad illos erit, nam ceteris poena letalis.\nPars incredulorum seruatur molliter usta,\nVt genus ipsorum iterum se in ultimo plangat.\nQuocumque se uertunt homines, uis ignea feruet;\nAer ipse mundi, qui placebat ante, crematur.\nQuot strepitus caeli ingruentis fulmine dicam,\nCum ira tot annis collecta funditur omnis?\nHinc ignis, hinc tonitrua, hinc turbines, tot mala, feruunt,\nRapieturque polus subi⟨ta⟩ ui mortis in umbram.","t":"The sun flees unawares; suddenly there is the likeness of night,\nand God cries out: “How long did you think I would bear it?”\nAt his signal, plague will rush through the whole sky,\nand with the crash of thunder the onrush of fire comes down.\nThen bolt upon bolt is hurled from the stars;\nthe fiery storm rages, kept back for so many years;\nthe deadly disaster roars, the earth trembles, roused,\nnor does the whole human race see where to turn.\nThe stars of heaven fall, the stars are judged with us:\nthe dwellers in heaven are troubled, while the world goes to ruin.\nThere will be no help then, and the cry will be vain;\nno ship will take a man in, no hiding place;\nnor do those help them whom before they worshiped as great:\neach one bustles for himself, but it will profit him nothing;\nit will profit only those who have been marked by Christ;\nfor them there will be dew, but for the rest deadly punishment.\nA part of the unbelievers is kept, gently scorched,\nso that their race may lament itself again at the last.\nWherever men turn, the fiery force seethes;\nthe very air of the world, once pleasant, is burned.\nHow can I tell the crashes of heaven falling with thunderbolts,\nwhen all the wrath gathered over so many years is poured out?\nHere fire, here thunder, here whirlwinds, so many evils seethe,\nand the sky is snatched into shadow by the sudden force of death.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 1003 (CSEL 15:180lines 1003–1026–182; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/1003)."},"commodian-carmen/1027":{"o":"Partim terra tremens laxat fu(ndamina tota),\n(Par)tim tonitrua disrumpunt moenia firma;\n(Atque disturbantur m)uri sicut puluis in auras;\nSaxa uolant, uen(tis nudantur) tecta domorum.\nVastantur patriae, prosternitur ciuitas omnis\n* t * * osculum uestigio tradat.\nTot crepitus, tantos fragores t⟨antasque) ruinas\nQuis po(te)rit ferre aut na⟨u⟩f⟨ra⟩gia tanta ⟨uitare)?\nQuid misera mater faciet tunc paruolo dulci ?\nAut si pater natum piet, quid profic ⟨i⟩ et illi?\nVae refugis Domini, uae et sine Christo n⟨e⟩fa⟨n⟩dis,\nQuorum et laeta(n)tes iudicantur ⟨et⟩ pie flentes!\nPla(nget prae)terea mugitibus tota natura,\nDonec cesset furia (tandem conp)leta caelestis.\nTunc mensibus septem remundabitur terra per ignem\nEt qui f(uit⟩ humilis ueniens de caelo uidetur.\nCum illo descendent angeli claritatis aeternae,\nRumpen⟨tur) et tumuli, exurgent corpora iusta;\nQuae rapiunt nubes et portant ⟨obui)a(m Ch)risto\nIn a(e)ra; Dominum ⟨ex⟩cipiunt sancti uiuentes.\nSuscitat e(t) illos), ut uideant gloriam eius,\nQuem cruce fixerunt; sed denuo reddet in imis.\nVae miser⟨is⟩ illis ! Testis est necatus ab illis.\nQuod poenis ipsorum prouidi dolo t * *\n* * nius sistic * * i\nHaec non de inuidia canimus, sed fixa uidemus.\nCum iusti laetantur, ⟨illi⟩ in inferno cremantur;\nDau⟨id) illis dixit: Domine, redde ill〈is〉 iniqua!\nEt si non crediderint, in umbra mortis abibunt. —\n(H)ic utique poterat plebi suae laeta precari;\nCur (magis op)tauit: Descendant uiu(i) deorsum?\nCeteri qui fuer⟨int) in aduentum Christi de sanctis,","t":"In part the trembling earth loosens all its foundations,\nin part the thunders burst the solid walls;\nand walls are scattered like dust in the air;\nstones fly, the roofs of houses are stripped by the winds.\nCountries are laid waste, every city is laid low,\n… gives a kiss to the footprint.\nSo many crashes, such roarings, and such ruins —\nwho will be able to bear them, or escape such shipwrecks?\nWhat will the wretched mother do then for her sweet little one?\nOr if the father pities his son, what will it profit him?\nWoe to the deserters of the Lord, woe to the wicked who are without Christ,\nof whom both those who rejoice and those who weep piously are judged!\nAll nature, besides, will lament with bellowing,\nuntil the heavenly fury at last ceases, fulfilled.\nThen in seven months the earth will be cleansed by fire,\nand he who was humble is seen coming from heaven.\nWith him will descend the angels of eternal brightness;\nthe tombs will burst, the bodies of the righteous will rise;\nthe clouds snatch them up and carry them to meet Christ\nin the air; the living saints receive the Lord.\nHe raises those too, that they may see his glory,\nwho fixed him to the cross; but he will return them again to the depths.\nWoe to those wretches! The witness was killed by them.\n…\n…\nThese things we do not sing out of envy, but see them as fixed.\nWhile the righteous rejoice, those are burned in hell;\nDavid said of them: “Lord, repay them their iniquities!”\nAnd if they do not believe, they will go away into the shadow of death.\nHe could surely have prayed for good things for his people;\nwhy did he rather wish: “Let them go down alive below”?\nThe others of the saints who will be alive at the coming of Christ,","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 1027 (CSEL 15:182lines 1027–1058–187; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/1027)."},"commodian-carmen/121":{"o":"Hic Deus omnipotens, Dominus suae conditionis,\nCum sit inuisibilis, facit se uideri quibusdam.\nQui formatur modo, (modo) se diffundit in auras,\nCuius nec initium nec finem quaerere fas est.\nHic sine initio semper est Deus et sine fine,\nQui, prius quam faceret caelum, ferebatur in aeuum;\nQuicquid tenet caelum, prospicit ubique de caelo\nEt penetrat totum oculis et auribus audit.\nHuic ergo placuit carnalem mundi tenorem,\nVt exaltaretur sola sempiterna maiestas.\nNam, quod erat ante, referre nunc ardua res est;\nSit licet descriptum, non sit nobis cura de illis.\nCum haec, quae uidemus, non possumus tangere tota,\nQuis poterit scire, quid sit trans Oceani finem?\nEt caelum uidemus, sed illic quid intus agatur,\nNullo datur scire, donec fiat exitus aeui.\nSufficiat tantum de futuro nosse promissa;\nAd illa tendamus cupidi, tota mente deuoti.\nSicut auis Phoenix meditatur a morte renasci,\nDat nobis exemplum, post funera surgere posse;\nHoc Deus omnipotens uel maxime credere suadet,\nQuod ueniet tempus defunctorum uiuere rursum;","t":"This almighty God, Lord of his own creation,\nthough invisible, makes himself seen by some.\nNow he takes a form, now he spreads himself into the air,\nwhose beginning or end it is not right to seek.\nHe is God always, without beginning and without end,\nwho, before he made the heaven, moved on through eternity;\nall that the heaven holds he looks upon everywhere from heaven,\nand penetrates the whole with his eyes and hears with his ears.\nIt pleased him, then, [to make] the fleshly order of the world,\nso that his sole eternal majesty might be exalted.\nFor what was before, it is a hard thing now to relate;\nthough it may be described, let us not concern ourselves with it.\nSince we cannot grasp the whole of what we see,\nwho can know what lies beyond the end of Ocean?\nAnd we see the heaven, but what goes on within it\nno one is given to know until the end of the age comes.\nLet it be enough only to know the promises of the future;\nlet us strive eagerly toward them, devoted with all our mind.\nAs the bird Phoenix contrives to be reborn from death,\nit gives us an example that one can rise after death;\nthis above all the almighty God urges us to believe,\nthat a time will come for the dead to live again;","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 121 (CSEL 15:123lines 121–142–124; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/121)."},"commodian-carmen/143":{"o":"Sit licet nunc puluis, iaceant licet ossa nudata,\nIntegratur homo, [ut] fuerat qui mortuus, olim,\nEt gratia maior tunc erit (quam) istius aeui,\nNon dolor nec lacrimae tunc erunt in corpore nostro,\nNon caro recipiet ferrum, non pustula surget.\nHoc Deus instituet, ut sit illi gloria maior.\nHic fecerat primum hominem, ut esset aeternus,\nSed ruit in mortem neglectis ille praeceptis.\nPropter quae storias tantas Deus esse parauit,\nVt inuentiones diabuli detergeret omnes.\nRectorem in terra dederat Deus angelum istum:\nQui, dum inuidetur homini, perit ipse priorque.\nInterea iustos per ipsos cernit ad actus,\nEt facinerosum Cain in gehenna reservat.\nIn scelere coepit uersari gens omnis humana,\nNec respicientes, quis esset creator eorum.\nQuod Deus excelsus indigne pertulit illud,\nDelere proponit uniuersa paene creata.\n* Dicitur et legitur Noe liberatus ab aqua,\nCeteri diluuio perierunt in caelesti.\nHinc, sicut initio, paulatim terra repletur.\nCessit prius facinus, sed alter(a) clades adhaesit.\nAdgressi sunt stulti torrem fabricare sub astris,\nVt quasi per illam possent ascendere caelos.","t":"though it be dust now, though the bones lie bare,\nthe man who was once dead is made whole again,\nand the grace then will be greater than that of this age;\nthere will be no pain nor tears then in our body,\nthe flesh will not receive the sword, no sore will rise.\nThis God will establish, that his glory may be greater.\nHe had made the first man to be eternal,\nbut he fell into death by neglecting the commandments.\nFor this God prepared so many histories,\nto wipe out all the devil's devices.\nGod had given this angel as ruler on the earth:\nwho, envying man, himself perished first.\nMeanwhile he discerns the righteous by their deeds,\nand reserves the criminal Cain for Gehenna.\nThe whole human race began to busy itself with crime,\nnot regarding who their creator was.\nThis the exalted God bore with indignation,\nand resolves to destroy almost everything created.\nIt is told and read that Noah was delivered from the water;\nthe rest perished in the flood from heaven.\nFrom then, as in the beginning, the earth is little by little refilled.\nThe former crime gave way, but another disaster clung on.\nThe fools set about building a tower beneath the stars,\nso that by it, as it were, they could climb to heaven.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 143 (CSEL 15:124lines 143–166–126; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/143)."},"commodian-carmen/167":{"o":"Quod Deus ut uidit fieri sub una loquella,\nDescendit et fecit, loquerentur lingua diuersa.\nQuos inde disparsit per insulas terrae semotos,\nVt fierent gentes uario sermone loquentes.\nTunc genus indocile uitam feritatis agebat;\nNemo Deum sciebat, disputabat nemo de uita.\nInrepserat quoniam rudibus temerarius ille\nPer latices animae, deprauauit mentes acerbas\nPersuasitque dolo coitus infandos amare,\nViuere rapinis in gaudio sanguine fuso.\nHanc gloriam stulti prosequuntur tempore parvo;\nQuo nulla uenia liberat, se dicendo seductos.\nSi suadet adulter, culpa est tua prosequi talem;\nNon ille te damnat, sed tu tua sponte te damnas.\nErrabant indocti ueteris fallacia hostis,\nObliti Dominum, opera maligna sequentes.\nQuod diu ne fieret grassatio tanta latronis,\nTempore partito miseratus est tandem ablato.\nConplacuit illi conloqui cum uno de multis,\nVt faceret populum ad se transeundo dilectum.\nEx eo coeperunt unum Deum nosse profani\nEt fieri populus secundum Dei decreta.\nDuos enim populos distinxerat ex se Rebecca:\nHic prior est factus, alter ut succederet illi.","t":"When God saw this being done under a single tongue,\nhe came down and made them speak in different languages.\nThen he scattered them, set apart, through the islands of the earth,\nso that they became nations speaking with varied speech.\nThen the untaught race led a savage life;\nno one knew God, no one reasoned about life.\nFor that reckless one had crept into the unlearned\nthrough the channels of the soul, and depraved their harsh minds,\nand persuaded them by guile to love unspeakable unions,\nand to live by plunder, rejoicing in bloodshed.\nThis glory fools pursue for a short time;\nfrom it no pardon frees them by saying they were led astray.\nIf the seducer persuades, the fault is yours for following such a one;\nhe does not damn you: you damn yourself of your own will.\nThe untaught wandered by the deceit of the ancient enemy,\nforgetting the Lord, following evil works.\nThat the robber's rampage might not go on long,\nat the appointed time he at last took pity, … removed.\nIt pleased him to speak with one out of many,\nto make a people beloved, which would cross over to him.\nFrom that time the profane began to know one God\nand to become a people according to God's decrees.\nFor Rebecca had divided two peoples from herself:\nthis one was made first, that the other might succeed it.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 167 (CSEL 15:126lines 167–190–127; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/167)."},"commodian-carmen/191":{"o":"In Aegypto primum Israhel concrevit alumnus;\nInde Deus illos eiecit duce Moyse,\nPer quem dedit illis legem in monte Sina,\nVt nostra posteritas Dominum cognosceret unum.\nDeinde prophetas ex ipsis dicere iussit,\nQuod Deus in hominem depretiatur ab illis.\nInduxerat eos Dominus in terra promissa,\nVt ibi sub lege uiuerent, donec ipse ueniret.\nGens ingrata bonis noluit iugum ferre praeceptis,\nSed magis in scelere prisco reuoluta florebat;\nNec umquam desinuit: hodie quoque talis habetur;\nPraetermisso Deo luxurias saeculi mauult.\nQuod maxime Dominus cogit euitare dilectos;\nAbscisos in totum a saeculo praemonet esse.\nSi filios dixit, in illius sancta moremur;\nQuid foris egredimur adulteri pompa(m) sequentes?\nSeductor antiquus per talia decipit omnes:\nInmittit luxurias, per quas perdat filios Alti;\nAgonia inmittit, spectaculis ire cruentis\nAut nimis obscenis, inpudica nosse pudicis.\nSi fuerat castus, incestus proficit inde\nEt placent adrident, quae tunc mala gaudia temptant.\nIn istis luxuriis populus primitiuus agebat\nEt a lege Dei semper recedebat inormis.","t":"In Egypt Israel first grew up as a foster child;\nfrom there God led them out under Moses' leadership,\nthrough whom he gave them the law on Mount Sinai,\nso that our posterity might know one Lord.\nThen he bade prophets from among them declare\nthat God, as a man, would be held cheap by them.\nThe Lord had led them into the promised land,\nto live there under the law until he himself should come.\nAn ungrateful race, it would not bear the yoke of good precepts,\nbut rather flourished, rolled back into its ancient crime;\nnor did it ever cease: today too it is held to be such;\nleaving God aside, it prefers the luxuries of the world.\nThese above all the Lord compels his beloved to shun;\nhe warns them beforehand to be wholly cut off from the world.\nIf he has called us sons, let us abide in his holy things;\nwhy do we go outside as adulterers, following the pomp?\nThe ancient seducer deceives all by such things:\nhe sends in luxuries, by which to destroy the sons of the Most High;\nhe sends in contests, to go to bloody shows\nor very obscene ones, that the chaste may learn the shameless.\nOne who had been chaste goes on from there to unchastity,\nand the evil joys that then tempt him please him and smile on him.\nIn such luxuries the first people lived,\nand, monstrous, always drew back from the law of God.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 191 (CSEL 15:127lines 191–214–128; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/191)."},"commodian-carmen/215":{"o":"Ad quos emundandos saepe Deus misit alumnos,\nVt illos corrigerent deprauatos denuo Summo.\nExcipere numquam uoluerunt dicta diuina,\nSed uoluntate sua saeuierunt semper inepti.\nMactabant iustos redarguentes illos inique,\nDum nollent accipere frenum disciplinae caelestis.\nEsaiam serrant, lapidant Hieremiam erecti,\nIohannem decollant, iugulant Zachariam ad aras.\nEt uenit et ipse, fuerat qui praedictus ab illis,\nEt patitur, quomodo uoluit, sub imagine nostra.\nCuius in exitio omnis prophetia repleta est,\nDixerat hunc Daniel nouissimum esse prophetis.\nIs erat, quem propter uates (de tuba canebant,\nIn sua uenturum propria, quem sui negarent.\nInprouidi semper et dura ceruice recalces,\nDum respuunt formam, sacramenta legis amittunt.\nNon illos iustitia humilis caro nata refregit,\nNec bonitas tanta aut aegrorum cura de uerbo.\nO pia religio, o tam ueneranda maiestas,\nCuius medicina taliter in terra profecit!\nNon ullum de ferro secuit, non enplastro curauit,\nSed sine tormento statim suo dicto sanauit.","t":"To cleanse them God often sent his foster sons,\nto correct them, depraved, for the Most High once more.\nThey never would receive the divine words,\nbut always raged foolishly after their own will.\nThey wickedly slaughtered the righteous who reproved them,\nunwilling to accept the bridle of heavenly discipline.\nThey saw Isaiah in two; they stone Jeremiah, rising against him;\nthey behead John, cut Zechariah's throat at the altar.\nAnd he himself came, who had been foretold by them,\nand suffers, as he willed, in our likeness.\nIn his death all prophecy was fulfilled;\nDaniel had said that he would be the last for the prophets.\nHe it was on whose account the seers sang as with a trumpet\nthat he would come to his own, whom his own would deny.\nEver improvident, stiff-necked, kicking back,\nwhile they spurn the form, they lose the mysteries of the law.\nRighteousness born in humble flesh did not break them,\nnor such great goodness, nor his healing of the sick by a word.\nO holy religion, O majesty so worthy of reverence,\nwhose medicine did such good on earth!\nHe cut no one with the knife, cured no one with a plaster,\nbut without torment healed at once by his word.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 215 (CSEL 15:128lines 215–236–130; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/215)."},"commodian-carmen/237":{"o":"Talia uidentes turbabantur mente Iudaei,\nQui magis inuidia ducti sunt in zelo liuoris,\nNon respicientes prophetarum dicta sepulti,\nQuod ueniret homo talis, qui dispergeret illos.\nQuousque ueniret Dominus, prophetae canebant:\nEx eo, quo uenit, tacuit prophetia Iudaeis.\nPost quem in exilium deuenerunt corde durato\nNec modo dinoscunt, quapropter sint talia passi.\nPraedictum fuerat illis ab Esaia propheta\nEt (a) Danihelo similiter perdere terram;\nQuae non ante tamen, nisi dux ciuitatis in ipsa\nPenderet in ligno, fieret deserta deinde.\nDesubito qualis obfulsit gloria genti,\nVt fieret populus, populus qui non erat ante!\nNon fuit adtonitus Esau, dilectus a patre,\nIunior quod frater primitiua tolleret ille?\nSic nec synagoga potuit cognoscere tempus,\nQuando et quo duce caderet de suo priuato;\nSicut erat scriptum, quod auis sua tempora norunt,\nNam populus iste non me intellexit adesse.\nVentum est, ut ipse dominator caeli ueniret:\nSecundum scripturas non est conputatus ab ipsis.\nPraescius hoc fuerat Dominus, quasi cuncta qui nouit;\nIdcirco per ora prophetarum ista praedixit.","t":"Seeing such things, the Jews were troubled in mind,\nled rather by envy into the zeal of spite,\nnot regarding, buried as they were, the prophets' words,\nthat such a man would come as would scatter them.\nUntil the Lord came, the prophets sang;\nfrom the time he came, prophecy fell silent for the Jews.\nAfter him they went into exile with hardened heart,\nnor do they now discern why they have suffered such things.\nIt had been foretold to them by Isaiah the prophet\nand likewise by Daniel that they would lose the land;\nyet it would not become desolate thereafter\nuntil the leader of the city hung on the wood within it.\nHow suddenly glory shone forth upon a nation,\nso that a people came to be that was no people before!\nWas not Esau, beloved of his father, astonished\nthat the younger brother took the birthright?\nSo neither could the synagogue recognize the time,\nwhen and under what leader it would fall from its privilege;\nas it was written: the birds know their seasons,\n“but this people has not understood that I am present.”\nIt came to pass that the ruler of heaven came himself:\naccording to the Scriptures he was not esteemed by them.\nThe Lord had foreknown this, as one who knows all things;\ntherefore he foretold it by the mouths of the prophets.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 237 (CSEL 15:130lines 237–260–131; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/237)."},"commodian-carmen/25":{"o":"Communicet immo talis bonitatem in omnes,\nCui Summus diuitias, honores addidit altos.\nNec enim uitupero diuitias datas a Summo,\nSed culpandus erit, qui superextollitur illis.\nSuadeo nunc ergo altos sic et humiles omnes,\nVt legant assidue uel ista uel cetera legis.\nAspic(it)e, quoniam breuis est nobis credita uita;\nDiscite, quapropter moriamur nati, prudentes!\nQuid hebetes morimur, quid profuit lucem uidisse?\nSi nihil inquiras, hoc est beluarum adesse.\nCerte Deus summus hominem praeposuit aruis,\nNon feram nec pecudem. Cur nos similemus ad illas?\nOmnipotens uoluit hominem sibi praebere laudes;\nIdcirco futura docuit nos ipse diuinos.\nQuae ut crederemus, non tantum uerbo sonauit,\nSed et demonstrauit fortia Pharaone decepto.\nNon solum hoc fecit: et Noe sub tempora quoque\nOstendit, quae poterat, quoniam Deum nemo quaerebat.\nMitior exinde paulatim coepit adesse\nDiluuio facto, quo posset terra repleri.\nIam paene medietas annorum sex milibus ibat,\nEt nemo scibat Dominum, passimque uiuentes.\nSed Deus, ut uidit hominum nimis [ut] pectora clausa,\nAdloquitur Abraham, quem Moyses enuntiat ipsum.","t":"Rather, let such a one share his goodness with all,\nto whom the Most High has given riches and lofty honors.\nFor I do not find fault with riches given by the Most High,\nbut he will be to blame who is lifted up by them.\nSo I now urge the lofty and the humble alike\nto read diligently either these things or the rest of the law.\nLook: a short life has been entrusted to us;\nlearn, you who are prudent, why we are born to die!\nWhy do we die dull? What use was it to have seen the light?\nIf you inquire into nothing, that is to live as the beasts.\nSurely God most high set man over the fields,\nnot wild beast nor cattle. Why should we make ourselves like them?\nThe Almighty willed that man should offer him praises;\nfor this he himself taught us divine things to come.\nThat we might believe them, he did not only speak in word,\nbut also displayed mighty deeds when Pharaoh was deceived.\nNor this alone: in the time of Noah also\nhe showed what he could do, since no one sought God.\nFrom then on, little by little, he began to be milder,\nonce the flood had come, so that the earth might be filled again.\nAlready nearly half of the six thousand years had passed,\nand no one knew the Lord; they lived at random.\nBut God, when he saw human hearts too firmly closed,\nspeaks to Abraham, of whom Moses himself tells.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 25 (CSEL 15:117lines 25–48–119; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/25)."},"commodian-carmen/261":{"o":"Gens ceruicosa nimis semperque rebellans\nDum sibi primatum uindicaret, causa resecta est.\nIn quorum stadia gentiles esse praefecit;\nDixerat hoc ante: Gentes sperabunt in ipsum.\nNam lapis inmissus ipse est in fundamina Sion,\nCrederet in quo qui, is haberet uitam aeternam.\nHunc sanctum sanctorum Daniel perungui designat\nEt exterminari post illum chrisma regale.\nDauid illum dixit clauis configi silentem:\nEffoderunt, inquit, manus meas et pedes ipsi.\nSalomon quoque tam aperte de illo prophetat,\nOccidamus iustum! dicturos esse Iudaeos.\nHieremias totidem crucem figurate demonstrat:\nVenite, mittamus lignum in pane! dicentes.\nDux autem ipsorum Moyses praeconiat illis:\nAnte tuos oculos pendebit uita necata.\nHic pater in filio uenit, Deus unus ubique:\nNec pater est dictus, nisi factus filius esset.\nNec enim relinquit caelum, ut in terra pareret,\nSed, sicut disposuit, uisa est in terra maiestas;\nDe uirtute sua carna(liter na)sci (se fecit)\n* * * * * *\n* * licet facere fimbriam unam.\nIam caro Deus erat, in qua Dei uirtus agebat.","t":"A people too stiff-necked and always rebelling,\nwhile it claimed the first place for itself, lost its case.\nIn their course he appointed the Gentiles to run;\nhe had said this before: “The Gentiles will hope in him.”\nFor he himself is the stone laid in the foundations of Zion;\nwhoever believes in it would have eternal life.\nDaniel shows him, the Holy of Holies, anointed,\nand after him the royal anointing destroyed.\nDavid said that he, silent, would be fixed with nails:\n“They have dug my hands and my feet,” he says.\nSolomon too prophesies of him so openly,\nthat the Jews would say, “Let us kill the righteous man!”\nJeremiah likewise shows the cross in a figure,\nsaying, “Come, let us put wood into his bread!”\nAnd their leader Moses proclaims to them:\n“Before your eyes your life will hang, slain.”\nThis is the Father who came in the Son, one God everywhere:\nnor would he be called Father had he not become Son.\nFor he did not leave heaven to appear on earth,\nbut, as he arranged, majesty was seen on earth;\nby his own power he caused himself to be born in the flesh\n…\n… may make one fringe.\nNow God was flesh, in which the power of God worked.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 261 (CSEL 15:131lines 261–284–133; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/261)."},"commodian-carmen/285":{"o":"Quid, quod prophetae canunt, inuisibilem esse uidendum,\nVt claritas tanta fieret homo quoque pro nobis.\nNec populus noster prosilisset in noua lege,\nSi non Omnipotens ordinasset ante de nobis.\nHic erat Omnipotens, cuius ⟨in⟩ nomine gentes\nCrederent omnino, quod propheta dixit Esaias:\nExurget in Israel homo de radice Iesse,\nIn illum sperabunt gentes, cuius signo tuentur.\nEt alter dixit testem illum esse per orbem,\nManifestari eum principem nationibus ipsum.\nIn psalmis canitur: Dominus regnauit a ligno;\nExultet terra, iocundentur insulae multae.\nSic et patriarchae Iacob benedictio uera\nParuit in gentes: Hic erit spes gentium, inquit.\nSub caelo non aliud nomen est nisi Christi praelatum\nIn cuius nomine crediderunt gentes ubique.\nNon ita suademur credere pro tempore clauso,\nSed propter futurum tempus, in aeterno uiuentes.\nHaec speranda nobis spes est, sempiterno frunisci,\nNon ista, quae fragilis cito mutat gaudia nostra.\nSint licet diuitiae prae oculis laute fruendae,\nExcluderis illis substituta morte caduca;\nAut si persenera[ne]ris, horrescis ipse uiuendo,\nAut si ualetudo fuerit mala, quo tibi uita?","t":"What of this, that the prophets sing that the invisible would be seen,\nthat so great a brightness would become man too, for our sake?\nNor would our people have leapt forth into the new law,\nhad not the Almighty ordained it beforehand concerning us.\nThis was the Almighty, in whose name the Gentiles\nwould believe in full, as the prophet Isaiah said:\n“A man will arise in Israel from the root of Jesse;\nin him the Gentiles will hope,” by whose sign they are protected.\nAnd another said that he is a witness throughout the world,\nthat he himself would be shown as prince to the nations.\nIn the Psalms it is sung: “The Lord has reigned from the wood;\nlet the earth rejoice, let the many islands be glad.”\nSo too the true blessing of the patriarch Jacob\nwas made plain among the Gentiles: “He will be the hope of the Gentiles,” he says.\nUnder heaven there is no other name set before us but Christ's,\nin whose name the Gentiles have believed everywhere.\nWe are not urged to believe for the sake of a time that is closed,\nbut for the time to come, living forever.\nThis is the hope for us to hope for, to enjoy what is eternal,\nnot these things, which, frail, soon change our joys.\nThough riches be before your eyes, to enjoy lavishly,\nyou are shut out from them when falling death replaces them;\nor if you live on long, you grow horrid to yourself by living,\nor if your health is bad, what good is life to you?","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 285 (CSEL 15:133lines 285–308–135; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/285)."},"commodian-carmen/309":{"o":"Tormentum est totum, quo(d) uiuimus isto sub aeuo;\nHinc adeo nobis est spes in futuro quaerenda:\nHoc Deus hortatur, hoc lex, hoc passio Christi,\nVt resurrecturos nos credamus in nouo saeclo.\nSic Dei lex clamat: fieret cum humilis Altus,\nCederet infernus, ut Adam leuaretur a morte,\nDescendit in tumulum Dominus suae plasmae misertus\nEt sic per occulta inaniuit fortia mortis.\nObrepsit Dominus ueteri latroni celatus\nEt pati se uoluit, quo magis prosterneret ipsum.\nIlle quidem audax et semper saeuus ut hostis,\nDum sperat in hominem saeuire, uictus a Summo est.\nPer quod prius hominem prostrauerat morti malignus,\nEx ipso deuictus; unde nobis uita prouenit.\nAdam degustato pomo mori iussus obi⟨u⟩it;\nCuius de peccato morimur sic et omnis itemque.\nSed iterum dixit Dominus: De ligno uitali\nSi sumpserit ille, in aeternum uiuat honestus.\nMors in ligno fuit et ligno uita latebat,\nQuo Deus pependit Dominus, uitae nostrae repertor.\nHoc lignum uitae Dominus praedixerat esse,\nVt, qui credit ei, sic sit quasi sumat abinde.\nEt sumit et gustat suauiter Dei summi praecepta\nEt discedit, quoniam potior resurgit, a morte.","t":"All that we live under this age is torment;\nhence our hope must be sought in the future:\nto this God exhorts us, to this the law, to this the passion of Christ,\nthat we believe we shall rise again in the new age.\nSo God's law cries out: when the Most High became humble,\nthe underworld would give way, that Adam might be raised from death.\nThe Lord, pitying his own handiwork, went down into the tomb,\nand so by hidden ways emptied the strongholds of death.\nThe Lord crept up, concealed, on the ancient robber,\nand willed to suffer, the better to lay him low.\nHe indeed, bold and ever savage as an enemy,\nwhile he hopes to rage against a man, is conquered by the Most High.\nBy the very means by which the malicious one first laid man low in death,\nby that he was overcome; whence life has come to us.\nAdam, having tasted the fruit, was bidden to die, and died;\nfrom whose sin all of us likewise die in turn.\nBut again the Lord said: “If he takes from the tree of life,\nlet him live forever in honor.”\nDeath was in the tree, and in a tree life lay hidden,\non which the Lord God hung, the finder of our life.\nThis the Lord had foretold would be the tree of life,\nso that whoever believes in him is as one who takes from it.\nAnd he takes and sweetly tastes the precepts of God most high\nand departs from death, since he rises the stronger.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 309 (CSEL 15:135lines 309–332–137; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/309)."},"commodian-carmen/333":{"o":"Qui credit in Christo, de ligno uitae degustat,\nQuo fuit suspensus Dominus, (a) Moyse praedicto.\nHunc ipsum Esaias humilem denuntiat esse\nEt nimis deiectum, fuerit quasi serui figura:\nEt uidimus illum, nec erat praeclarae figurae,\nIn plaga depositus homo, sciens omnia ferre.\nHic dolet pro nobis et peccata nostra reportat,\nEt pro facinore nostro Deus tradidit illum.\nQui, cum uexaretur, tacuit sicut agnus ad aras.\nHic homo iam non erat, sed erat Deus caro pro nobis;\nQuo palam apparet hoc [erat] Dei nomen oriri,\nQuod modo praeclarum nomen apud gentes habetur.\nHoc Malachiel canit propheta, qui et angelus ipse,\nCum et Iudaeorum reprobet sacrificia dicens:\nNon erit acceptam mihi sacrificium uestrum,\nSed in omni loco offerunt meo nomini gentes,\nApud quos eximium nomen meum magnificatur,\nQui sine cruore offerant meo nomini munde.\nNam fuit is ipse humilis, latens nomine magno,\nQui de semet ipso per ora prophetica clamat:\nContumax non sum, ait, neque contradico nocenti,\nDorsum quoque meum posui ad flagella caedendum\nMaxillasque meas palmis feriendas iniquis\nPraebui nec faciem auerti sputis eorum.","t":"Whoever believes in Christ tastes of the tree of life,\non which the Lord was hung, as Moses foretold.\nIsaiah declares this same one to be humble\nand greatly cast down, as though in the form of a slave:\n“And we saw him, and he was of no splendid form,\na man laid low under the stroke, knowing how to bear all things.\nHe grieves for us and carries away our sins,\nand for our crime God delivered him up.\nWhen he was afflicted, he was silent like a lamb at the altar.”\nThis one was no longer a man, but God was flesh for our sake;\nby which it plainly appears that this name of God was to arise,\nwhich now is held a glorious name among the Gentiles.\nThis the prophet Malachi sings, who is himself also an angel,\nwhen he rejects the sacrifices of the Jews, saying:\n“Your sacrifice will not be acceptable to me,\nbut in every place the Gentiles offer to my name,\namong whom my excellent name is magnified,\nwho offer purely to my name without blood.”\nFor he himself was humble, hidden under a great name,\nwho cries out about himself through the mouths of the prophets:\n“I am not stubborn,” he says, “nor do I gainsay the one who harms me;\nI set my back to the scourges, to be beaten,\nand offered my cheeks to be struck by wicked palms,\nnor did I turn my face away from their spitting.”","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 333 (CSEL 15:137lines 333–356–138; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/333)."},"commodian-carmen/357":{"o":"Stultitia subiit multis, Deum talia passum,\nVt enuntietur crucifixus conditor orbis.\nSic illi conplacuit consilium neminis uso —\nNec alius poterat - taliter uenire pro nobis.\nMortem adinuenit, cum esset inuidus, hostis,\nQuam ebibit Dominus passus, ex inferno resurgens.\nIdcirco nec uoluit se manifestare, quid esset,\nSed filium dixit se missum fuisse a patre.\nSic ipse tradiderat semet ipsum dici prophetis,\nVt Deus in terris Altissimi filius esset.\nHoc et ipse fremit, humilis in carne cum esset,\nTestaturque patrem, ut ora prophetica firmet.\nEx Israel legimus hominem resurgere talem;\nEt homo est, inquit, et quis eum nouit in ipsis ?\nHieremias ait. Hic Deus est noster aequalis,\nPost haec et in terris uisus est conuersatus humanis.\nEsaias autem: Tu es Deus, et nesciebamus:\nEt Deus in te est, et praeter te non alter habetur.\nEt quis in occasum prophetarum lege ueniret?\nCantate Domino, nomen est Deus illi, qui uenit!\nEt psalmus de ipso quartus quadragesimus inquit:\nExaltabor ego in gentibus nomine magno.\nEt alibi legimus: Hodie te genui, fili;\nPete, et dabo tibi, et habebis gentes heredes.","t":"To many it has seemed folly that God suffered such things,\nthat the founder of the world should be proclaimed crucified.\nSo it pleased him, taking counsel of no one —\nnor could another do it — to come in this way for us.\nThe enemy, in his envy, devised death,\nwhich the Lord drank up by suffering, rising from the underworld.\nTherefore he did not wish to reveal what he was,\nbut said that he was the Son sent by the Father.\nSo he himself had directed the prophets to speak of him,\nthat God on earth should be the Son of the Most High.\nThis too he proclaims while he was humble in the flesh,\nand bears witness to the Father, to confirm the prophets' words.\nWe read that such a man rises from Israel:\n“And he is a man,” it says, “and who has known him among them?”\nJeremiah says: “This is our God; no other is his equal;\nafterward he was seen on earth and lived among men.”\nAnd Isaiah: “You are God, and we did not know it;\nand God is in you, and besides you there is no other.”\nAnd who would come over the setting [sun], by the law of the prophets?\n“Sing to the Lord; God is the name of him who comes!”\nAnd the forty-fourth psalm says of him:\n“I will be exalted among the Gentiles with a great name.”\nAnd elsewhere we read: “Today I have begotten you, my son;\nask, and I will give you, and you will have the Gentiles as your heirs.”","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 357 (CSEL 15:138lines 357–380–139; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/357)."},"commodian-carmen/381":{"o":"Certe iam apparet, qui sit Deus et quis in ipso,\nEt cuius in nomine crederemus gentes ubique:\nDictum est Christo meo, teneo cuius dexteram, illud:\nExaudiant gentes, et imperet gentibus ipse.\nQuid plurimis opus est, cum res tam aperte probatur,\nCum is, qui taxatur, populus iam in illo laetatur?\nIlli autem miseri, qui fabulas uanas adornant\nEt magum infamant, canentibus rostra elusissent.\nQuales eos dicam? antequam dispersi fuissent,\nQuos nec exulatus fregit nec seruus ipsa.\nSi magus adfuerat, cur ergo prophetae canebant\nVenturum e caelo, ut esset spes gentium ipse?\nSi false de ipsis pronuntiant perdere terram,\nQuod prouenit de eis, sic erint et falsa de illo.\nSed quia sunt semper spreti, quod cruenti fuerunt,\nContra suum Dominum rebellant dicere magum.\nNec uolunt audire, quae dixerunt uates in illos,\nQuod non intellegerent in totum fine sub ipsa.\nIpse Deus illos descripsit: Pectore clauso\nNec uideant oculis nec intellegant corde durato;\nIncrassauit enim cor populi huius iniqui,\nVt nihil agnoscant, donec meo uerbo sanescant.\nPraedictus est Deus carnaliter nasci pro nobis,\nVt fieret illis merito cruciatio maior:","t":"Surely it is now plain who is God and who is in him,\nand in whose name we Gentiles everywhere were to believe:\nthat word was spoken to my Christ, whose right hand I hold:\n“Let the Gentiles hear, and let him rule over the Gentiles.”\nWhat need of more, when the thing is proved so plainly,\nwhen the people that is scorned now rejoices in him?\nBut those wretches who embellish empty fables\nand defame him as a magician …\nWhat shall I call them? before they were scattered,\nthey whom neither exile broke nor slavery itself.\nIf he had been a magician, why then did the prophets sing\nthat he would come from heaven, to be the hope of the Gentiles?\nIf they prophesied falsely of them that they would lose the land,\nwhich has befallen them, then what they said of him is false as well.\nBut because they are always despised, since they were bloody,\nthey rebel against their Lord, calling him a magician.\nNor will they hear what the seers said against them,\nthat they would not understand at all, even at the end.\nGod himself described them: “With closed heart\nlet them neither see with their eyes nor understand with hardened heart;\nfor the heart of this wicked people has grown fat,\nso that they recognize nothing, until they are healed by my word.”\nGod was foretold to be born in the flesh for our sake,\nso that their punishment might deservedly be greater:","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 381 (CSEL 15:139lines 381–404–141; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/381)."},"commodian-carmen/405":{"o":"Ecce dabit Deus ipse uobis signum ab alto:\nConcipiet uirgo et pariet terra caelestem;\nEmmanuel autem uocetur, iusserat illos;\nQuod lingua Latina ‘Deus nobiscum’ euoluit.\nAudite, quod ipse nutriretur melle, butyro,\nEt Samariam caperet, uerbum priusquam loqueretur.\nSed haec est historia clausa, de qua docti reuoluunt,\nVt paruulus lactans sine pugna praedas iniret;\nPassio cuius praedicta est taliter ante,\nVt Deus passibilis fieret profuso cruore.\nEsaias ait: Tamquam ouis ductus ad aram,\nNec uoce clamauit, patienter omnia gessit.\nSuffigitur clauis, quod Dauid praedixerat olim;\nQuem et potauerunt secundum scripturas acetum.\nEt in uestimentis meis, dixit, sortem[que] miserunt,\nQuod factum, et legimus in illo omnia gesta.\nFuerunt et tenebrae factae tribus horis a sexta\nFestinauitque dies inducens sidera noctis.\nPraedictum hoc fuerat fieri per prophetam Amos,\nVt tegeret subito sese per sollemnia sancta.\nO mala progenies, * * subdola fronte!\nGeneraui suboles, dixit Deus, qui me negarent.\nEt dixit: Audite uocem tubae. — Nolumus, aiunt.\nHoc dicit Ezechiel: Audient ergo gentes a longe.","t":"“Behold, God himself will give you a sign from on high:\na virgin will conceive, and earth will bring forth the heavenly one;\nand let him be called Emmanuel,” he had commanded them;\nwhich the Latin tongue renders “God with us.”\nHear that he would be fed on honey and butter,\nand would take Samaria before he could speak a word.\nBut this is a closed history, which the learned unfold:\nthat a little child at the breast should take spoils without a fight;\nwhose passion was foretold thus beforehand,\nthat God should become able to suffer, his blood poured out.\nIsaiah says: “Like a sheep led to the altar,\nhe did not cry out with his voice; he bore all things patiently.”\nHe is fixed with nails, as David had foretold long ago;\nand according to the Scriptures they gave him vinegar to drink.\n“And for my garments,” he said, “they cast lots”;\nwhich was done, and we read that in him all things were accomplished.\nAnd there was darkness for three hours from the sixth,\nand the day hastened, bringing on the stars of night.\nThis had been foretold through the prophet Amos,\nthat the day would suddenly hide itself at the holy festival.\nO evil progeny, … with deceitful brow!\n“I have begotten children,” said God, “who would deny me.”\nAnd he said: “Hear the voice of the trumpet.” — “We will not,” they say.\nEzekiel says this: “Then let the Gentiles hear from afar.”","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 405 (CSEL 15:141lines 405–428–143; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/405)."},"commodian-carmen/429":{"o":"Vno uolo titulo tangere librum Deuteronomium:\nIn caput eritis, gentes ; nam increduli retro.\nSi respuunt certe omnia supra dicta rebelles,\nS(c)ite quid opponunt, cum res tam aperte dicatur?\nVidete iam ergo, dubii qui nunc usque natatis,\nQuod gentes in Domini fuerint scriptura priores.\nNunc ergo fas est credere, quem libri designant,\nNon idolis uanis, qui frustra pro uita coluntur,\nNec istis adiungi uoluptuosis et sine freno,\nQui magis luxurias diligunt quam Summi praecepta.\nNon est culpa satis una, qui credere nolunt,\nSed magis infamant: In puteum misimus illum.\nQuapropter et Dominus indignatus inrigat illos:\nPropter uos nomen meum blasphematur in gentibus, inquit\nSi missus in puteum, sed resurgere quare clamatur ?\nAb inferis, Domine, animam meam inposuisti:\nEgo dormiui, ait, et somnum cepi securus;\nAuxilio Domini surrexi, nihil mali passus.\nEt iterum dicit: In infernum non derelinques\nNec dabis sanctum tuum interitum quoque uidere.\nHic personans ait: Fili prophetae, ascendo,\nVt Dominum dicam passum per miseriam summum.\nEt [in] libro psalmorum de Domini morte clamatur,\nNon ut illi putant Dauid de ipso referre.","t":"With a single heading I will touch the book of Deuteronomy:\n“You will be the head, you Gentiles; for the unbelieving, the tail.”\nIf the rebels indeed reject everything said above,\nwhat, tell me, do they set against it, when the thing is said so plainly?\nSee now, then, you doubters who till now are adrift,\nthat the Gentiles were set first in the Lord's Scripture.\nNow, then, it is right to believe him whom the books point to,\nnot vain idols, worshiped to no purpose for life,\nnor to join those lovers of pleasure, without bridle,\nwho love luxuries more than the precepts of the Most High.\nOne fault is not enough for those who will not believe,\nbut they slander him further: “We threw him into a pit.”\nFor this the Lord too, in indignation, reproaches them:\n“Because of you my name is blasphemed among the Gentiles,” he says.\nIf he was thrown into a pit, why is it proclaimed that he rose?\n“From the underworld, Lord, you have brought up my soul.”\n“I slept,” he says, “and took my sleep secure;\nby the Lord's help I rose, suffering no harm.”\nAnd again he says: “You will not abandon me in the underworld,\nnor will you let your holy one see corruption.”\nHere he speaks aloud, son of the prophet: “I ascend,”\nso that I may say the Lord most high suffered through misery.\nAnd in the book of Psalms the Lord's death is proclaimed,\nnot, as they suppose, that David speaks of himself.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 429 (CSEL 15:143lines 429–452–145; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/429)."},"commodian-carmen/453":{"o":"Aut si putant illud, congruunt uniuersa; quae dixit?\nNon est flagellatus Dauid nec cruce leuatus.\nQuid? Vaticinantur Iudaei more Saturni?\nIn fabulas coeunt, cum iam declinetur in illos?\nNon quasi maleficum alapantur cruce leuatum.\nInsciis, indoctis, ignorantibus talia fingunt.\nQuis Deus est ille, quem nos cruce fiximus? aiunt\nNolentes respicere scripturas, corde caecati.\nEcce canit alius repetens iterumque propheta,\nCuius uoce tamen titulatur talis edictus:\nNunc exurgam, ait Dominus, nunc clarificabor,\nNunc exaltabor, humilem quem ante uidistis;\nNunc intellegitis, nunc erit confusio uestra:\nVana cogitatis, ideo uos ignis habebit.\nHaec Esaias ait. Tunc sic et ipsa maiestas,\nCum esset in carne, profitetur ipse quis esset:\nNemo meam animam poterit auferre conatus,\nSed ego sponte a me pono eam meo decreto.\nIpse potestatem habeo de illa ponendi\nEt sumendi iterum habeo potestatem in illam.\nApertius autem de iusti morte clamatur,\nVt pareat magis induratos esse Iudaeos:\nEcce perit iustus, nec quidem intellegit ullus;\nSed erit in pacem huius sepultura dilecti.","t":"Or if they think so, does everything he said fit?\nDavid was not scourged, nor lifted up on a cross.\nWhat? Do the Jews prophesy in the manner of Saturn?\nDo they take refuge in fables, when the words turn against them?\nThey would not strike him, lifted on the cross, as an evildoer.\nSuch tales they invent for the unknowing, untaught, and ignorant.\n“Who is that God whom we fixed to the cross?” they say,\nunwilling to look at the Scriptures, blinded in heart.\nBehold, another prophet sings, repeating it again,\nby whose voice such a decree is nonetheless proclaimed:\n“Now I will arise,” says the Lord, “now I will be glorified,\nnow I will be exalted, whom you saw humble before;\nnow you understand, now shall be your confusion:\nyou think vain things; therefore fire will have you.”\nThis Isaiah says. And so too the majesty itself,\nwhen it was in the flesh, declares itself who it was:\n“No one, however he tries, will be able to take away my life,\nbut I lay it down of myself, by my own decree.\nI have power to lay it down,\nand I have power to take it up again.”\nAnd more plainly still the death of the righteous one is proclaimed,\nso that the Jews may appear the more hardened:\n“Behold, the righteous one perishes, and no one understands;\nbut the burial of this beloved one will be in peace.”","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 453 (CSEL 15:145lines 453–476–146; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/453)."},"commodian-carmen/477":{"o":"Quid illi infamant in puteum esse demissum,\nCum legimus illum sepulturae traditum esse?\nIgnominiosi, crudeles, caeci, superbi,\nQui magis de facto deberent lugere, plaudent!\nInspiratus enim Salomon de ipso prophetat\nEt magis insequitur plenius ostendere iustom:\nCircumueniamus iustum, si qui [nobis] grauis esse uidetur,\nQui nostris operibus contrarius ualde resistit;\nExprobrat in totum nihil nostra lege teneri,\nAdhuc et adfirmat filium Altissimi esse.\nOmnimodo reprobat et nugaces aestimat esse,\nAbstinet et sese a nobis et in altera uadit;\nNos inmundos ait et innouat altera iusta,\nEt sibi laetatur Dominum patrem esse caelorum.\nErgo, si sermones illius sunt ueri, probemus;\nTemptemus hunc Deum uidentes, quid fit in illum;\nInterrogemus eum omni cum tormento quietum,\nCondemnemus eum turpissima morte dicentes,\nHaec cum fecissent, capita suspensa monebant:\nSaluum illum faciat pater, aut descendat abinde!\nVt eos caecos Salomon ostendat aperte,\nSic, quasi nunc referat, et fecisse talia culpat:\nDum ista cogitant, ducti sunt in errore nefando;\nExcaecauit illos malitia sua saeuire.","t":"Why do they slander him, saying he was let down into a pit,\nwhen we read that he was given burial?\nShameful, cruel, blind, proud,\nthey who ought rather to mourn the deed applaud it!\nFor Solomon, inspired, prophesies of him,\nand goes further, to show the righteous one more fully:\n“Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, since he seems burdensome,\nwho strongly resists and opposes our works;\nhe reproaches us that nothing at all is kept of our law,\nand moreover affirms that he is the Son of the Most High.\nIn every way he rejects us and reckons us triflers;\nhe keeps himself apart from us and goes another way;\nhe calls us unclean and brings in another righteousness,\nand rejoices that the Lord of the heavens is his Father.\nSo, if his words are true, let us put them to the test;\nlet us try this God, and see what happens to him;\nlet us question him, the quiet one, with every torment;\nlet us condemn him to a most shameful death,” they say.\nWhen they had done these things, they wagged their heads and jeered:\n“Let the Father save him, or let him come down from there!”\nThat Solomon may show them plainly blind,\nhe blames them, as if he told it now, for doing such things:\n“While they think these things, they were led into accursed error;\ntheir malice blinded them, so that they raged.”","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 477 (CSEL 15:146lines 477–500–148; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/477)."},"commodian-carmen/49":{"o":"Ipse dedit legem populo Pharaone necato,\nEt quis esset, Dominus ipse se praedixit ab illo.\nNec una contentus prophetica uoce se promit,\nSed multos adhibuit testes, qui de illo clamant.\nHunc ergo, cum legitis multorum praeconia uatum,\nInuenietis eum carnem inuenisse pro nobis.\nVnde nunc erratur, ordinasse talia Summum,\nEt quasi subsannant, nec sciunt, quod ab ipso ridentur !\nInterdum subicio, qualiter praelegi prophetas,\nEt rudes edoceo, ubi sit spes uitae ponenda.\nQuid Deus in primis uel qualiter singula fecit,\nIam Moyses edocuit; nos autem de Christo docemus.\nNon sum ego uates nec doctor iussus ut essem,\nSed pando praedicta uatum oberrantibus austris.\nErgo mei similes, quos raptim aura deportat,\nQuaerite iam portum, ubi sunt pericula nulla.\nAgricola doctus tempestiva longe dinoscit\nEt, priusquam ueniant, recolligit se sub antra.\nEstote prudentes, quod imminet ante uidete\nEt, priusquam ueniant clades, prouidete saluti.\nIgnauia pueris opus est, non certe robustis:\nSi decet hoc rudibus, non conuenit aeuo maturis.\nQuae quidem pars hominum non sit moderata, uetusta\nSic erit ut perna minime salfacta: putrescat.","t":"He gave the law to the people after Pharaoh was slain,\nand through him the Lord foretold who he himself would be.\nNor content with one prophetic voice does he make himself known,\nbut called many witnesses, who cry out about him.\nHim, then, when you read the proclamations of many seers,\nyou will find to have taken flesh for our sake.\nHence the error now, [doubting] that the Most High ordained such things,\nand they sneer, as it were, not knowing that he laughs at them!\nAt times I add how I have read through the prophets,\nand I teach the unlearned where the hope of life is to be placed.\nWhat God did first, and how he made each thing,\nMoses has already taught; but we teach about Christ.\nI am no seer, nor a teacher appointed to be one,\nbut I lay open the seers' predictions to those wandering in the winds.\nSo you who are like me, whom the wind sweeps swiftly away,\nseek now the harbor, where there is no danger.\nThe skilled farmer discerns the seasons far ahead\nand, before they come, withdraws under shelter.\nBe prudent, see beforehand what threatens,\nand before disaster comes, provide for your safety.\nSloth is for boys, certainly not for the strong;\nif it suits the unformed, it does not befit those of mature age.\nThat part of mankind which is not kept in check will grow old\nlike a ham that is hardly salted: it will rot.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 49 (CSEL 15:119lines 49–72–120; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/49)."},"commodian-carmen/501":{"o":"Ecce quia caeci ipsi sunt et alteros aiunt,\nDixit illis Salomon: Nescierunt Dei secreta.\nQuaecumque dixerunt testes uniuersi priores,\nIn Christo fuerunt facta. Aut in altero dicant?\nQuod ipsum si cupiunt facere frustrantes in ore,\nIpsi se subsannent, uideant eam (im)pletum in illo.\nQuis fuit is iustus, de quo prophetae canebant,\nCum nemo sit iustus in terris, nisi [e] caelo uenisset?\nDauid enim princeps peccauit amando puellam,\nPeccauit et Salomon; et tamen paenituit illos.\nCum isti tam clari et insigni reges eorum\nNon fuerunt iusti, sed ipsi de iusto canebant,\nNec quidem Esaias uates de se talia dixit,\nQui fuit ab rege Manasse de serra secatus.\nAlter lapidatus, alter est mactatus ad aras,\nAlterum Herodes iussit decollari reclusum.\nOmnes isti uates alia sunt morte perempti,\nQuod Dominus ligno pependit, uoce Moysi:\n‘Non quasi homo Deus suspenditur’, intimat ante;\n‘Aut non ceu filius hominis minas patitur’, inquit.\nSic Dominus ipse cum uenisset, ista secutus:\nOportet me, inquit, reprobari uoce Moysi.\nAt ego non tota, sed summa fastigia carpo,\nQuo possint facilius ignorantes discere uera.","t":"See: though they themselves are blind, they call others so;\nSolomon said of them: “They did not know the secrets of God.”\nWhatever all the earlier witnesses said\nwas fulfilled in Christ. Or let them say: in someone else?\nIf they want to do just that, deceiving with their mouths,\nlet them mock themselves; let them see it fulfilled in him.\nWho was that righteous one of whom the prophets sang,\nsince no one on earth is righteous, unless he had come from heaven?\nFor David, the prince, sinned by loving a girl;\nSolomon too sinned; and yet they repented.\nSince even these, their kings so famous and renowned,\nwere not righteous, but themselves sang of the righteous one,\nnor did Isaiah the seer say such things of himself,\nwho was cut with a saw by King Manasseh;\none was stoned, another slaughtered at the altar,\nanother Herod ordered to be beheaded in prison.\nAll these seers were killed by some other death,\nwhereas the Lord hung on the wood, by the word of Moses:\n“Not as a man is God hanged,” he intimates beforehand;\n“nor does he suffer threats as a son of man,” he says.\nSo the Lord himself, when he came, followed these words:\n“I must,” he says, “be rejected,” by the word of Moses.\nBut I do not pluck the whole, only the highest tops,\nso that the ignorant may more easily learn the truth.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 501 (CSEL 15:148lines 501–524–149; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/501)."},"commodian-carmen/525":{"o":"Hi autem iniqui, (qui) subdole uiuere quaerunt,\nIam semel cruenti perseuerant fingere uana.\nInfatuant stultos magis euanescere dictis,\nQuod crucifixus 〈sit〉, cum sic oporteret eundem.\nSic enim disposuit propter primitiui ruinam;\nNon solum pro illo, et pro nobis uenit e caelo.\nConstituit populum nouum suo nomine firmum,\nIuxta prophetias conpleuit omnia Christus.\nEcce noua facio, Esaias clamat in ipso,\nEt nemo priora reputet nec antiqua sequatur.\nHaec noua sunt hodie sub nostra lege profecta,\nQuod gentes in Christo credi(di)mus dicto Moysi.\nIlle duos populos praedixerat esse futuros,\nEt quidem minorem populum praecellere dixit.\nSed isti nequitiae pleni iam desperato furore:\nLex nobis est data, dicunt, uos unde uenistis?\nSi nobis obsistunt, putant et resistere Summo,\nQui uoluit nobis bonus esse * *?\nNec illud respiciunt ceruicosi, setis (e)rectis,\nQuod semper innocuos cruciarunt lege uitata.\nSic Deo fecerunt, quod erant consueti, crudeles,\nEt filios sese audent adhuc dicere Summi.\nIam qualiter (iterum) resurrexit, supra notaui,\nNon de uoce mea, sed dicta prophetica dixi.","t":"But these wicked men, who seek to live by guile,\nonce stained with blood, persist in inventing empty things.\nThey befool the foolish the more, to vanish into words:\nthat he was crucified, when this was how it had to be.\nFor so he arranged it because of the fall of the first man;\nnot for him alone, but for us too he came from heaven.\nHe established a new people, firm in his name;\nChrist fulfilled all things according to the prophecies.\n“Behold, I make new things,” Isaiah cries of him,\n“and let no one consider the former things nor follow the ancient.”\nThese are the new things come forth today under our law:\nthat we Gentiles have believed in Christ, by the word of Moses.\nHe had foretold that there would be two peoples,\nand said that the younger people would surpass the other.\nBut these, full of wickedness, now in desperate fury,\nsay: “The law was given to us; where have you come from?”\nIf they oppose us, let them reckon that they resist the Most High,\nwho willed to be good to us …\nnor do the stiff-necked, their bristles raised, consider\nthat they always tortured the innocent, having corrupted the law.\nSo they did to God, cruel, as they were accustomed,\nand still dare to call themselves sons of the Most High.\nHow he rose again I have noted above;\nI did not speak from my own voice, but spoke prophetic words.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 525 (CSEL 15:149lines 525–548–151; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/525)."},"commodian-carmen/549":{"o":"Praedixerat autem discipulis cuncta de sese,\nQualiter a populo pateretur Petro negante;\nEt quia de tumulis resurgeret tertio die,\nDixerat et ipsud, et conpleuit omnia dicta.\nAt ubi surrexit, uenit ad apostolos ipse\nEt stetit illis in medio: Pax uobis, inquit.\nInter quos discipulos non adfuit unus orantes;\nCui cum referrent, discredere coepit et addit:\nSi prius non digitum misero, ubi claui fuerunt\nAut ubi percussus de lancea, non ego credo.\nTunc die Dominica rursus remeauit ad illos\nEt stetit illis in medio: Pax uobis, inquit.\nEt statim adgreditur Thomam incredulum illam:\nAccede propius et contange corpus ut ante.\nNon ego sum umbra, mortuorum qualis habetur:\nVestigium umbra non facit; considera uulnus.\nExtendit palmas; at ille tangere coepit\nEt manum in latere, fuerat quo lancea fixa,\nMisit et exinde prostrauit se precando:\nTu Deus et Dominus uere meus! Contra quem ille:\nHaec quia uidisti, credidisti, sed illi felices\nPosteri, qui credunt audito nomine tantum.\nQuadraginta dies cum illis ex ordine fecit,\nEdocuit illis multa, quae saeclo uenirent.","t":"He had foretold to the disciples all that concerned himself:\nhow he would suffer at the people's hands, while Peter denied him;\nand that he would rise from the tomb on the third day;\nthis too he had said, and he fulfilled all that he said.\nAnd when he rose, he came himself to the apostles\nand stood in their midst: “Peace be with you,” he said.\nAmong those disciples at prayer one was not present;\nwhen they told him, he began to disbelieve, and added:\n“Unless I first put my finger where the nails were,\nor where he was pierced by the lance, I do not believe.”\nThen on the Lord's day he came back to them again\nand stood in their midst: “Peace be with you,” he said.\nAnd at once he approaches the unbelieving Thomas:\n“Come nearer and touch my body as before.\nI am not a shade, such as the dead are held to be:\na shade leaves no footprint; look at the wound.”\nHe stretched out his palms; and Thomas began to touch,\nand put his hand into the side, where the lance had been fixed,\nand then threw himself down in prayer:\n“You are truly my God and Lord!” To whom he said:\n“Because you have seen these things, you have believed; but blessed\nare those after you, who believe having only heard the name.”\nForty days he spent with them, one after another,\nand taught them many things that would come upon the world.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 549 (CSEL 15:151lines 549–572–152; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/549)."},"commodian-carmen/573":{"o":"Post cuius ascensum miracula multa fecerunt,\nDe uerbo curabant infirmos in nomine Christi.\nQui si talis erat, qualem isti perfidi dicunt,\nFortia non fierent testium de uerbo per illum.\nAscendit in caelos, sicut et scriptura canebat:\nExcipite regem, principes, caelorum in altis!\nQuid amplius opus est recitare cuncta de lege?\nSufficiunt ista rudibus, bono corde tuenda.\nQuod si nec ipsi uolunt scire Deum ista legendo,\nIpsi sibi reputent, quo uenerint, illo quo nolunt.\nVergilius legitur, Cicero aut Terentius item;\nNil nisi cor faciunt, ceterum de uita siletur.\nQuid iuuat in uano saecularia prosequi terris,\nEt scire de uitiis regum, de bellis eorum?\nInsanumque forum cognoscere iure peritum,\nQuod iura uacillant, praemio ni forte regantur?\nSit licet defensor, sit licet diuinus orator,\nNil morte proficiet, si uiuus in Christo negauit.\nImmo prius quaerat, ubi sit sua uita redacta!\nSic fuerit sapiens, si ceterum uituperatur.\nIlli legunt iura et discunt proloquia mira,\nSed superant miseros, pro quibus loquuntur, agendo.\nInfelix est ille, qui uenerit illis in ore;\nIlli ferunt laudes et ille uictoria(m) damnis.","t":"After his ascension they worked many miracles;\nthey healed the sick by a word in the name of Christ.\nIf he had been such as these faithless men say,\nmighty works would not have been done through him at the witnesses' word.\nHe ascended into the heavens, as the Scripture also sang:\n“Receive the king, you princes, in the heights of heaven!”\nWhat more need is there to recite everything from the law?\nThese things suffice for the unlearned, to be kept with a good heart.\nBut if they themselves will not know God by reading these things,\nlet them blame themselves when they come where they would not.\nVirgil is read, Cicero, or Terence likewise;\nthey only train the mind; of life they say nothing.\nWhat use is it to pursue worldly things vainly on earth,\nand to know about the vices of kings and their wars?\nAnd to know the mad forum, skilled in law,\nwhen the laws totter, unless perhaps they are steered by a bribe?\nThough he be an advocate, though a divine orator,\nhe will gain nothing at death if, while living, he denied Christ.\nRather let him first ask where his life is laid up!\nSo he would be wise, even if otherwise he is blamed.\nThey read the laws and learn wonderful phrases,\nbut in pleading they get the better of the wretches for whom they speak.\nUnhappy is he who has fallen into their mouths;\nthey carry off the praise, and he a victory with losses.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 573 (CSEL 15:152lines 573–596–154; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/573)."},"commodian-carmen/597":{"o":"Stat miser in medio mutus, cui plus dolet intus;\nIlli tonant ore et ille silentio nummis.\nObstrepit interea uox adornata diurnum,\nEt saepe fit causa melior mala pluscula dando.\nHinc pretium quaerit sapiens, hinc uincere gaudet,\nEtsi praue gerat, dum sit modo uictor, aegrotat.\nNil sua de causa tractat, cum lucra conatur;\nSpem subit alterius et sua(m) posterga remittit.\nMulti de successu rapiuntur saeculi silua;\nDum gaudent in breuia, remanent a gratia Christi;\nDum cupiunt multa oculo, dum augere quaerunt,\nNec Deus est illis aliquid nisi saeculi uita.\nPro uentre satagitur, agon est pro ipso diurnum,\nEt uerum agonem spernunt pro aeterna salute.\nQuisque quasi uigilat sacculo, laudatur acutus;\nNam qui Deum sequitur, copria iudicatur ab ipsis.\nO nimium felix, saecularia si quis euitet!\nSit stultus aliis, sapiens dum sit Deo summo.\nIpsa spes tota, Deo credere, qui ligno pependit;\nFoeda licet res est, sed utilis uitae futurae.\nNam populus ille primitiuus illo deceptus,\nQuod filium dixit, cum sit Deus pristinus ipse.\nHic praeibat eos in columna nubis et ignis,\nQuando de Aegypto liberauit illos ad unum.","t":"The wretch stands in the middle, mute, aching all the more within;\nthey thunder with their mouths, and he is silenced by his coins.\nMeanwhile the polished voice clamors the whole day,\nand often a bad case becomes the better by giving a little more.\nHence the wise man seeks a fee, hence he rejoices to win;\nthough he acts wrongly, so long as he wins, he is sick.\nHe deals with nothing of his own cause while he strives for gain;\nhe takes up another's hope and puts his own behind him.\nMany are carried off by success in the forest of the world;\nwhile they rejoice in brief things, they stay far from the grace of Christ;\nwhile they covet much with the eye, while they seek to increase,\nGod is nothing to them but the life of this world.\nThey busy themselves for the belly; the contest for it is daily,\nand they spurn the true contest for eternal salvation.\nWhoever is watchful, as it were, for the world is praised as sharp;\nbut he who follows God is judged dung by them.\nO happy beyond measure, whoever shuns worldly things!\nLet him be a fool to others, so long as he is wise to God most high.\nThis is the whole hope: to believe God, who hung on the wood;\nthough it be a shameful thing, yet it is useful for the life to come.\nFor that first people was deceived by this,\nthat he called himself Son, though he himself is the God of old.\nHe went before them in the pillar of cloud and fire,\nwhen he freed them, to a man, from Egypt.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 597 (CSEL 15:154lines 597–620–155; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/597)."},"commodian-carmen/621":{"o":"Hic crudele nefas inperat de unico nato,\nVt probaret Abraham, cui dixit: Parce! (d)e caelo\nAngelus. Et Deus est, hominem totidemque se fecit,\nEt quidquid uoluerit, faciet: ut muta loquantur.\nBalaam sedenti asinam suam conloqui fecit\nEt canem, ut Simoni diceret: Clamaris a Petro!\nPaulo praedicanti dicerent ut multi de illo,\nLeonem populo fecit loqui uoce diuina.\nDeinde, quod ipsa non patitur nostra natura,\nInfantem fecit quinto mense proloqui uulgo.\nHic erat uenturus conmixtus sanguine nostro,\nVt uideretur homo, sed Deus in carne latebat.\nNon senior ueniet nec angelus, dixit Esaias,\nSed Dominus ipse ueniet se ostendere nobis.\nHunc mare pertimuit, hunc uenti, hunc tartarus ipse;\nAgnouit Dominum omnis creatura latentem.\nSolus nequam populus centriam erexit ad illum:\n‘Absit, ut sic Dominus uenerit in tali figura\nHic, sicut in terra, super fluctus maris inibat\nEt uentis inperat, placidum ut redderet aequor.\nHic legem tartaream derupit uerbo praesenti\nEt leuat de tumulis Lazarum die quarta fetentem.\nNam qui ferebatur, cum fuisset obuius illi:\nSurge, inquit, iuuenis! Et [re]surrexit ille de ferclo.","t":"He commands a cruel deed concerning the only son,\nto test Abraham, to whom an angel said from heaven: “Spare him!”\nAnd he is God, and he likewise made himself man,\nand whatever he wills he will do: so that dumb things speak.\nHe made Balaam's ass speak to him as he sat on it,\nand a dog, so that it said to Simon: “Peter calls for you!”\nThat many might speak of him to Paul as he preached,\nhe made a lion speak to the people with a divine voice.\nThen, what our very nature does not allow,\nhe made an infant in its fifth month speak out to the crowd.\nHe was to come, mingled with our blood,\nto be seen as man; but God lay hidden in the flesh.\n“Not an elder will come, nor an angel,” said Isaiah,\n“but the Lord himself will come to show himself to us.”\nHim the sea feared, him the winds, him Tartarus itself;\nall creation recognized the hidden Lord.\nOnly the wicked people raised a … against him:\n“Far be it that the Lord should have come in such a form!”\nHe walked upon the waves of the sea as on land,\nand commands the winds, to make the sea calm.\nHe broke the law of Tartarus by his word, present there,\nand raises from the tomb Lazarus, stinking on the fourth day.\nAnd to one who was being carried out, when he met him:\n“Rise, young man!” he said. And he rose up from the bier.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 621 (CSEL 15:155lines 621–644–157; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/621)."},"commodian-carmen/645":{"o":"Archisynagogi filiam deprecatus a patre\nIam exanimatam plangentibus suscitat illam.\nMutum loqui fecit et surdum audire praesertim.\nEt caecum ex utero natum, ut uideret in auras.\nPost XXXVIII annis paralyticum surgere iussit,\nQuem admirarentur grabatum in collo ferentem.\nCuius uestimento tacto profluuio sanata est.\nQuinque panes fregit hominum in milia quinque\nEt quattuor milia iterum de septem refecit.\nPlenius ut sese Dominus demonstraret adesse,\nCommutauit aquas, fierent ut optima uina.\nIn nuptias fuerat inuitatus matre cum ipsa;\nQuod fuit rogatus, subueniret uino defecto,\nTunc iussit implere hydrias uelocius aqua,\nQuod prius gustauit et sic ministrari praecepit.\nNec sic potuerunt Dominum cognoscere factis,\nSed insanierunt, quasi nequam perdere morti.\nQuod ipsum concedit, quoniam sic pati decreuit;\nSi tamen crediderint, ueniam tunc demum habebunt.\nHic est primogenitus per prophetas ante praedictus,\nVt uocitaretur in terris Altissimi proles.\nFelices, hominum spem suam in isto qui ponunt,\nNam insipientes tamquam maledictum euitant.","t":"At the father's entreaty he raises the daughter of the synagogue ruler,\nalready lifeless, while they mourned.\nHe made the mute speak, and above all the deaf hear,\nand the man blind from the womb see the light.\nAfter thirty-eight years he bade the paralytic rise,\nwhom they marveled to see carrying his bed on his neck.\nBy touching his garment a woman was healed of her flow.\nFive loaves he broke for five thousand men,\nand again he fed four thousand from seven.\nThat the Lord might show more fully that he was present,\nhe changed water, so that it became the best wine.\nHe had been invited to a wedding with his mother herself;\nwhen he was asked to help because the wine had run out,\nhe bade them quickly fill the jars with water,\nwhich he tasted first and then ordered to be served.\nNot even so could they recognize the Lord by his deeds,\nbut they raged, as though to put a wicked man to death.\nThis he himself allows, since he had resolved so to suffer;\nyet if they believe, then at last they will have pardon.\nHe is the firstborn, foretold long before by the prophets,\nto be called on earth the offspring of the Most High.\nHappy the men who put their hope in him,\nfor the foolish shun him as a thing accursed.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 645 (CSEL 15:157lines 645–668–158; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/645)."},"commodian-carmen/669":{"o":"Aeternitas illi praeparatur, Christo qui credit,\nVt socius Dei sit homo post funera uiuens.\nLex et prophetae docent, qui sunt Dei digni caelorum\nEt quibus absconsa reuelantur aurea saecla.\nPer tot uates numero de filio Dei clamatur,\nEt cluserunt oculos fili Dei primi uocati;\nQui scelere facto non sunt recordati legendo,\nSed perseueranter: Nos sumus electi! dicentes.\nAdhuc infatuant profanos balneis ire,\nQuos faciunt mundos ipsi Deo summo placere.\nAqua lauat sordes, non intima cordis iniqua,\nNec sacra sacrilega potuerunt lauare curata.\nNon ita praecepit Dominus, sacra ferre malignis;\nEt locu(tu)s iterum, ab idolis mundos haberi:\nNemo sibi faciat simulacrum daemonis, inquit;\nNam dixit et illis: Idolis seruire nolite.\nSi Deus praecepit ab idolis ualde caueri,\nQuid illi decipiunt gentes puros esse lauacris?\nImmo cum recipiunt tales, docere deberent\nSeruire non aliis, nisi tantum Summo placere.\nDum facinus quaerunt obumbrare Christi de morte,\nAperiunt ualuas passim, ut intretur ad illos.\nHinc ergo depereunt, qui se putant puros ab aqua\nPosse Dei fieri, conscientes ante latroni.","t":"Eternity is prepared for whoever believes in Christ,\nthat man may be God's companion, living after death.\nThe law and the prophets teach who are worthy of the God of the heavens,\nand to whom the hidden golden ages are revealed.\nThrough so many seers the Son of God is proclaimed,\nand those first called sons of God closed their eyes;\nwho, having done the crime, did not remember it in their reading,\nbut persisted in saying: “We are the chosen!”\nStill they befool the profane into going to baths,\nwhom they make clean, they claim, to please God most high.\nWater washes off dirt, not the inner wickedness of the heart,\nnor could sacrilegious things be washed holy by such care.\nThe Lord did not command this, to give holy things to the wicked;\nand again he spoke, that men be kept clean from idols:\n“Let no one make himself an image of a demon,” he says;\nfor he said to them as well: “Do not serve idols.”\nIf God commanded that idols be strictly avoided,\nwhy do they deceive the Gentiles that they are pure by washings?\nRather, when they receive such people, they ought to teach them\nto serve no others, but only to please the Most High.\nWhile they seek to cover up the crime of Christ's death,\nthey throw the doors open everywhere, so that men may come in to them.\nHence those perish who think they can become pure for God by water,\nhaving first been accomplices of the robber.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 669 (CSEL 15:158lines 669–692–160; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/669)."},"commodian-carmen/693":{"o":"Nunc colit in uano quodlibet, nunc sancta requirit,\nNescit ubi primum occurrat inscius ille,\nAc idolis seruit, iterum tricesima quaerit;\nNunc azyma sequitur, qui castum sederat ante.\nHoc Deo non placuit participes daemonum esse,\nQui legem instituit, fieret quo transitus inde.\nSunt tibi propositae duae uiae: elige, quam uis,\nNec enim te findes, ut possis ire per ambas;\nSed tamen ex ipsis opportunam quaerere debes;\nNe cadas in fauces latronum, cautior esto.\nVnum quaere Deum, qui quaerit hostia nulla,\nVt possis abolitus resurgere saeclo nouato.\nQuid malos attendis et iudicas sanctos iniquos,\nQui tibi nullum uerbum de lege demonstrant?\nDe uirtute Dei refertur, quam fecit in illos;\nNam de sua facta scelerata dicere nolunt,\nSemper homicidae semper manibusque cruentis,\nQuos Dominus numquam potuit domare monendo.\nSuffecerat illis per ignauiam tanta fecisse\nEt dicere: Scriptum sic erat, modo credere fas est.\nSed Dominus ipse obscurauit sensus eorum,\nIndurauit eos sicut Pharaonem in ipsis;\nNec preces eorum dixit exaudire se uelle\nEt de terra sua proiecit illos iratus.","t":"Now he worships anything at all in vain, now he seeks holy things,\nnot knowing, ignorant man, where to run first;\nhe serves idols, and again he seeks the thirtieth days;\nnow he follows unleavened bread, who before kept a pagan fast.\nIt did not please God that men be partakers with demons,\nhe who instituted the law so that there might be a passing over from there.\nTwo ways are set before you: choose which you will,\nfor you will not split yourself so as to walk both;\nbut you must choose from them the one that is fitting;\nlest you fall into the jaws of robbers, be more careful.\nSeek the one God, who seeks no victims,\nthat, washed clean, you may rise again in the renewed age.\nWhy do you heed the wicked and judge the saints unjust,\nwho show you not one word from the law?\nThey recount the power of God which he worked among them;\nbut of their own wicked deeds they will not speak,\never murderers, ever with bloody hands,\nwhom the Lord could never tame by warning.\nIt had been enough for them, through sloth, to have done such things\nand to say: “So it was written; now it is right to believe.”\nBut the Lord himself darkened their minds,\nhe hardened them, as he did Pharaoh, among them;\nand he said he would not hear their prayers,\nand in anger cast them out of their land.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 693 (CSEL 15:160lines 693–716–161; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/693)."},"commodian-carmen/717":{"o":"Cum filios illos utique iam dixerat ante,\nNecesse uoluerat bono corde uiuere natos;\nQuando pater gaudet, cum sit bonus filius illi;\nQuod si malus fuerit, execretur odio natum.\nContrarium nullus patitur sibi filium esse,\nExcluditur omnis caritas crudele de nato,\nNec facit heredem illum ex asse suorum,\nQuae si prius poterit consumere, gaudet in illum.\nImpium et saeuum sobolem, rei suae tyrannum,\nNec obuium patitur genitor commotus ab illo.\nQuid isti praesumunt, cum sint adoptati, dicentes:\nEx omni populo nos sumus carissimi Summo?\nParricida patris semper et superbus in illo.\nCarus esse potest aut heres iure uocari?\nSi patres carnales tales detestantur alumnos,\nQuanto magis Dominus, superant cui fili legendi!\nMansuetis, humilibus, obsequio plenis alumnis\nDiuidunturque bona, non impiis neque tyrannis.\nAdoptati fuerant manifeste fili Iudaei,\nSed in testamento consecuti sunt impii nomen.\nIpsi sibi reputent: Scelere commisso cruenti\nQui poterant utique participes esse bonorum?\nQuid nobis strident, quid nos aemulantur heredes ?\nFecissentque bonum, et erant in parte legati.","t":"Since he had already called them sons long before,\nhe had willed that those born of him should live with a good heart;\nfor a father rejoices when his son is good to him;\nbut if he is bad, he curses the son in hatred.\nNo one endures a son who sets himself against him;\nall love is shut out from a cruel son,\nnor does the father make him heir of his whole estate;\nrather, if he can spend it all first, he rejoices to spite him.\nAn impious and savage offspring, a tyrant over his property,\nthe father, provoked by him, cannot bear even to meet.\nWhat do these presume, when they are only adopted, saying:\n“Of all peoples we are the dearest to the Most High”?\nOne who murders his father and is ever proud toward him —\ncan he be dear, or be called heir by right?\nIf fathers in the flesh detest such children,\nhow much more the Lord, who has sons in plenty to choose!\nTo meek, humble children, full of obedience,\nthe goods are divided, not to the impious nor to tyrants.\nThe Jews had plainly been adopted as sons,\nbut in the testament they obtained the name of impious.\nLet them consider for themselves: having committed bloody crime,\nhow could they share in the goods?\nWhy do they gnash at us, why do they envy us as heirs?\nHad they done good, they too would have had a share in the legacy.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 717 (CSEL 15:161lines 717–740–163; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/717)."},"commodian-carmen/73":{"o":"Nemo petram subicit, nisi solus ignis ad escam:\nSaxei sic homines mollescunt sero gehenna.\nClamamus in uacuum surdis referenda procellis\nEt lumen offerimus caecis sine causa praebentes.\nStat miles ad missam: unus audit, et excutit alter\nNec accipit corde monita, sed perditus errat.\nQuis modo delinquit (iudices estote de istis!),\nQui monet aut ille, qui non uult dicto parere ?\nSpero, reus non est, qui Caesaris dictus obaudit,\nContrarius autem perdit suam uitam superbus.\nInterdum quod meum est, qui prius erraui, demonstro\nRectum iter uobis, qui adhuc erratis inanes.\nVos tamen eligite, arbitrio uestro placentes,\nQuis uelit uenenum aut suauia pocula uitae!\nBonum et malum est in ista natura creatum,\nVt homo post fata probetur quis Deo dignus.\nAdgredere iam nunc, quisquis es, perennia nosse:\nDisce, Deus qui sit uel cuius nomine adsit!\nEst Deus omnipotens, unus, a semetipso creatus,\nQuem infra reperies magnum et humilem ipsum.\nIs erat in uerbo positus, sibi solo notatus,\nQui pater et filius dicitur et spiritus sanctus.\nSed ex quo decreuit mundum conponere signis,\nIgnem interposuit metuendum angelis ipsis.","t":"No one subdues rock but fire alone, as its food:\nso stony men grow soft too late, in Gehenna.\nWe cry out in vain, words for the deaf storms to carry off,\nand offer light to the blind, offering it to no purpose.\nA soldier stands at the dismissal: one listens, another shakes it off\nand does not take the warnings to heart, but wanders, lost.\nWho is it, then, that does wrong (be judges of this!):\nthe one who warns, or the one who will not obey what is said?\nI trust he is not guilty who obeys Caesar's word,\nbut the proud man who opposes it loses his life.\nMeanwhile, what is mine to do, who once went astray, I show:\nthe right road to you who still wander, empty.\nYet you choose, as your own judgment pleases,\nwhich anyone would have: poison or the sweet cups of life!\nGood and evil were created in this nature,\nso that after death a man may be proved, who is worthy of God.\nSet about it now, whoever you are, to know the everlasting things:\nlearn who God is, and in whose name he is present!\nGod is almighty, one, created from himself,\nwhom you will find below to be both great and humble.\nHe was set in the Word, known to himself alone,\nwho is called Father and Son and Holy Spirit.\nBut from the time he decided to compose the world with its signs,\nhe set between a fire to be feared by the angels themselves.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 73 (CSEL 15:120lines 73–96–122; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/73)."},"commodian-carmen/741":{"o":"Nec hodie tacent et Christo credere nolunt,\nQui fuerat illis salutaris lege praedictus;\nDe quo iam audistis qualiter prophetae canebant:\nVenturum in terras Dominum, quem gentes adora[bu]ut.\nHunc certe nos ipsum admonent cognoscere Summum,\nQui renouat hominem, peccata pristina donat.\nNam et comminatur deorum cultoribus ipse:\nSacrificans idolis periet in morte secunda.\nQuisque deos ergo sequitur fabricatos in auro,\nArgento uel lapide, ligno uel aeramine fusos,\nCum ipsis infelix mittetur in igne refectus,\nNec ibi permoritur, sed dat cruciatus iniquus.\nSunt homines pecorum similes in ista natura,\nQui nolunt accipere frenum Dei summi uagantes;\nCum ipsi non durant seruorum talia ferre,\nIn quorum saepe descendunt sanguine diri.\nDicentes adiciunt: ‘Nihil est post funera nostra;\nDum uiuimus, hoc est’, et incumbunt more suillo;\nNulla sit luxuria, quae nos pertranseat aeuo;\nDum tempus est uitae, perfruamur omnia saecli.’\nIndisciplinati clementiam Dei refutant\nStrenia(m) sectantes, quasi sola uita sit ipsa.\nSic redeunt a Deo, qui promittit uiuere semper:\nContra bonum pugnant, cum sit repugnandum iniquo.","t":"Nor are they silent today, and they will not believe in Christ,\nwho had been foretold to them in the law as the bringer of salvation;\nof whom you have already heard how the prophets sang:\nthat the Lord would come to earth, whom the Gentiles would worship.\nHim indeed they bid us recognize as the Most High,\nwho renews man and forgives former sins.\nFor he himself threatens the worshipers of gods:\n“Whoever sacrifices to idols will perish in the second death.”\nSo whoever follows gods fashioned of gold,\nsilver or stone, of wood or cast bronze,\nunhappy man, will be sent with them into the fire, his body restored,\nand will not die there, but, wicked, will pay in torments.\nThere are men like cattle by nature,\nwho will not take the bridle of God most high, but wander;\nthough they themselves will not bear such things from their slaves,\nwhose blood they often savagely shed.\nAnd they add, saying: “There is nothing after our death;\nwhile we live, this is all,” and they wallow like swine;\n“Let no luxury pass us by in our lifetime;\nwhile there is time of life, let us enjoy all the world's things.”\nUndisciplined, they reject the mercy of God,\nchasing after New Year's gifts, as if this life were all there is.\nSo they turn back from God, who promises everlasting life:\nthey fight against the good, when they should fight against the wicked.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 741 (CSEL 15:163lines 741–764–165; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/741)."},"commodian-carmen/765":{"o":"Errauimus omnes manifesto, saeculo suasi,\nSed gratia Domini prouocamur credere legi.\nPropterea uenit et fecit trophaea latenter\nEt fuit homo Deus, ut nos in futuro haberet.\nSed plurimi pereunt, qui putant utrisque placere,\nIdolis atque Deo, placeat cum nemo duobus.\nVnus est in caelo Deus caeli, terrae marisque,\nQuem Moyses docuit ligno pependisse pro nobis.\nVnde quidam errant ignaui talia passum,\nNon satis intenti mysterio Dei secreto.\nInuidia Diaboli mors introiuit in orbem,\nQuam Deus occulte destruxit uirgine natus.\nQua natiuitate excordantur caeci Iudaei,\nStulto⟨s⟩ infatuant scelere commisso cruenti.\nNemo potest ullum excusamen dicere postquam,\nCum modo sit nobis facultas data credendi.\nNon uenit in uano Dominus in terris e caelo,\nSed uenit, ut faceret populum suo nomine dictum.\nQuem si quis confessus non erit in ista natura,\nPerdit et quod uixit, et in poena sero declamat;\nAut certe, dum sperat exspectans credere canus,\nExcluditur diu(t)ius ab aeterna uita defunctus.\nErgo iam ad illum citius recordari debemus.\nQui nobis post obitum pollicetur reddere uitam.","t":"We all went openly astray, persuaded by the world,\nbut by the grace of the Lord we are called to believe the law.\nTherefore he came and won his trophies in secret,\nand God was man, to have us for the future.\nBut very many perish who think they can please both,\nidols and God, though no one can please two.\nThere is one God in heaven, God of heaven, earth, and sea,\nwhom Moses taught hung on the wood for us.\nHence some, slow of mind, go astray [doubting] that he suffered such things,\nnot attentive enough to God's secret mystery.\nBy the devil's envy death came into the world,\nand God, born of a virgin, destroyed it in secret.\nAt this birth the blind Jews lose their wits;\nblood-stained, having committed the crime, they befool the foolish.\nNo one can offer any excuse hereafter,\nsince now the opportunity to believe has been given us.\nNot in vain did the Lord come from heaven to earth,\nbut he came to make a people called by his name.\nWhoever has not confessed him while in this nature\nloses even what he has lived, and cries out too late in punishment;\nor surely, while he hopes to believe when gray, waiting,\nhe dies and is shut out from eternal life for long ages.\nSo we must turn our minds to him the more quickly,\nwho promises to give us back life after death.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 765 (CSEL 15:165lines 765–788–166; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/765)."},"commodian-carmen/789":{"o":"Insuper hoc addit, inmortales esse futuros\nEt frui, quod oculus non uiderat ante, uidendo.\nSex milibus annis prouenient ista repletis,\nQuo tempore nos ipsos spero iam in litore portus.\nTunc homo resurget solis in agone reductus\nEt gaudet in Deo reminiscens, quid fuit ante;\nQui, sicut audiuit fragilis in pristina carne,\nCum sit incorruptus, recognoscit ante promissa.\nQuam gloriam mirans homini prouenisse sic inquit:\nQualiter audiui prius, sic singula cerno.\nHaec pariter omnes clamant ab inferno leuati:\nQuemadmodum ante audiuimus, ecce uidemus!\nCedet dolor omnis a corpore, cedet et ulcus,\nNec erit anxietas ulla nisi gaudia semper.\nQuisque tribus credit et sentit unum adesse,\nHic erit perpetuus in aeterna saecla renatus.\nSed quidam hoc aiunt: Quando haec uentura putamus ?\nAccipite paucis, quibus actis illa sequantur.\nMulta quidem signa fient tantae termini pesti,\nSed erit initium septima persecutio nostra.\nEcce iam ianua(m) pulsat et cingitur ense,\nQui cito traiciet Gothis inrumpentibus amne.\nRex Apollyon erit cum ipsis, nomine dirus,\nQui persecutionem dissipet sanctorum in armis.","t":"Moreover he adds this: that we shall be immortal\nand enjoy, by seeing, what the eye had not seen before.\nThese things will come when six thousand years are fulfilled,\nat which time I hope we shall be already on the harbor's shore.\nThen man will rise, brought back at the course of the sun,\nand rejoices in God, remembering what he was before;\nand as he heard, while frail in his former flesh,\nnow incorrupt, he recognizes what was promised before.\nMarveling at the glory that has come to man, he says:\n“As I heard before, so I see each thing.”\nThis all cry out together, raised from the underworld:\n“As we heard before, behold, we see!”\nAll pain will leave the body, the sore will leave too,\nnor will there be any anxiety, but joys forever.\nWhoever believes in the three and perceives that one is present,\nhe will be everlasting, reborn into the eternal ages.\nBut some say this: “When do we think these things will come?”\nHear in a few words after what events they will follow.\nMany signs indeed will come at the end of so great a plague,\nbut the beginning will be our seventh persecution.\nBehold, already he knocks at the door and is girded with the sword,\nwho will soon cross over, the Goths bursting across the river.\nWith them will be King Apollyon, dreadful in name,\nwho will break up the persecution of the saints by arms.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 789 (CSEL 15:166lines 789–812–168; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/789)."},"commodian-carmen/813":{"o":"Pergit ad Romam cum multa milia gentis\nDecretoque Dei captiuat ei parte subactos.\nMulti senatorum tunc enim captiui deflebunt\nEt Deum caelorum blasphemant a barbaro uicti.\nHi tamen gentiles pascunt Christianos ubique,\nQuos magis ut fratres requirunt gaudio pleni.\nNam luxuriosos et idola uana colentes\nPersecuntur enim et senatum sub iugo mittunt.\nHaec mala percipiunt, qui sunt persecuti dilectos:\nMensibus in quinque trucidantur isto sub hoste.\nExurgit interea sub ipso tempore Cyrus,\nQui terreat hostes et liberet inde senatum.\nEx infero redit, qui fuerat regno praeceptus\nEt diu seruatus cum pristino corpore notus.\nDicimus hunc autem Neronem esse uetustum,\nQui Petrum et Paulum prius puniuit in urbe.\nIpse redit iterum sub ipso saeculi fine\nEx locis apocryphis, qui fuit reseruatus in ista.\nHunc ipse 〈se〉natus inuisum esse mirantur;\nQui cum apparuerit, quasi deum esse putabunt.\nSed priusquam ille ueniat, prophetabit Helias\nTempore partito, medio hebdomadis axe.\nConpleto spatio succedit ille nefandus,\nQuem et Iudaei simul tunc cum Romanis adorant.","t":"He marches on Rome with many thousands of his people\nand, by God's decree, takes captive those he partly subdues.\nFor many senators will then weep as captives\nand blaspheme the God of the heavens, conquered by the barbarian.\nYet these heathen feed the Christians everywhere,\nwhom they seek out rather as brothers, full of joy.\nFor the luxurious and those who worship vain idols\nthey persecute, and they put the senate under the yoke.\nThese evils befall those who persecuted the beloved:\nfor five months they are slaughtered under this enemy.\nMeanwhile, at that very time, Cyrus arises,\nto terrify the enemies and set the senate free from them.\nHe returns from the underworld, who had been snatched from his throne,\nand, long preserved, is recognized in his former body.\nThis one, we say, is the Nero of old,\nwho first punished Peter and Paul in the city.\nHe himself returns again at the very end of the age\nfrom hidden places, he who was kept back for this.\nThe senate marvels that he is seen;\nand when he appears, they will think him a god.\nBut before he comes, Elijah will prophesy,\nat the divided time, at the midpoint of the week.\nWhen that span is complete, the accursed one succeeds,\nwhom the Jews too, together with the Romans, then worship.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 813 (CSEL 15:168lines 813–836–169; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/813)."},"commodian-carmen/837":{"o":"Quamquam erit alius, quem expectant ab oriente,\nIn nostra caede tamen saeuient cum rege Nerone.\nErgo cum Helias in Iudaea terra prophetat,\nEt 〈signo〉 signat populum in nomine Christi;\nDe quibus quam multi quoniam illi credere nolunt,\nSupplicat iratus Altissimum, ne pluat inde:\nClausum erit caelum ex eo nec rore madescet,\n(Et) flumina quoque iratus in sanguine uertit.\nFit sterilis terra nec sudat fontibus aquae,\nVt famis inuadat; erit tunc et lues in orbe.\nIsta quia faciat, cruciati nempe Iudaei\nMulta aduersus eum conflant in crimina falsa,\nIncenduntque prius senatum consurgere in ira\nEt dicunt Heliam inimicum egere Romanis.\nTunc inde confertim motus senatus ab illis\nExorant Neronem precibus et donis iniquis:\nTolle inimicos populi de rebus humanis,\nPer quos et di nostri conculcantur neque coluntur.\nAt ille suppletus furia precibusque senatus\nVehiculo publico rapit ab oriente prophetas.\nQui satis ut faciat illis uel certe Iudaeis,\nImmolat hos primum et sic ad ecclesias exit.\nSub quorum martyrio decima pars conruit urbis\nEt pereunt ibi homines septem milia plena.","t":"Although there will be another, whom they await from the east,\nyet in our slaughter they will rage together with King Nero.\nSo while Elijah prophesies in the land of Judea\nand marks the people with a sign in the name of Christ —\nsince so many of them will not believe him,\nin anger he prays the Most High that it rain no more:\nthe sky will be shut from then on and not be wet with dew,\nand in anger he turns the rivers too into blood.\nThe earth becomes barren and does not sweat with springs of water,\nso that famine invades; there will then also be plague in the world.\nBecause he does these things, the Jews, tormented,\nforge many false charges against him,\nand first stir up the senate to rise in anger,\nand say that Elijah acts as an enemy of the Romans.\nThen at once the senate, moved by them,\nentreat Nero with prayers and wicked gifts:\n“Remove from human affairs the enemies of the people,\nby whom our gods too are trampled and no longer worshiped.”\nAnd he, filled with fury and with the senate's prayers,\nseizes the prophets from the east by the public post.\nTo satisfy them, or rather the Jews,\nhe sacrifices these first, and so goes out against the churches.\nAt their martyrdom a tenth part of the city falls,\nand there perish seven thousand men in full.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 837 (CSEL 15:169lines 837–860–170; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/837)."},"commodian-carmen/861":{"o":"Illos autem Dominus quarto die tollit in auras,\nQuos illi uetuerant sepultura condi iacentes;\nSuscitanturque solo inmortales facti de morte,\nQuos inimici sui suspiciunt ire per auras.\nTerriti nec sic sunt, sed magis intra crudescunt\nAd populum Christi execrantes odio toto.\nIndurauit enim Altissimus corda nefanda,\nSicut Pharaoni prius indurauerat aures.\nHic ergo rex durus et iniquus, Nero fugatus,\nPelli iubet populum Christianum ipsa de urbe,\nParticipes autem duo sibi Caesares addit,\nCum quibus hunc populum persequatur diro furore.\nMittunt et edicta per iudices omnes ubique,\nVt genus hoc hominum faciant sine nomine Christi.\nPraecipiunt quoque simulacris tura ponenda\nEt, ne quis lateat, omnes coronati procedant.\nIn ista historia si fidelis ire negauit,\nFeliciter erit: sin uero, de turba fit unus.\nNulla dies pacis tunc erit nec oblatio Christo,\nSed cruor ubique manat, quem describere uincor;\nVincunt enim lacrimae, deficit manus, corda tremescunt,\nQuamquam sit martyribus aptam tot funera ferre;\nPer mare, per terras, per insulas atque latebras\nScrutanturque diu, exsecratos uictima(m) ducunt.","t":"But on the fourth day the Lord takes them up into the air,\nwhom those had forbidden to be buried where they lay;\nand they are raised from the ground, made immortal out of death,\nand their enemies look up at them going through the air.\nNot even so are they terrified, but rather grow crueler within\ntoward the people of Christ, cursing them with all their hatred.\nFor the Most High hardened their wicked hearts,\nas he had once hardened Pharaoh's ears.\nSo this harsh and wicked king, Nero the fugitive,\norders the Christian people driven from the city itself,\nand takes two Caesars to himself as partners,\nwith whom to persecute this people with dreadful fury.\nThey send edicts through all the judges everywhere,\nto make this race of men be without the name of Christ.\nThey command, too, that incense be set before the images,\nand, so that no one may hide, that all go out in garlands.\nIn this history, if a believer has refused to go,\nhappy will he be; but if not, he becomes one of the crowd.\nThere will be no day of peace then, nor offering to Christ,\nbut blood flows everywhere, which I am too overcome to describe;\nfor tears overcome me, my hand fails, hearts tremble,\nthough it is fitting for martyrs to bear so many deaths;\nover sea, over lands, through islands and hiding places\nthey search long, and lead off the accursed as victims.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 861 (CSEL 15:170lines 861–884–172; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/861)."},"commodian-carmen/885":{"o":"Haec Nero tunc faciet, triennii tempore toto\nEt anno dimidio statuta tempora conplet\nPro cuius facinore ueniet uindicta letalis,\nVt urbs et populus ille cum ipso tradatur,\nTollatur imperium, quod fuit inique repletum,\nQuod per tributa mala diu macerabat omnes.\nExurget iterum in istius clade Neronis\nRex ad oriente(m) cum quattuor gentibus inde,\nInuitatque sibi quam multas gentes ad urbem,\nQui ferant auxilium, licet sit fortissimus ipse,\nInplebitque mare nauibus cum milia multa,\nEt si quis occurrerit illi, mactabitur ense;\nCaptiuatque prius Tyrum et Sidona subactas,\nNam inde finitimae gentes terrore fatiscunt.\nHinc lues, hinc bella, hinc fames, hinc nuntia dura\nMiscenturque simul, quo fiat turbatio mentis.\nInterea fremitum dat tuba de caelo repente,\nCuius omni loco sonitus praecordia turbat.\nVidebitur et tunc ignea quadriga per astra\nEt facula currens, nuntiet ut gentibus ignem.\nSiccatur fluuius Euphrates denique totus,\nVt uia paretur regi cum gentibus illis.\nPersae, Medi, simul Chaldaei, Babyloni uenibunt,\nInmites et agiles, qui nesciant ulli dolere.","t":"These things Nero will then do for three whole years,\nand with half a year he completes the appointed times;\nfor his crime a deadly vengeance will come,\nso that the city and that people will be given up with him,\nand the empire taken away, which was filled with wickedness,\nwhich long wore everyone down with evil taxes.\nThen, at this Nero's downfall, there will arise\na king from the east with four nations from there,\nand he summons very many nations to himself against the city,\nto bring him help, though he himself is very strong,\nand he will fill the sea with ships, with many thousands,\nand whoever meets him will be slain with the sword;\nand first he takes Tyre and Sidon captive, subdued,\nfor at this the neighboring nations faint with terror.\nHere plague, here wars, here famine, here grim tidings\nare mingled together, so that minds are thrown into confusion.\nMeanwhile a trumpet suddenly sounds a blast from heaven,\nwhose sound in every place troubles the heart.\nThen a fiery four-horse chariot will be seen among the stars,\nand a running torch, to announce fire to the nations.\nThen the whole river Euphrates is dried up,\nso that a way may be prepared for the king with those nations.\nPersians, Medes, Chaldeans and Babylonians will come together,\nmerciless and swift, who know no pity for anyone.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 885 (CSEL 15:172lines 885–908–173; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/885)."},"commodian-carmen/909":{"o":"Hic ergo exoriens cum coeperit inde uenire,\nTurbaturque Nero et senatus proxime uisum.\nEt ibunt illi tres Caesares resistere contra:\nQuos ille mactatos uolucribus donat in escam.\nExercitus quorum necesse est uictorem adorent,\nCum quo redeuntes in urbe mente mutata\nSpoliant templa et, quidquid est intus in urbe,\nDiripiunt mactantque uiros ingenti cruore;\nNouissime nudam adigunt incendio facto,\nVt neque uestigium eius appareat ultra.\nCuius in exitio tabescunt corda potentium\nNec se adinueniunt, in quo sint tempore, bruti.\nHaec quidem gaudebat, sed tota terra gemebat;\nVix tamen aduenit illi retributio digna.\nLuget in aeternum, quae se iactabat aeterna,\nCuius et tyranni iam tunc iudicantur a Summo.\nStat tempus in finem fumante Roma maturum,\nEt merces adueniet meritis partita locorum.\nInde tamen pergit uictor in terra Iudaea,\nQuem ipsi Iudaei specta〈ra〉ut uincere Romam.\nMulta signa facit, ut illi credere possint,\nAd seducendos eos quoniam est missus iniquus;\nQuem tamen e caelo increpat uox reddita Summi.\nDe Persida homo inmortalem esse se dicit.","t":"So when this one, rising up, begins to come from there,\nNero and the senate are thrown into confusion at the sight close by.\nAnd those three Caesars will go out to resist him:\nhe slays them and gives them to the birds for food.\nTheir armies must needs worship the victor,\nand returning with him to the city with changed minds,\nthey plunder the temples, and whatever is within the city\nthey sack, and slaughter men with vast bloodshed;\nat last they strip it bare, setting it on fire,\nso that no trace of it appears any more.\nAt its destruction the hearts of the mighty melt,\nnor do they, brutish, grasp in what time they are.\nShe indeed rejoiced, but the whole earth groaned;\nyet at last a fitting retribution comes upon her.\nShe mourns forever, who boasted herself eternal,\nwhose tyrants are now judged by the Most High.\nThe time stands ripe for the end, with Rome smoking,\nand the reward will come, apportioned according to the merits of places.\nFrom there the victor goes on into the land of Judea,\nhe whom the Jews themselves had watched conquer Rome.\nHe does many signs, so that they may believe him,\nsince the wicked one is sent to lead them astray;\nyet a voice sent from heaven by the Most High rebukes him.\nThe man from Persia says that he is immortal.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 909 (CSEL 15:174lines 909–932–175; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/909)."},"commodian-carmen/933":{"o":"Nobis Nero factus Antichristus, ille Iudaeis;\nIsti duo semper prophetae sunt in ultima fine.\nVrbis perditio Nero est, hic terrae totius;\nDe quo pauca tamen suggero, quae legi secreta.\nDisplicet interea iam sero Iudaeis et ipsi,\nSusurrantque simul, quoniam sint fraude decepti.\nExclamant pariter ad caelum uoce deflentes,\nVt Deus illis subueniat uerus ab alto.\nTunc Deus omnipotens, terminet ut cuncta, quae dixi,\nProducet populum celatum tempore multe.\nSunt autem Iudaei, trans Persida flumine clausi,\nQuos usque in finem uoluit Deus ibi morari.\nCaptiuitas illos ibidem redegit ut essent;\nEx duodena tribu noue(m) semis ibi morantur.\nMendacium ibi non est, [sed] neque odium ullum;\nIdcirco nec moritur filius suus ante parentes;\nNec mortuos plangunt nec lugunt more de nostro,\nExpectant quoniam resurrectionem[que] futuram.\nNon animam ullam uescuntur additis escis,\nSed olera tantum, quod sit sine sanguine fuso.\nIustitia pleni inlibato corpore uiuunt,\nIn illis nec genesis exercet impia uires.\nNon febres accedunt in illis, non frigora saeua,\nObtemperant quoniam uniuersa candide legis;","t":"For us Nero became the Antichrist, that one for the Jews;\nthese two are always the prophets at the very end.\nNero is the destruction of the city, that one of the whole earth;\nof him I offer a few things, which I have read in hidden books.\nMeanwhile, too late, he displeases the Jews too,\nand they murmur together that they have been deceived by fraud.\nThey cry out together to heaven with weeping voices,\nthat the true God may help them from on high.\nThen God almighty, to bring to an end all that I have told,\nwill bring forth a people hidden for a long time.\nThey are Jews, shut in by a river beyond Persia,\nwhom God willed to remain there until the end.\nCaptivity brought them there to dwell;\nof the twelve tribes, nine and a half remain there.\nThere is no lying there, nor any hatred;\ntherefore no son dies before his parents;\nnor do they lament or mourn the dead in our fashion,\nsince they await the resurrection to come.\nThey eat no living thing as food,\nbut only vegetables, so that no blood is shed.\nFull of righteousness, they live with undefiled bodies,\nand fate exerts no impious power over them.\nNo fevers come upon them, no cruel chills,\nsince they obey all the precepts of the pure law;","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 933 (CSEL 15:175lines 933–956–177; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/933)."},"commodian-carmen/957":{"o":"Quae nos et ipsi sequemur pure uiuentes;\nMors tantum aderat et labor, nam cetera surda.\nHic ergo populus, qui nunc est extra repostus,\nSiccato fluuio repetet in terra Iudaea;\nCum ipsis et Deus ueniet implere promissa,\nQui per totum iter exultant Deo praesente.\nOmnia uirescunt ante illos, omnia gaudent,\nExcipere sanctos ipsa creatura laetatur:\nOmni loco fontes exurgunt esse parati,\nQua graditur populus Summi cum terrore caelesti.\nVmbraculum [illis] faciunt nubes, ne uexentur a sole,\nEt ne fatigentur, substernunt se montes et ipsi;\nPraemittetur enim ante illos angelus Alti,\nQui ducatum eis pacificum praestet eundo.\nHi sine labore leuiter gradiuntur euntes\nEt quasi leones, qua transeunt, omnia uastant.\nNeque gens ulla quidem poterit resistere contra,\nSi bellum intulerit, cum sit Deus ipse cum illis.\nExpugnant gentes, ciuitates quoque deponunt,\nPermissione Dei uiduant colonias omnes,\nAuro uel argento locupletanturque praedando\nEt sic honestati hymnos pariterque decantant.","t":"which we too shall follow, living purely;\nonly death was there, and toil, for all else was deaf to them.\nSo this people, which is now laid up outside,\nwhen the river is dried up will return to the land of Judea;\nwith them God too will come to fulfil his promises,\nand along the whole way they exult, with God present.\nAll things grow green before them, all things rejoice,\ncreation itself is glad to receive the saints:\nin every place springs rise up, ready for them,\nwhere the people of the Most High march with heavenly terror.\nClouds give them shade, so that they are not troubled by the sun,\nand, lest they grow weary, the mountains themselves lie down beneath them;\nfor an angel of the Most High will be sent before them,\nto give them peaceful leadership on the way.\nThey march lightly, without toil, as they go,\nand like lions lay waste everything where they pass.\nNor will any nation be able to resist them\nif it makes war, since God himself is with them.\nThey conquer nations, they bring cities down too,\nby God's leave they empty all the colonies,\nand they grow rich with gold and silver by plunder,\nand so together they sing hymns to his honor.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 957 (CSEL 15:177lines 957–978–178; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/957)."},"commodian-carmen/97":{"o":"Quos tamen distribuit minoris potentiae factos,\nVt regerent caelos et terram et subdita terrae.\nHunc ergo nec ipsi nuntii dinoscere possunt,\nQualis sit aut quantus, nisi quod praecepta sequuntur.\nEst honor absconsus nobis et angelis ipsis,\nQuod Dei maiestas, quid sit, sibi conscia sola est.\nRelucet inmensa super caelos et sine fine;\nAureum est totum, quod est quasi flammea uirtus.\nIllic Dei uas est, tantum sine cognita forma,\nIlla sunt secreta solo Deo nota caelorum.\nHaec gloria Dei est unica super angelos omnes,\nHoc Deus est lucis aeternae, hoc spiritus aeui.\nIn primitiua sua qualis sit, a nullo uidetur,\nDetransfiguratur, sicut uult ostendere sese.\nPraebet se uisibilem angelis iuxta formam eorum\nEt homini fit homo, ceterum Deus uerbo probatur.\nIdcirco nec poterit tanti Dei forma dinosci;\nQuidquid est, unum est, inmenso lumine solus;\nVbi facies, oculi aut os aut membra notantur,\nInde pugillo suo concludere circulum orbis.\nAt tamen cum uoluit sciri de se ipso qui esset,\nNumine de tanto fecit se uideri capacem.\nSunt quibus in ignem apparuit uoce locutus;\nSumptus est in carnem, quem regio nulla capebat.","t":"Yet them he set in their places, made of lesser power,\nto rule the heavens and the earth and what lies beneath the earth.\nHim, then, not even the messengers themselves can discern,\nwhat he is or how great, except that they follow his commands.\nThere is an honor hidden from us and from the angels themselves,\nsince what God's majesty is, it alone is conscious of.\nIt shines, immense, above the heavens and without end;\nit is all golden, being like a flaming power.\nThere is God's vessel, only without a form that can be known;\nthese are the secrets of the heavens, known to God alone.\nThis glory of God is unique, above all the angels;\nthis is the God of eternal light, this the spirit of the age.\nWhat he is in his original state is seen by no one;\nhe is transfigured, as he wishes to show himself.\nHe makes himself visible to angels according to their form,\nand to man he becomes man; but God is proved by his word.\nTherefore the form of so great a God cannot be discerned;\nwhatever he is, he is one, alone in immense light;\nwhere face, eyes, mouth, or limbs might be noted,\nthence he encloses the circle of the world in his fist.\nAnd yet, when he willed it to be known who he was,\nout of so great a godhead he made himself able to be seen.\nTo some he appeared in fire, speaking with a voice;\nhe whom no region could contain was taken up into flesh.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 97 (CSEL 15:122lines 97–120–123; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/97)."},"commodian-carmen/979":{"o":"Mox autem properant sanctae ciuitati paternae,\nExpauescet enim terribilis ille tyrannus,\nEt fugit ad reges Boreae cum concitu magno,\nVnde rapit populum, ut stet quasi contra (re)pugnans.\nCum properant autem exercitu Dei rebelles,\nSternunturque solo ab angelis proelio facto\n(Et prensus ad〉ulter, ipsius et pseudopropheta\nMittunt⟨ur in stagnum sub i)gnea p〈o〉ena uiuentes.\nQuorum qui pri〈m〉ores, praepositi siue legati,\nIn loco seruorum rediguntur sancti (s) iniqui.\nInterea sancti intrant in colonia sancta,\nQui Dei promissa capiant sine fine laetantes.\nExorant Deum pro mortuis uti resurgant,\nQuod ipse promisit olim de anastasi prima.\nIncipiet Deus iam tunc inimicis irasci,\nStatus (us)que dies quoniam aduenit iniquis.\nCum coeperit autem mundum iudicare per ignem,\nDeuitatque pios et cadet super impios ignis.\nVix remanent pauci, qui referant talia facta,\nEt qui reservantur, ut seruiant iustis, euadunt.\nPost persecutionem sanctorum et funera tanta\nImminet ut ueniat dies detestabilis, ardens.\nEcce canit caelo rauca, sed ubique resultans,\nQuae pauidat totum orbem in ruina cadentem.","t":"Soon they hasten to the holy city of their fathers,\nfor that terrible tyrant will take fright\nand flee to the kings of the North with a great stir,\nfrom where he gathers a people to stand, as it were, fighting against them.\nBut when the rebels hasten against the army of God,\nthey are laid low on the ground by the angels when battle is joined;\nand the adulterer is seized, and his false prophet,\nand they are cast alive into the lake, under fiery punishment.\nAnd their chief men, commanders or envoys,\nare reduced, wicked men, to the place of slaves of the saints.\nMeanwhile the saints enter the holy colony,\nto take hold of God's promises, rejoicing without end.\nThey pray to God for the dead, that they may rise,\nas he himself promised long ago concerning the first resurrection.\nThen God will begin to be angry with his enemies,\nsince the appointed day has come for the wicked.\nAnd when he begins to judge the world by fire,\nthe fire passes by the pious and falls upon the impious.\nScarcely a few remain to report such deeds,\nand those who are kept back escape, to serve the righteous.\nAfter the persecution of the saints and so many deaths,\nthe hateful, burning day is about to come.\nBehold, the hoarse trumpet sounds in heaven, but resounding everywhere,\nwhich terrifies the whole world as it falls in ruin.","f":"Commodian, <i>Carm. apol.</i> 979 (CSEL 15:178lines 979–1002–180; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/commodian-carmen/979)."}}