Translation
14
On how many miracles took place when the Jews received the order to rebuild
the Temple, and the signs which occurred in the region of Asia.
15
1
16 The letter, which was sent from the holy Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem,
concerning the Jews, when they wanted to rebuild the Temple, and (on how)
the land was shaken, and mighty prodigies took place, and fire consumed
great numbers of them, and many Christians (too) perished.
2 To
17 my beloved brethren, bishops, priests, and deacons of the Church of
Christ
18 in revery district : greetings, my brethren.
19 'The punishment of our
Lord
20 is sure, and His sentence (ὰποφασις) that He gave concerning the city
of the crucifiers is faithful, and with our own eyes we have received a fearful
sight
21 for
22 truly did the Apostle say that 'there is nothing greater than
the love of God'.
23 Now, while the earth was shaking
24 and the entire people
suffering
25, I have not neglected to write to you about everything that has
taken place here.
26
3 At the digging of the foundations of Jerusalem, 'which had been ruined
because of the killing of its Lord, the land shook considerably
27, and there were
great
28 tremors in the towns
29 round about.
4 Now even though the person bringing the letter is slow, nevertheless I
shall still write and inform you that we are all well, by the grace of God and the
aid of
30 prayer. Now I think that you are concerned for us, (and) our minds
were tearing us—not only our own, but all our brethren's as well, who are
with us, that I should tell you too about what happened amongst us.
31
5 We have not written to you at length, beyond the earthquake that took
place at God's (behest). For many Christians too living in these regions, as
well as the majority of the
32 Jews, perished at that scourge — and not just in
the earthquake, but also as a result of fire and in the heavy
33 rain they had.
6 At the outset, when they wanted to lay the foundations of the Temple
on the Sunday previous to the earthquake, there were 'strong winds and
storms
34, with the result that they were unable to lay the Temple's foundations
that day
35. It was on that very night that the great earthquake occurred, and
we were all
36 in the church of the Confessors, engaged in prayer. After this
we left to go to the Mount of Olives, which is situated to the east of Jerusalem,
where
37 our Lord was raised to His glorious
38 Father. We went out into the
middle of the city, reciting a psalm,
39 and we passed
40 the graves of the prophets
Isaiah and Jeremiah, and we besought the Lord of the prophets that, through
the prayers of His prophets and apostles, His truth might be seen by His
worshippers in the face of the audacity of the Jews
41 who had crucified Him
7 Now they
42 (sc. the Jews), wanting to imitate
43 us, were running to the
place where their synagogue usually gathered, and they found the synagogue
doors closed. They were greatly amazed at what had happened and stood
around in silence and fear when suddenly the synagogue doors opened of their
own accord, and out of the building there came forth fire, which licked up the
majority of them, and most of them collapsed and perished in front of the
building. The doors then closed of their own accord, while the whole city
looked on at what was happening, and the entire populace, Jew and Christian
alike, cried out with one voice, saying 'There is but one God, one Christ, who
is victorious' ; and the entire people rushed off and tore down the idols and
(pagan) altars that were in the city, glorifying and praising Christ, and confessing
that He is the Son of the Living God. And they drove out the demons
of the city, and the Jews, and the whole city received the sign of baptism,
Jews as well as many pagans, all together, so that we thought that there was
not a single person left in the city who had not received the sign (σημειον) or
mark (τνπος) of the living Cross in heaven. And it instilled great fear in all.
8 And the entire people thought that, after these signs which our Saviour
gave us in His Gospel, the fearful (second) coming of the day of resurrection
had arrived. With trembling of great joy we received something of the sign
(ημιεὶον) of Christ's crucifixion, and whosoever did not believe in his mind
found his clothes openly reprove him, having the mark of the cross stained
on them.
9 As for the statue (ἀνδριάς) of Herod which stood in Jerusalem, which the
Jews had thrown down in (an act of) supplication (?) (δέησις), the city ran and
set it up where it had been standing.
10 Thus we felt compelled to write to you the truth of these matters, that
everything that is written about Jerusalem should be established in truth, that
'no stone shall be left in it that will not be upturned'.
11 Now we should like to write down for you
the names of the towns which
were overthrown :
Beit Gubrin—more than half of it ;
part of
Baishan,
the whole of
Sebastia and its territory (
χωρα),
the whole of
Nikopolis and its territory (χωρα) ;
more than half
Lydda and its territory (χωρα) ;
about half of
Ashqelon,
the whole of
Antipatris and its territory (χωρα) ;
part of
Caesarea,
more than half
Samaria ;
part of NSL',
a third of
Paneas",
half of
Azotus,
part of
Gophna,
more than half
Petra (RQM) ;
Hada, a suburb of the city (Jerusalem)—more than half ;
Jerusalem more than half.
And fire came forth and consumed the teachers of the Jews.
Part of
Tiberias too, and its territory (χωρα),
more than half 'RDQLY' (
Areopolis or
Archelaisa),
the whole of
Sepphoris (SWPRYN) and its territory (χωρα),
'Aina d-Gader;
Haifa
(? ; TAP) flowed with blood for three days ;
the whole of
Japho (YWPY) perished,
(and) part of 'D'NWS.
12 This event took place on Monday at the third hour, and partly at the
ninth hour of the night. There was great loss of life here. (It was) on 19 Iyyar
of the year 674 of the kingdom of Alexander the Greek. This year the pagan
Julian died, and it was he who especially incited the Jews to rebuild the Temple,
since he favoured them because they had crucified Christ. Justice overtook
this rebel at his death in enemy territory, and in this the sign of the power of
the cross was revealed, because he had denied Him who had been hung upon
it for the salvation and life of all.
All this that has been briefly written to you took place in actual fact in
this way.
Footnotes
14 I translate B ; the main variants of A are given in the footnotes.
15 Letter of Cyril bishop of Jerusalem.
16 A omits § 1.
17 pr. Cyril bishop of Jerusalem.
18 our Lord.
19 in all regions.
20 With (in) our Lord punishment.
21 in our own sight it specifically received it ; greetings !
22 Just as, my brothers.
23 om. of God.
29 shook.
25 world suffered.
26 om. here.
27 the land suffered specifically.
28 om. great.
25 + and cities.
30 + your.
31 seeing that we too, because we (were) there, struggled for ourselves.
32 Not only were we not harmed by the earthquake that took place at God's (behest), but no Christian who was here (was harmed), but many.
33 om. heavy.
34 winds and strong storms.
35 the foundations as they had wanted ; for it was in their mind to lay the Temple's foundations the following day.
36 fled and took refuge in.
37 whence.
38 om. glorious.
39 psalms.
40 + between.
41 those (who).
42 the Jews.
43 The folio of A containing the rest of the letter is lost.
a Guidoboni et. al. (1994)
state that there are "palaeographic reasons to suggest that the
debated 'RDQLY in Cyril's letter may be a reference to Areopolis rather than Archelais".
Days of the Week in different calendars