Book of Biblical Antiquities (Pseudo-Philo)

JEROME IN THE CATALOGUE OF

ECCLESIASTICAL

WRITERS.

† Perhaps it should be read as "Essenes"

A woodcut initial letter 'P' depicts two figures, a man and a woman in classical or biblical attire, within a garden setting.

Philo the Jew, an Alexandrian by birth, of the priestly lineage, is placed by us among the ecclesiastical writers because, in writing the book about the first Evangelist Mark at Alexandria, he occupies himself with the praise of our people. He records that they were not only there, but also in many other provinces, and he calls their dwellings "monasteries." From this, it appears that the first church of those who believed in Christ was such as the monks now strive and desire to be, so that nothing of anyone is their own, there is no rich man among them, no poor man, inheritances are divided for the needy, and time is devoted to prayer, psalms, doctrine, and continence, such as LUKE also reports the first believers in Jerusalem to have been. They say that he was in danger at Rome under Gaius Caligula, because he had been sent as an ambassador of his people, and when he had come for the second time to CLAUDIUS, he spoke in the same city with the apostle PETER, and enjoyed his friendship. On account of this, he praised the church of Mark, a disciple of Peter, at Alexandria. His illustrious and innumerable works are extant: On the five books of Moses, one book On the Confusion of Tongues, one book On those things we pray for and witness in the senses, one book On Erudition, one book On the Heir of Divine Things, one book On the Division of Equals and Contraries, one book On the Three Virtues. One book On why the names of some things in the scriptures have been changed. Two books On Covenants. One book On the Life of the Wise Man. One book On the Giants. Five books On the sending of dreams by God. Five books of Questions and Solutions in Exodus. Four books On the Tabernacle and the Decalogue. Also On Victims and Promises, or Curses. On Providence, On the † Jews, On the Conduct of Life. On Alexander, arguing that irrational animals possess their own reason. And that every fool is a slave. And the book on the life of our people, which we spoke of above, that is, on the Apostolic men, which he also inscribed as peri biou theoretikou e iketon on the contemplative life or on the suppliants. This is to say that they contemplate celestial things and always pray to God. And under other headings: Two books On Agriculture. Two on Drunkenness. There are also other monuments of his genius which have not come into our hands.