History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A. D. 100-325

2. The second work which was only brought to light in 1852, is an "Apologetic Poem against

Jews and Gentiles," and was written about 249. It exhorts them (like the first part of the "Instructions"

to repent without delay in view of the approaching end of the world. It is likewise written in uncouth

hexameters and discusses in 47 sections the doctrine of God, of man, and of the Redeemer (vers.

89–275); the meaning of the names of Son and Father in the economy of salvation (276–573); the

obstacles to the progress of Christianity(574–611); it warns Jews and Gentiles to forsake their

religion (612–783), and gives a description of the last things (784–1053).

The most interesting part of this second poem is the conclusion. It contains a fuller description

of Antichrist than the first poem. The author expects that the end of the world will soon come with

the seventh persecution; the Goths will conquer Rome and redeem the Christians; but then Nero

will appear as the heathen Antichrist, reconquer Rome, and rage against the Christians three years

and a-half; he will be conquered in turn by the Jewish and real Antichrist from the east, who after

the defeat of Nero and the burning of Rome will return to Judaea, perform false miracles, and be

worshipped by the Jews. At last Christ appears, that is God himself (from the Monarchian standpoint

of the author), with the lost Twelve Tribes as his army, which had lived beyond Persia in happy

simplicity and virtue; under astounding phenomena of nature he will conquer Antichrist and his

host, convert all nations and take possession of the holy city of Jerusalem. The concluding description

of the judgment is preserved only in broken fragments. The idea of a double Antichrist is derived

from the two beasts of the Apocalypse, and combines the Jewish conception of the Antimessiah,

and the heathen Nero-legend. But the remarkable feature is that the second Antichrist is represented

as a Jew and as defeating the heathen Nero, as he will be defeated by Christ. The same idea of a

double antichrist appears in Lactantius.

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572

§ 202. Arnobius.

(I.) Arnobii (oratoris) adversus Nationes (or Gentes) libri septem. Best ed. by Reifferscheid, Vindob.

1875. (vol. IV. of the "Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum," issued by the Academy

of Vienna.)

Other editions: by Faustus Sabaeus, Florence 1543 (ed. princeps); Bas. (Frobenius) 1546; Paris

1580, 1666, 1715; Antw. 1582; Rom. 1583; Genev. 1597; Lugd. Bat. 1598, 165l; by Orelli,

Lips. 1816; Hildebrand, Halle, 1844; Migne, "Patrol. Lat." v. 1844, col. 350 sqq. Fr. Oehler

(in Gersdorf’s "Bibl. Patr. Lat."), Lips. 1846. On the text see the Prolegg of Oehler and

Reifferscheid.

English Version by A. Hamilton Bryce and Hugh Campbell, in Clark’s "Ante-Nic. Libr." vol. XIX.

(Edinb. 1871). German transl. by Benard (1842), and Alleker (1858).

(II.) Hieronymus: De Vir. ill. 79; Chron. ad ann. 325 (xx. Constantini); Ep. 46, and 58, ad Paulinum.

"ostenduntur illis, et legunt gesta de coelo

memoria prisca debito et merita digno.

merces in perpetuo secundum facta tyranno.

omnia non possum comprehendere parvo libello.

curiositas docti inveniet nomenin isto.

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Inst. Div. VII. 16 sqq.

532

Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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(III) The learned Dissertatio praevia of the Benedictine Le Nourry in Migne’s ed. v. 365–714.

Neander: I. 687–689. Möhler (R.C.): Patrol. I. 906–916. Alzog (R.C.): Patrologie (3d ed), p.

205–210. 

Zink: Zur Kritik und Erklärung des Arnob.,

 Bamb. 1873. Ebert, 

Gesch. der christl. lat. Lit.

 I 61–70. Herzog

in Herzog2 I. 692 sq. Moule in Smith and Wace I. 167–169.

Arnobius, a successful teacher of rhetoric with many pupils (Lactantius being one of them),

was first an enemy, then an advocate of Christianity. He lived in Sicca, an important city on the

Numidian border to the Southwest of Carthage, in the latter part of the third and the beginning of

the fourth century . He was converted to Christ in adult age, like his more distinguished

fellow-Africans, Tertullian and Cyprian. "O blindness," he says, in describing the great change,

"only a short time ago I was worshipping images just taken from the forge, gods shaped upon the

anvil and by the hammer .... When I saw a stone made smooth and smeared with oil, I prayed to it

and addressed it as if a living power dwelt in it, and implored blessings from the senseless stock.

And I offered grievious insult even to the gods, whom I took to be such, in that I considered them

wood, stone, and bone, or fancied that they dwelt in the stuff of such things. Now that I have been

led by so great a teacher into the way of truth, I know what all that is, I think worthily of the Worthy,

offer no insult to the Godhead, and give every one his due .... Is Christ, then, not to be regarded as

God? And is He who in other respects may be deemed the very greatest, not to be honored with

divine worship, from whom we have received while alive so great gifts, and from whom, when the

day comes we expect greater gifts?"

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573

The contrast was very startling indeed, if we remember that Sicca bore the epithet "Veneria,"

as the seat of the vile worship of the goddess of lust in whose temple the maidens sacrificed their

chastity, like the Corinthian priestesses of Aphrodite. He is therefore especially severe in his

exposure of the sexual immoralities of the heathen gods, among whom Jupiter himself takes the

lead in all forms of vice.

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574

We know nothing of his subsequent life and death. Jerome, the only ancient writer who

mentions him, adds some doubtful particulars, namely that he was converted by visions or dreams,

that he was first refused admission to the Church by the bishop of Sicca, and hastily wrote his

apology in proof of his sincerity. But this book, though written soon after his conversion, is rather

the result of an inward impulse and strong conviction than outward occasion.

We have from him an Apology of Christianity in seven books of unequal length, addressed

to the Gentiles. It was written a.d. 303,

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575

 at the outbreak of the Diocletian persecution; for he

alludes to the tortures, the burning of the sacred Scriptures and the destruction of the meeting

houses, which were the prominent features of that persecution.

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576

 It is preserved in only one

manuscript (of the ninth or tenth century), which contains also the "Octavius" of Minucius

1572

Adv. Nat. 1, 39, ed. Reifferscheid, p. 26.

1573

In book V. 22 he details the crimes of Jupiter who robbed Ceres, Leda, Danae, Europa, Alcmena, Electra, Latona, Laodamia,

and "a thousand other virgins and a thousand matrons, and with them the boy Catamitus of their honor and chastity," and who

was made a collection of "all impurities of the stage."

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He says that Christianity had then existed three hundred years (I. 13), and that the city of Rome was one thousand and fifty

years old (II. 71). The last date leaves a choice between a.d. 296 or 303, according as we reckon by the Varronian or the Fabian

era.

1575

IV. 36; comp. I. 26; II. 77; III. 36, etc. Comp. Euseb. H. E. VIII. 2.

533

Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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