Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ

by David Francis Bacon

——“Their backs they turned

On those proud towers, to swift destruction doomed.”

Nor were they alone; for as the Jewish historian, who was an eye-witness of the sad events of those times, records, “many of the respectable persons among the Jews, after the alarming attack of Cestius, left the city, like passengers from a sinking ship.” And this fruitless attack of the Romans, he considers to have been so arranged by a divine decree, to make the final ruin fall with the more certainty on the truly guilty.

[♦] “Gallas” replaced with “Gallus” for consistency

THE REFUGE IN PELLA.

A tradition, entitled to more than usual respect, from its serious and reasonable air, commemorates the circumstance that the Christians, on leaving Jerusalem, took refuge in the city of Pella, which stood on a small western branch of the Jordan, about sixty miles north-west from Jerusalem, among the mountains of Gilead. The locality on some accounts is a probable one, for it is distant from Jerusalem and beyond Judea, as the Savior directed them to flee; and being also on the mountains, answers very well to the other particulars of his warning. But there are some reasons which would make it an undesirable place of refuge, for a very long time, to those who fled from scenes of war and commotion, for the sake of enjoying peace and safety. That part of Galilee which formed the adjacent territory on the north of Pella, a few months after, became the scene of a devastating war. The city of Gamala, not above twenty miles off, was besieged by Vespasian, the general of the Roman invading army, (afterwards emperor,) and was taken after a most obstinate and bloody contest, the effect of which must have been felt throughout the country around, making it any thing but a comfortable place of refuge, to those who sought peace. The presence of hostile armies in the region near, must have been a source of great trouble and distress to the inhabitants of Pella, so that those who fled from Jerusalem to that place, would, in less than a year, find that they had made no very agreeable exchange. These bloody commotions however, did not begin immediately, and it was not till nearly one year after the flight of the Christians from Jerusalem, that the war was brought into the neighborhood of Pella; for Josephus fixes the retreat of Cestius Gallus on the twelfth of November, in the twelfth year of Nero’s reign, (A. D. 66,) and the taking of Gamala, on the twenty-third of October, in the following year, after one month’s siege. There was then a period of several months, during which this region was quiet, and would therefore afford a temporary refuge to the fugitives from Jerusalem; but for a permanent home they would feel obliged to look not merely beyond Judea, but out of Palestine. Being in Pella, so near the borders of Arabia, which often afforded a refuge to the oppressed in its desert-girdled homes, the greater portion would naturally move off in that direction, and many too, probably extend their journey eastward into Mesopotamia, settling at last in Babylon, already becoming a new dwelling-place for both Jews and Christians, among whom, as has been recorded in a former part of this work, the Apostle Peter had made his home, where he probably remained for the rest of his life, and also died there. Respecting the movements of the Apostle John in this general flight, nothing certain can be affirmed; but all probability would, without any other evidence, suggest that he followed the course of the majority of those who were under his pastoral charge; and as their way led eastward, he would be disposed to take that route also. And here the floating fragments of ancient tradition may be cited, for what they are worth, in defense of a view which is also justified by natural probabilities.

THE JOURNEY EASTWARD.

The earliest testimony on this point does not appear, however, until near the close of the fourth century; when it arises in the form of a vague notion, that John had once preached to the Parthians, and that his first epistle was particularly addressed to them. From a few such remnants of history as this, it has been considered extremely probable, by some, that John passed many years, or even a great part of his life, in the regions east of the Euphrates, within the bounds of the great Parthian empire, where a vast number of his refugee countrymen had settled after the destruction of Jerusalem, enjoying peace and prosperity, partly forgetting their national calamities, in building themselves up almost into a new people, beyond the bounds of the Roman empire. These would afford to him an extensive and congenial field of labor; they were his countrymen, speaking his own language, and to them he was allied by the sympathies of a common misfortune and a common refuge. Abundant proof has already been offered, to show that in this region was the home of Peter, during the same period; and probabilities are strongly in favor of the supposition, that the other apostles followed him thither, making Babylon the new apostolic capital of the eastern churches, as Jerusalem had been the old one. From that city, as a center, the apostles would naturally extend their occasional labors into the countries eastward, as far as their Jewish brethren had spread their refugee settlements; for beyond the Roman limits, Christianity seems to have made no progress whatever among the Gentiles, in the time of the apostles; and if there had been no other difficulties, the great difference of language and manners, and the savage condition of most of the races around them, would have led them to confine their labors wholly to those of their own nation, who inhabited the country watered by the Euphrates and its branches; or still farther east, to lands where the Jews seem to have spread themselves to the banks of the Indus, and perhaps within the modern boundaries of India. Some wild traditionary accounts, of no great authority, even offer reports, that the Apostle John preached in India; and some of the Jesuit missionaries have supposed that they had detected such traditions among the tribes of that region, among whom they labored. All that can be said of these accounts is, that they accord with a reasonable supposition, which is made probable by other circumstances; but traditions of such a standing cannot be said to prove anything.

Parthia.——The earliest trace of this story is in the writings of Augustin, (A. D. 398,) who quotes the first epistle of John as “the epistle to the Parthians,” from which it appears that this was a common name for that epistle, in the times of Augustin. Athanasius is also quoted by Bede, as calling it by the same name. If he wrote to the Parthians in that familiar way, it would seem probable that he had been among them, and many writers have therefore adopted this view. Among these, the learned Mill (Prolegomena in New Testament § 150) expresses his opinion very fully, that John passed the greater part of his life among the Parthians, and the believers near them. Lampe (Prolegomena to a Johannine Theology, Lib. I. cap. iii. § 12, note) allows the probability of such a visit, but strives to fix its date long before the destruction of Jerusalem; yet offers no good reason for such a notion.

India.——The story of the Jesuit missionaries is given by Baronius, (Annals 44. § 30.) The story is, that letters from some of these missionaries, in 1555, give an account of their finding such a tradition, among an East Indian nation, called the Bassoras, who told them that the apostle John once preached the gospel in that region. No further particulars are given; but this is enough to enable us to judge of the value of a story, dating fifteen centuries from the event which it commemorates.