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The City of God

Chapter 23.--Of the Erythraean Sibyl, Who is Known to Have Sung Many Things About Christ More Plainly Than the Other Sibyls. ¹

Some say the Erythraean sibyl prophesied at this time. Now Varro declares there were many sibyls, and not merely one. This sibyl of Erythrae certainly wrote some things concerning Christ which are quite manifest, and we first read them in the Latin tongue in verses of bad Latin, and unrhythmical, through the unskillfulness, as we afterwards learned, of some interpreter unknown to me. For Flaccianus, a very famous man, who was also a proconsul, a man of most ready eloquence and much learning, when we were speaking about Christ, produced a Greek manuscript, saying that it was the prophecies of the Erythraean sibyl, in which he pointed out a certain passage which had the initial letters of the lines so arranged that these words could be read in them: 'Iesous Christos Theou uios soter, which means, "Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour." And these verses, of which the initial letters yield that meaning, contain what follows as translated by some one into Latin in good rhythm:

I Judgment shall moisten the earth with the sweat of its standard,

E Ever enduring, behold the King shall come through the ages,

S Sent to be here in the flesh, and Judge at the last of the world.

O O God, the believing and faithless alike shall behold Thee

U Uplifted with saints, when at last the ages are ended.

S Seated before Him are souls in the flesh for His judgment.

Ch Hid in thick vapors, the while desolate lieth the earth.

R Rejected by men are the idols and long hidden treasures;

E Earth is consumed by the fire, and it searcheth the ocean and heaven;

I Issuing forth, it destroyeth the terrible portals of hell.

S Saints in their body and soul freedom and light shall inherit;

T Those who are guilty shall burn in fire and brimstone for ever.

O Occult actions revealing, each one shall publish his secrets;

S Secrets of every man's heart God shall reveal in the light.

Th Then shall be weeping and wailing, yea, and gnashing of teeth;

E Eclipsed is the sun, and silenced the stars in their chorus.

O Over and gone is the splendor of moonlight, melted the heaven,

U Uplifted by Him are the valleys, and cast down the mountains.

U Utterly gone among men are distinctions of lofty and lowly.

I Into the plains rush the hills, the skies and oceans are mingled.

O Oh, what an end of all things! earth broken in pieces shall perish;

S . . . . Swelling together at once shall the waters and flames flow in rivers.

S Sounding the archangel's trumpet shall peal down from heaven,

O Over the wicked who groan in their guilt and their manifold sorrows.

T Trembling, the earth shall be opened, revealing chaos and hell.

E Every king before God shall stand in that day to be judged.

R Rivers of fire and brimstone shall fall from the heavens.

In these Latin verses the meaning of the Greek is correctly given, although not in the exact order of the lines as connected with the initial letters; for in three of them, the fifth, eighteenth, and nineteenth, where the Greek letter U occurs, Latin words could not be found beginning with the corresponding letter, and yielding a suitable meaning. So that, if we note down together the initial letters of all the lines in our Latin translation except those three in which we retain the letter U in the proper place, they will express in five Greek words this meaning, "Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour." And the verses are twenty-seven, which is the cube of three. For three times three are nine; and nine itself, if tripled, so as to rise from the superficial square to the cube, comes to twenty-seven. But if you join the initial letters of these five Greek words, 'Iesous Christos Theou uios soter, which mean, "Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour," they will make the word ichdus, that is, "fish," in which word Christ is mystically understood, because He was able to live, that is, to exist, without sin in the abyss of this mortality as in the depth of waters. ²

But this sibyl, whether she is the Erythraean, or, as some rather believe, the Cumaean, in her whole poem, of which this is a very small portion, not only has nothing that can relate to the worship of the false or feigned gods, but rather speaks against them and their worshippers in such a way that we might even think she ought to be reckoned among those who belong to the city of God. Lactantius also inserted in his work the prophecies about Christ of a certain sibyl, he does not say which. But I have thought fit to combine in a single extract, which may seem long, what he has set down in many short quotations. She says, "Afterward He shall come into the injurious hands of the unbelieving, and they will give God buffets with profane hands, and with impure mouth will spit out envenomed spittle; but He will with simplicity yield His holy back to stripes. And He will hold His peace when struck with the fist, that no one may find out what word, or whence, He comes to speak to hell; and He shall be crowned with a crown of thorns. And they gave Him gall for meat, and vinegar for His thirst: they will spread this table of inhospitality. For thou thyself, being foolish, hast not understood thy God, deluding the minds of mortals, but hast both crowned Him with thorns and mingled for Him bitter gall. But the veil of the temple shall be rent; and at midday it shall be darker than night for three hours. And He shall die the death, taking sleep for three days; and then returning from hell, He first shall come to the light, the beginning of the resurrection being shown to the recalled." Lactantius made use of these sibylline testimonies, introducing them bit by bit in the course of his discussion as the things he intended to prove seemed to require, and we have set them down in one connected series, uninterrupted by comment, only taking care to mark them by capitals, if only the transcribers do not neglect to preserve them hereafter. Some writers, indeed, say that the Erythraean sibyl was not in the time of Romulus, but of the Trojan war.

33, pp. 700 sqq., Engl. transl. (Hist. of the Jews in the times of Jesus. Edinburgh and New York, 1886), vol. iii. 271 sqq.--P.S.]

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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXIII: De Sibylla Erythraea, quae inter alias Sibyllas cognoscitur de Christo euidentia multa cecinisse.

Eodem tempore nonnulli Sibyllam Erythraeam uaticinatam ferunt. Sibyllas autem Varro prodit plures fuisse, non unam. haec sane Erythraea Sibylla quaedam de Christo manifesta conscripsit; quod etiam nos prius in Latina lingua uersibus male Latinis et non stantibus legimus per nescio cuius interpretis inperitiam, sicut post cognouimus. nam uir clarissimus Flaccianus, qui etiam proconsul fuit, homo facillimae facundiae multaeque doctrinae, cum de Christo conloqueremur, Graecum nobis codicem protulit, carmina esse dicens Sibyllae Erythraeae, ubi ostendit quodam loco in capitibus uersuum ordinem litterarum ita se habentem, ut haec in eo uerba legerentur: Ἰησοῦς Χρειστὸς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς σωτήρ, quod est Latine, Iesus Christus dei filius saluator. hi autem uersus, quorum primae litterae istum sensum, quem diximus, reddunt, sicut eos quidam Latinis et stantibus uersibus est interpretatus, hoc continent:

Iudicii signum tellus sudore madescet.

E caelo rex adveniet per saecla futurus,

Scilicet ut carnem praesens, ut iudicet orbem.

Unde Deum cernent incredulus atque fidelis

Celsum cum sanctis aevi iam termino in ipso.

Sic animae cum carne aderunt, quas iudicat ipse,

Cum iacet incultus densis in vepribus orbis.

Reicient simulacra viri, cunctam quoque gazam,

Exuret terras ignis pontumque polumque

Inquirens, taetri portas effringet Averni.

Sanctorum sed enim cunctae lux libera carni

Tradetur, sontes aeterna flamma cremabit.

Occultos actus retegens tunc quisque loquetur

Secreta, atque Deus reserabit pectora luci.

Tunc erit et luctus, stridebunt dentibus omnes.

Eripitur solis iubar et chorus interit astris.

Voluetur caelum, lunaris splendor obibit;

Deiciet colles, valles extollet ab imo.

Non erit in rebus hominum sublime vel altum.

Iam aequantur campis montes et caerula ponti

Omnia cessabunt, tellus confracta peribit:

Sic pariter fontes torrentur fluminaque igni.

Sed tuba tum sonitum tristem demittet ab alto

Orbe, gemens facinus miserum variosque labores,

Tartareumque chaos monstrabit terra dehiscens.

Et coram hic Domino reges sistentur ad unum.

Reccidet e caelo ignisque et sulphuris amnis.

in his Latinis uersibus de Graeco utcumque translatis ibi non potuit ille sensus occurrere, qui fit, cum litterae, quae sunt in eorum capitibus, conectuntur, ubi Y littera in Graeco posita est, quia non potuerunt Latina uerba inueniri, quae ab eadem littera inciperent et sententiae conuenirent. hi autem sunt uersus tres, quintus et octauus decimus et nonus decimus. denique si litteras quae sunt in capitibus omnium uersuum conectentes horum trium quae scriptae sunt non legamus, sed pro eis Y litteram, tamquam in eisdem locis ipsa sit posita, recordemur, exprimitur in quinque uerbis: Iesus Christus dei filius saluator; sed cum Graece hoc dicitur, non Latine. et sunt uersus uiginti et septem, qui numerus quadratum ternarium solidum reddit. tria enim ter ducta fiunt nouem; et ipsa nouem si ter ducantur, ut ex lato in altum figura consurgat, ad uiginti septem perueniunt. horum autem Graecorum quinque uerborum, quae sunt Ἰησοῦς Χρειστὸς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς σωτήρ, quod est Latine Iesus Christus dei filius saluator, si primas litteras iungas, erit ἰχθύς, id est piscis, in quo nomine mystice intellegitur Christus, eo quod in huius mortalitatis abysso uelut in aquarum profunditate uiuus, hoc est sine peccato, esse potuerit. haec autem Sibylla siue Erythraea siue, ut quidam magis credunt, Cumaea ita nihil habet in toto carmine suo, cuius exigua ista particula est, quod ad deorum falsorum siue factorum cultum pertineat, quin immo ita etiam contra eos et contra cultores eorum loquitur, ut in eorum numero deputanda uideatur, qui pertinent ad ciuitatem dei. inserit etiam Lactantius operi suo quaedam de Christo uaticinia Sibyllae, quamuis non exprimat cuius. sed quae ipse singillatim posuit, ego arbitratus sum coniuncta esse ponenda, tamquam unum sit prolixum, quae ille plura commemorauit et breuia. in manus iniquas, inquit, infidelium postea ueniet; dabunt autem deo alapas manibus incestis et inpurato ore exspuent uenenatos sputus; dabit uero ad uerbera simpliciter sanctum dorsum. et colaphos accipiens tacebit, ne quis agnoscat, quod uerbum uel unde uenit, ut inferis loquatur et corona spinea coronetur. ad cibum autem fel et ad sitim acetum dederunt; inhospitalitatis hanc monstrabunt mensam. ipsa enim insipiens tuum deum non intellexisti, ludentem mortalium mentibus, sed spinis coronasti et horridum fel miscuisti. templi uero uelum scindetur; et medio die nox erit tenebrosa nimis in tribus horis. et morte morietur tribus diebus somno suscepto; et tunc ab inferis regressus ad lucem ueniet primus resurrectionis principio reuocatis ostenso. ista Lactantius carptim per interualla disputationis suae, sicut ea poscere uidebantur, quae probare intenderat, adhibuit testimonia Sibyllina, quae nos nihil interponentes, sed in unam seriem conexa ponentes solis capitibus, si tamen scriptores deinceps ea seruare non neglegant, distinguenda curauimus. nonnulli sane Erythraeam Sibyllam non Romuli, sed belli Troiani tempore fuisse scripserunt.