on the prophecy of Balaam, Num. xxiv. 17; on that of Moses, Deut. xviii. 15–18; and on that of Emmanuel, Is. vii. 14; and tries to shew that they have no reference outside Judaism itself, though the last is evidently a difficulty to him (pp. 253, 261, 262).
(3) The Worship of Jesus as God and the Adoration of the Martyrs are the great objects of Julian's attacks. His argument is partly concerned with the prophecies just quoted, partly with the N.T. itself. He asserts that Moses never speaks of "the first-born Son of God," while he does speak of "the sons of God," i.e. the angels, who have charge of different nations (Gen. vi. 2). But Moses says expressly, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve" (Cyr. ix. p. 290). Even if the prophecy of Emmanuel in Is. refers to Jesus, it gives you no right to call His mother θεοτόκος. How could she bear God, being a human creature like ourselves? And how is her son the Saviour when God says, "I am, and there is no Saviour beside Me?" (viii. p. 276).
"John began this evil. You have gone on and added the worship of other dead men to that of the first dead man. You have filled all things with tombs and sepulchres; though Jesus speaks of 'whited sepulchres full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness'" (p. 335). "Why, then, do you bow before tombs? The Jews did it, according to Isaiah, to obtain visions in dreams, and four apostles also probably did so after their master's death" (p. 339). (The reference is to Is. lxv. 4, "which remain among the graves and lodge among the monuments": the words δἰ ἐνύπνια are added in the Greek version.) In his letter to the Alexandrians he puts with equal force the folly of adoring a man, and not adoring the sun and the moon, especially the former, the great sun, the living, animated, intelligent, and beneficent image of the intelligible or spiritual Father (Ep. 51. p. 434). It is strange to find this slighting disregard for men as objects of worship in one who assumed that he was a champion of pure Hellenism, especially in an emperor who succeeded a long line of deified emperors. A great deal of his dislike to what he considered the Christian doctrine arose, doubtless, from aristocratic pride. He looked down upon Christ as a Galilean peasant, a subject of Augustus Caesar (Cyr. vi. p. 213). "It is hardly three hundred years since He began to be talked about. During all His life He did nothing worth recording, unless any one reckons it among very great acts to have cured halt and blind people, and to exorcize demoniacs in the villages of Bethsaida and Bethany" (vi. p. 191). He looked upon Christians as parvenus who had assumed a position of power for which they were not fitted, and exercised it wantonly in destroying temples and prosecuting their own heretics, etc. "Jesus and Paul never taught you this. They never expected that Christians would fill so important a place, and were satisfied with converting a few, maidservants and slaves, and by their means to get hold of their mistresses, and men like Cornelius and Sergius. If under the reigns of Tiberius and Claudius they have succeeded in convincing a single distinguished person, you may hold me for a liar in every thing" (vi. p. 206).
It is remarkable that Julian shews practically no appreciation of the need of redemption or of the contrast between Christian and heathen life. This we must ascribe in great measure to the misfortune of his early training, to the Arianism of his teachers, and the unloveliness and unlovingness of his early surroundings. Some allowance must also be made for the corruption and extravagance of some forms of popular religion, and for the rash and violent acts of fanaticism committed by many Christians. The superstitious cultus of martyrs, for instance, was no doubt disavowed by the highest minds of the 4th cent., such as St. Athanasius and St. Augustine. But in the masses newly converted from paganism it formed a natural centre for much of the old superstition and fanaticism (Athan. Or. cont. Arian. ii. 32; August. de Vera Relig. 55; and esp. cont. Faustum, xx. 21).
But besides all this there was in the family of Constantine generally a hardness and self-assertion, though accompanied with strong religious pressure, which made them inaccessible to Christian feeling on the subject of sin. The members of it believed strongly in their providential vocation to take a great part in religious questions, but were very rarely troubled by scruples as to their personal unworthiness. Julian's own character, as we have seen, was specially inconsistent, but its ruling element was self-confidence, which he disguised to himself as a reliance upon divine direction. In conclusion, we may draw attention to some of Julian's admissions. He accepts the account of the Gospel miracles. He rejects the Gnostic interpretation of St. John, which separated the Word of God from the Christ. He witnesses to the common use of the term θεοτόκος long before the Nestorian troubles. His remarks about martyr-worship and the adoration of the cross have some importance as facts in the history of Christian worship.
On the Coins of Julian see D. C. B. (4 vol. ed.) s.v. We conclude that from policy Julian did not make any general issue of coins with heathen inscriptions or strongly marked heathen symbols which would have shocked his Christian subjects. The statements of Socrates and Sozomen are in perfect harmony with this conclusion.
[J.W.]
Julianus (105) Sabas, Oct. 18, an anchorite, whose history Theodoret tells. Sabas or Sabbas, says Theodoret, was a title of veneration, meaning an elder, corresponding with "abbas" or father, commonly applied to anchorites in the East. His cave was in Osrhoëne; he practised extraordinary asceticism and endured extremes of heat and fatigue. In 372, on the expulsion of Meletius, bp. of Antioch, the triumphant Arian party gave out that Julian had embraced their views; whereupon Acacius (subsequently bp. of Berrhoea), accompanied by Asterius, went to Julian and induced him to visit Antioch, where his presence exposed the slander and encouraged the Catholics. He returned to his cave and there died. Theod. H. E. iii. 19, iv. 24; Hist. Religios. No. ii.; Menol. Grace. Sirlet.; Ceillier, viii. 238; Wright, Cat. Syr. MSS. ii. 700, iii. 1084, 1090.
[C.H.]
