Pamphilus.
————————————
Translator’s Biographical
Notice.
[
a.d.
309.]
According to the common account Pamphilus was a native of Berytus, the
modern Beirût, and a member of a distinguished Phœnician
family. Leaving Berytus, however, at an early period, he repaired
to Alexandria and studied under Pierius, the well-known head of the
Catechetical school there. At a subsequent period he went to the
Palestinian Cæsareia, and was made a presbyter of the Church there
under Bishop Agapius. In course of the persecutions of Diocletian
he was thrown into prison by Urbanus, the governor of Palestine.
This took place towards the end of the year 307
a.d.
, and his confinement lasted till the beginning of the
year 309, when he suffered martyrdom by order of Firmilianus, who had
succeeded Urbanus in the governorship of the country. During his
imprisonment he enjoyed the affectionate attendance of Eusebius, the
Church historian, and the tender friendship which subsisted long
between the two is well known. It was as a memorial of that
intimacy that Eusebius took the surname of Pamphili. Pamphilus
appears to have given himself up with great enthusiasm to the promotion
of Biblical studies, and is spoken of as the founder of a theological
school in which special importance was attached to exposition. He
busied himself also with the transcription and dissemination of the
Scriptures and other writings, such as those of Origen, of whom he was
a devoted follower. At Cæsareia he established a great
public library,
1344
consisting
mainly of ecclesiastical writers; and among the treasures of that
library are mentioned the
Tetrapla
and
Hexapla
of Origen,
from which, with the help of Eusebius, he produced a new and revised
edition of the Septuagint. There is a statement in
Jerome
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to the effect
that, though he was so great a student of the writings of others,
Pamphilus, through an excess of modesty, wrote no work of his own, with
exception of some letters to his friends.
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But there is a work bearing the
title of
An Exposition of the Chapters of the Acts of the
Apostles
, which is attributed by many to him, although others
ascribe it to Euthalius, bishop of Sulce. And besides this there
is also the
Apology for Origen
, of which, according to the
statement of Photius,
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the first five books were compiled by
Pamphilus, in conjunction with Eusebius, during the period of his
imprisonment, the sixth book being added by Eusebius after his
friend’s martyrdom. Of this
Apology
we possess now
only the first book, and that, too, only in the faulty Latin version of
Rufinus. There are repeated and warmly eulogistic references to
Pamphilus in the
Ecclesiastical History
of Eusebius. Thus
he speaks of him as
that holy martyr of our day
;
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and as
that most eloquent man, and that philosopher truly such in his
life
;
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and again, as
that most admirable man of our times, that glory of the church of
Cæsareia
.
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He devotes the eleventh chapter of
the eighth book also to a notice of Pamphilus and other martyrs.
And besides all this he wrote a separate life of his friend, in three
books, of which, however, all has perished, with exception of a few
disputed fragments.
1351
1344
[Another glorious product of the school of Alexandria.]
1345
Απολ.
χοντρ.
Ρυφ
.,
βοοκ ι. νυμ. 9,
Ωορκσ, ιι. π. 465.
1346
Proprii operis nihil omnino scripsit, exceptis epistolis quas ad
amicos forte mittebat; in tantum se humiltate dejecerat.
1347
Bibl. Cod
., cxviii. p. 295.
1348
Ibid
., vi. 32.
1349
Ibid
., vii. 32.
1350
Ibid
., viii. 13.
1351
[Evidently he impressed Eusebius as an extraordinary man in an age of
colossal minds, and we must lament the loss of his writings.]