Saint Hegesippus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | c. 110 AD |
| Died | c. 180 AD Jerusalem,Syria Palaestina |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church |
| Feast | 7 April |
Hegesippus (Ancient Greek:Ἡγήσιππος; c. 110 – c. 180 AD[1]), also known asHegesippus the Nazarene,[2] was aChristian writer of the early Church who, in spite of his Greek name, may have been a Jewish convert[3] and certainly wrote against heresies of theGnostics and ofMarcion.
The dates that Hegesippus flourished are insecurely fixed by the statement ofEusebius that the death and apotheosis ofAntinous (130) occurred in Hegesippus' lifetime,[4] and that he came to Rome underPope Anicetus (Bishop of Rome c. 157–168) and wrote in the time ofPope Eleuterus (pontificate c. 174–189).
Eusebius says that Hegesippus was a convert from Judaism, learned in theSemitic languages and conversant with the oral tradition and customs of the Jews, for he quoted from theHebrew, was acquainted with theGospel of the Hebrews[5] and with a Syriac Gospel, and he also cited unwritten traditions of theJews. Eusebius' own shaky command of Hebrew and Aramaic,[6] and his lack of personal knowledge of customs of the Jews, were insufficiently founded to judge Hegesippus as a dependable source.[7] He seems to have lived in some part of the East, for, in the time ofPope Anicetus (A.D. 155–166) he travelled throughCorinth to reachRome, collecting on the spot the teachings of the various churches which he visited, and ascertaining their uniformity with Rome, according to this excerpt:
Hegesippus' works are now entirely lost, save eight passages concerning Church history quoted by Eusebius,[9] who tells us that he wroteHypomnemata (Ὑπομνήματα; "Memoirs" or "Memoranda"[10]) in five books, in the simplest style concerning the tradition of the Apostolic preaching. Through Eusebius, Hegesippus was also known toJerome,[11] who is responsible for the idea that Hegesippus "wrote a history of all ecclesiastical events from the passion of our Lord down to his own period... in five volumes", which has established theHypomnemata as a Church history.[12] Hegesippus appealed principally to tradition as embodied in the teaching which had been handed down through the succession of bishops, thus providing for Eusebius information about the earliest bishops that otherwise would have been lost.
J.B. Lightfoot, inClement of Rome (London, 1890), found traces of a list of popes inEpiphanius of Cyprus, (Haer., xxvii, 6) that may also derive from Hegesippus, where that fourth-century writer carelessly says: "Marcellina came to us lately and destroyed many, in the days of Anicetus, Bishop of Rome", and then refers to "the above catalogue", though he has given none. He is clearly quoting a writer who was at Rome in the time of Anicetus and made a list of popes[13] A list which has some curious agreements with Epiphanius in that it extends only to Anicetus, is found in the poem ofPseudo-Tertullian againstMarcion; apparently Epiphanius has mistaken Marcion for "Marcellina". The same list is at the base of the earlier part of theLiberian Catalogue, doubtless taken fromHippolytus. Correspondences among the lists ofIrenaeus,Africanus, and Eusebius cannot be assumed to have come from the lost list of Hegesippus, as only Eusebius mentions his name.
Eusebius quotes from Hegesippus fifth and last book[14] a long account of the death ofJames the Just, "the brother of the Lord", who was given the obscure Greek epithetOblias, which is supposed to be a Greek transliteration of a Semitic word.[15] Dr. Robert Eisenman connects "Oblias" with "Protector of the people", as were other 'Zaddikim'.[16] He also transcribes from Hegesippus the story of the election of his successorSimeon, and the summoning of the descendants ofJude the Apostle to Rome by the EmperorDomitian.[17] A list of heresies against which Hegesippus wrote is also cited. Dr. Lawlor has argued that all these passages cited by Eusebius were connected in the original, and were in the fifth book of Hegesippus.[18] He has also argued the likelihood that Eusebius got from Hegesippus the statement thatJohn the Evangelist was exiled toPatmos by Domitian.[19] Hegesippus mentioned the letter ofPope Clement I to the Corinthians, apparently in connection with the persecution of Domitian. It is very likely that the dating of heretics according to papal reigns in Irenaeus and Epiphanius—e.g., thatMarcion's disciple Cerdon andValentinus came to Rome under Anicetus—was derived from Hegesippus, and the same may be true of the assertion that Hermas, author ofThe Shepherd of Hermas, was the brother ofPope Pius I (as theLiberian Catalogue, the poem against Marcion, and theMuratorian fragment all state).
Theodor Zahn[20] has shown that the work of Hegesippus may still have been extant in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in three Eastern libraries, saying: "We must lament the loss of other portions of theMemoirs which were known to exist in the seventeenth century."[21]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Henry Palmer Chapman (1913). "St. Hegesippus". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
