Supplementa minora ad quaestiones ad Marinum

1. Eusebius in his work To Marinus speaks as follows: "For the Church of Christ legislates two lives and ways: one supernatural and beyond the common human polity, admitting neither marriage, nor procreation, nor possession of property, but entirely and wholly different from the common and customary upbringing of worldly men, and devoted solely to the service of God, through an excess of heavenly love. For those who pursue this way, seeming to have died, carry about the mortal life and the body itself alone on earth, while having transferred their mind in spirit to the heavens, like some heavenly beings, they look down upon the life of men, consecrated for the whole race to the God over all; not with sacrifices of oxen and blood, nor with libations and burnt offerings, but with right doctrines of true piety and with a purified disposition of soul, and furthermore with deeds and words according to virtue; by these they propitiate the Divine, and perform the sacred rite on behalf of themselves and their kindred. And the perfect and first way of the polity according to Christianity is established as such. The second and inferior way, more human, and utterly incomparable to the first, which condescends to chaste marriages and procreations, and to the management of household affairs according to justice, and to military service, and to undertaking practical matters, and to the care of fields and commerce, and of the other more civic upbringing, together with piety.

For them times of ascetic practices and days of discipleship and hearing divine oracles were set apart, and a second rank of piety was assigned, providing benefit appropriate to such a life. 2. This prophetic saying is from Malachi, not Isaiah; it is therefore a scribal error, as Eusebius of Caesarea says in his To Marinus concerning the apparent discrepancy in the Gospels about the resurrection. 3. For there was no one worthy in the city of the Jews, as Eusebius says in chapter 13 of To Marinus, to carry the trophy against the devil, the cross; but a man from the country, who had no part in the bloodguilt against Christ. 4. Eusebius of Caesarea, surnamed son of Pamphilus, in his Inquiries and Resolutions to Marinus on the saving passion and resurrection, also set this forth for examination: that the divine evangelist Mark says the hour was the third when Christ our God and Savior was crucified, while the most theological John writes that at the sixth hour Pilate sat on the tribunal in the place called the Pavement and examined Jesus; and he says this is a scribal error, overlooked by those who originally copied the Gospels: for the letter gamma signifies the third hour, and the episemon the sixth, and these characters have great resemblance to each other; by mistake the letter gamma, indicative of the third hour, with the straight line extended in length being curved, changed into the signification of the episemon, which indicates the sixth hour.

For the three evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, agree in saying that from the sixth hour darkness came over the whole earth until the ninth hour, it is evident that the Lord and God Jesus was crucified before the sixth hour, before the darkness occurred, that is, at the third hour, as Mark recorded; and John similarly indicated the third hour, and those who transcribed changed the gamma into the sign. 5. He appeared first to Mary Magdalene; Eusebius in his To Marinus says this Mary is different from the one who saw the young man; or both were from Magdala. 6. Eusebius of Caesarea says that Mary Magdalene and Mary the wife of James prepared spices; but they are not the ones who came early at sunrise, but other unnamed women; for many women had accompanied the Savior from Galilee; hence they do not arrive at night, but early and, having heard, they fled to report to the disciples and to Peter, and told nothing to anyone; for they were afraid; for after sunrise, when they arrived, they were not deemed worthy to see the Savior; nor was it possible for Mary Magdalene, after so many visions, at sunrise, to be at a loss and not know who would roll away the stone. 7. From Eusebius, To Marinus. We find three Marys in all at the passion of Christ, along with the other women: first the Theotokos, second her sister Mary the wife of Cleopas, and third Mary Magdalene; some say that two of them are from Magdala.

one, the woman who came late on the Sabbath in Matthew, and another, the one who came in the early morning to the tomb in John, and this latter is the one also indicated by Mark, from whom he had cast out seven demons; for, as if there were also another Magdalene, not of this sort, Mark preserved this by saying: "And having risen early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons." And this is perhaps the one who heard, "Do not touch me," but not the one in Matthew. For even if that woman also came from Magdala, still the divine Scripture does not accuse her of similar things; but if someone were to say that it is one and the same Magdalene, even so the holy Gospels would speak truth, in no way disagreeing; the same Mary Magdalene is introduced as not touching the Lord earlier, when she was weeping and disbelieving, and as touching him when she is commanded by him to rejoice with the other Mary; for since she finally worshipped him as God, and not as a man, as before when she was weeping and disbelieving.

8. From Eusebius, from the Questions to Marinus. Regarding the difficulty again, how the Lord appeared to the disciples in Matthew on the mountain in Galilee, but in John by the Sea of Tiberias, we shall say that he appeared not only once or twice, but many times. Therefore, you would not err in saying that the appearance in Matthew is the fourth, which Matthew recorded as having taken place not by the Sea of Galilee, nor to those who were appearing, but on the mountain to the eleven, saying: "But the eleven disciples went to the mountain where Jesus had appointed them; and when they saw him, they worshipped him." And after this, you would not be mistaken in saying that at the same time he appeared to the eleven disciples gathered together and also to the seventy. And the Apostle records that the Lord was seen after the resurrection by even more than these, saying: "That he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once." Do you see how many times and to how many he appeared after the resurrection? Thus also to those hiding in Jerusalem for fear of the Jews, and before all men to Simon Peter, and among women to those around Mary Magdalene; whence also Luke says: "For forty days appearing and living with them, he delivered the teachings of the kingdom of God." 9. From Eusebius, from the Questions to Marinus. And the Holy Spirit breathed by Christ into the apostles was capable of loosing and forgiving every sin.

The promised thing, that they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit and partake of the power of operations—operative of the miracles that were to be accomplished through them, and steadfast and enduring of the dangers that were to rise up against them. For before this power, he did not wish them to preach to the nations, but to await and expect to partake of it from on high. And the Apostle also, distinguishing this gift particularly from the other activities of the Holy Spirit, taught, saying: “To another, operations of powers.” And the prophecy says: “The Lord will give a word to those who are evangelizing with great power.” When they did not yet partake of this power, all denied him and were scandalized at the time of the passion; but when they partook of it, all excelled in their testimonies and confessions for Christ. For the Lord, renewing the man and giving back the grace which he had lost from the breath of God, breathed into the faces of the disciples, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” 10. Eusebius, son of Pamphilus, in the letter to Marinus, explains the proposed matter thus: that there are divisions of gifts according to the Apostle, but the same Spirit. And again: to each is given the manifestation according to what is beneficial. “For to one is given through the Spirit a word of wisdom, to another a word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith in the same Spirit, to another operations of powers, to another prophecies, to another discernments of spirits, to another kinds of tongues.

All these things the one and the same Spirit works, distributing to each individually as it wills. For clearly through the one and the same Spirit it has set forth that there are many powers, effective of different things. Consider therefore whether here it has given them some partial authority and spiritual grace—not so that they might raise the dead and work miracles, but so that they might forgive sins; for the gifts of the Spirit are various. Hence it also adds, saying, "If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven them," and so forth, showing that this kind of spiritual gift was bestowed upon them. But after the ascension, the Spirit itself descending supplied them with the powers and operations of signs and every other gift. For this reason here it said, "Receive Holy Spirit," without the article, indicating that it gives them some partial operation of the Spirit; but concerning that it says, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.