Joseph L. Rife (eds.), "Jerome, Apology Against Rufinus 1.9-10" in Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia entry published October 19, 2022, https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/346
  
    
      
        https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/346
      
      Caesarea Maritima is indirectly attested at Jerome, Apology Against Rufinus 1.9-10. This passage was written ca. 401 CE possibly in Bethlehem.
      In a long letter he wrote to his associates Pammachius and Marcella in
        401, Jerome struck at first a defensive and then an offensive stance in the ongoing
        Origenist controversy that had embroiled the episcopate of Jerusalem since the early 390s.
        Jerome’s old friend Tyrannius Rufinus had emerged as a prominent intellectual and founding
        leader among the monks on the Mount of Olives during the same time as Jerome was settling
        into his own monastic base at Bethlehem. During an episode of intense theological dispute,
        Jerome in his orthodoxy grew increasingly annoyed and outraged by Rufinus’ support for John
        the bishop of Jerusalem, his translation of writings by Origen, and his characterization of
        Jerome as a sympathizer. After learning of an apology by Rufinus that was circulating in
        Aquileia and Rome, Jerome immediately responded with his own bitter polemic. In this
        passage, Jerome discusses the literary activity of Pamphilus, the martyr and giant of
        Caesarean scholarship. Here Jerome impugns the integrity of Rufinus on the grounds that he
        had misrepresented the authorship of the Apology for Origen.
      
        
        (9) Quid tibi animi
        fuisse dicam, amice simplicissime? Tene potuisse haeretici hominis libro martyris nomen
        imponere, et ignaros, sub auctoritate testis Christi, Origenis facere defensores? Pro
        eruditione qua polles et inclytus συγγραφεὺς in Occidente laudaris, ita ut coryphaeum te
        omnes tuae partis nominent, non reor te ignorasse Eusebii σύνταγμα, et Pamphilum martyrem
        nihil omnino operis condidisse. Ipse enim Eusebius, amator et praeco et contubernalis
        Pamphili, tres libros scripsit elegantissimos vitam Pamphili continentes, in quibus cum
        cetera miris laudibus praedicaret humilitatemque eius ferret in caelum, etiam hoc in tertio
        libro addidit, “Quis studiosorum amicus non fuit Pamphili? Si quos videbat ad victum
        necessariis indigere, praebebat large quae poterat. Scripturas quoque sanctas non ad
        legendum tantum, sed et ad habendum tribuebat promptissime, nec solum viris, sed et feminis
        quas vidisset lectioni deditas. Unde et multos codices praeparabat, ut, cum necessitas
        poposcisset, volentibus largiretur. Et ipse quidem proprii operis nihil omnino scripsit,
        exceptis epistulis quas ad amicos forte mittebat, in tantum se humilitatem deiecerat.
        Veterum autem scriptorum tractatus legebat studiosissime et in eorum meditatione iugiter
        versabatur.”(10) Defensor Origenis et laudator Pamphili dicit Pamphilum nihil omnino
        scripsisse, nec proprii quidquam condidisse sermonis; et hoc dicit iam Pamphilo martyrio
        coronato, ne habeas suffugium post editos ab Eusebio libros hoc Pamphilum
          conscripsisse.
        
        
        Ed. Migne 1883 with ref. to Lardet 1982
      
      
        
        (9) Shall I say what
        your intention was, my most simple-minded friend? Surely you could not have placed the name
        of a marytr (sc. Pamphilus) on the book of a heretic (sc. Origen) and thus, under the
        guarantee of Christ’s witness, made uninformed men the defenders of Origen? Considering the
        learning for which you are renowned and praised in the West as an illustrious littérateur,
        to the extent that all men in your party call you their leader, I will not suppose that you
        do not know Eusebius’ catalog and the fact that the martyr Pamphilus never wrote a single
        book. Indeed Eusebius himself, the lover and herald and companion of Pamphilus, wrote three
        most eloquent books containing the Life of Pamphilus. In these he commends
        his various qualities with extraordinary praises and extols his humility to the sky, and
        even added this in his third book: “Who among those dedicated to study was not a friend of
        Pamphilus? If he saw anyone lacking the necessities for their sustenance, he generously
        provided them what he could. He used to grant them eagerly the Holy Scriptures not only to
        read but even to keep, not only to men but also to women whom he saw indulging in reading.
        For that reason he prepared many copies, so that he could grant them to those who wanted as
        need demanded. He himself however wrote no work of his own at all besides the letters he
        sometimes sent to friends, so low did he humiliate himself. But the treatises of ancient
        writers he read with the greatest diligence, and he was constantly occupied with meditating
        on them.”(10) The one who defends Origen and praises Pamphilus says that Pamphilus
        wrote nothing at all and composed no text; and he says this when Pamphilus had already
        received the crown of martyrdom, to deprive you of the loophole in claiming that Pamphilus
        wrote this work after the publication of Eusebius’ books.
        
        
        Adapted
          from Fremantle 1892 with ref. to Lardet 1983
      
      
        Works Cited
        
          
          1.9-10
          422a-423a
        
        
          
        
      
      
        Additional Bibliography
        
          
          8-9
        
        
          
        
        
          
          243-258
        
        
          
        
      
    
      
      
        Eusebius of Caesarea
        Origen
        Pamphilus
        Rufinus, Tyrannius
      
      
        Christian Bible
        Christianity
        Education (sacred)
        Society and Culture