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FILIP DOROSZEWSKI
initiated by a mystagogue and illuminated by God.” Certainly, in H. E. 2.1.13 it is
Philip who, as an agent of God’s revelation, initiates the Ethiopian. But the point
is that the illumination itself was regarded as strictly bound up with the rite
of baptism. In his Paedagogus, Clement of Alexandria says that baptism is
“jllumination ... bywhich we see God clearly,” and he assures his reader that “since
knowledge springs up with illumination, shedding its beams around the mind,
the moment we hear, we who were untaught become disciples.”® Thus, although
the phrase “the dpyia of the divine word” refers primarily to the mysteries of
the Christian faith, there can be no doubt that both Eusebius and his early
Christian readers (who, as a matter of fact, knew from Acts that the Ethiopian
was baptized) understood being admitted to such öpyıa as a consequence of
baptism, which was regarded as a rite of Christian initiation.“ This baptismal
context, however, does not change the fact that the word dpyta is not employed
here by Eusebius for the rite of baptism itself." This understanding of öpyıa in
HE, 2.1.13 is in fact supported by a Byzantine Church historian, Nicephorus
Callistus, whose version of the Ethiopian’s account, although largely dependent
on that of Eusebius, clearly speaks of both the öpyıa in which the dignitary was
initiated and of the rite of baptism which he underwent.
Another disputable passage from Eusebius in which the term öpyıa occurs
is Vita Constantini 4.22.1, which praises emperor Constantine’s religious
zeal:
He himself, as if he were one participating in sacred mysteries [oid tig pétoxoc
iep@v Opyiwv], would shut himself at fixed times each day in secret places within
his royal palace chambers, and would converse with his God alone [uövog uövw
T@ AVTOD TpoowpiAEt 020], and kneeling in suppliant petition would plead for the
objects of his prayers. °
% Hamilton, The Church and the Language of Mystery, 486-487; Riedweg,
Mysterienterminologie, 137-140; Bouyer, The Christian Mystery, 140-141, 150-153.
1.6.26.2: pwtiopa ... dt ob 1 Veiov dEvwrodpEV; 1.6.30.1 “Ott 5é 1 yvois ovvavatéhiet TO
Qwtiopatt Meptactpantovoa tov vodv, Kai evOEwo dkovouev paOntai oi dpabeic; trans.
William Wilson, revised by Kevin Knight.
See e.g. Maxwell E. Johnson, The Rites of Christian Initiation: Their Evolution and
Interpretation, Collegeville, Liturgical Press 2007, 115-200.
See, however, Riggi, Vita Cristiana, 526 for a different interpretation of the term dpyta in
H.E. 2.1.13.
°° Hist. Ecc. 2.6.39-44 PG 145.769b: dr émipaveiac yap Orrin tiv Oddov Sudvtt TpooKoAANVeIc,
Kai dia pac prjoews ‘Hoaiov tod mpogrtov ta Spyta tod Kad’ Hac AOyou pvNOeic, Kai TO
Bantiopa eiode&änevog, Enel nPög TNV natpıov yiv Éralivoote, tois ëv Aldıonia np@tog tiv
Kata TOv Oeöv Te Kal TOV Lwrijpa yv@ouw evnyyediCeto.
Avdrög 8 old tig uEToXog lep@v öpyíwv év anopprtoic eiow Tois abtod Baoıkıkoig Taneioıg
Kaupoig ÉKÁOTNG ÍHÉPAG TAKTOÍG Eavtöv éyKAEiwv, LOVOS HOVW TO adTOD TpoowLirel DEG,
ixetikaic te Seroeot yovuttet@v katedvowret dv éd5eito tvxeiv; trans. Averil Cameron, Stuart
G. Hall, adapted.
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