Misplaced Pages

#693306

44-453: He was born around 400 in Bethelia , a small town near Gaza , into a wealthy Christian family of Palestine . He told the history of Southern Palestine derived from oral tradition . He appeared to be familiar with the region around Gaza, and mentioned having seen Bishop Zeno of Majuma , at the seaport of Gaza. Sozomen wrote that his grandfather lived at Bethelia , near Gaza, and became

88-490: A Christian together with his household, probably under Constantius II . A neighbor named Alaphrion was miraculously healed by Saint Hilarion , who cast out a demon from Alaphrion, and, as eyewitnesses to the miracle, his family converted, along with Alaphrion's. The conversion marked a turning-point in the Christianization of southern Palestine, according to his account. The grandfather became within his own circle

132-558: A citizen called Alaphion. An eremitic center was founded around the year 360 in the village, housing around four anchorites who were disciples of Hilarion. Ceramics from the Byzantine period have been found. A mihrab , or mosque alcove indicating the direction of salah (Muslim daily prayers), is all that remains of an ancient mosque to the west of Beit Lahia dating to the end of the Fatimid Caliphate and beginning of

176-472: A highly esteemed interpreter of Scripture and according to Sozomen "much beloved by the Christians of Ascalon, Gaza and of the surrounding country". The descendants of the wealthy Alaphrion founded churches and convents in the district, and were particularly active in promoting monasticism and were also esteemed by Sozomen. Sozomen himself had conversed with one of these, a very old man. He states that he

220-534: A lawyer, perhaps at the court of Theodosius II . While thus engaged he conceived, around the year 443 the project of writing a history of the Church. Sozomen wrote two works on church history, of which only the second one is extant. His first work covered the history of the Church, from the Ascension of Jesus to the defeat of Licinius in 323, in twelve books. His sources for it included Eusebius of Caesarea ,

264-774: A learned though somewhat diffuse introduction, in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers , II (published New York, 1890). (This text is available on-line at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library .) Attribution Bethelia Beit Lahia or Beit Lahiya ( Arabic : بيت لاهيا ) is a city in the Gaza Strip , north of Jabalia , in the North Gaza Governorate of the State of Palestine . It sits next to Beit Hanoun and close to

308-622: Is found in Sozomen, I.xxii, the similarity of diction showing that the text of Socrates was the source. The extent of this dependence cannot be accurately determined. Sozomen used the work of Socrates as a guide to sources and order. In some matters, such as in regard to the Novatians, Sozomen is entirely dependent on Socrates. But Sozomen did not simply copy Socrates. He went back to the principal sources used by Socrates and other sources, often including more from them than Socrates did. He used

352-452: Is frequently used. Instructive in this respect is a comparison of Sozomen, Socrates, and Rufinus on the childhood of Athanasius. Rufinus is the original; Socrates expressly states that he follows Rufinus, while Sozomen knows Socrates' version, but is not satisfied with it and follows Rufinus more closely. The ecclesiastical records used by Sozomen are principally taken from Sabinus , to whom he continually refers. In this way he uses records of

396-491: Is the author of a Historia Ecclesiastica ("Church History", Ἐκκλησιαστική Ἱστορία) which covers the history of late ancient Christianity during the years 305 to 439. He was born in Constantinople . Even in ancient times, nothing seems to have been known of his life except what can be gathered from notices in his Historia Ecclesiastica , which departed from its ostensible model, Eusebius of Caesarea , in emphasizing

440-653: The Ayyubid dynasty of Saladin , and two other mosques dating to the Gaza Sanjak of the Ottoman era . Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1229) described "Bait Lihya" as being located "near Ghazzah ", and he further noted that "it is a village with many fruit-trees". A marble slab, deposited in the maqam of Salim Abu Musallam in Beit Lahia is inscribed in late Mamluk naskhi letters. It is an epitaph over four sons of

484-568: The Clementine homilies , Hegesippus , and Sextus Julius Africanus . Sozomen's second work continues approximately where his first work left off. He wrote it in Constantinople, around the years 440 to 443 and dedicated it to Emperor Theodosius II . The work is structured into nine books, roughly arranged along the reigns of Roman Emperors : Book IX is incomplete. In his dedication of the work, he states that he intended cover up to

SECTION 10

#1732772818694

528-600: The Governor of Gaza , Aqbay al-Ashrafi, who all died in the month of Rajab 897 (=29 April-9 May 1492 CE). It is assumed that the children died of the plague , described by Mujir al-Din , which ravaged Palestine in 1491–2. In 1517, the village was incorporated into the Damascus Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine, and in 1596, Beit Lahia appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in

572-530: The Vita Martini of Sulpicius Severus , the works of Hilarius, logoi of Eustathius of Antioch , the letter of Cyril of Jerusalem to Constantius concerning the miraculous vision of the cross, and Palladius . He also used oral tradition, adding some of the most distinctive value to his work. The first printed (though untranslated) version of Sozomen, which was based on the Codex Regius of 1444,

616-545: The nahiyah (subdistrict) of the Gaza Sanjak. It had a population of 70 Muslim households and paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on various agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, vineyards, fruit trees, goats and/or beehives. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the area of Beit Lahia experienced a significant process of settlement decline due to Bedouin pressures on local communities. The residents of abandoned villages moved to surviving settlements, but

660-498: The 17th consulate of Theodosius II , that is, to 439. The extant history ends about 425. Scholars disagree on why the end is missing. Albert Guldenpenning supposed that Sozomen himself suppressed the end of his work because in it he mentioned the Empress Aelia Eudocia , who later fell into disgrace through her supposed adultery. However, it appears that Nicephorus , Theophanes , and Theodorus Lector actually read

704-623: The Gaza War when an Israeli missile hit the Ibrahim al-Maqadna Mosque during evening prayer . Witnesses said over 200 Palestinians were praying inside at the time. At least 14 people, including six children, were killed, and many more than 60 wounded. In December 2023, the Israel Defence Forces began their offensive in Beit Lahia. Israel launched airstrikes on targets Hamas militants. Though they launched several assaults on

748-612: The agricultural area where they were working. On 9 June 2006, eight civilians were killed by IDF shells while picnicking on the northern Gaza beach in Beit Lahia. The dead included seven members of the Ali Ghaliya family. The IDF disputed they were responsible. The town was a frequent target of airstrikes by Israel during the Gaza War (2008–2009) and has been a battlefield between Israel and Hamas . The Ibrahim al-Maqadma Mosque missile strike occurred on 3 January as part of

792-544: The border with Israel. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics , the city had a population of 89,838 in 2017. The word "Lahia" is Syriac and means "desert" or "fatigue". It is surrounded by dunes, some of which rise to 55 m (180 ft) above sea level. The area is renowned for its many large sycamore fig trees . The city is known for its fresh, sweet water, berries and citrus trees. According to Edward Henry Palmer , "Lahia"

836-511: The church. Socrates asserts that he owed the impulse to write his work to a certain Theodorus, who is alluded to in the proemium to the second book as "a holy man of God " and seems therefore to have been a monk or one of the higher clergy . The contemporary historians Sozomen and Theodoret were combined with Socrates in a sixth-century compilation, which has obscured their differences until recently, when their individual portrayals of

880-508: The church. Socrates' account is in many respects well-balanced. He is careful not to use hyperbolic titles when referring to prominent personalities in the church and the government and he even criticizes Eusebius for his excessive praises to Emperor Constantine the Great in his Vita Constantini . The Historia Ecclesiastica is one of the few sources of information about Hypatia , the female mathematician and philosopher of Alexandria, who

924-530: The city, Israel did not fully occupy Beit Lahia. Rather, they had encircled the town and occupied the surrounding villages and farmland. In January 2024, Israel withdrew from the majority of North Gaza, and a ground connection between Palestinian-controlled Gaza City was re-established. In April 2024, Israel withdrew all territories in the Gaza Strip except for the Netzarim Corridor, returning

SECTION 20

#1732772818694

968-483: The continued struggle of man to arrest their progress. An Ottoman village list from about 1870 showed that Beit Lahia had a population of 394, with a total of 118 houses, though the population count included men only. In 1883 the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described it as a "small village with fine gardens and groves of large and ancient olives in the middle of

1012-507: The end of Sozomen's work, according to their own histories later. Therefore, most scholars believe that the work actually came down to that year and that consequently it has reached us only in a damaged condition. According to historian and scholar of Islam Michael Cook , Sozomen wrote that a group of " Saracens " (Arabs) in Palestine had adopted Jewish laws and customs after coming into contact with Jews and may have been (according to Cook)

1056-513: The forerunners of Islam and Muslims. Sozomen borrowed heavily from other sources for his work. The source for about three fourths of his material was the writings of Socrates Scholasticus . The literary relationship of those writers appears everywhere. Valesius asserted that Sozomen read Socrates, and Robert Hussey and Guldenpenning have proved this. For example, Socrates, in I.x, relates an anecdote which he had heard, and says that neither Eusebius nor any other author reports it, yet this anecdote

1100-454: The history is to continue the work of Eusebius of Caesarea (1.1). It relates in simple Greek language what the Church experienced from the days of Constantine to the writer's time. Ecclesiastical dissensions occupy the foreground, for when the Church is at peace, there is nothing for the church historian to relate (7.48.7). In the preface to Book 5, Socrates defends dealing with Arianism and with political events in addition to writing about

1144-554: The land continued to be cultivated by neighboring villages. In 1838, Edward Robinson noted Beit Lehia as a Muslim village located in the Gaza district. In May 1863, Victor Guérin visited the village. He described it: [P]eopled by 250 inhabitants, it occupies an oblong valley, well cultivated, and surrounded by high sand-dunes, which cause a great heat. It is a little oasis, incessantly menaced by moving sand-hills, which surround it on every side, and would engulf it were it not for

1188-488: The mob, declaring, "Surely nothing can be farther from the spirit of Christianity than the allowance of massacres, fights, and transactions of that sort." Socrates is often assumed to have been a follower of Novatianism , but this is based on the fact that he gives a lot of details about the Novatianists, and speaks of them in generous terms, as he does of Arians and other groups. He speaks of himself as belonging to

1232-588: The northern villages such as As-Siafa back to Palestinian control until the second Israeli invasion of northern Gaza in May 2024 as a result of Hamas regrouping in some areas there. By June 2024, Gaza's Civil Defence stated the destruction in Beit Lahia "defies imagination". On 29 October 2024, nearly 100 civilians, including over 20 children, were killed in a bombing of a five-story building by Israeli Forces. The Gaza Health Ministry reported over 90 casualties, including 25 children, with numerous individuals trapped under

1276-484: The place of the emperor in church affairs and in giving secular as well as church history. Socrates' teachers, noted in his prefaces, were the grammarians Helladius and Ammonius , who came to Constantinople from Alexandria , where in 391 they had been involved in a violent revolt that culminated in the destruction of the Serapeum of Alexandria . It is not proved that Socrates of Constantinople later profited from

1320-564: The press by John Barrow, who wrote the preface) is important, since in it the archetype of the Codex Regius , the Codex Baroccianus 142, is collated for the first time. But this manuscript was written by various hands and at various times and therefore is not equally authoritative in all its parts. There is an excellent English translation published in 1846 (London, Samuel Bagster and sons), translator unnamed, later reprinted and credited to Chester David Hartranft (1839-1914), with

1364-498: The rubble. Some of Beit Lahia's residents trace their origins to Egypt , while others are Bedouins who migrated from the Mount Hebron area. Socrates Scholasticus Socrates of Constantinople ( c. 380 – after 439), also known as Socrates Scholasticus ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Σωκράτης ὁ Σχολαστικός ), was a 5th-century Greek Christian church historian , a contemporary of Sozomen and Theodoret . He

Sozomen - Misplaced Pages Continue

1408-475: The sand. It has a well to the south [..] There is a small mosque in the village." In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Bait Lahia had a population of 871 inhabitants, all Muslims , increasing by the 1931 census to 1,133, still all Muslim, in 223 houses. In the 1945 statistics the population of Beit Lahiya consisted of 1,700 Muslims and the land area

1452-555: The series Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller (Berlin:Akademie Verlag) 1995. An English translation by A. C. Zenos was published in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers , Second Series, Vol. 2. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wallace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890.) (online editions: newadvent.org ccel.org munseys.com . More recently (2004-2007), Socrates' History has been published in four bilingual (Greek/Latin and French) volumes by Pierre Maraval in

1496-492: The series of Christian emperors were distinguished one from another and contrasted by Hartmut Leppin, Von Constantin dem Großen zu Theodosius II (Göttingen 1996). The Historia Ecclesiastica was first edited in Greek by Robert Estienne , on the basis of Codex Regius 1443 (Paris, 1544); a translation into Latin by Johannes Christophorson (1612) is important for its variant readings. The fundamental early modern edition, however,

1540-630: The synods from that of Tyre (335) to that of Antioch in Caria (367). For the period from Theodosius I, Sozomen stopped following the work of Socrates and followed Olympiodorus of Thebes , who was probably Sozomen's only secular source. A comparison with Zosimus , who also made use of Olympiodorus, seems to show that the whole ninth book of Sozomen, is mostly an abridged extract from Olympiodorus. Sozomen used many other authorities. These include sources relating to Christianity in Persia, monkish histories,

1584-450: The teachings of the sophist Troilus . No certainty exists as to Socrates' precise vocation, though it may be inferred from his work that he was a layman. In later years, he traveled and visited, among other places, Paphlagonia and Cyprus . The history covers the years 305 to 439, and experts believe it was finished in 439 or soon thereafter, and certainly during the lifetime of Emperor Theodosius II , i.e., before 450. The purpose of

1628-634: The writings of Eusebius, the first major Church historian. The Vita Constantini of Eusebius is expressly cited in the description of the vision of Constantine. Sozomen appears also to have consulted the Historia Athanasii and also the works of Athanasius including the Vita Antonii . He completes the statements of Socrates from the Apologia contra Arianos , lix, sqq., and copies Athanasius' Adv. episcopos AEgypti , xviii-xix. Rufinus

1672-425: Was 38,376 dunams , according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 134 dunams were designated for citrus and bananas, 1,765 for plantations and irrigable land, 15,185 for cereals, while 18 dunams were built-up areas. On 4 January 2005, seven civilian residents of Beit Lahia, including six members of the same family, were killed, with the incident blamed on shelling by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of

1716-420: Was brought up under monastic influences and his story bears this out. Sozomen seems to have been brought up in the circle of Alaphrion and acknowledges a debt of gratitude to the monastic order. His early education was directed by the monks in his native place. It is impossible to ascertain what curriculum he followed in these monastic schools, but his writings give clear evidence of the thoroughness with which he

1760-413: Was brutally murdered by a mob, allegedly by order of Patriarch Cyril of Alexandria . Socrates presents Hypatia's murder as entirely politically motivated and makes no mention of any role that Hypatia's neoplatonism might have played in her death, arguing instead that she was killed for supporting local prefect Orestes in his political struggle against Cyril. Socrates unequivocally condemns the actions of

1804-430: Was from "Lahi", a personal name. Beit Lahia has an ancient hill and nearby lay abandoned village ruins. The town has been identified as the Bethelia and had originally a pagan temple. According to the 5th century historian Sozomen , whose family had lived in the town for several generations, the townspeople started converting to Christianity due to the hermit Hilarion who is attributed to have healed miraculously

Sozomen - Misplaced Pages Continue

1848-581: Was grounded in Greek studies. As a man he retained the impressions of his youth, and his great work later was to be also a monument of his reverence for the monks in general and for the disciples of Hilarion in particular. Sozomen studied at the Law school of Berytus between 400-402. As an adult he acquired training as a lawyer . He studied law in Beirut . He then went to Constantinople to start his career as

1892-470: Was produced by Henricus Valesius (Henri Valois) (Paris, 1668), who used the Codex Regius , a Codex Vaticanus, and a Codex Florentinus, and also employed the indirect tradition of Theodorus Lector ( Codex Leonis Alladi ). The text was edited in Patrologia Graeca vol. 67 (online at documentacatholicaomnia.eu ). The new critical edition of the text is edited by G. C. Hansen, and published in

1936-584: Was that of Robert Estienne at Paris in 1544. The first translated edition to be published was that of Christophorson, which appeared in Latin in Geneva in 1612. A noteworthy edition was done by Valesius (Cambridge, 1720), who used, besides the text of Stephens, a Codex Fucetianus (now at Paris, 1445), "Readings" of Savilius, and the indirect traditions of Theodorus Lector and of Cassiodorus - Epiphanius . Hussey 's posthumous edition (largely prepared for

#693306