Bartholomew
Netane’el Bar Talmai
Not more than year after the death of James the Righteous, the holy Apostle Bartholomew suffered martyrdom in Cilicia Tracheia. Actually, Christian legends martyr Bartholomew in more ways and more places than any other apostle.
Bartholomew was also known as Nathanael of Cana (John 1:45-50). The three Synoptic Gospels always pair Bartholomew with Philip and never mention Nathanael, whereas the Gospel of John pairs Nathanael with Philip and never mentions Bartholomew. The name Bartholomew (Βαρθολομαῖος) simply transliterates the patronymic “Son of Ptolemy.” If the equation is correct, his full name is Netan'el bar Talmai.
Through the insight of the Holy Spirit, the Master prophetically saw Nathanael sitting under a fig tree in Cana prior to their meeting. Bartholomew expressed amazement at this and confessed faith in Yeshua, saying, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel" (John 1:49). The Master said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man" (John 1:5I).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Apostolate of Bar-Talmai
"It came to pass that, when the apostles were gathered together to divide the countries of the world among them, the lot went forth to Bartholomew to depart to the Oasis and to preach therein in the Name of our Master Yeshua." So says a Coptic Christian source titled The Preaching of Saint Bartholomew in the Oasis. Other sources say that Bartholomew's lot fell to Lycaonia, but still others say it fell to Armenia, and yet others claim that it fell to India. Church tradition has him in India, Parthia, Persia, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Lycaonia, Phrygia, Pisidia, Pontus, and Asia Minor. The width of that apostolate indicates that the church was uncertain about his true whereabouts. It has not preserved a reliable or consistent report about the work of Bartholomew. His labors for the kingdom can be only circumstantially reconstructed by comparing various conflicting legends from the Armenian Church and apocryphal books like the Acts of Philip, Contendings of the Apostles, and the Apostolic History of Abdias.
The various versions of his martyrdom conflict. Christian tradition has him crucified, flayed alive, beaten with clubs, drowned at sea inside a sack, and beheaded in various locations. Most of the sources that might shed light on his apostolate did not appear until hundreds of years after his life in the form of unreliable, fantastical apocryphal hagiography. Any attempt to recover the real history of Bartholomew is, at best, speculative. Keep in mind that all of the stories that appear in this lesson are based on unreliable traditions cobbled together with first-century Roman history and a generous amount of pure guesswork. Whether or not the stories are at all authentic, they do effectively bring us into the very real, first-century world of the apostles.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Resurrecting Camels - The Preaching of Saint Barholomew in the Oasis
Coptic Christian tradition tells about Bartholomew traveling with Simon Peter in the African desert on his way to the Bahariya Oasis, a depression in the Egyptian desert, some 230 miles from Cairo. The story is loosely modeled on the first section of Acts of Thomas.
Bartholomew attempted to obtain passage on a caravan to the oasis cities. The owner of the caravan did not trust the disciples of Yeshua (perhaps because they were spreading Judaism), so Bartholomew concealed his identity. He posed as a slave skilled in vine-dressing. The owner of the caravan consented to purchase him and carry him to the oasis.
The Egyptian desert around the Bahariya Oasis is surreal and alien-feeling, like the set of a science fiction movie or the surface of the moon. The trip to the Oasis in the Roman Era was long and grueling. As the caravan made its way through the trackless sands, they lost their way and wandered from the route until the water came to an end. The men of the caravan were weary, and the camels strayed hither and thither and died upon the road. Then the master of the caravan and those who were with him began to suspect that Bartholomew was the cause of their bad luck. They wept and said, "Woe unto us! What is this misfortune that has come upon us by reason of this slave? Surely he did not do that which is good in his own country, and therefore his god thrust him out therefrom unto this country, which is afar off."
Bartholomew wept and prayed in his heart. He laid hold upon the camels and said in the name of the Master, "Let these camels be raised up!" In that hour, the camels rose up alive, and the men marveled, but they answered not a word. They mounted them and went on their journey to the city of the oasis.
In the story, Bartholomew performed a few other miracles, such as healing a blind man, but the people resisted his message. Eventually, after more miracles, he founded a church at the Oasis and departed for the coastal city of Naidas. The wife of the king of Naidas converted. Her estranged husband had Bartholomew arrested, sewn into a hair sack, and drowned at sea. The Coptic legends probably have no historical value, but if Bartholomew really traveled to India (see below), he might well have passed through the Egyptian desert by way of caravan on his way to the Red Sea ports.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Bar-Talmai in India - Ecclesiastical History
In the year 190 CE, Panteus of Alexandria arrived somewhere in India, expecting to introduce the gospel to the people there. He was surprised to discover that others had been there ahead of him:
Panteus had such ardor and zeal for the divine word, that he became a herald of the gospel of Christ to the nations of the East and advanced even as far as India ... Panteus there found his own arrival preceded by some who were familiar with the Gospel of Matthew, to whom Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had preached, and had left them the Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew, which was also preserved until this time. (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 5.I0.2-3)
Ancient writers used the term India broadly to refer to the land beyond the Indus River, so it is possible that Bartholomew had visited Indo-Parthia, not southern India. Most scholars doubt that Bartholomew ever traveled as far as India, but some have found clues in the Bartholomew traditions that might connect him with Kalyana, a city-state on the west coast of India near modern Mumbai (Bombay). Perhaps Bartholomew traveled to India to follow up on the work of Thomas. He might have spent some time ministering in the port cities of India's west coast. A lesson from the Roman Catholic liturgy for the feast of the Apostle Bartholomew states the matter as follows:
The apostle Bartholomew, a Galilean, journeyed through the side of India that had fallen to him when the earth was divided up for the preaching of the Gospel. He proclaimed the advent of the Lord Jesus to those nations according to the Gospel of Saint Matthew. After he had converted many to Christ in that region and had suffered many toils and difficulties, he came to Great Armenia.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Great Armeniyah (Togarmah) - Syriac and Armenian Legends
From the west coast of India, Bartholomew could have sailed the trade routes to the Persian Gulf and traveled overland through Mesopotamia, Parthia, and Armenia.
In the Roman Era, Armenia extended from the Caspian Sea to Pontus, almost to the Black Sea. It shared its southern border with the Parthian Empire. A small shoulder of Armenia to the northwest constituted an independent state called Armenia Minor.
During the first century, Armenia played a strategic role in world politics like the Middle East does in today's world. Rome and Parthia competed for control of Armenia, inspiring frequent rebellions, wars, and regime changes. Both empires considered Armenia a strategic prize in their ongoing competition with one another.
The apostolic mission to Armenia began as a natural outgrowth of the work in Edessa and Adiabene (see The Sent Ones lesson 10). Long before departing for India, the Apostle Thomas sent Thaddeus (Mar Addai) and Mar Mari to the city of Edessa, Osroene, at the request of King Abgar the Black. They brought the gospel to Osroene and allegedly converted King Abgar to the faith. Around the same time, King Izates and the whole royal house of Adiabene converted to Judaism, perhaps under the initial influence of the Apostle Ananias of Damascus. Both Osroene and Adiabene bordered Armenia.
According to Armenian Christian tradition, Bartholomew and Thaddeus both labored in Armenia. Armenian Christianity reveres them as the "First Illuminators" of Armenia.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The Crown and the Sword - Syriac and Armenian Legends
When King Abgar the Black died, his son crowned himself in Edessa and tried to reinstate the old gods to their former position of honor. He restored the worship of the pagan gods, especially those of the city. The temples, which had been closed by Abgar, were reopened. He tried to stop the spread of the new religion.
The Apostle Judas Thaddeus fled into Armenia and sought refuge at the royal palace of King Sanatruk. The ruling family of Armenia was related to the family of Abgar the Black, king of Edessa. Initially, Thaddeus received a warm welcome. He was allowed to teach for a while. Sanatruk accepted the apostle's message, but when he faced political opposition from his governors, he recanted the Jewish religion.
King Sanatruk's daughter, Sandoukht, did not recant. She listened to the apostle and devoted her life to the Jewish God and to the Messiah. When the king saw how his daughter had fallen under the influence of the new religion, he imprisoned her and told her that she must renounce her faith. Instead, she testified to the other prisoners regarding the Master. King Sanatruk presented her with a choice of gifts: a crown or a sword. She chose the sword, choosing martyrdom over worldly power. King Sanatruk put her to death, then avenged her by putting Thaddeus to death.
Bartholomew arrived in Armenia after the death of Thaddeus. He followed up on the earlier apostle's work in that land. He performed miracles, healed the sick, exorcised demons, and comforted many with the teachings of the Master. He may have spent several years in the area.
Princess Vokouhi, the sister of King Sanatruk, came to see the apostle in secret. She embraced the new faith, exchanged her royal garments for a simple peasant's robe, and followed the apostle, helping him to spread the gospel. When this news reached the king, he was understandably unhappy. He sent one of his officials to silence the apostle and his followers. Soldiers arrested them all and brought them before a special tribunal. The soldiers beat and tortured the believers for six hours. Believing Bartholomew to be dead, they tossed his body outside the city. He languished for several hours, and then he died.
Armenian Christianity teaches that Bartholomew suffered this martyrdom at Albanopolis-modern Derbent on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, but an alternate interpretation of the Albanopolis tradition places the martyrdom of Bartholomew in Cilicia.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Bar-Talmai in Anatolya - Acts of Philip
Bartholomew could have left Armenia and traveled along the southern shore of the Black Sea through Pontus and Bithynia on his way to rendezvous with Philip and Mariamne in Mysia (see lesson 31). They traveled together into Lydia and Phrygia. The proconsul at Hierapolis arrested the apostles and crucified both Philip and Bartholomew. They hung Philip upside down on a tree opposite the temple of Apollo, and they nailed Bartholomew to the temple gate. Philip died there, but after a devastating earthquake, the people of Hierapolis released Bartholomew. He departed into Lycaonia.
Acts of Philip states that Bartholomew received his "lot" in Lycaonia. Several church writers firmly associated Bartholomew with Lycaonia. If Bartholomew did witness for the Master in Lycaonia, he probably followed up on the work of Paul, who had already planted successful communities in Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium. Bartholomew would have arrived in those communities while Paul remained incarcerated in Rome.
The city of Iconium had a substantial Jewish community and a thriving congregation of believers.
The believers in Iconium could have brought Bartholomew into contact with Paul's convert, Thecla of Iconium and her patroness, the God-fearing believer, Queen Antonia Tryphaena of Thrace. Tradition associates the Apostle Bartholomew with Pontus, Armenia, and Cilicia (Lycaonia)-territories held by Queen Tryphaena's sons.
Before continuing with the story of Bartholomew, a brief summary of Queen Tryphaena's family will help bring together several storylines from The Sent Ones.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Mother of Kings - Tacitus
Antonia Tryphaena was born to King Polemo I of Pontus. Her mother was the granddaughter of Mark Antony and his wife Antonia. In the early first century, Rome placed her elder brother Zenon (Artaxias III) over the troubled kingdom of Armenia. Her younger brother Markus Antonius Polemo became king and priest of Zeus at Olba of Cilicia Tracheia. Tryphaena married King Cotys VIII of Thrace and bore him several children.
Unfortunately, her husband's jealous uncle, Rhescuporis II, wanted to annex Thrace to his kingdom. In 19 CE, King Cotys and King Rhescuporis prepared for war. The emperor Tiberius intervened and warned the two kings not to settle their dispute by arms. Rhescuporis agreed to a truce and invited Cotys to meet with him to draft a treaty. When the negotiations concluded, Rhescuporis hosted Cotys at a banquet to ratify the treaty. After the wine had been flowing late into the night, Rhescuporis took Cotys in chains and imprisoned him. Later, he murdered him and tried to make it appear to be a suicide (Tacitus, Annals 2.65-66).
Tryphana and her children fled to Cyzicus near Troas. The emperor Tiberius suspected foul play. He ordered an investigation. Tryphaena testified against her husband's murderer before the Roman Senate, and the senate convicted Rhescuporis. The emperor Tiberius returned the whole Thracian kingdom to Tryphaena, which she held until the reign of Caligula.
King Cotys left Tryphaena with several sons and at least one daughter. Her children grew up in the court of Antonia Minor in Rome. Her three sons became best of friends with the Roman playboys Herod Agrippa and Gaius Caligula. When Caligula became emperor in 37 CE, he bestowed kingdoms on his boyhood friends. He made Herod Agrippa I king over the territories of his uncles, Philip and Antipas. He appointed Rhoemetalcus as king over Thrace, Cotys (1X) as king over Lesser Armenia and Arabia Petraea (Nabataea), and Julius Polemo as king over Pontus and Bosporus. Tryphaena was suddenly the mother of three kings.
Rhoemetalcus, king over Thrace
Julius Polemo, king over Pontus and Bosporus
Cotys, king over Lesser Armenia and Arabia Petraea
Emperor Gaius Caligula later took Bosporus back from Julius Polemo and gave it to King Mithridates of Armenia. When Claudius became emperor, he compensated Polemo for the loss of Bosporus by giving him a portion of Cilicia Tracheia to rule over-perhaps some Mediterranean holdings near Olba where his uncle Markus Polemo already ruled as dynast and high priest of Zeus. Cilicia Tracheia means "rugged" or "Tough" Cilicia. It is a mountainous strip of coastland on the southeastern coast of Turkey, north of Cyprus. Rugged Cilicia rose up to the west of the plains of Cilicia Pedias, where Paul grew up in Tarsus. The numerous bays and inlets, rocky headlands and small, hidden harbors along the rugged coast became the havens of the famous Cilician pirates whose ships were not yet subdued. The steep Taurus Mountains lock off the rough part of Cilicia from the rest of Anatolia. In the first century, Cilicia Tracheia was thriving. Cities dotted the coast, and commerce flowed.
In the rugged heights of Cilicia Tracheia, Zeus had a famous temple at the city of Olba (modern Ura), just fifteen miles north-northeast of Seleucia. As mentioned above, Queen Tryphaena's brother, Marcus Polemo, presided at Olba as king and high priest of the temple to Zeus.
Not long after Claudius took power, King Agrippa I hosted a party for his old friends from Rome. He invited them to his Galilean palace in Tiberias (the former digs of Herod Antipas where Salome danced for the head of John the Immerser).
Two of Tryphaena's children attended the party: King Cotys IX and King Julius Polemo:
Accordingly there came to Agrippa, Antiochus, king of Commagene, Sampsigeramus, king of Emesa, and Cotys, who was king of the Lesser Armenia, and Polemo, who was king of Pontus, as also Herod his brother, who was king of Chalcis. (Josephus, Antiquities I9:338/viii.)
At that royal party in Tiberias, the young king of Pontus, Julius Polemo, met Agrippa's sixteen-year-old daughter, Bernice.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Tryphaena, Thecla, Polemon, and Bernikah - Acts of Paul and Thecla
Let's review the story of Queen Tryphaena as told in the apocryphal fan-fiction tale titled Acts of Paul and Thecla (see Lesson 21). In that story, a disciple of Paul named Thecla gets herself into a lot of trouble in Pisidian Antioch (Galatia) by publicly rebuffing the sexual advances of the local Asiarch. Embarrassed by the girl, the powerful official has her sentenced to face wild beasts in the arena on a charge of sacrilege. The women of the court are mortified over the unwarranted charges and the unjust sentencing.
Queen Tryphaena is in town, attending some imperial function, and she, too, objects to the injustice. Tryphaena was already a religious woman, having previously served as priestess over the cults of Livia and Julia Drusilla. But according to Acts of Paul and Thecla, Tryphaena was, at that time, mourning the death of her daughter and in a vulnerable state. The simple, devout faith of the disciple from Iconium inspired the queen and stirred her heart. Thecla reminded the queen of her own daughter.
That night, Queen Tryphaena had a dream in which she saw her daughter speaking to her, telling her to protect the girl, "Mother, thou shalt take in my stead Thecla the stranger that is desolate." On the morrow, Queen Tryphaena witnessed Thecla's miraculous deliverance from the beasts of the arena. She confessed faith in the God of the Jews and adopted Thecla in the place of her daughter, "I will make thee heir of all my substance." In the story, Thecla eventually settles at Seleucia (ad Calycadnum). It so happens that the real Queen Tryphaena's younger brother, Marcus Antonius Polemo, was king of Olba, Seleucia, and high priest of the city's cult of Zeus Olbios. (Note that Paul greets a "Tryphaena and Tryphosa, workers in the Lord" in his epistle to the Romans [I6:12].)
If Queen Tryphaena did become a God-fearing believer, as the story purports, she might have urged her royal sons to renounce idolatry and embrace Judaism. Some years later, her son, Julius Polemo, did exactly that, albeit for an ulterior motive.
Polemo had met Queen Bernice in Tiberias, Galilee, at the place of King Herod Agrippa (42 CE). At that time, sixteen-year-old Bernice was married to her absentee husband, Marcus Julius Alexander of Alexandria. Polemo was in his twenties and unmarried at the time and probably smitten. A year later, his hopes might have risen when news of Bernice's husband's untimely death began to circulate. But if he had any romantic designs on the young widow, King Agrippa stopped them short. Agrippa would not consider letting his daughter marry a Gentile. Instead, King Herod of Chalcis, another guest at the same party (Bernice's much older uncle), received the honor of marrying the king's daughter. Nevertheless, Bernice and Polemo seem to have made a lasting impression on one another. Two decades later, sometime in the early 60’s, King Polemo converted to Judaism to qualify himself for marriage to Queen Bernice.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Royal Slander - Josephus
Since the death of her husband and uncle, Herod of Chalcis, Bernice lived with her brother Agrippa II. Brother and sister ruled together over Chalcis until Emperor Claudius removed them from that kingdom and gave Agrippa 11 the tetrarchy that had once belonged to Philip -Batanea, Trachonitis, and Gaulanitis. This was a step up. King Agrippa and his sister Queen Bernice transferred their residency to the palace at Caesarea Philippi. They looked forward to the day when they would acquire Judea, Galilee, and Perea as well. They dreamed about restoring the kingdom of their great-grandfather, Herod the Great. In 59 CE, they met Paul of Tarsus (Lesson 28). Not long after their encounter with Paul, a rapid series of unpopular decisions caused the Herodian siblings a significant loss of popular support. Their esteem among the Jews began to plunge when the king built a new upper room atop his palace in Jerusalem. The new dining hall allowed the king to recline at his table while watching the priesthood conducting the sacrificial services in the Temple. The high priest, Ishmael the son of Fabi ordered the immediate construction of a wall to obstruct the king's view. King Agrippa commanded the high priest to take down the wall. He refused, so Agrippa had him arrested and, using Roman authority, sent Ishmael and nine other prominent men in chains to Rome. The episode took place at a time of heightened anti-Roman sentiment and cast the Herodians in a bad light.
Immediately after that, Agrippa II appointed the malevolent Annas son of Annas to the high priesthood. Annas executed the beloved James the Righteous. The people cried out against Agrippa for putting Annas in power. More bad decisions followed shortly after.
Even King Agrippa's non-Jewish subjects began to resent him. Josephus describes how Agrippa began to invest large amounts of capital into his alliance with Berytus (modern Beirut). He underwrote annual festivals and games for the city and spent tens of thousands of drachmas on entertaining the people of Berytus. He also gave the people of Berytus an abundance of grain and distributed oil among them.
He adorned their whole city with statues and idols of his own donation and exported antiquities from his own territories to decorate the foreign city. Josephus says, "This made him more than ordinarily hated by his subjects; because he took those things away that belonged to them, to adorn a foreign city" (Antiquities 20:211-212/ix.4).
Lots of people had motivations for smearing Agrippa II. The new burst of anti-Herodian sentiment erupted in a malicious rumor about the king's relationship with his widowed sister, Queen Bernice. Since the death of her husband, Herod of Chalcis, fifteen years earlier, the queen lived with her brother and appeared publicly in the role of his consort. In reality, Agrippa had two wives of his own. Apparently, neither one was well-born enough to be given the title of queen. (They were probably not Jewish, and Agrippa knew that the Jewish people would never accept dynastic succession from him if his children were born of a proselyte.)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Bernikah and Polemon - Josephus
Agrippa and his sister both knew that the stigma of an incestuous relationship would rob them of any credibility with their Jewish subjects. It could destroy their hopes of one day ruling over all Judea. They quickly agreed that Bernice must find a husband, but the old criteria still remained. He must be a king, and he must be Jewish. That significantly limited the field of potential matches.
Josephus says, "Bernice persuaded Polemo, who was king of Cilicia, to be circumcised, and to marry her, as supposing that by this means she could prove false those slanders" that had been spoken against her (Antiquities 20:145/vii.3). Bernice might have remembered Polemo from his visit to Judea two decades earlier. At the time, the young king in his early twenties must have charmed the teenage princess.
Polemo had several motives for marrying the Jewish queen. Her beauty was legendary. He had once been good friends with her father. The marriage would forge a strategic alliance with Agrippa II. His mother, the God-fearing Queen Tryphaena, might have already been pressing him toward Judaism. Josephus says, "Polemo was prevailed upon." Best of all, the queen was quite wealthy. The cynical Josephus believed that Polemo married Bernice "chiefly on account of her riches." Polemo might have come to Jerusalem to complete his conversion under rabbinic supervision before the wedding. Or perhaps Bernice and the rabbis went to him.
When she entered the bridal canopy for the third time, Queen Bernice was in her mid-thirties. She had two teenage sons from her marriage to Herod of Chalcis. Sometime around 62 CE, Bernice said goodbye to her brother and her beloved nation and boarded a ship bound for Cilicia Tracheia.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Bar-Talmai in Pseudo-Abdias - Martyrdom of Bartholomew
The following narrative about Bartholomew and King Julius Polemo has been loosely adapted from the Martyrdom of Bartholomew, which appears in book 8 of the Apostolic History of Pseudo-Abdias. In the original story, as it appears in Apostolic History, Bartholomew has contact with a king named Polymius. W.M. Ramsay identifies King Polymius with Polemo of Pontus and Cilicia, the son of Queen Tryphaena:
As to the country where Bartholomew preached, the legends vary. Sometimes they speak of Bosporus, sometimes of Armenia, sometimes of Lycaonia, sometimes of Upper Phrygia and Pisidia, sometimes of India. In this variety there is only one thread of connections, viz. Polemon himself. He had been king of Bosporus from AD 38 to 41; part of Armenia was bestowed on him by Nero in AD 60; his grandfather had at one time ruled over part of Upper Phrygia and Lycaonia and Cilicia with Iconium as his residence, and he himself was granted the sovereignty of part of Cilicia Tracheia, adjoining Lycaonia. (W.M. Ramsay, "Early Christian History," The Expositor 6:6 (1902])
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Bar-Talmai and the Binding of the Idol - Martyrdom of Bartholomew
After surviving crucifixion in Hierapolis (Lesson 31), Bartholomew ministered in Lycaonia. His work in the region eventually led him to Cilicia Tracheia, where King Polemo ruled. Perhaps the news about Polemo's conversion and marriage to Bernice drew him.
According to the Bartholomew legend, a local temple housed a god of healing, which drew the sick and the infirm from all the surrounding lands. The evil spirit inhabiting the idol healed people from their afflictions, not because the demon wished to cure men but so that he might take them into his power. The sick received physical healing, but those who sacrificed to him became all the more diseased in soul.
Bartholomew arrived in that land posing as one of the pilgrims and the many poor among the people. It came to pass that so long as the holy Apostle Bartholomew remained in that city, the idol gave no response or healings. The devotees of the god sought an oracle to explain the problem. They traveled to another city (perhaps to Olba) and asked of the god in that place (perhaps Apollo) why their own idol no longer had the power to heal those who sacrificed to it. The oracle replied, "From the day and hour that the true God, who dwells in the heavens, sent his Apostle Bartholomew into the regions here, your god is held fast by chains of fire and can no longer either speak or breathe."
They asked, "And who is this Bartholomew?"
The oracle replied, "He is the friend of the Almighty God, and has just come into these parts, that he may take away all the worship of the idols in the name of his God."
The servants of the Greeks said to him, "Describe him so that we may find him."
The oracle of the idol replied, "He has black hair, a shaggy head, fair skin, large eyes, a beautiful nose, his ears concealed behind locks of hair, with a yellowing beard, a few grey hairs, of medium height, neither tall nor stunted, clothed with a white tunic bordered with purple, and upon his shoulders a white cloak. His clothes have been worn twenty-six years, but neither are they dirty, nor have they grown old. Seven times a day, he bends the knee to the Lord, and seven times a night does he pray to God. If you find him, entreat him not to come here, lest his angels do to me as they have done to my brother." When the demon had said this, the oracle held his peace.
They returned and set to work to look into every face of the pilgrims and poor men, and for two days, they could find him nowhere. It came to pass that one who was a demoniac began to follow the apostle, crying out, "Apostle of the Lord, Bartholomew, your prayers are burning me up!"
Then the apostle turned and said to him, "Hold your peace, and come out of him." At that very moment, the man who had suffered from that demon for many years was set free.
An AI rendering based on the description of Bartholomew given by the oracle of the idol, as recorded in the apocryphal Acts of Bartholomew.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The Unchaining of the King’s Daughter - Martyrdom of Bartholomew
According to the tale, King Polemo had a daughter afflicted by a demon. She tore at her own flesh, and if anyone drew near to her, she bit them. No one dared come close to her. King Polemo heard about the demoniac that the visiting Jew had healed, and he sent messengers to the apostle, saying, "My daughter is grievously torn. I beg of you, therefore, as you have delivered him who suffered for many years, so also to order my daughter to be set free."
The apostle rose up and went with the king's men. They brought him to the place where the king's daughter was kept. He saw her piteously bound with chains. The servants explained, "Nobody dares to touch her."
Moved with compassion for the girl, the apostle ordered, "Loose her, and let her go."
They said to him, "It takes all of our combined strength to subdue her and bind her, and you ask us to loose her?"
The apostle said to them, "Behold, I am binding her enemy! Why are you afraid of her? Go and loose her, and when she has eaten something, let her rest. Bring her to me early tomorrow morning."
They went and did as the apostle had commanded them, and from then on, the demon was not able to come near her.
King Polemo prepared gold and silver, precious stones, pearls, and clothing and sought for the apostle. Having made many efforts and was unable to find him, he brought everything back to his palace. When the night had passed and the following day was dawning, the sun having risen, the apostle came to the king and asked him, "Why were you seeking me yesterday with gold and silver, and precious stones, pearls, and raiment? For these earthly gifts, I do not desire. I only wish to teach you about the Son of God." Then, the apostle testified to the king and presented the gospel before him.
Perhaps Bartholomew came to Cilicia Tracheia specifically on a mission to testify before King Polemo. The apostle must have known that Polemo's mother was a God-fearing believer in Yeshua. He might have also supposed that if he could bring the king to faith in Messiah, he might win his new bride, Queen Bernice, for the kingdom as well-truly a lost sheep of Israel.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Contest with the Idol - Martyrdom of Bartholomew
In the spirit of Elijah when he contested with the prophets of Baal to persuade Ahab and Jezebel, Bartholomew offered Polemo a sign in the form of a contest with the idol in the local temple. He explained, "The devil himself by his own art causes the men to be sick, and again to be healed, in order that they will believe in the idols and in order that he may rule their souls, and in order that they may say to the wood and the stone, 'You are our God' But the angel of the LORD has bound the demon who dwells in that idol, which is why he no longer gives any response to those who sacrifice and pray there."
The king said to him, Tomorrow, at the first hour of the day, the priests are ready to sacrifice in the temple, and I will be there."
Bartholomew assured him, "Then you will see with your own eyes that what I say is true."
It came to pass on the following day, at the time of sacrifice, the devil in the idol cried out,' "Stop, wretched ones, from sacrificing to me, lest you suffer worse for my sake. I am bound in fiery chains and kept in subjection by an angel. I implore you, therefore, supplicate on my account that I may be set free to go into other habitations."
The fantastical account in Martyrdom of Bartholomew has the voice emanating from within the idol. More realistically, a message like that would have been delivered through the voice of a priest or priestess under the influence of an evil python spirit who functioned as an oracle on behalf of the idol.
When the king heard these words, he needed no further convincing. He gave orders, and all the people brought ropes and crowbars to topple the idol, but they could not move it. The apostle said to them, "Unfasten the ropes." When they had unfastened them, he said to the demon dwelling in it, "In the name of our Master Yeshua the Messiah, come out of this idol, and go into a desert place, where neither winged creature utters a cry, nor voice of man has ever been heard." Immediately, the evil spirit departed. Those looking on seemed to see a black, winged creature leap into the air. The idol toppled, and in that same hour, all the idols that were in that place shattered into pieces.
Perhaps the toppling of the idol did not happen quite as dramatically as the legend paints it, but surely King Polemo experienced some pushback from the local cults after he converted to Judaism. His decision to become Jewish could not have been a popular one, and it probably did bring him into confrontation with the local priesthoods.
Bartholomew might have been on hand to encourage his resolve to stand against idolatry. By some manner of miraculous sign, Bartholomew convinced the king that the God of the Jews was superior to the gods of the peoples. Moreover, he persuaded the king to confess Yeshua as the Messiah and Son of God.
Martyrdom of Bartholomew says, "Then the king, and also the queen, with their two sons, and with all his people ... and whatever land his kingdom ruled over, were saved, and believed." As mentioned above, Bernice brought two sons by Herod of Chalcis into the marriage, so the description of the royal family in Martyrdom of Bartholomew fits what we know of Polemo and Bernice.
Did Bernice seriously consider discipleship to Yeshua? Perhaps not, but she may have met the Apostle Bartholomew and heard him discourse about repentance, just as she had heard the Apostle Paul discourse in Caesarea just a few years earlier.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Martyrdom of Bar-Talmai - Martyrdom of Bartholomew
Martyrdom of Bartholomew says that all the king's subjects became believers, but it immediately contradicts that statement by admitting that many of his subjects lodged a formal complaint against Polemo. They came together and went to "Asterges the king, who was the elder brother of the king who had been baptized."
Scholars have made several attempts to identify Asterges. None of them are completely satisfactory, but if we have correctly identified the geography of the story, Asterges must be the king's uncle, Markus Antonius Polemo, the king at Olba and high priest of Zeus. The people naturally considered Markus Antonius Polemo the rightful king of Cilicia Tracheia. His nephew Julius Polemo had been appointed only recently and over only a small part of his territory.
According to the story, a delegation of citizens from the kingdom of Polemo and Bernice came together and petitioned Asterges (Markus Polemo), "O king, thy brother Polemo has become a disciple to a certain magician, who has taken down our temples, and broken our gods to pieces." While these were yet speaking and weeping, others came from the cities along with priests and many people weeping and making accusations about their king.
Even if the idols of Cilicia did not miraculously shatter as in the story, the idolaters of the kingdom might still have lodged complaints against the Jewish royalty and their monotheist influence. Bad enough that their king converted to Judaism and married a Jewish queen, now he had fallen under the spell of a Jewish magician who openly defamed the gods.
Regardless of how Markus Antonius Polemo felt about family allegiances, he could not overlook such a brazen effrontery to the gods. His nephew's Jewish affections had gone too far, and if he did not act quickly and decisively, the people's anger might disrupt his royal cultic position. As the brother of Queen Tryphaena and the uncle of Julius Polemo, he was already in great jeopardy of guilt by association.
In a rage, he sent one thousand armed men along with the offended priests to arrest the magician who had brought all of this trouble. They found Bartholomew and brought him to Olba.
Markus Antonius Polemo, king over Olba and high priest of Olbian Zeus, summoned the apostle to his presence. He demanded, "Are you the one who has perverted my brother (nephew]?"
Bartholomew replied, "I have not perverted him but have converted him to God."
Markus Antonius asked, "Are you the one who caused our gods to be broken into pieces?"
The apostle answered, "I released the demons who were in them, and they broke into pieces the dumb and senseless idols so that all men might believe in God Almighty, who dwells in the heavens."
The king and priest of Zeus said, "Just as you have made my brother deny his gods and believe in your God, so I also will make you reject your God and believe in my gods."
And when he had thus spoken, the king was informed that this god and all the other idols had fallen down and broken into pieces. The king rent the purple garment in which he was clothed and ordered the holy Apostle Bartholomew to be beaten with rods, scourged, and beheaded. Another version of the story says that the king had Bartholomew flayed before beheading him. According to the story in Martyrdom of Bartholomew, the followers of the apostle came together and laid his remains to rest in a royal tomb. When the king heard about this, he ordered his remains thrown into the sea.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Not Happily Ever After
What happened to King Julius Polemo and Bernice? According to Martyrdom of Bartholomew, King Polemo became Bishop Polemo and remained in his bishopric for two decades before his death. The real history of King Julius Polemo is not quite so happily-ever-after.
Bernice abandoned him and returned to her brother Agrippa II. King Polemo forsook his marriage to the Jewish queen and renounced the Jewish religion. Josephus blames Bernice for his apostasy. A nasty popular rumor said that Bernice abandoned him because she could not suppress her amorous feelings for her brother.
The evidence from Martyrdom of Bartholomew offers a less salacious explanation for the collapse of the marriage and the apostasy of the king. After the havoc raised by the Apostle Bartholomew, King Polemo had to choose between his allegiance to Judaism and his royal position. Under the shadow of his uncle, the high priest of Zeus, he could not maintain both. His uncle had the real political and religious power over Cilicia Tracheia. He may have given Polemo an ultimatum: renounce Judaism and your Jewish bride or leave Cilicia forever. At the same time, Polemo lost his sovereignty over the kingdom of Pontus. Nero annexed Pontus as a Roman territory. The timing might not be coincidental.
Josephus says, "He forsook at once this matrimony and the Jewish religion." Polemo returned to the safety of Roman idolatry.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.