ORACLES

I. In general. 

One form of divination consisted of a reply, expressed in various ways and means, by a deity, or at least by a suprahuman interlocutor, to a query put by the believer on personal or communal questions. In some cases the oracle could be a spontaneous manifestation of the deity through a human mediator or prophet, who expresses a divine pronouncement without having been interrogated, as in the case of the Greco-Roman (later Jewish-Christian) Sibyl.

In this form the oracular phenomenon was more or less tangential to the prophetic function. In Greece, Dodona and Delphi were seats of famous oracles, dedicated respectively to Zeus and to Apollo. At Dodona, divination took place by observing the movement of the leaves of the sacred oak and the waters of a nearby spring, as well as through certain prophets, the Homeric Selloi, or the “Dove” prophetesses (peleia) mentioned by Herodotus.

Archaeology has also brought to light numerous small tablets containing written requests to the oracle. At Delphi the Pythia, inspired by the god, uttered enigmatic replies which the priests then interpreted. Christian polemic against astrology and its practices also applied to the oracular art, whose veracity was sometimes not wholly denied, but was attributed to the activity of demons. Thus, e.g., Tertullian claims that these, knowing some truths and borrowing others from biblical prophecies, deceive people through oracles so as to subject them to their power (Apol. 22). Tatian too recognizes in oracles a certain curative capacity inspired by evil spirits (Orat. 18).

Meanwhile the pagans objected to the use of oracular writings by the Christians themselves to confirm their own doctrines. Lactantius, in support of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, appeals—besides to the Bible—to the “prophecies of the Sibyl” and the replies of Milesian Apollo. One document attesting to Jewish and then Christian use of the pagan oracular genre is the Sibylline Oracles. Augustine’s treatise "De Divinatione Daemonum", while repeating the polemical arguments against oracular practices worked out in earlier patristic tradition, confirms the persistence and strength of such practices, which penetrated widely even into the Christian population, despite imperial decrees against haruspices and diviners.

II. Chaldean Oracles. 

Attributed to an author named Julian, perhaps Julian the Theurge (2nd c.AD), and highly esteemed in Neoplatonist circles, this collection of brief theosophical and cosmosophical hexametrical compositions survives only partly and indirectly through the citations of pagan and Christian authors.

The first Christian to mention it is Arnobius; later, Marius Victorinus and Augustine. Among pagans, besides Porphyry, Iamblichus was particularly inspired by the theology of the Chaldean Oracles, to which he dedicated a (lost) commentary in 28 books. Some extracts of a similar exegetical work by Proclus are preserved by Michael Psellos (11th c.), who wrote a "Commentary on the Chaldean Oracles".

The doctrine expressed by the collection, Platonic in inspiration, contemplates the notion of a supreme transcendent God (the Father) from whom derive an Intellect with demiurgic function and a third principle (Hecate), intermediate between the two and identifiable with the anima mundi. Numerous angels and demons populate the higher world, exercising their action on humans positively or negatively. They play a fundamental role in the practice of theurgy, which consists of establishing contact with the gods through ritual acts of initiation. The Chaldean Oracles affirm a dualistic anthropology, with the notion of the soul fallen from the divine world, imprisoned in the body and subject to cosmic destiny. Salvation is possible through theurgic rites and rigorous abstention, aimed at dominion over the bodily passions.

III. Sibylline Oracles. 

1. The pagan Sibyl. 

Among the ancients, the Sibyl was a woman who went into ecstasy and prophesied, very often announcing catastrophes. Her words were considered oracles. Her origin should perhaps be sought in Persia, whence she spread esp. to the Greek colonies of Asia Minor. She was sometimes considered a demoniac, sometimes a deity (Thea Sibylla). Various places of worship were dedicated to her, so that her name ended up becoming a common name, the Sibyls, to whom a collection of oracles was attributed.

The Greeks knew the Sibyl of Marpessos; more important was that of Erythrai, who settled at Delphi, where she was considered sometimes the bride, sometimes the daughter of Apollo. Clement of Alexandria cites the beginnning of a Carmen Sibyllinum by Heraclius the Sophist (Strom. I, 108). Then the Sibyl came to Cumae, where she pronounced oracles in a grotto.

Virgil evokes her in Aeneid VI, 98ff. The collection of her oracles, preserved in the Capitol, was burned in the fire at the temple of Jupiter. The most famous oracle of Cumae was the announcement of the savior of the world, immortalized in Virgil’s 4th Eclogue, which Constantine in his Oratio ad sanctos applies entirely to Christ (19-21). There we read the acrostic of Christ (Or. Sib. VIII, 217-250). Augustine gives it in Latin translation (Civ. Dei 18,23).

2. The Sibylline Oracles. 

The Jews of Alexandria used the collection of Sibylline Oracles and their authority in the Greek world mostly for their own religious propaganda. To this end they adapted, transformed, interpolated and added new compositions. These oracles usually announced, in the spirit of the prophets, catastrophes and the end of the world, as does the medieval hymn Dies irae. The primitive Jewish nucleus is book III of the Sibylline Oracles, in the first version, written ca. AD 140. Books IV and V drip with hatred toward Rome at the time of Vespasian and Titus, who destroyed the temple. The Christians acted similarly to the Jews, exploiting the Jewish source, interpolating, esp. in books I-III, and rewriting specifically Christian parts, like books VI-VIII, probably in the 2nd c. "The Shepherd of Hermas" makes reference to them (Vis. II, 4). They rise in turn against Roman persecution in book VIII, announcing the fall of Rome and of the emperor Nero. The collection in eight books goes back to the 6th c.; in 1817 A. Mai discovered another four books (11-14); the eighth, because of its length, was divided into three.

3. Structure. 

Books I-II form a whole, a Jewish redaction (I, 1-223) with Christian interpolations (224-400) and later editing. In book II it is hard to distinguish what is Jewish from what is Christian. Book III announces various catastrophes; it seems to be entirely Jewish with no Christian interpolation.

Books VI-VIII are entirely Christian. Book VI contains only 28 verses, including a hymn to Christ and to the cross. Book VII shows gnostic conceptions from the late 2nd c., such as baptism of fire (VII, 84). Book VIII, of 500 verses, is much more important, since it refers to Christian life and liturgy (VIII, 402-411). Lactantius takes 30 citations from it. The first part could have been written by a Jew. It announces God’s chastisement and the fall of Rome. The second part is a triumphal hymn to Christ, as judge and Lord of the world. The third is a hymn to God the Creator and to the Logos, his incarnate son. The book concludes with norms for Christian life. There seems to be no gap between this book VIII and the four books discovered by A. Mai (XI-XIV, a numbering that follows the MS tradition of the family of codices [Ambrosianus E 64 sup., Vaticani 1120 and 743, Monacensis 312], which divides book VIII into three).

4. Survival of the collection. 

Already known to Hermas, the oracles are cited by Justin (1 Apol. 20,1; 44,12), Athenagoras, Theophilus (Ad Aut. 2,9), ps.- Melito, Tertullian, frequently by Clement of Alexandria (Strom. 6,5 cf. 1,21; 3,3; 6,5,43,453), Commodian, Lactantius, Eusebius, the Apostolic Constitutions, Gregory of Nazianzus, Sozomen and Augustine. Augustine knew a Latin translation of VIII, 217-243 (see also Kurfess’s edition, pp. 222-264). Celsus knew an interpolated version and reproved Christians for using it to their own advantage (Origen, C. Cel. 7,53). Its influence continued to be felt over the centuries: in the Dies irae, Dante, Calderón, Giotto, Michelangelo, Raphael and in painting. A Prophetia Sibillae magae exists in Latin, published by B. Bischoff (Mél. de Ghellinck, Gembloux 1951, pp. 121-147).

By G. Sfameni Gasparro in "Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity", produced by the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum, general editor Angelo Di Berardino, Translated from the Italian "Nuovo Dizionario Patristico e di Antichità Cristiane, 3 volumes, 2006–2008 Casa Editrice Marietti, S.p.A., Genova-Milano. Published in the United States of America by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, with permission from Casa Editrice Marietti.Principal translators: Joseph T. Papa, Erik A. Koenke and Eric E. Hewett, excerpts vol. 2 pp. 970-972. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.