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in bis confinement wanted ; hence be calls him " minister of his wants . " This danger Epaphroditus must have incurred from the great adversary of the apostle , namely , Nero . But how could
this draw upon Epaphroditus the resentment , or even the notice of Nero , unless he was known to him ? It is natural therefore to conclude from the language of the ap ostle , that Epaphroditus was in the number of those noble
converts who , as Paul insinuates , formed a little church in the household of that emperor . Now this conclusion is substantiated by Suetonius and D . Casiius ; The first of these writers
in his life of Domitian , c . 14 , has words to this effect : " Domitian capitally condemned Epaphroditus , his secretary , because Nero .
after the loss of his power , was supposed to have been assisted by Mm in destroying himself . Finally , Flavius Clement , his own cousin , but a man of the most des picable inertness - he on a
sudden , and on very slight suspicion ^ put to death , when he had scarcely laid down the consulship . '
Dio ( Lib . 77 . 14 . ) more fully speaks of this transaction . "In this year Domitian slew many others , and among them the consul Flavius Clement , though his own cousin , and married to D © - NHilla who was also his relation ;
against both these was alleged the crime of impiety , which others mcurred in consequence of having Preci pitately gone over to the Jewish institutions . Of these , s <> me were put to death ; others * ere deprived of their property ; but Domitilla was only banished t 0 Pandateria . Epaphroditus also 1 foedmau of Nero whom he
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had before banished , he then slew /' From these accounts we may
conclude m the first place , that Clement , Domitilla , and many others here said to have suffered , were converts to Christianity ? and suffered on that account . The
first object which the early converts had at heart was to bring the Pagan gods into contempt . t ^ Ie nce they were accused of im ~ piety or atheism * As the spirit of paganism was blended not only
with the pleasure but with the businesses of life , those who em * braced the religion of Jesus were induced ( in some instances
perhaps unnecessarily ) to withdraw not only from the amusements ^ but from the duties of society . For this reason they were charged ( as Clement is here by Suetonius ) as men of the most despicable
inertness . We here see , in the second place , an instance of Christianity going under the name of Judaism so late as the second century : and if pagan writers call the Gospel by this appellation ^ we are not to be
surprised at seeing it so called by Josephug who in common with all other Jewish believers , considered the religion of Christ as no other other than the religion ofMose * refined and perfected .
In the third place , we may infer that Epaphroditus was in the num . ber of those who had received the faith s and really suffered on that account . Both Suetonius and
Dio place his death with Clement and the other Christians and the reasons which they assign for his punishment are not only contradictory , but evidently false and frivolous . The former asserts that he was slain for assisting
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On the Character of Epaphwditus . 421
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1811, page 421, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2418/page/37/
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