Foundations of Faith

FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH IN JESUS
M. M. NINAN
They scorn all possessions without distinction and treat them as community property. They
accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person
who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in
a short time.
see http://www.textexcavation.com/luciantestimonium.html
Peregrinus Proteus (c. 95-165 AD) was a Cynic philosopher, from Parium in Mysia. The name
‘Peregrinus’ means ‘wanderer,’ and it is possible that it was not his given name, but rather a
name he chose for himself when he began his self-imposed wandering style of life. Leaving
home at a young age, he first lived with the Christians in Palestine, and becoming a Christian
attained a position of authority among them, becoming their “prophet, cult-leader, and head of
the synagogue, and everything, all by himself. He interpreted and explained some of their books
and even composed many…” (The Death of Peregrinus 11) . During this period he was arrested
by the Romans and jailed. Christian community showed their love to him by waiting on him as
families, with men even sleeping with him in the cell and serving him. He was later released.
However he was eventually expelled from that community for exploiting the believing
community. Adopting the life of a Cynic philosopher he eventually settled in Greece. He is most
remembered for committing suicide by giving his own funeral oration and publicly burning
himself at the Olympic Games in 165. By 180 CE, a statue of Peregrinus had been erected in his
home city of Parium; it was reputed to have oracular powers .The only detailed account of the
life of Peregrinus was recorded by Lucian in his satire, The Death of Peregrinus (Latin: De
Morte Peregrini). Although this account is hostile to Peregrinus, the bare facts of his life can be
extracted. This story is an account of the life and death of a Cynic philosopher Proteus. After
murdering his own father for living too long, he sets out and roams various foreign lands, and it
is during his wanderings that he learns of Christianity. For a time in his early life he became a
Christian, practicing it to the point of imprisonment under a very tolerant administration, and
after returning to Cynicism became in his old age so enamoured of Indic ideas and precedents
that he cremated himself at Olympia, just after the games of A.D. 165.
137