Comment la
Watchtower Déforme les Ecrits d'Eusèbe pour Justifier son Interdiction des
Transfusions Sanguines
Andrew
W. Lusk
La Watchtower fournit un commentaire des Ecrits d'Eusèbe dans sa brochure
"Comment le Sang peut-il Sauver Votre Vie ?" (Copyright 2000). Dans
la 2ème partie "le Sang
- Essentiel Pour la Vie," sous la section sur le Sang et les Vrais
Chrétiens, la seconde ligne du dernier paragraphe déclare la chose suivante :
"Le décret apostolique a été longtemps compris comme une
interdiction. Eusèbe parle d'une jeune femme qui vers la fin du deuxième
siècle, avant de mourir sous la torture, a avancé l’argument que l'on ne permet
pas aux Chrétiens" de manger le sang même d'animaux irrationnels.
"Elle n'exerçait pas un droit au suicide. Elle voulait vivre, mais elle ne transigeait pas ses principes. Ne
respectez-vous pas ceux qui font passer les principes avant le gain personnel
?"
Ce qui est Implicite dans cette citation est
qu'une femme est morte а cause de ses principes, suite а son refus
de manger du sang. Les personnes qui utiliseront cette brochure pour en
informer d'autres feront cette représentation aussi.
Le premier problème avec cette citation
réside dans le fait que la Watchtower ne dit pas de quelle femme il s’agit. Son
nom doit être trouvé dans le Livre 5 d'Eusèbe; elle s’appelle Biblias (Biblis).
C’est Vrai, Biblias
a prononcé cette expression : "... n’est pas permis de manger le sang même
d'animaux irrationnels," selon les Ecrits d'Eusèbe. Mais ce que la
Watchtower omet, c’est la première partie de la phrase complète d'Eusèbe.
Lisez le Livre 5 d'Eusèbe où il est relaté
toutes les histoires des chrétiens qui ont été
"persécuté" par les païens et tués parce qu’ils étaient
Chrétien dans la région Lyonnaise.
Une des personnes qui a été persécutés par
les païens était une dame nommée Biblias (ou
Biblis). Biblias
a été torturée jusqu’à la mort dans
l’espoir qu’elle avouerait que les Chrétiens était un peuple qui mangeait des
enfants. Le sentiment parmi les païens était qu'elle révèlerait que les
Chrétiens étaient des mangeurs d'enfants parce qu'elle ne croyait pas au
Christ. Sous la torture, Biblias (Biblis) a repris connaissance et a embrassé le
Christianisme. А ce point elle a réfuté les païens qui la torturaient et
a soutenu les Chrétiens. Eusèbe déclare la chose suivante dans le Livre 5 :
"Comment, a-t-elle déclaré, ceux-là pourraient manger des enfants
alors qu’ils ne considèrent pas comme légal de consommer du sang même d'animaux
irrationnels ?"
Biblias (Biblis) a
déclaré que les Chrétiens ne mangent pas des enfants. Elle a déclaré aux païens : ‘comment les
Chrétiens pourraient-ils manger des gens quand ils ne goûtent même pas le sang
d'animaux irrationnels ? La consommation de sang et de la chair sont des actes cannibalesques. Les chrétiens ne
pratique pas le cannibalisme ni le meurtre.
Biblias (Biblis) parlait
du péché de cannibalisme (la consommation d’enfants) et rien plus. Elle n'a pas voulu transiger avec le principe que
les Chrétiens ne consomment pas des enfants et c'est pourquoi elle est morte
sous la torture. Elle n'est pas morte sous la torture а cause d’un refus
de consommation du sang.
La Watchtower essaye de dépeindre l'histoire
de Biblias (Biblis)
comme celui de quelqu'un qui est mort pour rester fidèle à ses principes de ne
pas consommer de sang d'animaux irrationnels. L'auteur de la Watchtower devait
savoir le nom de la femme, mais n'a pas mis ce nom dans la brochure sur le
sang.
Pourquoi ? Parce que n'importe quel Témoin
pouvait aller chercher Biblias (Biblis) dans les propres publications de la
Watchtower comme le livre Perspicacité à travers les Ecritures saintes. Dans ce livre et
suivant les propres mots de la Watchtower n'importe quel Témoin pouvait lier Biblias (Biblis)
avec le principe, que les Chrétiens ne pratiquaient pas le cannibalisme, sans
aucun rapport avec une quelconque interdiction sur le sang.
Ce qu’implique la brochure sur le sang est
que Biblias (Biblis)
est morte suite а un refus de manger le sang. C'est faux et c’est une
altération des faits.
Annexe (en anglais)
Note:
Below are the paragraphs and sentences around the talk on Biblias (Biblis).
In the
web site http://www.biblefacts.org/index2.html please refer to http://www.biblefacts.org/eusebius/euseb_b5.html#t27.htm.2
Eusebius
(Book 5 Chapter 1). Entitled "The Number of those who fought for Religion
in Gaul under Verus and the Nature of their Conflicts." Paragraph 3, last
few sentences (note "Biblis" is spelled "Biblias" in this
version):
"... And these indeed were burned, but he continued unbending and
unyielding, firm in his confession, and refreshed and strengthened by the
heavenly fountain of the water of life, flowing from the bowels of Christ. And
his body was a witness of his sufferings, being one complete wound and bruise,
drawn: out of shape, and altogether unlike a human form. Christ, suffering in
him, manifested his glory, delivering him from his adversary, and making him an
example for the others, showing that nothing is fearful where the love of the
Father is, and nothing painful where there is the glory of Christ. For when the
wicked men tortured him a second time after some days, supposing that with his
body swollen and inflamed to such a degree that he could not bear the touch of
a hand, if they should again apply the same instruments, they would overcome
him, or at least by his death under his sufferings others would be made afraid,
not only did not this occur, but, contrary to all human expectation, his body
arose and stood erect in the midst of the subsequent torments, and resumed its
original appearance and the use of its limbs so that, through the grace of
Christ, these second sufferings became to him, not torture, but healing.
"But the devil, thinking that he had already consumed Biblias,
who was one of those who had denied Christ, desiring to increase her condemnation
through the utterance of blasphemy, brought her again to the torture, to compel
her, as already feeble and weak, to report impious things concerning us. But
she recovered herself under the suffering, and as if awaking from a deep sleep,
and reminded by the present anguish of the eternal punishment in hell, she
contradicted the blasphemers. 'How,' she said, 'could those eat children who do
not think it lawful to taste the blood even of irrational animals?' And
thenceforward she confessed herself a Christian, and was given a place in the
order of the witnesses."
Another internet site is http://www.swcp.com/~vogs/eusebius.html
Eusebius translated by G. A. Williamson
(1895-1960?) for Book 5, titled "GALLIC MARTYRS OF VERUS' REIGN":
"... But his poor body was a witness to what he had suffered -- it
was all one wound and bruise, bent up and robbed of outward human shape, but,
suffering in that body, Christ accomplished most glorious things, utterly
defeating the adversary and proving as an example to the rest that where the
Father's love is [1 John 4:18] nothing can frighten us, where Christ's glory is
[2 Cor. 8:23] nothing can hurt us. A few days later wicked people again put the
martyr on the rack, thinking that now that his whole body was swollen and
inflamed a further application of the same instruments would defeat him, unable
as he was to bear even the touch of a hand; or that by dying under torture he
would put fear into the rest. However, nothing of the sort happened; to their
amazement his body became erect and straight as a result of these new torments,
and recovered its former appearance and the use of the limbs; thus through the
grace of Christ his second spell on the rack proved to be not punishment but
cure.
"Biblis again, one of those who had denied Christ, was
handed over to punishment by the devil, who imagined that he had already
devoured her [1 Peter 5:8] and hoped to damn her as a slanderer by forcing her
to say wicked things about us, being -- so he thought -- a feeble creature,
easily broken. But on the rack she came to her senses [2 Tim. 2:26], and, so to
speak, awoke out of deep sleep, reminded by the brief chastisement of the
eternal punishment in hell [Matt. 25:46]. She flatly contradicted the
slanderers; 'How could children be eaten by people who are not even allowed to
eat the blood of brute beasts?' [Acts 15:29] From then on she insisted that she
was a Christian, and so she joined the ranks of the martyrs.
"When the tyrant's instruments of torture had been utterly defeated
by Christ through the endurance of the blessed saints, the devil resorted to
other devices -- confinement in the darkness of a filthy prison; clamping the
feet in the stocks, stretched apart to the fifth hole; and the other agonies
which warders when angry and full of the devil are apt to inflict on helpless
prisoners. Thus the majority were suffocated in prison -- those whom the Lord
wished to depart in this way, so revealing His glory [John 2:2]. Some, though
tortured so cruelly that even if they received every care it seemed impossible
for them to survive, lived on in the prison, deprived of all human attention
but strengthened by the Lord and fortified in body and soul, stimulating and
encouraging the rest. But the young ones who had been recently arrested and had
not previously undergone physical torture could not bear the burden of
confinement, also died in prison."