Seven Sleepers
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In Christian mythology, the legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus is a folktale concerning a number of fictional people who for a time were venerated as saints. Their story also appears in the Qur'an (Surah 18, verse 9-26).
The basic outline of the tale appears in Gregory of Tours, and in Paul the Deacon's History of the Lombards. The best known version of the story appears in Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend.
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[edit] The Legend
The outline of the story is that during the persecutions of the Roman emperor Decius, around 250, seven young men were accused of Christianity. They were given some time to recant their faith; they gave their worldly goods to the poor, and retired to a mountain to pray, where they fell asleep. The emperor, seeing that their attitude towards paganism had not improved, ordered the mouth of the cave to be sealed.
Decades pass. At some later time — usually, during the reign of Theodosius (379 - 395) — the landowner decides to open up the sealed mouth of the cave, to use it as a cattle pen. He opens it and finds the sleepers inside. They awaken, imagining that they have slept but one day. One of their number returns to Ephesus. He is astounded to find buildings with crosses attached; people he deals with are astounded to find a man trying to spend old coins from the reign of Decius. The bishop is summoned, to interview the sleepers; they tell him their miracle story, and die praising God.
A feast day was formerly observed for the Seven Sleepers as the feast of Saints "Maximianus, Malchus, Martinianus, Dionysius, Joannes, Serapion, and Constantinus" on July 27. Other names of the Sleepers are given in other sources. The feast was not suppressed as mythical until the reform of the Roman Catholic liturgy in 1969. The Eastern Orthodox Feast, October 22, remains in the calendar.
[edit] The career of the legend
As the earliest versions of the legend spread from Ephesus, an early Christian catacomb came to be associated with it, attracting pilgrims. On the slopes of Mount Pion (Mount Coelian) near Ephesus (near modern Selçuk in Turkey), the 'Grotto' of the Seven Sleepers with ruins of the church built over it was excavated in 1927-28. The excavation brought to light several hundred graves which were dated to the 5th and 6th centuries. Inscriptions dedicated to the Seven Sleepers were found on the walls of the church and in the graves. The 'Grotto' is still shown to tourists.
[edit] Syriac origins
The legend appeared in several Syriac sources before Gregory's lifetime. It was retold by Symeon Metaphrastes.
The Seven Sleepers form the subject of a homily in verse by the Edessan poet Jacob of Saruq ('Sarugh') (died 521), which was published in the Acta Sanctorum. Another 6th century version, in a Syrian manuscript in the British Museum (Cat. Syr. Mss, p. 1090), gives eight sleepers. There are considerable variations as to their names.
Another Syriac version is printed in Land’s Anecdota, iii. 87ff; see also Barhebraeus, Chron. eccles. i. 142ff., and cf Assemani, Bib. Or. i. 335ff.
[edit] Dissemination
The legend rapidly attained a wide diffusion throughout Christendom, popularized in the West by Gregory of Tours, in his late 6th century collection of miracles, De gloria martyrum (Glory of the Martyrs). Gregory says that he had the legend from “a certain Syrian,“.
In the 7th century, the myth gained an even wider audience by being incorporated into the Qur'an, in Sura 18, Al-Kahf, verse 9 to 14. Here an inscription in the cave is mentioned:
- Do you think that the Fellows of the Cave and the Inscription were of Our wonderful signs?
- When the youths sought refuge in the cave, they said: Our Lord! grant us mercy from Thee, and provide for us a right course in our affair.
In the following century, Paul the Deacon told the tale in his History of the Lombards (i.7) but gave it a different setting:
- In the farthest boundaries of Germany toward the west-north-west, on the shore of the ocean itself, a cave is seen under a projecting rock, where for an unknown time seven men repose wrapped in a long sleep.
Their dress identifies them as Romans, according to Paul, and none of the local barbarians dare touch them.
During the period of the Crusades, bones from the sepulchres near Ephesus, identied as relics of the Seven Sleepers, were transported to Marseille, France in a large stone coffin, which remained a trophy of the church of Saint Victoire, Marseille.
The Seven Sleepers were included in the Golden Legend compilation, the most popular book of the later Middle Ages, which fixed a precise date for their resurrection, AD 478, in the reign of Theodosius.(1)
[edit] Early modern literature
The myth had become proverbial in 16th century Protestant culture. The poet John Donne could ask, with a skeptical undertone,
- 'were we not wean'd till then?
- But suck'd on countrey pleasures, childishly?
- Or snorted we in the seaven sleepers den?' -John Donne, 'The good-morrow'
Little is heard of the Seven Sleepers during the rational Enlightenment, but the myth revived with the coming of Romanticism. The Golden Legend may have been the source for retellings of the Seven Sleepers in Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-eater, in a poem by Goethe, and, most familiar to Americans, Washington Irving's Rip van Winkle. See also the myth motif of the 'king in the mountain'.
[edit] Islamic Interpretation
The Islamic version is related in Surah Kahf (18, "The Cave"), of the Qur'an.[1]
About 400 years after Prophet Isa (Jesus) (alayhis salam, Peace be on Him), there was a ruler who was very cruel. His name was Decius the Emperor, and he ruled the vast Roman Empire which stretched from Spain to the Persian Gulf. He was an Idol worshipper, and the people who lived in this empire were forced to believe and in many gods and goddesses, and offer sacrifices to them. There was the god of war, the goddess of love, the sun-god, the god of the oceans, and many others. Some of these gods were symbolized by statues and the people were forced to pay special tribute to them or face the possibility of losing their lives. The people included many good Christians, who had believed in the one true God, Allah and in Isa (alayhis salam, Peace be on Him) as His messenger. The Emperor did not want the people to follow the religion of Allah as was revealed to Prophet Isa (alayhis salam, Peace be on Him).
Within the Roman Empire there was a city called Ephesus located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It was a bustling city with a great seaport where merchants from all over the Empire came to buy and sell their goods. In the heart of this city lived a few youths (about 7) that all believed in the one true God, Allah. They formed a small group and prayed to Allah for guidance in this land of oppression and injustice. They did not want to worship these idols that Decius the Emperor was forcing everyone to worship. Allah heard their prayers and gave strength to their hearts so that they would not be afraid to proclaim their belief to the people of Ephesus.
One day these youths went to the bazaar where many people gathered to do their shopping. The youths stood up on a platform so that all the people in the bazaar could see and hear them.
They said, "Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. We shall never call upon any god other than Him because if we did, it would surely be a lie!"
The crowd suddenly stopped what they were doing and looked up at the youths that had so boldly proclaimed their faith. There were people in the crowd who agreed with the youths but were too afraid to say it. Whenever someone talked about the one true God, Allah, they were tortured and executed. Other people in the crowd shouted at the youths on the platform.
The youths were not afraid and continued, "If our people worship other gods besides Allah, why don't they bring forward an authority clear and convincing for what they do? Who does more harm than the person who invents a lie about Allah?" [18:14-15]
When Emperor Decius heard about the change of their faith by seven youth, he called them and questioned them about their faith. They told him that they worshipped only one Allah and made no partners with Him. The king turned furious, and gave them three days to come back to their old faith. He said that if they did not return to becoming Idol worshippers, then he would kill them.
The youths ran away to a cave high up on a mountainside a few miles away outside of the city. On the way, a dog also followed them. They did their best to scare it away, but it would not leave them. The dog sat at the entrance.
When the youth sought refuge in the cave they prayed,
Rabbana atina mil-ladunka Rahma, wa hayya lana min amrina rashada
"Lord, grant us mercy and help us to get out of this trouble in a righteous way" [18:10].
After reaching safety in the cave, the youths were tired from running and decided to sleep there for a few hours.
In order to protect these brave youths, Allah performed a miracle and kept them asleep for more than three hundred years.
One would think them (the youths) awake while, in fact, they were sleeping. We turned their bodies from right to left and their dog stretched its front legs on the ground. [18:18]
When they awoke they thought they were only asleep for a couple hours. One of them said, "How long do you think we have stayed here?"
"A day or part of a day," they replied. "Your Lord knows better how long we have stayed here. Let us send one of us with this money to the city to get some pure food so that we might eat. He should be careful so that no one will know about us." [18:19]
The youths were hungry so one of them went down to the city to buy some food.
Before he left the cave, his friends warned him not to tell the pagans where they were. So the youth went down to the city of Ephesus with some money in his pocket. When he approached the city, he noticed something strange. He didn't recognize any of the people! Also, all of the clothes the people wore were different from his own. The surroundings, the dresses, the language they spoke and the lifestyle, everything had changed. He couldn't believe the city had changed so much in just a few hours.
He went to the bazaar and found a shopkeeper selling food. When the youth brought out his money the shopkeeper looked at it very closely. "Where did you get this from?" he asked, peering out the corner of his eye. Remember that the youths had been asleep for over 300 years!
"I saved it from my earnings, sir," said the youth. "This money has been out of date for 300 years!!," exclaimed the shopkeeper.
The youth was shocked and the people of the bazaar began to gather around him. He now realized that Allah had saved him and his friends from the persecution of the pagans by making them sleep for a long, long time. When he explained his story to the people that had gathered around him, they were overjoyed. The whole city of Ephesus had changed. He informed the youth that he was now living at a time when he will no longer be persecuted. The whole city of Ephesus had changed.
The wicked ruler of the Roman Empire, Decius, had died long ago and now a new tolerant Emperor reigned over the land. The whole city came out of their houses and marched toward the cave where the other youths were.
Meanwhile, some officers of the king Theodosius (who was now the ruler) also arrived. When they were told that the stranger in the bazaar was one among the seven youths who had fled during the reign of Decius to escape death, he and a crowd followed him to the cave.
Allah then caused the youths of the cave to pass away, just as Allah had caused the youth to sleep for 309 years [18:25], and king Theodosius ordered a monument to be built over the cave.
[edit] Notes
- ^ These are verses 1-27 of Surah Kahf-The Cave, from the Noble Qur'an translation by Muhammad Muhsin Khan and Muhammad al-Hilali In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful 1. All the praises and thanks be to Allah, Who has sent down to His slave (Muhammad, Peace be upon him), the Book (the Qur'an), and has not placed therein any crookedness. 2. (He has made it) straight to give warning (to the disbelievers)of a severe punishment from Him, and to give glad tidings to the believers (in Islamic Monotheism), who do righteous deeds, that they shall have a fair reward (Paradise). 3. They shall abide therein for ever. 4. And to warn those (Jews, Christians, and pagans) who say "Allah has begotten a son (or offspring or children)." 5. No knowledge have they of such a thing, nor had their fathers. Mighty is the word that comes out of their mouths. They utter nothing but a lie. 6. Perhaps, you would kill yourself (O Muhammad, Peace be upon him) in grief, over their footsteps (for their turning away from you) because they believe not in this narration (the Qur'an.) 7. Verily! We have made that which is on earth as an adornment for it, in order that We may test them (mankind) as to which of them are best in deeds. 8. And verily We shall make all that is on it (the earth) a bare dry soil (without any vegetation or trees). 9. Do you think that the people of the Cave and the Inscription were a wonder among Our Signs? 10. Remember when the young men fled for refuge(from their disbelieving folk) to the Cave. They said: "Our Lord! Bestow on us mercy from Yourself, and facilitate for us our affair in the right way!" 11. Therefore, We covered up their hearing in the Cave for a number of years. 12. Then We raised them up (from their deep sleep), that We might test which of the two parties was best at calculating the time period that they had tarried. 13. We narrate unto you (O Muhammad, Peace be upon him) their story with truth. Truly they were young men who believed in their Lord (Allah), and We increased them in guidance. 14. And We made their hearts firm and strong when they stood up and said: "Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth, never shall we call upon any ilah (god) other than Him; if we did, we should indeed have uttered an enormity in disbelief. 15. "These our people have taken for worship alihah (gods) other than Him (Allah). Why do they not bring for them a clear authority? And who does more wrong than he who invents a lie against Allah. 16. (The young men said to one another) "And when you withdraw from them, and that which they worship, except Allah, then seek refuge in the Cave; your Lord will open a way for you from His Mercy and will make easy for you your affair. 17. And you might have seen the sun, when it rose, declining to the right from their Cave, and when it set, turning away from them to the left, while they lay in the midst of the Cave. That is of the Ayat (proofs, evidences, signs) of Allah. He whom Allah guides, he is the rightly guided; but he whom He sends astray, for him you will find no Wali (guiding friend) to lead him (to the right Path). 18. And you would have thought them awake, whereas they were asleep. And We turned them on their right and on their left sides, and their dog stretching forth his two forelegs at the entrance (of the cave). Had you looked at them, you would certainly have turned back from them in flight, and would certainly have been filled with awe of them. 19. Likewise, We awakened them that they might question one another. A speaker from among them said: "How long have you stayed (here)?" They said: "We have stayed (perhaps) a day or part of a day." They said: Your Lord (Alone) knows best how long you have stayed (here). So send one of you with this silver coin of yours to the town, and let him find out which is the good lawful food, and bring some of that to you. And let him be careful and let no man know of you. 20. "For, if they come to know of you, they will stone you or turn you back to their religion; and in that case you will never be successful." 21. And thus We made their case known (to the people), that they might know that the Promise of Allah is true, and that there can be no doubt about the Hour. (Remember) when they (people of the city) disputed among themselves about their case, they said: "Construct a building over them; their Lord knows best about them;" (then) those who won their point said (most probably the disbelievers): "We verily shall build a place of worship over them." 22. (Some) say they were three, the dog being the fourth among them; and (others) say they were five, the dog being the sixth,--guessing at the unseen; (yet others) say they were seven, and the dog being the eighth. Say (O Muhammad, Peace be upon him): "My Lord knows best their number; none knows them but a few." So debate not (about their number) except with the clear proof (which We have revealed to you). And consult not any of them (people of the Scripture--Jews and Christians) about (the affair of) the people of the Cave. 23. And never say of anything, "I shall do such and such thing tomorrow." 24. Except with the saying "If Allah will!" And remember your Lord when you forget and say: "It may be that my Lord guides me unto a nearer way of truth than this." 25. And they stayed in their Cave three hundred (solar) years, adding nine (for lunar years). 26. Say: "Allah knows best how long they stayed. With Him is (the knowledge of) the Unseen of the heavens and the earth. How clearly He sees, and hears (everything)! They have no Wali (Helper, Disposer of affairs, Protector) other than Him, and He makes none to share in His Decision and His Rule." 27. And recite what has been revealed to you (O Muhammad, Peace be upon him) of the Book (the Qur'an) of your Lord (ie. recite it, understand and follow its teachings and act on its orders and preach it to men). None can change His Words, and none will you find as a refuge other than Him.
