Book 3

Translated by Thothica

1 hr 28 min

THE THIRD BOOK OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

Contents of Book Three

I. In what parts of the earth the apostles preached Christ. II. Who first presided over the church of the Romans. III. Of the epistles of the apostles. IV. Of the first succession of the apostles. V. Of the last siege of the Jews after Christ. VI. Of the famine that pressed upon them. VII. Of the predictions of Christ. VIII. Of the signs before the war. IX. Of Josephus and the writings he left. X. How he makes mention of the divine books. XI. How, after James, Symeon governed the church in Jerusalem. XII. How Vespasian commanded that those of David's line be sought out. XIII. How Abilius was the second to govern the Alexandrians. XIV. How Anencletus was the second bishop of the Romans. XV. How Clement was the third after him. XVI. Of the epistle of Clement. XVII. Of the persecution under Domitian. XVIII. Of the apostle John and the Apocalypse. XIX. How Domitian commanded that those of David's family be slain. XX. Of the kinsfolk of our Saviour. XXI. How Cerdo was the third to govern the church of the Alexandrians. XXII. How Ignatius was the second of the Antiochenes. XXIII. A story concerning the apostle John. XXIV. Of the order of the Gospels. XXV. Of the acknowledged divine Scriptures and those that are not such. XXVI. Of Menander the sorcerer. XXVII. Of the heresy of the Ebionites. XXVIII. Of Cerinthus the heresiarch. XXIX. Of Nicolaus and those called after him. XXX. Of the apostles who were proved in wedlock. XXXI. Of the death of John and Philip. XXXII. How Symeon, the bishop in Jerusalem, was martyred. XXXIII. How Trajan forbade that Christians be sought out. XXXIV. How Evarestus was the fourth of the church of the Romans. XXXV. How Justus was the third in Jerusalem. XXXVI. Of Ignatius and his epistles. XXXVII. Of the evangelists still distinguished at that time. XXXVIII. Of the epistle of Clement and the things falsely ascribed to him. XXXIX. Of the writings of Papias.

CHAPTER I

Such, then, were the things concerning the Jews. But the holy apostles and disciples of our Saviour being scattered over the whole world, Thomas, as the tradition holds, obtained Parthia by lot; Andrew, Scythia; John, Asia, with whom also he tarried, and died at Ephesus;
and Peter seems to have preached to the Jews of the dispersion in Pontus and Galatia and Bithynia and Cappadocia and Asia; who also, having at last come to Rome, was crucified head downward, having himself asked so to suffer.
What need is there to speak of Paul, who from Jerusalem unto Illyricum fulfilled the Gospel of Christ, and afterward was martyred at Rome under Nero? These things are stated by Origen in these very words in the third book of his Expositions on Genesis.

CHAPTER II

After the martyrdom of Paul and Peter, Linus was the first to be allotted the bishopric of the church of the Romans. Paul makes mention of him, writing to Timothy from Rome, in the salutation at the end of the epistle.

CHAPTER III

Of Peter, then, one epistle, that called his former, is acknowledged; and this the elders of old also used as indisputable in their own writings. But the so-called second we have received as not testamentary; nevertheless, having appeared useful to many, it was studied along with the other Scriptures.
As for the Acts bearing his name, and the Gospel named after him, and the so-called Preaching of him, and the so-called Apocalypse, we know that they have not been delivered at all among the catholic writings, since no ecclesiastical writer, whether of the ancients or of our own day, has used testimonies from them.
As the history proceeds I shall make it my care to indicate, together with the successions, which of the ecclesiastical writers in their times used which of the disputed books, and what has been said by them concerning the testamentary and acknowledged Scriptures, and what concerning those that are not such.
But the writings bearing Peter's name, of which I have known only one epistle as genuine and acknowledged by the elders of old, are so many. Of Paul the fourteen are manifest and clear;
yet that some have rejected the epistle to the Hebrews, saying that it is disputed by the church of the Romans as not being Paul's, it is not right to be ignorant; and the things said about it by those before us I shall set forth in due season. Nor, indeed, have I received the so-called Acts of him among the indisputable books.
But since the same apostle, in the salutations at the end of the epistle to the Romans, has made mention, among others, of Hermas, whose, they say, is the book of the Shepherd, it must be known that this too is disputed by some, on whose account it could not be placed among the acknowledged books, while by others it has been judged most necessary for those who especially need elementary instruction; whence we know it has already been publicly read in churches, and I have ascertained that some of the most ancient writers have used it.
Let these things be said for the setting forth both of the indisputable and of those divine writings not acknowledged by all.

CHAPTER IV

That Paul, preaching to those of the nations, laid the foundations of the churches from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum, would be evident both from his own words and from what Luke related in the Acts;
and from the words of Peter, in how many provinces he too, preaching Christ to those of the circumcision, delivered the word of the new covenant, it would be plain from the acknowledged epistle of his of which we have spoken, in which he writes to those of the Hebrews in the dispersion of Pontus and Galatia and Cappadocia and Asia and Bithynia.
But how many and which of these, having become genuine zealots, were approved as able to shepherd the churches founded by them, it is not easy to say, save as many as one might gather from the words of Paul;
for of him there were countless fellow-workers and, as he himself named them, fellow-soldiers, of whom the greater part have been deemed worthy of unfading remembrance by him, since he has set down a continual testimony concerning them in his own epistles; and moreover Luke too in the Acts, reckoning up his acquaintances, mentions them by name.
Timothy, at any rate, is recorded to have been the first allotted the bishopric of the community in Ephesus, as Titus also of the churches in Crete.
And Luke, being by race of those from Antioch, by profession a physician, having for the most part been together with Paul, and having conversed with the rest of the apostles not slightly, left us, in two divinely inspired books, examples of the healing of souls which he acquired from them: the Gospel, which he attests he wrote according to what those delivered to him who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, whom also he says he had followed from the first; and the Acts of the Apostles, which he composed having received them no longer by hearing, but with his own eyes.
And they say that Paul was wont to make mention of the Gospel according to him, whenever, as concerning some Gospel of his own, he wrote, saying, "according to my Gospel."
Of the rest of Paul's followers, Crescens is attested by him to have set out for Gaul; and Linus, of whom he makes mention as being with him at Rome in the second epistle to Timothy, has been shown to have been already before allotted the bishopric of the church of the Romans, first after Peter.
But Clement also, who himself was appointed third bishop of the church of the Romans, is attested by Paul to have been his fellow-worker and fellow-striver.
Besides these, that Areopagite, Dionysius by name, whom in the Acts Luke recorded to have first believed after Paul's address to the Athenians on the Areopagus, another of the ancients, Dionysius, shepherd of the community of Corinth, relates to have become the first bishop of the church in Athens.
But as we go forward on our way, the things of the succession of the apostles through the times will be told by us in due season; now let us pass to what follows of the history.

CHAPTER V

After Nero had held the rule thirteen years, and after the affairs of Galba and Otho had occupied a year and six months, Vespasian, distinguished by his campaigns against the Jews, was proclaimed emperor in Judaea itself, hailed as imperator by the armies there. Having forthwith set out for Rome, he entrusted to his son Titus the war against the Jews.
Now after the ascension of our Saviour, the Jews, besides their audacity against him, having already contrived very many plots also against his apostles—first Stephen having been slain by them with stones, and after him James, who was the son of Zebedee and brother of John, having been beheaded, and above all James, who first after the ascension of our Saviour had been allotted the throne of the bishopric there, having departed in the manner before shown, and the rest of the apostles having been countlessly plotted against unto death and driven from the land of Judaea, but having set out, for the teaching of the preaching, on their journey to all the nations with the power of Christ, who said to them, "Go ye, make disciples of all the nations in my name"—
moreover, the people of the church in Jerusalem, by a certain oracle given through revelation to the approved men there before the war, having been commanded to remove from the city and to dwell in a certain city of Peraea, which they call Pella: when those who believed in Christ had migrated from Jerusalem to it, then, as though holy men had utterly forsaken both the royal metropolis of the Jews itself and the whole land of Judaea, the vengeance of God at last overtook them, who had so transgressed against Christ and his apostles, utterly blotting out that very generation of impious men from among men.
As to how many evils flowed together upon the whole nation in every place at that time, and how especially the inhabitants of Judaea were driven to the extremity of calamities, and how many myriads of men in their prime, together with women and children, fell by the sword and by famine and by countless other forms of death; and how many and what sieges of Jewish cities there were; and moreover what dreadful things and beyond dreadful those saw who had fled for refuge to Jerusalem itself as to a most fortified metropolis; and the manner of the whole war, and each of the things done in it severally; and how at the last the abomination of desolation proclaimed by the prophets was set up in the very temple of God, once renowned, which underwent utter destruction and final extinction by fire—it is open to whoever wishes to gather accurately from the history written by Josephus.
But it is necessary to note how this same writer relates that of those gathered from all Judaea on the days of the festival of the Passover, there were shut up, as it were in a prison—in these very words—within Jerusalem about three hundred myriads in multitude.
And it was fitting that on the very days in which they had compassed the things of the Passion against the Saviour and Benefactor of all and the Christ of God, shut up as in a prison, they should receive from the divine vengeance the destruction that pursued them.
Passing over, then, the things that befell them severally, all that was attempted against them by the sword and in other ways, I think it necessary to set down only the calamities through the famine, that those who light upon this writing may in part know how the vengeance from God overtook them not long after for their transgression against the Christ of God.

CHAPTER VI

Come, then, take again the fifth book of the Histories of Josephus in hand, and go through the tragedy of the things then done. "To the well-to-do," he says, "even to remain was equal to destruction; for under pretext of desertion one would be slain for the sake of his property. With the famine the frenzy of the seditious increased, and day by day both terrors were the more kindled.
Nowhere was grain to be seen openly; but bursting in, they searched the houses, and then, if they found it, they maltreated the owners as having denied it; and if they did not find it, they tortured them as having hidden it more carefully. And the proof of having and of not having was the bodies of the wretched men; of whom those still firm of frame seemed to be well supplied with food, but those already wasting away were passed by, and it seemed unreasonable to kill those who would presently die of want.
Many secretly bartered their possessions for one measure—of wheat, if they happened to be richer; the poorer, of barley; then, shutting themselves up in the inmost recesses of the houses, some in extremity of want ate the grain unprepared, others baked it as necessity and fear prompted.
And nowhere was a table set, but they snatched the food still raw, dragging it from the fire. Pitiable was the fare, and the sight worthy of tears, the stronger getting more than their share, and the weak lamenting.
Famine, indeed, surpasses all sufferings, but nothing so destroys as shame; for what otherwise is worthy of respect is in it despised. Wives, at any rate, snatched the food from their husbands, and children from their fathers, and—most pitiable of all—mothers from their infants, out of their very mouths; and while their dearest ones wasted in their hands, there was no sparing to take away the drops that sustained life.
Eating such food, nevertheless they were not unobserved, but everywhere the seditious stood over them even in their plundering. For whenever they saw a house shut up, this was a sign that those within were taking food, and straightway, bursting open the doors, they leaped in, and all but squeezed up the morsels from their very throats.
Old men were beaten as they clung to their food, and women were dragged by the hair as they hid what was in their hands; nor was there any pity for grey heads or infants, but lifting up the little ones who clung to the morsels, they dashed them on the ground. To those who had anticipated their inrush and swallowed beforehand what was to be plundered, they were more savage, as having been wronged;
and they devised dreadful ways of torture for the search after food, stopping up the privy passages of the wretched with bitter vetches, and impaling their seats with sharp rods; and one suffered things dreadful even to hear, to make him confess one loaf, and that he might disclose one handful of hidden barley-meal.
But the tormentors were not even hungry—for it would have been less savage had it been from necessity—but they were exercising their frenzy and laying up provisions for themselves for the days to come.
And to those who had crept out by night to the Roman guard for the gathering of wild herbs and grass, meeting them when they now thought they had escaped the enemy, they snatched away what they had brought; and often, though they besought them and called upon the most awful name of God to give them some part of what they had brought at peril, they gave nothing at all, and it was a thing to be thankful for not to perish besides, after being plundered."
To these things, after others, he adds, saying: "But for the Jews, with the exits, all hope of safety was cut off; and the famine, deepening, devoured the people house by house and family by family; and the roofs were filled with women and infants utterly spent,
and the lanes with the dead old men; and children and youths, swollen, rolled about the market-places like phantoms and fell down wherever the affliction seized any. To bury their own kin the sick had no strength, and those who were sound shrank from it, both because of the multitude of the dead and because of their own uncertainty; many, at any rate, died upon those they were burying, and many went forth to the tombs before their fate came upon them.
And there was neither lamentation nor mourning in the calamities, but the famine convicted the affections; and with dry eyes those dying hard looked upon those who had gone before them to rest; and a deep silence and a night full of death encompassed the city.
And the robbers were more grievous than these. For breaking open the houses like tomb-robbers, they plundered the dead, and stripping the coverings from the bodies, they went out laughing; and they tested the edges of their swords on the corpses, and some of the cast-out, still living, they ran through to make trial of the steel; but those who besought them to lend them a right hand and a sword, they left to the famine in their arrogance; and each of the dying looked steadfastly toward the temple, leaving the seditious alive.
These at first commanded the dead to be buried out of the public treasury, not enduring the stench; then, when they could not suffice, they cast them from the walls into the ravines. And when Titus, going round these, beheld them filled with the dead and the deep gore oozing from the decaying bodies, he groaned and, raising his hands, called God to witness that the work was not his.
To these, having interposed something, he adds, saying: "I would not shrink from saying what my feeling bids me. I think that, had the Romans delayed against the guilty, either the city would have been swallowed up by a chasm, or flooded, or have shared the thunderbolts of Sodom; for it bore a generation far more godless than those who suffered these things. By their frenzy, at any rate, the whole people perished together."
And in the sixth book he writes thus: "Of those destroyed by the famine throughout the city the multitude fell beyond number, and the sufferings that befell were beyond telling. For in each house, if anywhere a shadow of food appeared, there was war, and the dearest came to blows with one another, snatching the wretched provisions of life; nor was even the dying believed to be in want,
but the robbers searched even the breathing, lest anyone, having food in his bosom, should feign death for himself. And these, gaping with want, like mad dogs, staggered and were borne along, dashing against the doors like drunken men, and in their helplessness rushed into the same houses twice or thrice in a single hour.
Necessity brought everything to their teeth, and gathering what was not fit even for the filthiest of irrational animals, they brought themselves to eat it. At the last they refrained not from girdles and shoes, and stripping the hides from their shields they chewed them; and food to some were the scraps of old hay, for some, gathering the fibres, sold a very small weight for four Attic drachmas.
And what need to speak of the shamelessness of the famine toward things inanimate? For I will go on to declare a deed of it such as has been recorded neither among Greeks nor barbarians—dreadful to tell, incredible to hear. And for my part, lest I should seem to deal in marvels to men hereafter, I would gladly have passed over the calamity, had I not countless witnesses among my contemporaries; and besides, I should render a cold favour to my country, suppressing the account of what its deeds suffered.
A woman of those dwelling beyond Jordan, Mary by name, daughter of Eleazar, of the village of Bethezor (which signifies house of hyssop), distinguished by birth and wealth, having fled with the rest of the multitude to Jerusalem, was besieged with them.
Her other possessions, all that she had packed up and brought from Peraea into the city, the tyrants plundered; and the remnants of her treasures, and whatever was devised of food day by day, the spearmen leaped in and snatched away. A dreadful indignation entered the woman, and often, reviling and cursing the plunderers, she provoked them against herself.
But since no one, either provoked or pitying her, slew her, and to find food for others was a weariness, and from everywhere it was already impossible even to find it, and the famine made its way through entrails and marrow, and her passions kindled more than the famine, taking counsel of her anger together with necessity, she advanced against nature, and seizing her child—she had a son at the breast—
'Wretched babe,' she said, 'in war and famine and sedition, for whom do I keep thee? With the Romans is slavery, even if we live to come to them; but the famine forestalls even slavery, and the seditious are more grievous than both. Come, be food to me, and to the seditious an avenging fury, and to the world a tale, the one thing yet lacking to the calamities of the Jews.'
And saying this at the same time she slays her son, then, having roasted him, eats the half, and the rest she covered up and kept. And straightway the seditious were at hand, and snatching at the unlawful savour, they threatened, unless she should show what had been prepared, to slaughter her at once. And she, saying that she had kept a fair portion for them too, uncovered the remains of the child.
And straightway horror and derangement of mind seized them, and they stood frozen at the sight. But she said, 'This is my own child, and the deed mine. Eat, for I too have eaten. Be not more soft than a woman, nor more compassionate than a mother. But if you are scrupulous and turn away from my sacrifice, I have eaten for you, and let the rest remain for me too.'
After this they went out trembling, in this one thing cowardly, and scarcely yielding even this food to the mother; and straightway the whole city was filled with the abomination, and each, setting the suffering before his eyes as though dared in his own case, shuddered.
And the haste of the famished was toward death, and there was a calling blessed of those who had gone before, ere they heard and beheld such evils."

CHAPTER VII

Such were the requitals of the Jews' transgression and impiety against the Christ of God; and it is fitting to set beside them the unerring prediction of our Saviour, by which he declares these very things, prophesying somewhat thus: "But woe to those who are with child and to those who give suck in those days; and pray that your flight be not in winter, neither on a sabbath. For there shall be then great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall be."
The writer, having gathered the whole number of those slain, says that by famine and the sword a hundred and ten myriads were destroyed, and that the rest, the seditious and the robbers, were slain by one another after the capture; and of the young men, the tallest and those distinguished in beauty of body, were reserved for the triumph; and of the rest of the multitude, those over seventeen years were sent in bonds to the works in Egypt, and more were distributed among the provinces to be destroyed in the theatres by sword and beasts; while those under seventeen were led away captive and sold. And of these alone the number was gathered to nine myriads of men.
These things were done in this manner in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, in accordance with the prognostic predictions of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who by divine power had foreseen them as though already present, and wept and lamented over them, according to the Scripture of the holy evangelists, who have set down his very words—now saying, as toward Jerusalem itself,
"If thou hadst known, even thou, in this day, the things that belong to thy peace! But now they are hidden from thine eyes; for the days shall come upon thee when thine enemies shall cast a rampart about thee, and shall encircle thee, and shall hem thee in on every side, and shall dash thee to the ground, and thy children";
and now, as concerning the people, "For there shall be great distress upon the earth, and wrath upon this people; and they shall fall by the mouth of the sword and shall be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the nations, until the times of the nations be fulfilled." And again, "But when ye see Jerusalem encircled by armies, then know that her desolation is at hand."
And if one compares the words of our Saviour with the rest of the writer's history concerning the whole war, how would he not be amazed, confessing the foreknowledge and prediction of our Saviour to be truly divine and surpassingly marvellous?
Now concerning the things after the saving Passion and those cries in which the multitude of the Jews begged off from death the robber and murderer, but besought that the Author of life be taken away from among them, which befell the whole nation, there would be no need to add to the histories; but it would be just to set down these things,
which would set forth the loving-kindness of the all-good Providence, which for forty whole years after the audacity against Christ deferred the destruction against them; in which years most of the apostles and the disciples, and James himself, the first bishop there, called the brother of the Lord, were still living in this life and making their abode in the very city of Jerusalem, remaining as a most fortified bulwark of the place,
the divine oversight still being long-suffering even then, whether perchance they might be able, repenting of what they had done, to obtain pardon and salvation; and besides such long-suffering, providing marvellous divine portents of the things that should befall them if they repented not. These things too, deemed worthy of mention by the said writer, there is nothing so good as to set before those who light upon this writing.

CHAPTER VIII

So then, take and read the things declared by him in the sixth book of the Histories, in these words: "The wretched people, then, the deceivers and those who lied against God at that time misled; but to the clear portents that foreshowed the coming desolation they neither gave heed nor believed, but, as though thunderstruck, and having neither eyes nor soul, they paid no regard to the proclamations of God—
now when a star stood over the city, like a sword, and a comet that lasted a year; now when, before the revolt and the movement toward the war, while the people were gathering for the feast of unleavened bread, on the eighth of the month Xanthicus, at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone round the altar and the temple that it seemed to be bright day, and this lasted for half an hour; which to the inexperienced seemed to be a good sign, but by the sacred scribes was judged at once before the events.
And at the same feast a cow, brought by the high priest for the sacrifice, brought forth a lamb in the midst of the temple.
And the eastern gate of the inner court, being of brass and most massive, and scarcely shut at evening by twenty men, propped on iron-bound bars and having very deep bolts, was seen at the sixth hour of the night to open of itself.
And not many days after the feast, on the one-and-twentieth of the month Artemisius, a certain demonic apparition was seen, greater than belief; and what is to be said would have seemed a marvel, were it not both recorded among those who saw it, and the sufferings that followed worthy of the signs. For before sunset there were seen, raised on high over all the country, chariots and armed phalanxes darting through the clouds and encircling the cities.
And at the feast which is called Pentecost, by night the priests, having entered the temple for the ministrations, as was their custom, said that first they perceived a movement and a din, and after this a sudden voice, 'We depart hence.'
And, more terrible than these, a certain Jesus by name, son of Ananias, of the common folk, a rustic, four years before the war, when the city was especially at peace and prospering, came to the feast—since it was the custom for all to make tabernacles to God—and suddenly began to cry out in the temple, 'A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the temple, a voice against bridegrooms and brides, a voice against all the people.' This he went about crying day and night through all the lanes.
Some of the notable citizens, indignant at the ill-omened cry, seized the man and chastised him with many stripes; but he, neither uttering a word for himself nor privately to those present, continued to cry the same cries as before.
And the rulers, supposing—as indeed it was—that the man's impulse was something demonic, brought him up to the Roman prefect; where, though scourged to the bone, he neither besought nor wept, but, inclining his voice as plaintively as possible, answered to each blow, 'Woe, woe to Jerusalem.'"
Another thing yet more marvellous than this the same writer relates, saying that a certain oracle was found in the sacred writings containing that at that time one from their country should rule the world; which he himself took to have been fulfilled in Vespasian.
But he ruled not all, but only what was under the Romans; and it would more justly be referred to Christ, to whom it was said by the Father, "Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for thy possession"—of whom indeed at that very time "the sound of the holy apostles went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world."

CHAPTER IX

After all these things, it is right not to be ignorant even concerning Josephus himself, who has contributed so much to the history in hand, whence and from what race he sprang. He shows this too, saying thus: "Josephus, son of Matthias, a priest from Jerusalem, who himself at the first warred against the Romans, and of necessity was present at the later events."
And he was the most notable of the Jews of that time, not only among his own countrymen, but also among the Romans, so that he was honoured by the setting up of a statue in the city of the Romans, and the discourses laboured over by him were deemed worthy of a place in the library.
He set down the whole Jewish Antiquities in twenty books in all, and the history of the Roman war of his time in seven, which he attests that he delivered not only in the Greek but also in his native tongue—being worthy, on account of the rest, to be believed.
Two other works of his are extant worthy of study, On the Antiquity of the Jews, in which he has made refutations against Apion the grammarian, who at that time composed a discourse against the Jews, and against others who themselves too attempted to slander the ancestral things of the nation of the Jews.
In the former of these he sets down the number of the so-called old testamentary Scriptures, which among the Hebrews are indisputable, teaching this, as from ancient tradition, in his very words, thus:

CHAPTER X

"There are not, then, among us myriads of discordant and conflicting books, but only two-and-twenty, containing the record of all time, justly believed divine.
And of these five are of Moses, which contain the laws and the tradition of the creation of man down to his death; this period falls short by a little of three thousand years.
And from the death of Moses to Artaxerxes, who after Xerxes was king of the Persians, the prophets after Moses wrote the things done in their times in thirteen books; the remaining four contain hymns to God and precepts of life to men.
And from Artaxerxes to our own time each thing has been written, but is not deemed worthy of the like belief with those before them, because the exact succession of the prophets has not been kept.
And it is plain in deed how we approach our own writings; for though so great an age has now passed, no one has ventured either to add to them, or to take from them, or to alter; but it is inborn in all Jews, straightway from their first birth, to count these the decrees of God, and to abide by them, and, if need be, to die gladly for them."
Let these things of the writer be set down here usefully. There has been laboured by the man also another not ignoble work, On the Self-Governing Reason, which some have entitled Maccabean, because it contains the contests of the Hebrews who in the so-called Maccabean writings played the man for the sake of godliness toward the Divine.
And at the end of the twentieth book of the Antiquities the same writer indicates that he had purposed to compose in four books, according to the ancestral opinions of the Jews, concerning God and his being, and concerning the laws—why, according to them, some things are permitted to be done and others forbidden; and other things have been laboured over by him, as the same man mentions in his own discourses.
In addition to these it is reasonable to set down also the words which he has placed at the very end of the Antiquities, for the confirmation of the testimony of the things we have received from him. Slandering Justus of Tiberias, who, like himself, had attempted to relate the things of the same times, as not having written the truth, and bringing many other charges against the man, he adds these things in his very words:
"But I, for my part, was not afraid concerning my own writing in the same manner as thou; rather I gave the books to the emperors themselves, when the deeds were all but still being beheld; for I was conscious to myself of having kept the tradition of the truth, on which, expecting to obtain testimony, I was not disappointed.
And to many others also I gave the history, some of whom had even been present at the war, such as king Agrippa and certain of his kinsmen.
For the emperor Titus so wished the knowledge of the deeds to be delivered to men from these alone, that, having inscribed the books with his own hand, he commanded them to be published; and king Agrippa wrote sixty-two letters, bearing witness to the tradition of the truth." Of which he sets down two also. But let the things concerning this man be thus declared.

CHAPTER XI

Let us pass to what follows. After the martyrdom of James and the capture of Jerusalem that came straightway after, the account holds that those of the apostles and of the disciples of the Lord still surviving in life came together from everywhere to the same place, along with the kinsmen of the Lord after the flesh (for many of these too were still surviving in life), and all of them together took counsel as to whom it was meet to judge worthy of the succession of James; and, with one mind, all approved Symeon the son of Clopas, of whom the Scripture of the Gospel also makes mention, as worthy of the throne of the community there—being, as they say, a cousin of the Saviour; for Hegesippus relates that Clopas was a brother of Joseph.

CHAPTER XII

And besides these things, that Vespasian, after the capture of Jerusalem, commanded that all of David's family should be sought out, that none of the royal tribe might be left among the Jews; and that a very great persecution again hung over the Jews from this cause.

CHAPTER XIII

When Vespasian had reigned ten years, the emperor Titus, his son, succeeded him; in the second year of whose reign Linus, bishop of the church of the Romans, having held the ministry for twelve years, delivered it to Anencletus. And Titus was succeeded by his brother Domitian, after he had reigned two years and the like number of months.

CHAPTER XIV

In the fourth year of Domitian, the first of the community at Alexandria, Annianus, having completed two-and-twenty years, died; and the second, Abilius, succeeded him.

CHAPTER XV

And in the twelfth year of the same reign, Clement succeeded Anencletus, who had been bishop of the church of the Romans twelve years; whom the apostle, writing to the Philippians, teaches to have been his fellow-worker, saying: "with Clement also and the rest of my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life."

CHAPTER XVI

Of this man, then, one acknowledged epistle is extant, great and marvellous, which he drew up as from the church of the Romans to that of the Corinthians, a sedition having then arisen at Corinth. This we know to have been publicly read in very many churches before the congregation, both in old times and in our own. And that the matter of the Corinthian sedition was stirred up in his time, Hegesippus is a trustworthy witness.

CHAPTER XVII

Domitian, having shown much cruelty toward many, and having slain not a few of the well-born and notable men at Rome without reasonable judgement, and having punished countless other illustrious men, without cause, with exiles beyond the frontier and with the loss of their properties, at last established himself as a successor to the enmity against God and warfare against God of Nero. He, then, was the second to stir up the persecution against us, although his father Vespasian had devised nothing amiss against us.

CHAPTER XVIII

At this time the account holds that the apostle and at once evangelist John, still surviving in life, was condemned to dwell on the island of Patmos for the sake of his testimony to the divine word.
Irenaeus, at any rate, writing concerning the number of the name ascribed to Antichrist borne in the so-called Apocalypse of John, says these things concerning John in these very syllables in the fifth book Against the Heresies:
"But if it were needful that his name be proclaimed openly at the present time, it would have been declared through him who also saw the Apocalypse. For it was not seen long ago, but almost in our own generation, toward the end of the reign of Domitian."
And to such a degree, in the days indicated, was the teaching of our faith resplendent, that even writers far removed from our account did not shrink from delivering in their histories both the persecution and the martyrdoms in it; who indeed indicated the time accurately, relating that in the fifteenth year of Domitian, among very many others, Flavia Domitilla, who had been the daughter of a sister of Flavius Clemens, one of the consuls at Rome at that time, was for the sake of her testimony to Christ banished by way of punishment to the island Pontia.

CHAPTER XIX

And when the same Domitian commanded that those of David's line be slain, an ancient account holds that certain of the heretics accused the descendants of Jude (and this man was a brother after the flesh of the Saviour) as being of David's line and as bearing kinship to Christ himself. These things Hegesippus declares in these very words, saying somewhat thus.

CHAPTER XX

"Now there yet survived of the family of the Lord the grandsons of Jude, who was called his brother after the flesh; whom they informed against as being of David's line. These the evocatus brought to Domitian Caesar; for he feared the coming of Christ, as Herod also did.
And he asked them if they were of David, and they confessed it. Then he asked them how many possessions they had, or how much money they were masters of. And they said that to them both there belonged only nine thousand denarii, the half pertaining to each; and these they said they had not in money, but in the valuation of land of only thirty-nine plethra, from which they both rendered the taxes and supported themselves by their own labour.
And then they showed their own hands, presenting, as a proof of their labour, the hardness of their bodies and the callouses imprinted on their own hands from continual work.
And being asked concerning Christ and his kingdom, of what manner it was, and where and when it should appear, they gave answer that it was neither of the world nor earthly, but heavenly and angelic, and would come to be at the consummation of the age, when, coming in glory, he should judge the living and the dead and render to every man according to his pursuits.
Whereupon Domitian, having condemned them in nothing, but having despised them as men of no account, set them free, and by an edict made the persecution against the church to cease.
And those released became leaders of the churches, as being at once martyrs and of the family of the Lord; and, peace being made, they remained in life until Trajan."
These things Hegesippus. Moreover, Tertullian too has made such a mention of Domitian: "Domitian also had once attempted to do the same as that man, being a part of Nero's cruelty. But, I think, inasmuch as he had something of understanding, he very quickly ceased, recalling even those whom he had banished."
And after Domitian, who had held the rule fifteen years, Nerva succeeding to the rule, the senate-council of the Romans voted that the honours of Domitian be taken down, and that those unjustly banished return to their own, with the recovery of their properties; so relate those who have delivered the things of the times in writing.
Then indeed the apostle John also, from his exile on the island, received his abode at Ephesus, as the account of our ancients delivers.

CHAPTER XXI

Nerva, having reigned a little more than a year, was succeeded by Trajan; whose first year it was in which Cerdo succeeded Abilius, who had governed the community at Alexandria for thirteen years; he was the third to preside over those there after the first, Annianus. In this time Clement was still governing the Romans, holding likewise the third place of those who had been bishops there after Paul and Peter; Linus was the first, and after him Anencletus.

CHAPTER XXII

But of those at Antioch also, Euodius having been appointed first, Ignatius was known as the second in the times indicated. Symeon likewise, the second after the brother of our Saviour, held the ministry of the church in Jerusalem in these times.

CHAPTER XXIII

At this time there was still surviving in Asia the very one whom Jesus loved, apostle and at once evangelist, John, who governed the churches there, having returned from his exile on the island after the death of Domitian.
And that he survived in life to these times, it is enough to confirm the account by two witnesses; and these would be trustworthy, having been ambassadors of the orthodoxy of the church, namely Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria;
of whom the former writes thus, in the second book Against the Heresies, in these very words: "And all the elders who in Asia conversed with John, the disciple of the Lord, testify that John delivered these things; for he remained with them until the times of Trajan."
And in the third book of the same work he declares this same thing in these words: "But also the church in Ephesus, founded by Paul, and with John remaining among them until the times of Trajan, is a true witness of the tradition of the apostles."
Clement, indicating the time at once, adds also a most necessary story for those to whom it is dear to hear what is good and profitable, in the work which he entitled Who is the Rich Man that is Saved; take it and read his writing also, which runs somewhat thus:
"Hear a tale—not a tale but a true account—handed down concerning John the apostle and preserved in memory. For when, the tyrant being dead, he removed from the island of Patmos to Ephesus, he went also, being invited, to the neighbouring regions of the nations, here to appoint bishops, there to set in order whole churches, there to ordain to the clergy some one of those signified by the Spirit.
Coming, then, to one of the not-far cities, whose name some also tell, and having refreshed the brethren in other ways, at last, looking to the appointed bishop, and seeing a young man of strong body and comely countenance and ardent soul, he said: 'This man I commit to thee with all earnestness, in the presence of the church and of Christ as witness.' And when he accepted and promised all, he again said and protested the same things.
Then he set off for Ephesus, and the elder, taking home the young man delivered to him, reared him, kept him, cherished him, and at last enlightened him; and after this he relaxed his fuller care and watch, as having set upon him the perfect guard, the seal of the Lord.
But to him who had obtained freedom too soon, certain idle and abandoned youths of his age, habituated to evils, attached themselves; and first they led him on by costly banquets, then they took him out by night for robbery, then they demanded that he share in some greater thing;
and he little by little grew accustomed, and through the greatness of his nature, having gone astray, like a hard-mouthed and vigorous horse from the straight way, and biting the bit, he was the more violently borne toward the depths;
and, despairing utterly of salvation in God, he no longer thought any small thing, but, having once perished, he counted it meet to do some great thing and to suffer like the rest. So, taking these very men and forming a robber band, he was a ready captain of robbers, most violent, most bloody, most savage.
Time passed, and a certain need arising, they call back John. He, when he had settled the other things for which he had come, said: 'Come now, O bishop, give us back the deposit which both I and Christ committed to thee, in the presence of the church over which thou presidest as witness.'
And the bishop at first was amazed, supposing himself to be falsely charged with money which he had not received, and could neither believe concerning what he had not, nor disbelieve John. But when he said, 'I demand the young man, and the soul of the brother,' the elder, groaning from the depths and also shedding tears, said: 'He is dead.' 'How and by what death?' 'He is dead to God,' he said; 'for he turned out wicked and abandoned and, in a word, a robber, and now, instead of the church, he has occupied the mountain with a like band.'
The apostle, having rent his garment and with a great wail struck his head, said: 'A fine guardian of the brother's soul I left! But let a horse be brought me at once, and let someone become my guide on the way.' He rode off, just as he was, straight from the church.
And coming to the place, he was taken by the outpost of the robbers, neither fleeing nor begging off, but crying: 'For this have I come; bring me to your leader.'
He meanwhile, just as he was, armed, awaited; but when he recognized John approaching, he turned to flight, ashamed. But John pursued with all his might, forgetting his own age, crying:
'Why dost thou flee from me, child, thine own father, the unarmed, the old man? Pity me, child, fear not; thou hast still hopes of life. I will give account to Christ for thee; if need be, I will gladly endure thy death, as the Lord did for us; for thee I will give my own soul in exchange. Stand, believe; Christ has sent me.'
And he, hearing, first stood looking down, then cast away his weapons, then, trembling, wept bitterly; and as the old man drew near, he embraced him, pleading with his wailings as he could, and baptized a second time with his tears, hiding only his right hand.
But John, pledging, swearing that he had found forgiveness for him from the Saviour, beseeching, falling on his knees, kissing that very right hand as now cleansed by repentance, led him back to the church; and with abundant prayers interceding, and with continual fastings contending together with him, and charming his mind with manifold strains of words, he did not depart, they say, until he had set him over the church, giving a great example of true repentance and a great token of regeneration, a trophy of a visible resurrection." Let these things of Clement be set down here by me, both for the history and for the profit of those who shall read.

CHAPTER XXIV

Come now, let us note the indisputable writings of this apostle also.
And first let the Gospel according to him, known to the churches under heaven, be acknowledged; that it has reasonably been reckoned by the ancients as the fourth in order after the other three, may become evident in this way.
Those inspired and truly God-befitting men, I mean the apostles of Christ, having their life supremely purified and their souls adorned with every virtue, but being common in speech, yet bold in the divine and wonder-working power given them by the Saviour, neither knew nor attempted to set forth the teachings of their master in persuasion and art of words, but, using only the demonstration of the divine Spirit co-operating with them and the wonder-working power of Christ accomplished through them, they proclaimed the knowledge of the kingdom of the heavens to all the world, making but small account of zeal for writing.
And this they did as being engaged in a greater and superhuman ministry. Paul, at any rate, the mightiest of all in the array of words and most able in thoughts, committed to writing no more than the briefest epistles, though he had countless and unspeakable things to say, as one who had touched the contemplations up to the third heaven, and had been caught up to the very God-befitting paradise, and deemed worthy to hear the unspeakable words there.
The rest of the followers of our Saviour were not inexperienced in these same things—the twelve apostles, the seventy disciples, and countless others besides; yet of all the discourses of the Lord, Matthew and John alone have left us memorials; and even these, the account holds, came to writing of necessity.
For Matthew, having first preached to the Hebrews, when he was about to go also to others, delivered in his native tongue, in writing, the Gospel according to him, and by the writing filled up what was lacking of his presence to those from whom he was setting out.
And when Mark and Luke had already made the publication of the Gospels according to them, John, they say, having used all the time unwritten preaching, at last also came to writing, for such a cause as this. When the three before written had already been distributed to all and to him, they say that he accepted them, bearing witness to their truth, but that there was lacking to the writing only the narrative of the things done by Christ at the first and at the beginning of the preaching.
And the account is true. For it is possible to observe that the three evangelists wrote only the things done by the Saviour for one year after the imprisonment of John the Baptist, and they indicated this very thing at the beginning of their history;
for after the forty-day fast and the temptation upon it, Matthew shows the time of his own writing, saying, "And hearing that John was delivered up, he withdrew from Judaea into Galilee";
and Mark likewise, "And after John was delivered up," he says, "Jesus came into Galilee"; and Luke too, before he begins the acts of Jesus, similarly notes, saying that Herod, adding to the wicked deeds which he had done, shut up John in prison.
For this cause, they say, the apostle John was entreated to deliver, in the Gospel according to him, the time passed over in silence by the former evangelists and the things done by the Saviour during it (these were the things before the Baptist's imprisonment), and to indicate this very thing, now saying, "This beginning of his marvels did Jesus," now mentioning the Baptist in the midst of the acts of Jesus as still then baptizing in Aenon near Salim, and plainly declaring this in saying, "for John was not yet cast into prison."
John, therefore, in the writing of the Gospel according to him, delivers the things done by Christ when the Baptist had not yet been cast into prison; but the other three evangelists make mention of the things after the imprisonment of the Baptist;
and to one who attends to these things, the Gospels no longer seem to disagree with one another, since the one according to John contains the first of Christ's acts, and the rest the history that came to pass at the end of the period; and naturally, then, John passed over in silence the genealogy of our Saviour's flesh, as having been written before by Matthew and Luke, and began from the theology, as having been reserved for him by the divine Spirit as for one of higher gifts.
Let these things, then, be said by us concerning the writing of the Gospel according to John; and the cause of that according to Mark has been shown by us in what precedes.
And Luke, himself too at the beginning of the work according to him, set forth the cause for which he made the composition, showing that, since many others had rather rashly attempted to make a narrative of the things of which he himself had been fully assured, necessarily delivering us from the disputable supposition concerning the others, he delivered, through his own Gospel, the sure account of the things whose truth he himself had sufficiently apprehended, profited by his association and converse with Paul and his intercourse with the rest of the apostles.
And these things we say concerning them; but more fittingly, in due season, through the citation of the ancients, we shall try to declare what has been said about them by others also.
Of the writings of John, besides the Gospel, the former of the epistles too is acknowledged as indisputable both among those of now and among the ancients;
but the remaining two are disputed; and as for the Apocalypse, the opinion of the many is even now drawn to either side; nevertheless it too, from the testimony of the ancients, shall in due season receive its decision.

CHAPTER XXV

It is reasonable, having come to this point, to recapitulate the writings of the New Testament that have been indicated. And first must be ranged the holy tetrad of the Gospels, which the writing of the Acts of the Apostles follows;
and after this must be reckoned the epistles of Paul, to which next must be ratified the so-called former epistle of John and likewise the epistle of Peter; after these must be ranged, if it seem right, the Apocalypse of John, concerning which what is judged we shall set forth in due season.
And these are among the acknowledged. Of the disputed, but nevertheless familiar to the many, are the so-called epistle of James and that of Jude, and the second epistle of Peter, and the so-called second and third of John, whether they be the evangelist's or also of another of the same name as he.
Among the spurious must be ranged the writing of the Acts of Paul, and the so-called Shepherd, and the Apocalypse of Peter, and besides these the so-called epistle of Barnabas, and the so-called Teachings of the Apostles, and moreover, as I said, the Apocalypse of John, if it seem right—which some, as I said, reject, but others reckon among the acknowledged.
Already some have reckoned among these also the Gospel according to the Hebrews, in which those of the Hebrews who have received Christ especially delight.
All these would be among the disputed; but we have necessarily made the list even of these, distinguishing the writings true and unfeigned and acknowledged according to the ecclesiastical tradition, and the others apart from these, not testamentary but also disputed, yet known to very many of the ecclesiastical men; that we might know both these very ones, and those put forward in the name of the apostles by the heretics, whether as containing gospels of Peter and Thomas and Matthias, or also of certain others besides these, or as acts of Andrew and John and the rest of the apostles; of which none has any of those who have followed in the succession of ecclesiastical men ever deemed worthy to bring to mention in a writing;
and the character of the diction also varies far from the apostolic manner, and the thought and the purpose of the things borne in them, departing as far as possible from the true orthodoxy, plainly sets forth that they are the fabrications of heretical men; whence they must not be ranged even among the spurious, but rejected as altogether absurd and impious.

CHAPTER XXVI

Let us pass now to what follows of the history. Menander, having succeeded Simon Magus, is shown to be a second weapon of the diabolical working, no worse than the former, in manner. He too was a Samaritan, and, having advanced to the height of sorcery no less than his teacher, he lavished greater marvel-mongerings, saying of himself that he was the Saviour sent down from above somewhere, from the invisible ages, for the salvation of men;
and teaching that no one could otherwise prevail even over the very world-making angels, unless first led on through the magical skill delivered by him, and through the baptism imparted by him, of which those deemed worthy would partake of perpetual immortality in this very life, no longer dying, but abiding with him, certain ones who should be ageless and immortal for ever. These things, then, it is easy to learn also from the writings of Irenaeus;
and Justin too, having made mention of Simon in the same place, adds also the narrative concerning this man, saying: "And a certain Menander, himself also a Samaritan, from the village of Capparattea, having become a disciple of Simon, and himself too goaded by the demons and having come to be in Antioch, deceived many by magic art; who persuaded those that followed him that they should not die, and even now there are some who, from him, confess this."
It was, then, of diabolical working, through such sorcerers, who put on the title of Christians, to strive to slander the great mystery of godliness by sorcery, and through them to traduce the ecclesiastical doctrines concerning the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the dead. But these, having inscribed such men as their saviours, have fallen from the true hope.

CHAPTER XXVII

Others, whom the evil demon, being unable to shake from their disposition toward the Christ of God, finding seized on the other side, he appropriated; the first members fitly named these Ebionites, who held poor and lowly opinions concerning Christ.
For they regarded him as plain and common, justified by mere advancement of character as a man only, born of the union of a man with Mary; and they held that there was altogether need for them of the legal worship, as though they should not be saved by faith in Christ alone and a life according to it.
But others besides these, being of the same name, escaped the absurd absurdity of the things said, not denying that the Lord was born of a virgin and the Holy Spirit, yet not likewise confessing that he pre-existed, being God the Word and Wisdom; they were turned to the impiety of the former, especially when they were zealous to observe the bodily service of the law in like manner with those.
These thought that the epistles of the apostle must be wholly rejected, calling him an apostate from the law; and using only the so-called Gospel according to the Hebrews, they made small account of the rest;
and the Sabbath and the rest of the Jewish manner of life they observed likewise with those, while on the Lord's days they performed practices like ours, in memory of the saving resurrection;
whence, from such a practice, they have obtained such a title, the name of Ebionites indicating the poverty of their mind; for by this surname is "the poor" named among the Hebrews.

CHAPTER XXVIII

In the times indicated we have received that Cerinthus became the author of another heresy. Gaius, whose words I have already before set down, in the disputation ascribed to him writes thus concerning him:
"But Cerinthus too, by means of revelations as though written by a great apostle, falsely introduces to us marvel-mongerings, as though shown to him by angels, saying that after the resurrection the kingdom of Christ shall be earthly, and that again in Jerusalem the flesh, dwelling as a citizen, shall be enslaved to lusts and pleasures. And being an enemy to the Scriptures of God, wishing to deceive, he says there shall be a number of a thousand years in marriage festival."
And Dionysius too, who in our day was allotted the bishopric of the community at Alexandria, in the second book of the Promises, having said certain things concerning the Apocalypse of John as from the tradition of old, makes mention of the same man in these words:
"And Cerinthus, who established the heresy called after him the Cerinthian, wishing to attach a credible name to his own fabrication.
For this was the doctrine of his teaching, that the kingdom of Christ should be earthly, and in the things which he himself longed for, being a lover of the body and altogether carnal, he dreamed it should consist—in the fillings of the belly and the things below the belly, that is, in food and drink and marriages, and in the things through which he supposed he would procure these more decently, in festivals and sacrifices and slayings of victims."
These things Dionysius. And Irenaeus, having set forth certain more secret false opinions of the same man in the first book Against the Heresies, in the third has also delivered to writing a story not unworthy of memory, saying, as from the tradition of Polycarp, that John the apostle once entered a bath-house to bathe, but, learning that Cerinthus was within, leaped away from the place and fled out of doors, not enduring to be under the same roof with him, and counselled those with him to do the same, saying, "Let us flee, lest the bath fall in, since Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within."

CHAPTER XXIX

At this time too the so-called heresy of the Nicolaitans subsisted for a very short while, of which indeed the Apocalypse of John makes mention. These boasted of Nicolaus, one of those about Stephen who had been chosen by the apostles for the care of the needy. But Clement of Alexandria, in the third book of the Stromateis, relates these things concerning him in these words:
"Having, they say, a comely wife, this man, after the ascension of the Saviour, being reproached by the apostles for jealousy, brought his wife into the midst and permitted whoever wished to marry her. For they say that this action accords with that saying, that one must misuse the flesh; and indeed, following the deed and the saying simply and without examination, those who follow his heresy commit fornication unrestrainedly.
But I inquire, and find that Nicolaus had relations with no other woman than her whom he married, and of his children the daughters grew old as virgins, and the son remained uncorrupted; which being so, the bringing of the wife, over whom there was jealousy, into the midst of the apostles was a casting away of passion, and the abstinence from the much-sought pleasures taught the 'misusing of the flesh.' For he did not wish, I think, according to the commandment of the Saviour, to serve two masters, pleasure and the Lord.
They say, at any rate, that Matthias too taught thus, to contend with the flesh and to misuse it, yielding nothing to it for pleasure, but to increase the soul through faith and knowledge." Let these things, then, be said concerning those who in the times indicated attempted to corrupt the truth, but were quenched utterly more quickly than the telling.

CHAPTER XXX

But Clement, whose words we have just read, after the foregoing, reckons up, against those who reject marriage, the apostles who were proved in wedlock, saying: "Or will they even reject the apostles? For Peter and Philip begat children, and Philip even gave his daughters in marriage to husbands; and Paul does not hesitate, in a certain epistle, to address his consort, whom he did not carry about because of the convenience of his ministry."
And since we have made mention of these things, it is no grief to set down another story worthy of relating, of the same man, which he recorded in the seventh book of the Stromateis, relating it in this manner: "They say, at any rate, that the blessed Peter, beholding his own wife led away to death, was glad indeed for the sake of her calling and her return home, and called out to her very encouragingly and consolingly, addressing her by name: 'Remember thou the Lord.' Such was the marriage of the blessed, and the perfect disposition of those dearest." And these things too, being proper to the subject in hand, let them be set down here by me in due season.

CHAPTER XXXI

Of Paul and Peter, then, both the time and the manner of their death, and moreover the place of the deposition of their tabernacles after their departure from life, have already been shown by us before;
and of John, the things of the time have somehow already been said, but the place of his tabernacle is shown from an epistle of Polycrates (this man was bishop of the community in Ephesus), which, writing to Victor bishop of the Romans, he makes mention at once of John himself and of Philip the apostle and of his daughters, somewhat thus:
"For in Asia also great luminaries have fallen asleep, who shall rise again on the last day of the coming of the Lord, in which he comes with glory from heaven and shall seek out all the saints: Philip of the twelve apostles, who has fallen asleep in Hierapolis, and two of his daughters who grew old as virgins, and his other daughter, who, having lived in the Holy Spirit, rests in Ephesus; and moreover John also, who leaned upon the breast of the Lord, who became a priest wearing the plate, and a witness and a teacher—this man has fallen asleep in Ephesus."
These things concerning the death of these men. And in the dialogue of Gaius, of whom we made mention a little before, Proclus, with whom he held the disputation, concerning the death of Philip and his daughters, in agreement with what has been set forth, says thus: "After this there were four prophetesses, the daughters of Philip, in Hierapolis in Asia; their tomb is there, and that of their father."
These things this man. But Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, makes mention of the daughters of Philip then dwelling at Caesarea of Judaea, together with their father, and deemed worthy of the prophetic gift, saying somewhat thus in these very words: "We came to Caesarea, and entering into the house of Philip the evangelist, who was of the seven, we abode with him. Now this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied."
Having, then, in these things treated the matters that have come to our knowledge concerning the apostles and the apostolic times, both of the sacred writings they have left us, and of those that are disputed, yet nevertheless publicly read in very many churches by many, and of those altogether spurious and foreign to the apostolic orthodoxy, let us proceed to the history of what follows.

CHAPTER XXXII

After Nero and Domitian, in the time of him whose times we are now examining, the account holds that the persecution against us was stirred up partially and by cities, from the risings of the populace; in which Symeon the son of Clopas, whom we showed to have been appointed second bishop of the church in Jerusalem, we have received departed life by martyrdom.
And a witness of this is that very one whose various words we have already before used, Hegesippus; who, relating concerning certain heretics, adds, declaring that at this time the said man, having undergone accusation by them as a Christian, was tortured in manifold ways for very many days, and astounded to the utmost the judge himself and those about him, and bore away an end like to the Passion of the Lord.
But there is nothing so good as to hear the writer himself, who relates these very things in these words somewhat thus: "From these, namely the heretics, certain accuse Simon the son of Clopas, as being of David and a Christian; and thus he was martyred, being a hundred and twenty years old, in the time of Trajan Caesar and the consular Atticus."
The same man says that his accusers also, when those of the royal tribe of the Jews were then being sought out, were taken as being themselves of these. And by reasoning one might say that Symeon too had been one of the eyewitnesses and earwitnesses of the Lord, using as proof the length of the time of his life, and the fact that the Scripture of the Gospels makes mention of Mary the wife of Clopas, whose son he was, as the account showed before also.
The same writer says that others too, descendants of one of the so-called brethren of the Saviour, whose name was Jude, survived into the same reign, after the martyrdom already before related of them on behalf of their faith in Christ in the time of Domitian; and he writes thus:
"They come, then, and take the lead of every church, as witnesses and of the family of the Lord; and, deep peace being made in every church, they remain until Trajan Caesar, until the time when he of the Lord's uncle, the aforesaid Simon son of Clopas, being falsely accused by the heretics, was likewise himself accused upon the same charge before Atticus the consular. And being tortured for many days, he was martyred, so that all, and even the consular, marvelled exceedingly how, being a hundred and twenty years old, he endured; and he was commanded to be crucified."
To these things the same man, relating the matters concerning the times indicated, adds that until those times the church remained a pure and uncorrupted virgin, those who attempted to corrupt the sound rule of the saving preaching—if indeed any such there were—still lurking, as it were, in some obscure darkness;
but when the sacred choir of the apostles had received the diverse ends of their life, and that generation had passed away of those who had been deemed worthy with their own ears to hear the inspired wisdom, then the confederacy of the godless error took its beginning, through the deceit of the heterodox teachers, who, since none of the apostles any longer remained, henceforth with bared head attempted to preach against the preaching of the truth the knowledge falsely so called.

CHAPTER XXXIII

So great, however, was the persecution against us then intensified in very many places, that Pliny Secundus, a most distinguished of governors, moved by the multitude of the martyrs, communicated to the emperor concerning the multitude of those slain for the faith; and at the same time he made known that he had detected them in nothing unholy nor contrary to the laws, save only that, rising at dawn, they hymned Christ as a god; but that adultery and murder and the kindred unlawful offences they themselves too forbade, and did all things in accordance with the laws.
To which Trajan laid down such a decree, that the tribe of the Christians should not be sought out, but, if it fell in their way, be punished. By which, in some measure, the threat of the persecution, most violently pressing, was quenched; nevertheless no less were there left pretexts to those who wished to do us mischief, sometimes the populaces, sometimes the rulers throughout the regions contriving plots against us, so that, even without open persecutions, partial ones were kindled in the provinces, and many of the faithful contended in diverse martyrdoms.
The history has been taken from the Roman Apology of Tertullian, of which we showed above; whose translation runs in this manner: "And yet we have found that the inquiry against us has been forbidden. For Pliny Secundus, governing a province, having condemned certain Christians and removed them from their rank, being disturbed by the multitude, because he was ignorant what henceforth he should do, communicated with Trajan the emperor, saying that, except their unwillingness to worship idols, he had found nothing unholy among them; and he made known this also, that the Christians rose at dawn and hymned Christ as a god, and that, to preserve their discipline, they were forbidden to murder, to commit adultery, to be covetous, to defraud, and the like. To these things Trajan wrote back that the tribe of the Christians should not be sought out, but, if it fell in their way, be punished." And these things were thus.

CHAPTER XXXIV

Of the bishops at Rome, in the third year of the reign of the aforesaid emperor, Clement, having delivered the ministry to Evarestus, departed life, having presided in all over the teaching of the divine word for nine years.

CHAPTER XXXV

But when Symeon also had been perfected in the manner shown, a certain Jew, Justus by name, succeeded to the throne of the bishopric in Jerusalem—he himself too being one of the countless multitude of those of the circumcision who at that time had believed in Christ.

CHAPTER XXXVI

There was distinguished in these times in Asia Polycarp, a companion of the apostles, who had been entrusted with the bishopric of the church in Smyrna by the eyewitnesses and ministers of the Lord;
in whose time was known Papias, himself too bishop of the community in Hierapolis, and Ignatius, renowned among very many even to this day, allotted the bishopric, second in the succession from Peter, of the church at Antioch.
And the account holds that this man was sent up from Syria to the city of the Romans and became food for beasts on account of his testimony to Christ;
and indeed, making his journey through Asia under the most careful guard of his keepers, he strengthened the communities in the cities where he sojourned by spoken homilies and exhortations, especially urging them above all to beware of the heresies then for the first time prevailing, and exhorting them to hold fast the tradition of the apostles, which, for safety's sake, he now deemed it necessary, bearing witness even in writing, to set down in form.
So then, being in Smyrna, where Polycarp was, he writes one epistle to the church in Ephesus, making mention of its shepherd Onesimus, and another to that in Magnesia on the Maeander, where again he has made mention of the bishop Damas, and another to that in Tralles, of which he relates that Polybius was then ruler.
Besides these he writes also to the church of the Romans, to which he proffers an exhortation that they should not, by begging him off from martyrdom, deprive him of the longed-for hope; from which it is worth setting down a very little, for the proof of what has been said. He writes, then, in these words:
"From Syria as far as Rome I fight with beasts, by land and sea, by night and day, bound to ten leopards, that is, a band of soldiers, who, even when treated well, become worse; but in their wrongdoings I am the more made a disciple—yet not on that account am I justified.
May I have benefit of the beasts that are ready for me, which also I pray may be found swift for me; which I will even coax to devour me swiftly, not as some they have not touched through cowardice; and even if they be unwilling and refuse, I will force them.
Bear with me; I know what is profitable for me. Now I begin to be a disciple. Let nothing of things seen or unseen envy me, that I may attain Jesus Christ. Let fire and cross and gatherings of beasts, scatterings of bones, hewings of limbs, grindings of the whole body, the punishments of the devil come upon me, only that I may attain Jesus Christ."
And these things he set down to the churches enumerated from the said city; and being now beyond Smyrna, from Troas he again converses by writing both with those in Philadelphia and with the church of the Smyrnaeans, and privately with him who presided over it, Polycarp; whom, recognizing very well as an apostolic man, like a genuine and good shepherd, he commits to him the flock at Antioch, asking that he have its care earnestly.
The same man, writing to the Smyrnaeans, has used—I know not whence—sayings, relating certain such things concerning Christ: "But I both know and believe that he was in the flesh even after the resurrection. And when he came to those about Peter, he said to them, 'Take, handle me and see that I am not a bodiless spirit'; and straightway they touched him and believed."
Irenaeus too knows of his martyrdom and makes mention of his epistles, saying thus: "As one of ours said, condemned to the beasts for the testimony toward God, that 'I am the wheat of God, and I am ground by the teeth of beasts, that I may be found pure bread.'"
And Polycarp too makes mention of these very things in the epistle ascribed to him to the Philippians, saying in these very words: "I exhort, then, all of you to obey and to practise all endurance, which you saw before your eyes not only in the blessed Ignatius and Rufus and Zosimus, but also in others of your own, and in Paul himself and the rest of the apostles, being persuaded that all these ran not in vain, but in faith and righteousness, and that they are in the place due to them with the Lord, with whom also they suffered. For they did not love the present age, but him who died for us and for our sakes was raised by God."
And next he adds: "You wrote to me, both you and Ignatius, that if anyone goes to Syria he should carry also the letters from you; which I will do, if I get a fitting opportunity, either I myself or one whom I send to be an ambassador also on your behalf.
The epistles of Ignatius sent to us by him, and others, as many as we had with us, we have sent to you, as you commanded; which are appended to this epistle; from which you will be able to be greatly profited. For they contain faith and endurance and all edification pertaining to our Lord." And such are the things concerning Ignatius; and after him Hero succeeded to the bishopric of Antioch.

CHAPTER XXXVII

Of those who shone in these times was Quadratus also, whom, along with the daughters of Philip, the account holds to have been distinguished by the prophetic gift; and many others besides these were known in these times, holding the first rank of the succession of the apostles; who also, being such God-befitting disciples, built upon the foundations of the churches laid everywhere by the apostles, increasing yet more the preaching and sowing broadcast the saving seeds of the kingdom of the heavens throughout the whole world.
For indeed very many of the disciples of that time, smitten in soul by the divine word with a more vehement love of philosophy, first fulfilled the saving exhortation, distributing their substance to the needy; then, setting out on journeys, they performed the work of evangelists, eager to preach to those wholly unhearing of the word of faith, and to deliver the writing of the divine Gospels.
And these, laying down only the foundations of the faith in some foreign places, and appointing others as shepherds, and entrusting to these very men the husbandry of those lately brought in, themselves again passed on to other lands and nations, with the grace and co-operation of God; since even then very many marvellous powers of the divine Spirit were wrought through them, so that from the first hearing whole multitudes of men eagerly received in their souls godliness toward the Maker of all things.
But since it is impossible for us to enumerate by name all, as many as ever became, in the first succession of the apostles, shepherds or evangelists in the churches throughout the world, we have reasonably set down in writing by name the memory only of those whose tradition of the apostolic teaching is borne even now to us through memoirs.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

As, indeed, in the epistles of Ignatius which we enumerated, and in that of Clement acknowledged by all, which he drew up from the person of the church of the Romans to that of the Corinthians; in which, having set down many thoughts of the epistle to the Hebrews, and having even used some sayings from it verbatim,
he most plainly shows that the writing is not recent, whence indeed it reasonably seemed to be reckoned among the rest of the writings of the apostle. For since Paul had conversed in writing with the Hebrews in the native tongue, some say that the evangelist Luke, others that this very Clement, translated the writing;
which would the rather be true, since both the epistle of Clement and that to the Hebrews preserve the like character of diction, and the thoughts in both writings are not far apart.
But it must be known that there is said to be also a second epistle of Clement; yet we do not understand this to be acknowledged in like manner with the former, since we do not know that the ancients used it.
And already certain men have, but yesterday and lately, brought forward other prolix and long writings as his, containing dialogues of Peter and Apion; of which no mention at all is borne among the ancients, for they do not preserve the pure character of the apostolic orthodoxy.

CHAPTER XXXIX

The acknowledged writing of Clement, then, is manifest; and the things of Ignatius and Polycarp have been spoken of. Of Papias five writings in number are extant, which are entitled Expositions of the Oracles of the Lord. Of these Irenaeus too makes mention as the only ones written by him, saying somewhat thus: "These things Papias too, a hearer of John, and a companion of Polycarp, an ancient man, attests in writing in the fourth of his own books. For there are five books composed by him."
And Irenaeus says these things; but Papias himself, in the preface of his discourses, by no means declares himself to have been a hearer and eyewitness of the holy apostles, but teaches that he received the things of the faith from those who were known to them, in the words he uses:
"But I will not hesitate to set down for thee, along with the interpretations, all that I ever learned well from the elders and remembered well, confirming the truth on their behalf. For I did not delight, like the many, in those who say many things, but in those who teach the truth; nor in those who relate the commandments of others, but in those who relate the commandments given by the Lord to the faith and proceeding from the truth itself.
And if anyone chanced to come who had followed the elders, I inquired into the words of the elders—what Andrew or what Peter said, or what Philip, or what Thomas or James, or what John or Matthew, or any other of the disciples of the Lord; and the things which Aristion and the elder John, disciples of the Lord, say. For I did not suppose that the things from the books profited me so much as the things from the living and abiding voice."
Here it is worth noting that he twice reckons the name of John: of whom the former he ranges with Peter and James and Matthew and the rest of the apostles, plainly meaning the evangelist; but the other John, having separated the statement, he ranges among others beyond the number of the apostles, setting Aristion before him, and plainly naming him an elder;
so that by these things too the history is shown to be true of those who said that there were two of the same name in Asia, and that there came to be two tombs in Ephesus, and each is even now said to be John's; to which it is necessary to give heed. For it is likely that the second, unless one wish it to be the first, saw the Apocalypse borne under the name of John.
And the Papias now declared by us confesses that he received the words of the apostles from those who had followed them, but says that he himself was a hearer of Aristion and the elder John; at any rate, having often mentioned them by name in his own writings, he sets down their traditions.
And let these things too be said by us not unprofitably; and it is worth attaching to the words of Papias rendered above other sayings of his, by which he relates certain marvels and other things as having come to him from tradition.
That Philip the apostle sojourned at Hierapolis with his daughters has been shown through what precedes; but that Papias, having come to be in their time, relates that he received a marvellous narrative from the daughters of Philip, must now be noted; for he relates a resurrection of a dead man that came to pass in his time, and again another marvel concerning Justus surnamed Barsabas, that he drank a deadly poison and, by the grace of the Lord, suffered nothing harmful.
This Justus, after the ascension of the Saviour, the holy apostles set up along with Matthias, and prayed concerning him for the lot of the filling up of their number, instead of the traitor Judas, as the Scripture of the Acts relates somewhat thus: "And they set up two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias; and having prayed, they said."
And other things the same man sets down as having come to him from unwritten tradition, certain strange parables of the Saviour and teachings of his, and some other things rather mythical;
among which he says there will be a certain thousand years after the resurrection from the dead, the kingdom of Christ being set up bodily upon this very earth; which I suppose he received by taking the apostolic narratives wrongly, not perceiving the things said by them mystically in figures.
For he appears to have been very small in understanding, as one may say judging from his own words; nevertheless he became to very many after him among the ecclesiastical men a partial cause of a like opinion to his own, those who put forward the antiquity of the man, as indeed Irenaeus and whoever else held like things has shown himself to be.
And he delivers in his own writing other narratives of the words of the Lord from Aristion, of whom we have spoken before, and traditions of the elder John; to which we, having referred the studious, must now necessarily add to the words of his set forth above a tradition which he has set down concerning Mark, who wrote the Gospel, in these words:
"And this the elder used to say: Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote accurately all that he remembered, yet not in order, of the things either said or done by the Lord. For he neither heard the Lord nor followed him, but afterward, as I said, Peter; who used to make his teachings according to the needs, but not as making a composition of the oracles of the Lord; so that Mark did no wrong in thus writing certain things as he remembered them. For of one thing he took care, to omit nothing of the things he heard, nor to falsify anything in them."
These things, then, are related by Papias concerning Mark. But concerning Matthew these things were said: "Matthew, then, composed the oracles in the Hebrew dialect, and each interpreted them as he was able."
The same man has used testimonies from the former epistle of John, and likewise from that of Peter; and he has set forth also another story concerning a woman accused before the Lord of many sins, which the Gospel according to the Hebrews contains. And these things too let them be noted by us necessarily, in addition to what has been set forth.