Church History (Book 3 – Book 4)

Church History

continued

Chapter 24

The Order of the Gospels.

3 Let this account from Clement stand here, both for the history and for the benefit of those who read it. Now let us also point out the undisputed writings of this apostle. First, his Gospel is recognized by the churches everywhere under heaven, and let it be acknowledged as genuine. The ancients had good reason to place it fourth, after the other three, and this will become clear as follows. The apostles of Christ were inspired men, truly worthy of God. Their lives were thoroughly purified, and their souls were adorned with every virtue. But they were untrained in speech. They put their confidence in the divine, miracle-working power that the Saviour had given them. They neither knew how nor tried to present their teacher’s lessons with elaborate craft and rhetoric. Instead they relied only on the demonstration of the divine Spirit working with them, and on the miraculous power of Christ accomplished through them. In this way they proclaimed the knowledge of the kingdom of heaven throughout the whole world, and they gave little thought to writing books.^[87]

5 They did this because they were serving in a ministry greater than any human one. Paul, for example, was the most powerful of all in preparing his words and was fully capable in his thoughts, yet he left in writing no more than very short letters. He could have said countless things that cannot be told, for he had touched the visions up to the third heaven, had been caught up into God’s own paradise, and had been counted worthy to hear unspeakable words there. The other followers of our Saviour were not without such experiences either: the twelve apostles, the seventy disciples, and countless others besides. Nevertheless, of all the Lord’s companions, only Matthew and John have left us written records of his teachings and life, and tradition says that necessity drove them to write.^[88] [2 Corinthians 12:2-4] 7 Matthew had first preached to the Hebrews. When he was about to go to others as well, he handed down his Gospel in writing in his native language. In this way his writing made up for his absence to those he was leaving. Then, after Mark and Luke had already published their Gospels, they say that John, who had used unwritten preaching all the time, finally came to writing for this reason. The three Gospels written before his had by now been passed on to everyone, including himself. They say he welcomed them and bore witness that they were true. But he said that only one thing was missing from the written account: the story of what Christ did at first, at the very beginning of his preaching.

9 And this account is true. For anyone can see that the other three evangelists wrote down only what the Savior did in the one year after John the Baptist was shut up in prison, and that they point this out at the start of their histories. Matthew, for example, after the forty days’ fast and the temptation that followed it, marks the time of his narrative when he says: “Now when he heard that John had been delivered up, he withdrew from Judea into Galilee.” [Matthew 4:12] 11 Mark likewise says, “Now after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee.” And Luke, before he begins the deeds of Jesus, marks the time in a similar way, saying that Herod, adding to all the evil things he had done, shut John up in prison. For these reasons, they say, the apostle John was urged to hand down in his own Gospel the period that the earlier evangelists had passed over in silence, and the Savior’s deeds in that period, that is, the things that happened before the Baptist was put in prison. They say he himself points this out, sometimes saying, “This beginning of signs Jesus made,” and sometimes mentioning the Baptist in the middle of the deeds of Jesus, as still baptizing at Aenon near Salim. He makes it plain when he says, “For John had not yet been thrown into prison.”^[89] [Mark 1:14; Luke 3:19-20; John 2:11; John 3:23-24]

13 So in writing his Gospel, John hands down what Christ did before the Baptist was thrown into prison, while the other three evangelists record what happened after the Baptist was shut up in prison. Anyone who takes note of this will no longer think the Gospels disagree with one another, since John’s Gospel contains the first of Christ’s deeds, while the others contain the history of the last part of his time. It was reasonable, then, that John passed over in silence the genealogy of our Savior according to the flesh, since Matthew and Luke had already written it, and that he began with the teaching about his divinity, which the divine Spirit had kept in reserve for him as the greater one. 15 Let this be enough from us about the writing of the Gospel according to John. The reason for the Gospel according to Mark has already been explained earlier. As for Luke, at the very beginning of his writing he himself states why he composed it. Many others, he says, had rashly taken it upon themselves to give an account of matters of which he himself had full assurance. So, to free us from the uncertain opinions held about those others, he handed down in his own Gospel the reliable account of what he himself had fully grasped as the truth. He had gained this from his time with Paul and his companionship with him, and from his conversation with the other apostles. [Luke 1:1-4]

18 That is what we have to say about these matters. At a more suitable time we shall try to set out what others have said about them, by quoting the ancient writers. Of the writings of John, besides the Gospel, his first epistle has been accepted without dispute, both by people today and by those of old. The other two are disputed. As for the Apocalypse, the opinion of most people is still pulled in both directions. Nevertheless, at the proper time this book too will be judged from the testimony of the ancients.

Chapter 25

The Divine Scriptures that are Accept and Those that are Not.

3 Heading: The Divine Scriptures That Are Accepted and Those That Are Not. Since we have come to this point, it is reasonable to sum up the writings of the New Testament already mentioned. First we must place the holy fourfold set of the Gospels. The writing of the Acts of the Apostles follows them. After that we must list the epistles of Paul. Next we should affirm the epistle of John called his first, and likewise the epistle of Peter. After these we should place, if it seems right, the Apocalypse of John; we will set out the opinions about it at the proper time. These belong among the accepted books. Among the disputed books, which are nevertheless well known to many, are the one called the epistle of James, the epistle of Jude, the second epistle of Peter, and the ones called the second and third of John, whether they belong to the evangelist or to another person with the same name.^[90]

5 Among the spurious books let us also place the Acts of Paul, the so-called Shepherd, the Apocalypse of Peter, and besides these the letter circulating under the name of Barnabas and the so-called Teachings of the Apostles. In addition there is, as I said, the Apocalypse of John, if that seems right. Some, as I said, reject it, while others count it among the accepted books. Some have also listed among these the Gospel according to the Hebrews, in which those Hebrews who have accepted Christ take special delight. All of these would belong among the disputed books.^[91] 6 Still, I have felt it necessary to make a list of these books as well. I have distinguished the writings that are true, genuine and accepted according to the tradition of the church from the others. These others are not part of the covenant books but are disputed, though most church writers know them. I did this so that we could know these writings, and also the writings that heretics put forward under the apostles’ names. Such writings include gospels said to be by Peter, Thomas, Matthias or others besides them, and acts said to be by Andrew, John and the other apostles. No writer in the line of church writers has ever thought any of these worth mentioning in his writings.^[92]

7 The style of writing also differs widely from the apostolic manner. The thinking and purpose of what is in them are far out of tune with true orthodoxy, and show plainly that they are forgeries made by heretics. So they should not even be classed among the spurious books. They should be rejected as altogether absurd and impious. Let us now go on to the history that follows.

Chapter 26

Menander the Sorcerer.

2 After Simon the magician, Menander succeeded him. He proved to be a second weapon of the devil’s working, no less effective than the first. He too was a Samaritan. He went as far in sorcery as his teacher, and he indulged in even greater tall tales. He said that he himself was the Saviour, sent from somewhere above, out of the invisible ages, for the salvation of men. He taught that no one could overcome even the angels who made the world unless he had first been led through the magical skill that Menander handed on, and through the baptism that he gave. Those counted worthy of this baptism would share in everlasting immortality in this very life. They would no longer die, but would stay here and become ageless and immortal forever. One can easily learn all this from the writings of Irenaeus. 4 Justin also mentions Simon in the same way, and goes on to give an account of Menander. He says: “We know that a certain Menander, also a Samaritan, from the village of Capparattea, became a disciple of Simon. He too was goaded on by the demons. He came to Antioch and deceived many by the art of magic. He even persuaded his followers that they would not die. And even now there are some who profess this because of him.” It was indeed the devil’s doing to use such sorcerers, who took on the name of Christian, to slander the great mystery of godliness as though it were magic. Through them he also sought to ridicule the church’s teachings about the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the dead. But those who have taken these men as their saviours have fallen away from the true hope.^[93] [1 Timothy 3:16]

Chapter 27

The Heresy of the Ebionites.

2 The wicked demon could not shake some others from their love for the Christ of God, but he found them open to attack from another side and made them his own. The first Christians rightly called them Ebionites, because they held poor and lowly opinions about Christ. They thought he was a plain, ordinary man, who was made righteous only through his progress in character, and who was born from the union of a man with Mary. They held that keeping the law was absolutely necessary, and that they could not be saved by faith in Christ alone and the life that goes with it.^[94] 4 There were others with the same name who avoided the strange error of the first group. They did not deny that the Lord was born of a virgin and of the Holy Spirit. But they did not admit, any more than the others, that he existed before, as God, Word and Wisdom. So they fell into the same impiety as the first group, especially since they too were eager to keep the bodily worship of the law like them. These men thought they must reject all the letters of the apostle Paul, and called him a rebel against the law. They used only the so-called Gospel according to the Hebrews and took little account of the others.

6 They kept the Sabbath and the rest of the Jewish way of life just as the others did. But on the Lord’s days they did what we do, in memory of the Lord’s resurrection. Because of this practice they received their name. The name Ebionites points to the poverty of their understanding, for among the Hebrews a poor man is called by that name.^[95]

Chapter 28

Cerinthus the Heresiarch.

2 We have learned that in the times just mentioned Cerinthus became the founder of another heresy. Gaius, whose words I have already quoted, writes this about him in the Dialogue that circulates under his name: “But Cerinthus also, through revelations that he claims were written by a great apostle, brings in marvelous tales to deceive us, as though angels had shown them to him. He says that after the resurrection the kingdom of Christ will be on earth, and that the flesh will again live as citizens in Jerusalem, enslaved to desires and pleasures. And he is an enemy of the Scriptures of God. Wanting to lead people astray, he says there will be a thousand years given to wedding festivities.” 5 Dionysius, who in our own time held the office of bishop over the church in Alexandria, also mentions this man. In the second book of his work On Promises, after saying some things about John’s Revelation as handed down from earlier times, he speaks of Cerinthus in these words: “Cerinthus founded the heresy that was named after him, the Cerinthian. He wanted a trustworthy name to attach to his own invention. For this was the teaching of his doctrine: that the kingdom of Christ would be on earth. And he dreamed that it would consist of the things he himself craved, since he loved the body and was thoroughly carnal. These were the filling of the belly and of what lies below the belly, that is, food and drink and marriage. And to make these things sound more respectable, he thought they would be supplied through feasts, sacrifices and the slaughter of animals.”

6 That is what Dionysius says. Irenaeus, in the first book of his work Against Heresies, sets out some more secret false teachings of the same man. In the third book he also gives an account in his writing that deserves not to be forgotten. He says, on the tradition of Polycarp, that the apostle John once went into a bathhouse to wash. When he learned that Cerinthus was inside, he jumped up and fled out the door, unable to stay under the same roof with him. He urged those with him to do the same, saying, “Let us flee, in case even the bathhouse falls down, since Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is inside.”

Chapter 29

Nicolaus and the Sect Named After Him.

2 After this, the so-called heresy of the Nicolaitans arose and lasted only a very short time. The Revelation of John mentions it. They boasted that their founder was Nicolaus, one of the deacons who, with Stephen, were chosen by the apostles to serve the needy. Clement of Alexandria, in the third book of his Stromata, tells this about him in these words: “They say that he had a beautiful wife. After the Savior’s ascension, the apostles reproached him for jealousy. So he brought his wife into the middle of them and allowed anyone who wished to marry her. For they say this act agreed with the saying that one must ‘abuse the flesh.’ And those who follow his heresy, imitating both what was done and what was said simply and without examination, shamelessly practice fornication.” [Revelation 2:6; Revelation 2:15; Acts 6:5] 4 “But I am told that Nicolaus had relations with no other woman than the one he married. And of his children, the daughters grew old as virgins, and the son remained unspoiled. If this is so, then bringing the wife he was jealous over into the midst of the apostles was a way of getting rid of his passion. And the saying ‘abuse the flesh’ taught self-control against the pleasures people pursue so eagerly. For I think he did not want to serve two masters, pleasure and the Lord, as the Savior commanded. They say that Matthias also taught in this way: that one must fight against the flesh and abuse it, giving it nothing for the sake of pleasure, and make the soul grow through faith and knowledge.” So much for those who in the times just mentioned tried to corrupt the truth, though they died out completely, quicker than a word.^[96] [Matthew 6:24]

Chapter 30

The Apostles that Were Married.

Clement, whose words we have just read, goes on after the passages above to list the apostles who were married, because of those who reject marriage. He says: “Or will they reject even the apostles? For Peter and Philip had children, and Philip also gave his daughters in marriage. And Paul does not hesitate, in one of his letters, to address his own wife. He did not take her about with him, so as to keep his service unburdened.” Since we have mentioned this, it is no trouble to add another story from the same author that is worth telling. He relates it in the seventh book of his Stromata: “They say, then, that when the blessed Peter saw his own wife being led away to death, he was glad at her calling and at her going home. He called out to her very encouragingly and comfortingly, addressing her by name: ‘Remember the Lord, my dear.’ Such was the marriage of the blessed, and such their perfect disposition toward those dearest to them.” Since this too fits the subject in hand, let it stand here in its proper place.^[97]

Chapter 31

The Death of John and Philip.

2 The time and manner of the deaths of Paul and Peter, and the place where their bodies were laid after they left this life, have already been shown. The time of John’s death has also been mentioned in a general way. The place where he was buried is shown by a letter of Polycrates, who was bishop of the church at Ephesus. Writing to Victor, bishop of Rome, he mentions John together with the apostle Philip and Philip’s daughters, in these words: “For great lights have fallen asleep in Asia too, and they will rise again on the last day of the Lord’s appearing, when he comes from heaven with glory and will seek out all his saints. Among them are Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who sleeps in Hierapolis, and his two daughters, who grew old as virgins; and his other daughter, who lived in the Holy Spirit, rests at Ephesus.^[98]

4 “And then there is John, who leaned back on the breast of the Lord, who became a priest wearing the priestly plate, and a witness and a teacher. He has fallen asleep at Ephesus.” So much for their deaths. In the Dialogue of Gaius, which we mentioned a little earlier, Proclus, the man Gaius was arguing against, agrees with this account of the death of Philip and his daughters. He says: “After him there were four prophetesses, the daughters of Philip, at Hierapolis in Asia. Their tomb is there, and the tomb of their father.”^[99] [John 13:25; Exodus 28:36] 6 So Proclus says. Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, mentions Philip’s daughters, who were then living at Caesarea in Judea with their father and had been given the gift of prophecy. His words are these: “We came to Caesarea, and entering the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, we stayed with him. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.” So in these pages we have set out what has come to our knowledge about the apostles themselves and the apostolic age. We have also covered the sacred writings they left us, those that are disputed but nevertheless have been used by many in most of the churches, and those that are entirely spurious and foreign to apostolic orthodoxy. Having done this, let us go on to the history that follows.^[100] [Acts 21:8-9]

Chapter 32

Symeon, Bishop of Jerusalem, Suffers Martyrdom.

2 After Nero and Domitian, in the time of the emperor whose years we are now examining, the report is that a persecution against us was stirred up here and there, city by city, through popular uprisings. In it, as we have learned, Symeon son of Clopas, whom we showed to have been appointed the second bishop of the church in Jerusalem, ended his life in martyrdom. Hegesippus, whom we have quoted several times already, is a witness to this. In telling about certain heretics, he adds that Symeon was accused by them at this time. He was tortured in many ways for many days as a Christian, and he astonished the judge himself and those with him in the highest degree. In the end he met a death much like the Lord’s suffering.^[101] 4 But there is nothing like hearing the historian himself. He writes it down word for word like this: “Some of these heretics accuse Symeon, the son of Clopas, of being a descendant of David and a Christian. And so he bears witness by martyrdom, at the age of one hundred and twenty, under the emperor Trajan and the consular governor Atticus.” The same writer says that his accusers also were arrested, since a search was then being made for those of the royal tribe of the Jews, and they were found to belong to it. One might reasonably conclude that Symeon was among those who had seen and heard the Lord. The evidence is the length of his life, and the fact that the Gospel Scripture mentions Mary, the wife of Clopas, of whom, as our account showed earlier, he was the son.

6 The same writer says that others, from the family of one of the Saviour’s so-called brothers, whose name was Judas, lived on into the same reign. This was after their testimony for faith in Christ under Domitian, already told earlier. He writes: “So they come and take the lead of every church as martyrs and as members of the Lord’s family. When deep peace came to every church, they remained until the emperor Trajan, until the time when Symeon, the son of Clopas, an uncle of the Lord, was falsely accused by the sects. In the same way he too was accused on the same charge before the consular governor Atticus. He was tortured for many days and bore witness by martyrdom. Everyone, even the governor, was greatly amazed that at the age of one hundred and twenty he could endure it. And he was ordered to be crucified.”^[102] 8 After this, the same man, telling of those events, adds that up to those times the church had remained a pure and uncorrupted virgin. Those who tried to corrupt the sound rule of the saving message, if there were any, were still lurking somewhere in obscure darkness. But when the sacred company of the apostles had ended their lives in various ways, and that generation of those who had been counted worthy to hear the God-inspired wisdom with their own ears had passed away, then the framework of godless error began to take shape through the deceit of teachers of different doctrines. Since none of the apostles was left, they now attempted with bare head to preach their falsely named knowledge against the message of the truth.^[103] [1 Timothy 6:20]

Chapter 33

Trajan Forbids the Christians to Be Sought After.

1 Yet the persecution against us then grew so severe in many places that Pliny Secundus, one of the most distinguished of governors, was moved by the number of martyrs. He reported to the emperor about the multitude of those being put to death for their faith. In the same letter he stated that he had found them doing nothing unholy or against the laws, except that they rose at dawn and sang hymns to Christ as to a god. They themselves, he said, forbade adultery, murder and related unlawful offenses, and did everything in keeping with the laws. 2 In answer to this, Trajan issued a decree that the Christian people were not to be sought out, but that if they were caught they were to be punished. As a result the threat of the persecution, which had been pressing very hard, was to some extent put out. Still, those who wished to do us harm were not left with worse excuses. Sometimes the crowds, and sometimes the local rulers, were devising plots against us. So even without open persecutions, local ones flared up in one province after another, and many of the faithful contended in various martyrdoms.

3 Our account is taken from Tertullian’s Roman Apology, mentioned above, which in translation reads as follows: “And yet we have found that even the search for us has been forbidden. For Pliny Secundus, governor of a province, had condemned some Christians and removed them from their rank. Troubled by their number, he did not know what he should do next. So he consulted the emperor Trajan, saying that, apart from their refusal to worship idols, he had found nothing unholy in them. He also reported this: that the Christians rose at dawn and sang hymns to Christ as to a god, and that, to keep their way of life, they were forbidden to murder, commit adultery, be greedy, defraud, and the like. In reply Trajan wrote that the Christian people were not to be sought out, but if caught they were to be punished.” Such were the events of that time.^[104]

Chapter 34

Evarestus, the Fourth Bishop of the Church of Rome.

Among the bishops of Rome, in the third year of the reign of the emperor just mentioned, Clement handed his ministry to Evarestus and departed this life. He had presided over the teaching of the divine word for nine years in all.

Chapter 35

Justus, the Third Bishop of Jerusalem.

After Symeon had died in the way already described, a Jew named Justus took his seat as bishop of Jerusalem. He was himself one of the countless thousands of the circumcision who had come to believe in Christ at that time.

Chapter 36

Ignatius and His Epistles.

3 In those days Polycarp, a companion of the apostles, was eminent in Asia. He had been entrusted with the bishopric of the church at Smyrna by those who had seen and served the Lord. At the same time Papias, himself bishop of the community at Hierapolis, was well known. So was Ignatius, who is still famous among very many people. He had received the bishopric of Antioch as the second in succession from Peter. The report is that he was sent from Syria to the city of Rome and became food for wild beasts because of his witness to Christ. 5 Ignatius made his journey through Asia under the closest guard of soldiers. In each city where he stayed, he strengthened the local communities with spoken sermons and encouragements. Above all he urged them to be on guard against the heresies that were then just beginning to spring up and spread. He also urged them to hold on tightly to the tradition of the apostles. For safety’s sake, now that he was bearing witness to it, he thought it necessary to set it down in writing as well. So when he came to Smyrna, where Polycarp was, he wrote one letter to the church at Ephesus, mentioning its pastor Onesimus. He wrote another to the church at Magnesia on the Maeander, where he again mentions a bishop, Damas. He wrote another to the church at Tralles, whose head at that time, he records, was Polybius.

7 Besides these he also wrote to the church of the Romans, appealing to them not to refuse his martyrdom and so rob him of the hope he longed for. It is worth quoting a very short passage from this letter to support what I have said. He writes in these words: “From Syria all the way to Rome I am fighting with wild beasts, by land and sea, night and day, tied to ten leopards, that is, a squad of soldiers, who become worse even when they are treated kindly. Yet through their wrongs I am learning more fully to be a disciple, but I am not justified by this.^[105] [1 Corinthians 4:4] 9 “May I have joy of the beasts that are ready for me. I pray that I will find them quick, and I will coax them to eat me quickly, not as they have done with some, which they were too afraid to touch. And if they are unwilling, I will force them. Forgive me; I know what is good for me. Now I am beginning to be a disciple. May nothing, visible or invisible, envy me, so that I may reach Jesus Christ. Let fire and cross, assaults of wild beasts, scattering of bones, cutting apart of limbs, grinding of my whole body, and the torments of the devil come upon me, only let me reach Jesus Christ.”

11 These things he laid down in writing from the city named above to the churches listed. After he had gone beyond Smyrna, he wrote again from Troas to the church at Philadelphia, and to the church of Smyrna, and personally to Polycarp, its leader. Since he knew Polycarp well as an apostolic man, he entrusted to him the flock at Antioch, as a true and good shepherd would, and asked him to take diligent care of it. The same Ignatius, writing to the Smyrnaeans, uses some words that I do not know the source of, saying about Christ something like this: “But I know and believe that he was in the flesh even after the resurrection. And when he came to Peter and those with him, he said to them, ‘Take hold of me, touch me and see that I am not a bodiless demon.’ And immediately they touched him and believed.”^[106] [Luke 24:39]

13 Irenaeus also knew of his martyrdom and mentions his letters. He says: “As one of our people said, when he was condemned to the beasts for his witness to God: ‘I am God’s wheat, and I am being ground by the teeth of wild beasts, so that I may be found pure bread.’” Polycarp also refers to these same matters in his letter to the Philippians, which is still in circulation. He says: “I urge all of you to obey and to practice every kind of endurance. You saw it with your own eyes not only in the blessed Ignatius, Rufus and Zosimus, but also in others from among yourselves, and in Paul himself and the rest of the apostles. You can be sure that all these did not run in vain, but ran in faith and righteousness, and that they are now in the place due to them beside the Lord, with whom they also suffered. For they did not love the present age, but him who died for us and was raised by God for our sake.” [Philippians 2:16; 2 Timothy 4:10; 2 Corinthians 5:15]

15 Polycarp then goes on: “You wrote to me, you and Ignatius both, that if anyone is going to Syria, he should also carry your letters. I will do this if I have a suitable opportunity, either myself or someone I send to act as envoy for you as well. We are sending you the letters of Ignatius that he sent to us, and the others we had with us, as you instructed. They are attached to this letter, and you will be able to gain great benefit from them. For they deal with faith and endurance and every kind of building up that belongs to our Lord.” That is what we have on Ignatius. After him Heros took over the bishopric of Antioch.

Chapter 37

The Evangelists that Were Still Eminent at that Time.

1 Among those who shone brightly at that time was Quadratus. Report has it that he and the daughters of Philip were outstanding for the gift of prophecy. Many others besides were known in those days, holding the first rank in the succession from the apostles. They were distinguished disciples of such great men, and they built on the foundations of the churches that the apostles had laid in every place. They spread the preaching further and sowed the saving seeds of the kingdom of heaven far and wide across the whole world. 3 Indeed, very many of the disciples of that time had their souls struck by the divine word with an intense love of wisdom. First they fulfilled the Saviour’s command by giving their possessions to the needy. Then they set out on journeys and did the work of evangelists. They were eager to preach Christ to those who had never yet heard the word of faith, and to hand on to them the written text of the divine Gospels. In foreign places they only laid the foundation of the faith. They appointed others as shepherds and entrusted to them the care of the newly converted. Then they themselves moved on to other lands and nations, with the grace and help of God. For at that time many extraordinary works of the divine Spirit were still being done through them. As a result, whole crowds, down to the last man, eagerly took into their souls reverence for the Creator of the universe at the very first hearing.^[107] [2 Timothy 4:5]

4 We cannot list by name everyone who became a shepherd or evangelist in the churches throughout the world in the first generation after the apostles. So we have naturally recorded by name only those whose handing down of the apostolic teaching has reached us even now in their written works. [Ephesians 4:11]

Chapter 38

The Epistle of Clement and the Writings Falsely Ascribed to Him.

2 Such, for example, is Ignatius in the letters we have listed. Such too is Clement in the letter acknowledged by everyone, which he wrote in the name of the church of Rome to the church of Corinth. In it he sets out many thoughts from the letter to the Hebrews, and even quotes some of its words exactly. This shows very clearly that the writing is not a recent one. For that reason it seemed reasonable to count it among the other writings of the apostle. Paul had spoken to the Hebrews in writing in their native language. Some say that the evangelist Luke translated the writing, and others say that it was Clement himself. 5 This second view is more likely true, because the epistle of Clement and the Epistle to the Hebrews keep the same character of style, and the thoughts in the two writings are not far apart. You should also know that a second epistle of Clement is said to exist. But we do not know that it is recognized like the first, since we do not find that the ancient writers used it. Some people have also recently brought forward other long and wordy writings under his name, containing dialogues of Peter and Apion. The ancients make no mention at all of these, for they do not preserve the pure stamp of apostolic orthodoxy. So the acknowledged writing of Clement is plain. We have also already spoken of the works of Ignatius and Polycarp.^[108]

Chapter 39

The Writings of Papias.

2 Five books of Papias are in circulation, and they are titled Expositions of the Sayings of the Lord. Irenaeus mentions these as the only books he wrote, saying: “Papias also bears witness to these things in writing, in the fourth of his books. He was a hearer of John and a companion of Polycarp, a man of the early days. For he composed five books.” That is what Irenaeus says. But Papias himself, in the preface to his discourses, makes it clear that he was never a hearer or eyewitness of the holy apostles. He teaches that he received the matters of the faith from those who had known them, and he does so in these words: 4 “I will not hesitate to set down for you, along with my interpretations, everything I once learned well from the elders and remembered well, guaranteeing its truth. For unlike most people, I did not take pleasure in those who say a great deal, but in those who teach the truth. Nor did I take pleasure in those who recall commandments from other people, but in those who recall the commandments given by the Lord to the faith and coming from the truth itself. And if ever someone came who had been a follower of the elders, I would ask about the words of the elders: what Andrew or Peter said, or Philip, or Thomas, or James, or John, or Matthew, or any other of the Lord’s disciples; and what Aristion and the elder John, the Lord’s disciples, are saying. For I did not think that what comes from books would profit me as much as what comes from a living and abiding voice.”

6 It is worth noting here that Papias lists the name John twice. The first John he places with Peter, James, Matthew and the other apostles, clearly meaning the evangelist. The other John he sets apart in his wording and puts among others outside the number of the apostles. He puts Aristion ahead of him and plainly calls him an elder. So this shows that the report is true of those who say there were two men in Asia with the same name, and that there are two tombs in Ephesus, each of which is still called John’s even now. This deserves attention. For it is likely that the second John, if one is not willing to say the first, saw the Revelation that circulates under the name of John. 8 Papias, whom we are now discussing, acknowledges that he received the words of the apostles from those who had followed them. But he says that he himself was a direct hearer of Aristion and the elder John. At any rate, he often mentions them by name in his writings and sets down their traditions. Let us hope that these remarks have not been made to no purpose. It is also worth adding to the words of Papias already quoted some other statements of his, in which he reports certain marvelous things and other matters that, as it were, came down to him by tradition.

10 We have already shown that the apostle Philip lived at Hierapolis with his daughters. But we should now note that Papias, who lived at the same time, says he received a marvelous account from Philip’s daughters. For he reports that a dead man was raised in his time. And he tells of another marvel concerning Justus, who was called Barsabbas: he drank a deadly poison and, by the Lord’s grace, suffered no harm. After the Savior’s ascension, the holy apostles put forward this Justus along with Matthias, and prayed over the casting of lots to fill up their number in place of the traitor Judas. The book of Acts records it something like this: “And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias; and they prayed and said,” [Acts 1:23-24] 13 The same Papias also sets down other things that he says came to him from unwritten tradition. These include some strange parables and teachings of the Savior, and some other, rather legendary material. Among them he says that there will be a period of a thousand years after the resurrection from the dead, and that Christ’s kingdom will be established in bodily form on this earth. I think he got these ideas by misunderstanding the apostles’ accounts. He did not see that what they said was spoken mystically, in figures. For he seems to have been a man of very small understanding, as one can judge from his own words. Even so, he was the reason that very many churchmen after him held the same opinion. They pointed to the antiquity of the man, as Irenaeus did, for example, and anyone else who has shown the same views.

15 Papias also hands down in his own book other accounts of the Lord’s words, taken from Aristion (mentioned above), and traditions from the presbyter John. I refer those who love learning to that book. But I must now add to the words of his already quoted a tradition about Mark, who wrote the Gospel. Papias sets it out in these words: “This also the presbyter used to say: Mark became Peter’s interpreter, and he wrote down accurately everything he remembered, though not in order, of what was said or done by Christ. For he neither heard the Lord nor followed him. Later, as I said, he followed Peter. Peter used to give his teachings as the needs of the moment required, but he did not make an orderly arrangement of the Lord’s sayings. So Mark did nothing wrong in writing down some things just as he remembered them. For he took care about one thing: to leave out nothing he had heard and to state nothing falsely in them.” This is what Papias reports about Mark.^[109]

17 About Matthew he says this: “Matthew compiled the sayings in the Hebrew language, and each person interpreted them as well as he could.” Papias also uses quotations from John’s first letter, and likewise from Peter’s. He also sets out another story, about a woman accused before the Lord of many sins, which the Gospel according to the Hebrews contains. I have thought it necessary to note these things as well, in addition to what has been set out above.^[110]

Book 4

Chapter 1

The Bishops of Rome and of Alexandria During the Reign of Trajan.

About the twelfth year of Trajan’s reign, the bishop of the Alexandrian community mentioned a little earlier ended his life. Primus, the fourth from the apostles, received the ministry there. At this time also Alexander received the bishop’s office at Rome, after the eighth year had been completed. He traced the fifth succession from Peter and Paul.

Chapter 2

The Calamities of the Jews During Trajan's Reign.

2 The teaching and the church of our Savior were flourishing day by day and advancing further. But the disaster of the Jews grew worse through one evil after another. In the eighteenth year of the emperor’s reign, another uprising of the Jews broke out and destroyed a very great number of them. In Alexandria, in the rest of Egypt, and also in Cyrene, they were stirred up as if by some terrible spirit of rebellion, and they rushed to revolt against their Greek neighbors. They made the rebellion much worse, and in the following year they started a considerable war. Lupus was governing all of Egypt at that time. 4 In the first clash it happened that the Jews defeated the Greeks. The Greeks fled to Alexandria, where they captured the Jews of the city and killed them. The Jews of Cyrene, having lost the help of these, kept plundering the land of Egypt and ruining its districts, under the leadership of Lucuas. The emperor sent Marcius Turbo against them with infantry, naval forces, and cavalry as well. Turbo fought the war against them in many battles and over a long time. He killed many tens of thousands of Jews, not only from Cyrene but also from Egypt, who had joined Lucuas their king.^[111]

5 The emperor suspected that the Jews in Mesopotamia would also attack the people living there. So he ordered Lusius Quietus to clear them out of the province. Quietus drew up his army, fought them, and killed a very great number of them. For this success the emperor appointed him governor of Judea. The Greek writers who recorded the events of those times tell these things in the same words.^[112]

Chapter 3

The Apologists that Wrote in Defense of the Faith During the Reign of Adrian.

2 Trajan ruled for nineteen years and six months. Aelius Hadrian then succeeded him as emperor. Quadratus addressed a discourse to Hadrian and presented it to him. It was a defense of our religion, written because certain wicked men were trying to harass our people. The writing is still in circulation among very many of the brothers, and we have a copy ourselves. It gives clear evidence of the man’s intelligence and of his sound apostolic teaching. He shows how early he lived in these words of his own: “The works of our Saviour were always present, for they were real. Those who were healed and those who were raised from the dead were not only seen when they were healed and raised. They were also always there. They remained, not only while the Saviour was living among us, but for a considerable time after he had departed, so that some of them lived even into our own times.”^[113]

3 That was Quadratus. Aristides, too, was a faithful man who devoted himself to our religion. Like Quadratus, he left behind a defense of the faith addressed to Hadrian. His writing also survives to this day in the hands of very many people.

Chapter 4

The Bishops of Rome and of Alexandria Uncle; The Same Emperor.

In the third year of the same reign, Alexander, bishop of Rome, died after completing the tenth year of his ministry. Xystus succeeded him. At about the same time, Primus, head of the church community at Alexandria, died in the twelfth year of his leadership, and Justus succeeded him.

Chapter 5

The Bishops of Jerusalem from the Age of Our Saviour Lo the Period Under Consideration.

2 I have not found the dates of the bishops of Jerusalem preserved in writing anywhere, for the report is that they all lived very short lives. But I have learned this much from written sources: down to the siege of the Jews under Hadrian, there were fifteen successions of bishops there. All of them, it is said, were Hebrews from the start, and they received the knowledge of Christ in a genuine way. So they were approved by those able to judge such matters and thought worthy of the bishop’s office. For at that time their whole church was made up of believing Hebrews, who had continued from the apostles’ time down to the siege of that day, in which the Jews rebelled against the Romans again and were conquered after severe wars. 4 Since the bishops of Jewish birth came to an end at that time, it is now necessary to list them from the first. The first was James, who is called the Lord’s brother. After him the second was Symeon, the third Justus, the fourth Zacchaeus, the fifth Tobias, the sixth Benjamin, the seventh John, the eighth Matthias, the ninth Philip, the tenth Seneca, the eleventh Justus, the twelfth Levi, the thirteenth Ephres, the fourteenth Joseph, and last of all, the fifteenth, Judas. These are the bishops of the city of Jerusalem from the apostles down to the time mentioned, and all of them were of the circumcision.

5 In the twelfth year of Hadrian’s reign, Xystus completed ten years as bishop of Rome, and Telesphorus, seventh from the apostles, succeeded him. After a year and some months, Eumenes, sixth in the line, took over the leadership of the church at Alexandria. The man before him had served eleven years.

Chapter 6

The Last Siege of the Jews Under Adrian.

2 The Jewish revolt again grew large and serious. Rufus, governor of Judea, was sent military reinforcements by the emperor. He used their reckless folly as his opening and attacked them without mercy. He destroyed tens of thousands of men, women and children together, and under the law of war he enslaved their lands. The Jewish leader at that time was named Bar Kokhba, which means “star.” In other respects he was a bandit and a murderer, but he relied on his name, as one might with slaves. He claimed to be a light come down to them from heaven, working wonders to shine on them in their misery. 3 The war reached its height in the eighteenth year of Hadrian’s reign, at the city of Bethther, a very strong fortress not far from Jerusalem. The siege from outside went on a long time. The rebels were driven by hunger and thirst to the brink of destruction, and the man who had caused their madness paid the penalty he deserved. From then on the whole nation was forbidden to set foot even in the land around Jerusalem, by a legal decree and orders of Hadrian. He commanded that they not even look on their fathers’ soil from a distance. So Aristo of Pella reports.^[114]

4 In this way the city was left empty of the Jewish nation, and its old inhabitants were completely destroyed. It was resettled by people of foreign stock, and the Roman city that arose afterward changed its name. In honor of the reigning emperor Aelius Hadrian, it was called Aelia. The church there was now gathered from the Gentiles, and the first to take charge of its ministry after the bishops of the circumcision was Marcus.

Chapter 7

The Persons that Became at that Time Leaders of Knowledge Falsely So-Called.

2 By this time the churches throughout the world were shining like the brightest stars, and faith in our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ was flourishing among the whole human race. But the demon who hates what is good, who is the enemy of the truth and always the bitterest foe of human salvation, turned every scheme against the Church. In earlier times he had armed himself against her with persecutions from outside. Now that this means was closed to him, he used wicked men as instruments for destroying souls and as servants of ruin, and fought her by other methods, devising every kind of mischief. Sorcerers and deceivers slipped in and took over the very name of our teaching. Some of the believers who came to them they led down into the pit of destruction. At the same time, by what these men did, they turned away from the way to the saving Word those who did not yet know the faith.

4 From that Menander, whom we have already named as the successor of Simon, there came forth a kind of serpent-like power, double-mouthed and two-headed, like a snake. It set up the leaders of two different heresies: Saturninus, an Antiochene by birth, and Basilides, an Alexandrian. The one founded schools of God-hating heresy in Syria, the other in Egypt. Irenaeus makes clear that Saturninus told mostly the same lies as Menander. Basilides, however, under the pretext of more secret teachings, stretched his inventions without limit, and fashioned for himself monstrous fables for his ungodly heresy. 7 At that time many men of the Church were contending hard for the truth and defending the apostolic and churchly teaching with strong reasoning. Some of them also left writings that armed later generations against the heresies just mentioned. One of these has come down to us: a very able refutation of Basilides by Agrippa Castor, one of the best-known writers of that time. It exposes the dreadful power of the man’s sorcery. In revealing his secret teachings, Agrippa says that Basilides composed twenty-four books on the Gospel. He says he named prophets for himself, Barcabbas and Barcoph, and set up certain others who never existed, giving them barbarous names to overawe those who are amazed by such things. He says Basilides taught that it makes no difference whether one eats food offered to idols, and that denying the faith recklessly in times of persecution is also a matter of indifference. And like Pythagoras, he commanded those who came to him to keep silence for five years.

9 Agrippa also lists other things of this kind about Basilides, and thereby nobly brought the error of that heresy into the open. Irenaeus also writes that Carpocrates lived at the same time as these men. He was the father of another heresy, called the Gnostics. They saw fit to hand on the magic of Simon not secretly, as Simon had, but now openly. They were almost proud, as of something great, of their elaborately prepared love potions, their dream-sending spells, their attendant spirits, and other practices of the same sort. In keeping with this, they taught that anyone who was to reach the fullness of their initiation (or rather their defilement) must do every shameful deed. Otherwise, they said, he could not escape the “world-rulers,” as they called them, unless he paid every one of them his debt by unspeakable acts. 11 By using these men as his servants, the demon who rejoices in evil brought it about that those they deceived were miserably enslaved to destruction. He also gave the unbelieving nations ample occasion to slander the divine Word, since the reputation of these men spilled over into a slander against the whole body of Christians. In this way the unbelievers of that time very widely spread the wicked and utterly absurd suspicion about us that we had unlawful intercourse with mothers and sisters and ate unholy food.

13 Yet this did not succeed for him for long, because the truth established itself and, as time went on, shone with a great light. The schemes of the enemies were at once exposed by the truth’s own power and went out like a flame. One new heresy after another was invented, and the earlier ones kept slipping away and dissolving, now in one way and now in another, into many kinds and shapes. But the brightness of the universal and only true Church went on growing and increasing, always the same and in the same manner. Its dignity, sincerity and freedom, and the self-control and purity of its God-inspired way of life and philosophy, shone out to every race, Greek and barbarian alike.^[115] 15 In time the slander against the whole teaching died away too. Our teaching alone remained, prevailing and widely acknowledged to stand out above all others for its dignity and self-control, and for its divine and philosophical doctrines. As a result, no one to this day dares to bring any shameful charge against our faith, or any such slander as those who plotted against us once liked to use. Even so, in those times the truth again brought forward more defenders of itself. They fought against the godless heresies, not only by spoken refutations but also by written proofs.

Chapter 8

Ecclesiastical Writers.

2 In those days Hegesippus was well known. We have already quoted him many times, setting down some events of the apostles’ age on the strength of his account. In five books he put down in writing the unerring tradition of the apostolic preaching, in a very plain style. He shows the time in which he was well known when he writes as follows about those who from the beginning set up idols: “They built tombs and temples for them, as is done to this day. Among these is Antinous, a slave of the Emperor Hadrian. The Antinoan games, held in our own time, are celebrated in his honor. For Hadrian also founded a city named after Antinous, and appointed prophets.”^[116] 4 In his time Justin also lived, a true lover of the true philosophy, and he was still occupied with the writings of the Greeks. He too indicates this time in his Apology addressed to Antoninus, where he writes: “We think it not out of place to mention in this connection Antinous as well, who lived recently, and whom everyone was quick to worship as a god out of fear, though they knew who he was and where he came from.” The same writer, recalling the Jewish war of that time, adds: “For in the recent Jewish war Bar Kochba, the leader of the Jewish revolt, ordered that Christians alone be led off to terrible punishments unless they denied Jesus the Christ and blasphemed him.”^[117]

5 In the same work Justin also explains that his change from Greek philosophy to the worship of God did not come without reason but after careful judgment. He writes: “I myself, when I was delighted with the teachings of Plato, heard the Christians slandered. But I saw that they were fearless in the face of death and everything else regarded as terrible, and I concluded that it was impossible for them to be living in vice and love of pleasure. For what pleasure-loving or self-indulgent person, who thinks that feasting on human flesh is good, could welcome death, so as to be deprived of his own desires? Would he not rather try by every means to live this present life forever and to escape the notice of the rulers, instead of denouncing himself to be put to death?” 7 The same writer also reports that Hadrian received a letter on behalf of the Christians from Serennius Granianus, a most distinguished governor. It said that it was not right to kill them without trial, on no charge, merely to satisfy the shouts of the mob. Hadrian wrote back to Minucius Fundanus, proconsul of Asia, ordering him to put no one to death without a charge and a reasonable accusation. Justin gives a copy of the letter, keeping the Latin as it was. He introduces it with these words: “Though we could demand that you order trials to be held as we have asked, on the basis of a letter from the greatest and most illustrious Caesar Hadrian, your father, we have made our request not because Hadrian ordered it but because we know that our petition is just. We have also appended a copy of Hadrian’s letter, so that you may know that we are telling the truth in this matter too. It is as follows.”

8 After these words, the writer I have mentioned gives the rescript in its original Latin. We have translated it into Greek as best we could. It reads as follows:

Chapter 9

The Epistle of Adrian, Decreeing that We Should Not Be Punished Without a Trial.

2 To Minucius Fundanus. I have received a letter written to me by Serennius Granianus, a most distinguished man, whom you have succeeded. It does not seem right to me to leave the matter without investigation, so that people are not stirred up and the informers are not given a chance to practice their malice. So if the people of the province can clearly support their charge against the Christians, so as to answer before a court, let them take this course only, and not rely on petitions or mere shouting. For it is much more proper, if anyone wishes to bring an accusation, that you should examine it. 3 If anyone, then, brings a charge and shows that these people are doing something contrary to the laws, you are to decide according to the seriousness of the offense. But by Hercules, if anyone brings this charge only to slander them, look into how serious that wrongdoing is, and see that you punish him. Such was the content of Hadrian’s reply.^[118]

Chapter 10

The Bishops of Rome and of Alexandria During the Reign of Antoninus.

After Hadrian had completed his life, in the twenty-first year of his reign, Antoninus, called the Pious, succeeded to the rule of the Romans. In the first year of his reign Telesphorus ended his life in the eleventh year of his service, and Hyginus received the lot of the bishopric of Rome. Irenaeus records that Telesphorus’s death was made glorious by martyrdom. In the same place he shows that, in the time of this Hyginus, bishop of Rome, both Valentinus, the founder of his own sect, and Cerdon, the originator of the error of Marcion, were known in Rome. He writes as follows:

Chapter 11

The Heresiarchs of that Age.

1 “Valentinus came to Rome under Hyginus, was at his height under Pius, and stayed until Anicetus. Cerdon, who came before Marcion, also came in the time of Hyginus, who was the ninth bishop. He came into the church and made his confession, and he went on in this way, at one time teaching in secret, at another confessing again, and at another being exposed for the wrong things he taught and separating himself from the company of the brothers.” He says this in the third book of his work Against the Heresies. 2 But in the first book he again says this about Cerdon: “A certain Cerdon took his starting points from the followers of Simon and came to live in Rome under Hyginus, who held the ninth place in the succession of bishops from the apostles. He taught that the God proclaimed by the law and the prophets is not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the one, he said, is known, but the other is unknown; the one is just, but the other is good. Marcion of Pontus succeeded him and enlarged the school, blaspheming shamelessly.”

5 The same Irenaeus vigorously sails through the boundless depth of Valentinus’s wandering, many-sided material, and strips bare his wickedness, which like a snake lurking in its hole was hidden and unnoticed. Besides these he says that there was another in their time, named Marcus, who was highly skilled in magical trickery. He also describes their unholy initiations and foul rites, exposing them in these very words: “Some of them prepare a bridal chamber and perform a secret rite, with certain spoken formulas, over those being initiated. They claim that what is done by them is a spiritual marriage, after the likeness of the pairings above. Others lead them to water, and as they baptize them they say: ‘Into the name of the unknown Father of the whole, into Truth, the mother of all things, into the one who came down upon Jesus.’ Others use Hebrew names, to astonish those being initiated even more.”^[119]

7 But when Hyginus died, after the fourth year of his office as bishop, Pius was entrusted with the service at Rome. In Alexandria, Marcus was appointed shepherd after Eumenes had completed thirteen years in all. When Marcus had ended ten years of service, Celadion received the service of the church of Alexandria. In the city of Rome, Pius died in the fifteenth year of his office as bishop, and Anicetus took charge of the church there. In his time Hegesippus records that he himself came to Rome and stayed there until the time of Eleutherus as bishop. 9 Justin was especially prominent in these times. In the dress of a philosopher he proclaimed the divine Word, and he fought for the faith in his writings. He also wrote a work against Marcion, in which he mentions Marcion as still living at the time he was writing. He says: “A certain Marcion of Pontus, who is even now still teaching those who believe him to think that there is some other god greater than the Creator, has persuaded many in every nation of mankind, with the help of demons, to speak blasphemy and to deny that the maker of this universe is the Father of Christ, and to confess that some other, who is greater than he, has made things. All who take their start from these men, as we said, are called Christians, just as, although philosophers do not share the same teachings, the name of philosophy which they all claim is shared.”

11 Justin goes on to say: “We have also written a treatise against all the heresies that have arisen. We will give it to you if you wish to read it.” This same Justin also labored with great effect against the Greeks. He addressed discourses containing a defense of our faith to the emperor Antoninus, called Pius, and to the Roman senate, for he was living in Rome. In this Apology he shows who he was and where he came from, in these words:

Chapter 12

The Apology of Justin Addressed to Antoninus.

“To the Emperor Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius Caesar Augustus; to Verissimus his son, a philosopher; to Lucius, a philosopher, the natural son of Caesar and adopted son of Pius, and a lover of learning; to the sacred senate and to the whole Roman people: on behalf of people of every nation who are unjustly hated and abused, I, Justin, son of Priscus and grandson of Bacchius, from Flavia Neapolis in Syria Palestine, being one of them, make this address and petition.” The same emperor was also petitioned by other brothers in Asia, who were suffering every kind of abuse from the local populations. He thought it right to send the Common Assembly of Asia the following decree:

Chapter 13

The Epistle of Antoninus to the Common Assembly of Asia in Behalf of the Christians.

3 “The Emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Armeniacus, Pontifex Maximus, in his fifteenth year of tribunician power, consul for the third time, to the Common Assembly of Asia, greeting. I know that the gods too take care that such people do not go unnoticed. For they would punish those who refuse to worship them far more than you would. But you throw these people into turmoil, and by accusing them of atheism you only strengthen them in the opinion they hold. When they are accused, they would prefer to be seen dying for their own God rather than to go on living. So they come out the winners, giving up their lives rather than obeying what you demand of them.” 6 “As for the earthquakes that have happened and are still happening, it is not out of place to remind you of something. You lose heart whenever they occur, and then you compare your conduct with theirs. They grow more confident toward God. You, however, throughout the whole time in which you seem to be ignorant, neglect both the other gods and the worship of the Immortal One. Yet when Christians worship him, you harass them and persecute them to death. Many of the provincial governors also wrote about such people to our most divine father. He wrote back that they should not trouble such people unless they were plainly attempting something against the Roman government. Many have also sent word to me about them, and I answered them in the same way, following my father’s judgment.”

8 “But if anyone persists in bringing charges against one of these people simply as being such, let the accused be acquitted of the charge, even if it is shown that he is such, and let the accuser be liable to punishment. Posted in Ephesus, in the Common Assembly of Asia.” Melito, bishop of the church in Sardis, who was well known at that time, bears witness to these events. This is clear from what he said in the defense of our teaching that he addressed to the emperor Verus.

Chapter 14

Circumstances Related of Polycarp, a Disciple of the Apostles.

3 In the time of those mentioned, when Anicetus was leading the church of Rome, Irenaeus records that Polycarp, who was still living, came to Rome and met with Anicetus because of a question about the day of the Passover. The same writer gives another account of Polycarp, which I must add to what I have already said about him. It reads as follows: “Polycarp was not only taught by apostles and in the company of many who had seen Christ. He was also appointed by apostles as bishop of the church in Smyrna, in Asia. We ourselves saw him in our early youth.” 5 For he lived a long time. When he was very old he left this life after a glorious and most illustrious martyrdom. He had always taught the things he had learned from the apostles, which the Church also hands down, and which alone are true. All the churches throughout Asia bear witness to this, and so do those who have succeeded Polycarp down to the present day. He was a far more trustworthy and reliable witness to the truth than Valentinus, Marcion and the rest of the men with warped minds. When he visited Rome in the time of Anicetus, he turned many of these heretics back to the church of God. He proclaimed that he had received from the apostles this one and only truth, the one handed down by the Church.

7 And there are people who heard from Polycarp that John, the Lord’s disciple, went to bathe at Ephesus. When he saw Cerinthus inside, he rushed out of the bathhouse without bathing. He said, “Let us flee, in case even the bathhouse falls in, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is inside.” Polycarp himself once met Marcion, who said to him, “Do you recognize us?” He answered, “I recognize you as the firstborn of Satan.” The apostles and their disciples took such care that they would not even exchange words with any of those who falsify the truth. Paul also said, “Have nothing to do with a heretical man after one and a second warning, knowing that such a person has been turned aside and is sinning, condemned by himself.”^[120] [Titus 3:10-11] 10 There is also a very substantial letter of Polycarp, written to the Philippians. From it, those who wish to and who care about their own salvation can learn the character of his faith and the preaching of the truth. That is what Irenaeus says. In this letter to the Philippians, which survives to this day, Polycarp uses some testimonies from the first letter of Peter. When Antoninus, called Pius, had completed the twenty-second year of his rule, Marcus Aurelius Verus, who was also called Antoninus, his son, succeeded him together with his brother Lucius.

Chapter 15

The Martyrdom of Polycarp.

3 At this time, when very great persecutions were throwing Asia into an uproar, Polycarp was brought to completion by martyrdom. I think it most necessary to put his death on record in this history, since the written account of it still survives. The document is written in the name of the church he led, to the communities in Pontus, and it reports what happened to him in these words: “The church of God living as a stranger in Smyrna, to the church of God living as a stranger in Philomelium, and to all the communities of the holy catholic church in every place: may mercy, peace and love from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ be multiplied. We have written to you, brothers, about the martyrs and the blessed Polycarp. By his martyrdom he put an end to the persecution, as though he had set a seal on it.”^[121]

4 After this, before the account of Polycarp, they tell the story of the other martyrs and describe how firmly they stood against the pains. They say that the people standing around in a circle and watching were stunned. At one time the martyrs were torn with whips down to the innermost veins and arteries, so that even the hidden inner parts of the body, their entrails and limbs, could be seen. At another time they were laid on sea-shells and sharp spits. They went through every kind of punishment and torture, and in the end were handed over to wild beasts to be eaten.^[122] 6 They say that the most noble Germanicus especially stood out. By God’s grace he overcame the fear of bodily death that is born in us. The proconsul wanted to persuade him. He pointed to his youth and begged him, since he was very young and in his prime, to take pity on himself. But Germanicus did not hesitate. He eagerly pulled the beast toward himself, all but forcing and provoking it, so that he might be freed the sooner from their unjust and lawless life. At his glorious death the whole crowd marveled at the courage of this God-loved martyr and at the virtue of the whole race of Christians. Then they suddenly began to shout, “Away with the atheists! Let Polycarp be sought!”^[123]

8 Then, in the great uproar caused by the shouting, a Phrygian named Quintus, who had only recently come from Phrygia, saw the wild beasts and the threats that went with them. His courage failed, he lost heart, and in the end he gave up on his salvation. The account in the letter mentioned above made clear that this man had rushed to the tribunal along with others, rashly and without proper caution. Yet when he was seized, he gave everyone a plain example that people ought not to take on such trials recklessly and without care. That was how things ended for these martyrs. 9 As for the truly admirable Polycarp, when he first heard these things he stayed calm and kept a steady, unshaken character. He wanted to remain in the city. But his companions begged him and urged him to slip away, and he gave in to them. He went out to a farm not far from the city and stayed there with a few others. Night and day he did nothing but continue steadfastly in prayer to the Lord. In these prayers he pleaded and made supplication, asking peace for the churches throughout the whole world, for this had always been his habit.

11 While he was praying, three days before his arrest, he saw a vision at night. The bedding under his head suddenly caught fire and was burned up. When he woke, he at once explained the vision to those with him, all but prophesying what was to come. He told them plainly that he must give up his life by fire for Christ. The men searching for him pressed on with all zeal. Then, they say, the devotion and affection of the brothers forced him to move to another farm. Not long afterward his pursuers arrived there. They seized two of the slave boys on the place and beat one of them, and through him they found out where Polycarp was staying. 13 They came late in the day and found him lying in an upstairs room. He could have gone from there to another house, but he refused, saying, “Let the will of God be done.” When he learned that they were there, as the account says, he went down and spoke with them. His face was so cheerful and gentle that those who had never seen him before thought they were looking at a wonder. They saw his great age and the dignity and calm of his face, and they wondered why such great effort had been made to arrest so old a man. [Acts 21:14]

15 Without delay he ordered a table to be set for them. Then he invited them to eat as much as they wished, and he asked them for one hour so that he could pray without being disturbed. They allowed it, and he stood and prayed. He was so full of the grace of the Lord that those present were astonished as they listened to him pray. Many of them already regretted that such a dignified and godly old man was about to be put to death. The account written about him then continues in these words: “When at last he ended his prayer, he had remembered everyone who had ever met him, small and great, well known and unknown, and the whole catholic church throughout the world. The hour for departure came. They put him on a donkey and brought him into the city. It was a great Sabbath. Herod, the chief of police, and his father Nicetes met him. They took him up into their carriage and sat beside him, trying to persuade him. They said, ‘What harm is there in saying “Lord Caesar,” and offering sacrifice, and being saved?’”^[124]

17 At first he did not answer. When they kept pressing him, he said, “I am not going to do what you advise me.” When they failed to persuade him, they spoke harsh words and hurriedly pushed him down, so that as he came down from the carriage he scraped his shin. But he did not even turn around, as though nothing had happened to him. He went on eagerly and quickly, as he was led to the stadium. The uproar in the stadium was so great that hardly anyone could hear anything. But as Polycarp entered the stadium, a voice came from heaven: “Be strong, Polycarp, and be a man.” No one saw who spoke, but many of our people heard the voice. 19 When he was brought in, there was a great uproar, because people had heard that Polycarp had been arrested. As he came forward, the proconsul asked him whether he was Polycarp. When he admitted it, the proconsul tried to persuade him to deny Christ. He said, “Have respect for your age,” and added other things of the kind they are used to saying: “Swear by the Fortune of Caesar. Repent. Say, ‘Away with the atheists.’” But Polycarp looked with a stern face at the whole crowd in the stadium. He shook his hand at them, groaned, looked up to heaven, and said, “Away with the atheists.”^[125]

21 The governor kept pressing him: “Swear, and I will let you go. Curse Christ.” Polycarp said, “For eighty-six years I have been his servant, and he has never wronged me. How can I blaspheme my King, who saved me?” The governor insisted again: “Swear by the Fortune of Caesar.” Polycarp answered, “If you vainly imagine that I will swear by the Fortune of Caesar, as you say, and pretend not to know who I am, then listen plainly: I am a Christian. And if you want to learn the teaching of Christianity, set a day and hear it.”^[126] 23 The proconsul said, “Persuade the people.” Polycarp said, “I considered you worthy of an explanation, for we have been taught to give due honor to rulers and authorities appointed by God, as long as it does not harm us. But I do not think those people are worthy of a defense from me.” The proconsul said, “I have wild beasts. I will throw you to them unless you repent.” Polycarp said, “Call them. For us there is no turning from the better to the worse. But it is good to turn from what is harsh to what is just.” [Romans 13:1; Romans 13:7]

25 The proconsul said to him again, “If you despise the wild beasts, I will have you tamed by fire, unless you repent.” Polycarp said, “You threaten me with a fire that burns for an hour and is soon put out. You do not know about the fire of the coming judgment and eternal punishment, kept for the ungodly. But why are you waiting? Bring what you like.” As he said these things and more, he was filled with courage and joy, and his face was full of grace. He was not thrown into confusion by what was said to him. On the contrary, the proconsul was astonished. He sent his herald to proclaim three times in the middle of the stadium, “Polycarp has confessed that he is a Christian.” 27 When the herald had said this, the whole crowd of Gentiles and Jews living in Smyrna shouted with uncontrollable rage and a loud voice, “This is the teacher of Asia, the father of the Christians, the destroyer of our gods, the one who teaches many not to sacrifice or worship.” As they said this they kept shouting, and they asked the Asiarch Philip to set a lion on Polycarp. He said he was not allowed to, because the wild-beast hunts were finished. Then they decided to shout together that Polycarp should be burned alive.^[127]

30 For the vision that had appeared to him about his pillow had to be fulfilled. While he was praying, he had seen it burning. He turned and said, as a prophecy, to the believers with him, “I must be burned alive.” Now these things happened with such speed, faster than it takes to tell, as the crowds immediately gathered wood and brushwood from the workshops and the baths. The Jews, as is their custom, were especially eager in helping with this. When the pyre was ready, he took off all his outer clothes and loosened his belt. He also tried to take off his sandals, though he had not done this before, because each of the believers was always eager to be the first to touch his skin. Even before his hair turned gray, he had been honored in every way because of his good way of life. 33 Right away the materials prepared for the pyre were placed around him. When they were about to nail him as well, he said, “Leave me as I am. The one who gives me strength to endure the fire will also give me strength to stay on the pyre without flinching, even without the security of your nails.” So they did not nail him, but they tied him. He put his hands behind him and was tied, like a distinguished ram chosen from a great flock for an offering, a whole burnt offering acceptable to God Almighty. Then he said, “Father of your beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, through whom we have received knowledge of you, God of angels and powers and all creation, and of the whole race of the righteous who live before you, I bless you that you have counted me worthy of this day and hour, to receive a share in the number of the martyrs, in the cup of Christ, for the resurrection to eternal life of soul and body, in the incorruption of the Holy Spirit. [John 5:29; Matthew 20:22]

36 May I be received among them before you today as a rich and acceptable sacrifice, just as you, the faithful and true God, have prepared and revealed it beforehand and now fulfilled it. For this reason, and for everything, I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you, through the eternal high priest Jesus Christ, your beloved Son. Through him, with him, in the Holy Spirit, be glory to you, now and for the ages to come. Amen.” When he had sent up his Amen and finished his prayer, the men in charge of the fire lit it. A great flame blazed out, and we saw a marvel, those of us to whom it was given to see. We were kept alive to report to the others what happened. 38 For the fire took the shape of an arch, like the sail of a ship filled by the wind, and formed a wall around the martyr’s body. He was in the middle of it, not like burning flesh, but like gold and silver refined in a furnace. We also caught such a fragrant scent, as if frankincense or some other costly spice were breathing out. At last the lawless men saw that his body could not be consumed by the fire. They ordered an executioner to go up to him and drive in a sword.

40 When he did this, so much blood came out that it put out the fire, and the whole crowd marveled that there should be such a difference between the unbelievers and the elect. This man was one of the elect, a most wonderful teacher in our own times, apostolic and prophetic, who became bishop of the catholic church in Smyrna. For every word that came out of his mouth was fulfilled and will be fulfilled. But the Evil One, jealous and envious, the enemy of the race of the righteous, saw the greatness of his witness and his blameless conduct from the beginning. He saw that Polycarp was crowned with the crown of incorruption and had carried off a prize no one could dispute. So he worked to keep us from taking even his poor body, though many of us longed to do it and to share in his holy flesh. [1 Corinthians 9:25]

41 So some people put Nicetes up to it, the father of Herod and brother of Alce, to approach the governor and ask him not to hand over the body. “Otherwise,” he said, “they will abandon the crucified one and begin to worship this man.” They said this at the prompting and urging of the Jews, who also kept watch when we were about to take him from the fire. They did not know that we can never abandon Christ, who suffered for the salvation of the whole world of those who are being saved, nor worship any other. 43 For him, because he is the Son of God, we worship. But the martyrs, as disciples and imitators of the Lord, we love as they deserve, because of their unsurpassed devotion to their own King and Teacher. May we also be made their partners and fellow disciples. So when the centurion saw the quarrelsomeness of the Jews, he put the body in the middle and burned it, as is their custom. And so afterward we gathered up his bones, which are more precious than costly stones and more valuable than gold, and laid them where it was fitting.

46 There the Lord will allow us to gather, as far as we can, in gladness and joy, to celebrate the birthday of his martyrdom. We will do this in memory of those who have already contended, and to train and prepare those who are yet to do so. Such was the story of the blessed Polycarp, who was the twelfth martyr at Smyrna, counting those from Philadelphia. He alone is remembered above all the others, so that even the nations speak of him everywhere. Such was the end that the admirable and apostolic Polycarp was counted worthy of. The brothers of the church of Smyrna set down the account in the letter I have mentioned. In the same writing about him, other martyrdoms were attached that took place in that same city of Smyrna, about the same time as the martyrdom of Polycarp. Among them was Metrodorus, who seemed to be a presbyter of the error of Marcion, and who was handed over to the fire and put to death.

47 Among the martyrs of that time, one named Pionius became especially famous. A writing about him gives a very full account: his separate confessions, his boldness of speech, his defenses of the faith before the crowd and the magistrates, his teaching addresses to the people, and his welcome of those who had fallen under the trial of the persecution. It tells of the comfort he gave in prison to the brothers who came to him, the tortures he endured and the pains that followed them, his being nailed down, his steadfastness on the pyre, and his death, which came after all these amazing trials. I will refer those who are interested to that writing, which is included in the collection of ancient martyrdoms I have gathered. 48 Next, records are also in circulation of others who were martyred in the city of Pergamum in Asia: Carpus, Papylus, and a woman, Agathonice. They died gloriously after many outstanding confessions.

Chapter 16

Justin the Philosopher Preaches the Word of Christ in Rome and Suffers Martyrdom.

2 Around this time Justin, whom I mentioned a little earlier, presented a second book in defense of our teachings to the rulers I named. He was then honored with a divine martyrdom. A philosopher named Crescens, who followed the Cynic way of life and manners that his name suggests, set a trap for him. Justin had several times questioned him in debates before an audience and shown him to be in the wrong. At last Justin won the prize of victory by his martyrdom, dying for the truth he served as an envoy. This very man, a true philosopher in the fullest sense, foresaw it and stated it plainly in the Apology I mentioned, as something that was about to happen to him. He said, in these very words: 4 “So I too expect to be plotted against by one of those I have named, and to be fastened in the stocks, or perhaps by Crescens, that unphilosophical lover of show. A man who testifies publicly against things he does not know, saying that Christians are godless and impious, does not deserve to be called a philosopher. He does this in error, to please and gratify the crowd. For if he attacks us without having read the teachings of Christ, he is thoroughly wicked, and much worse than ordinary uneducated people, who often take care not to speak or give false testimony about things they do not understand. And if he has read them but did not grasp their greatness, or grasped it and acts this way so as not to be suspected of being a Christian, he is far more ignoble and thoroughly wicked, since he is ruled by common opinion and irrational fear.

6 “For I want you to know that I put to him certain questions of this kind and questioned him, and I learned and proved that he truly knows nothing. To show that I am telling the truth, if the records of our discussions were not reported to you, I am ready to take up the questions again in your presence. That would be a worthy task for an emperor. But if my questions and his answers have become known to you, it is plain to you that he knows nothing of our teachings. Or if he does know, but does not dare to speak because of those listening, then, as I said before, he shows himself to be no philosopher but a lover of glory. He does not even honor the saying of Socrates, so worthy of love.” So Justin wrote. 8 Tatian reports that Justin was killed through Crescens’ scheming, just as Justin had predicted. Tatian spent his early life as a teacher of Greek learning and won no small reputation in it, and he left behind many written works. In his work *Against the Greeks* he says something like this: “And the most admirable Justin rightly declared that the men mentioned above are like robbers.” After adding some remarks about the philosophers, he goes on: “Crescens, who made his nest in the great city, surpassed everyone in the love of boys, and he was very devoted to money.

9 “Though he advised others to despise death, he himself feared it so much that he schemed to bring death on Justin, as if death were a great evil. This was because Justin, in proclaiming the truth, exposed the philosophers as greedy and deceitful men.” Such was the cause of Justin’s martyrdom.

Chapter 17

The Martyrs Whom Justin Mentions in His Own Work.

2 The Martyrs Whom Justin Mentions in His Own Work. Before his own contest, Justin mentions in his first Apology others who had been martyred before him, and he records these events in a way that is useful for our subject. He writes: “A certain woman lived with a husband who was dissolute, and she herself had formerly been dissolute too. But when she came to know the teachings of Christ, she became self-controlled. She tried to persuade her husband to be self-controlled as well, setting out the teachings to him and announcing the punishment in eternal fire that will come on those who do not live self-controlled lives in accordance with right reason. 5 But he kept on in the same debauchery, and by his actions made his wife a stranger to him. She now thought it ungodly to share a bed with a husband who, against the law of nature and what is right, tried every means of finding pleasure. So she wanted to be separated from the marriage. Her family urged her to stay on, in the hope that her husband might someday change, and their pleading overcame her. She forced herself and remained. But then her husband went to Alexandria and was reported to be behaving even worse. So that she would not share in his wrongs and ungodly acts by staying in the marriage and sharing his table and his bed, she gave him what we call a *repudium* (a notice of divorce) and left him.

7 But her fine and upright husband should have been glad that she had given up what she once did freely with servants and hired men, when she delighted in drunken parties and every kind of vice, and that she wanted him to give up the same things. Instead, since she had left him against his will, he brought an accusation against her, saying that she was a Christian. She submitted a petition to you, the emperor, asking first to be allowed to put her own affairs in order, and then, once her affairs were settled, to make her defense against the charge. And you granted this. 9 Her former husband could no longer proceed against her, so he turned against a certain Ptolemaeus, whom Urbicius punished. Ptolemaeus had been her teacher in the Christian teachings. The husband did it this way. A centurion, who was his friend, had put Ptolemaeus in chains. The husband persuaded him to take hold of Ptolemaeus and ask him just this one question: whether he was a Christian. Ptolemaeus was a lover of truth, and not deceitful or false in his thinking. He confessed that he was a Christian, so the centurion kept him in chains and punished him in prison for a long time.

12 Finally, when the man was brought before Urbicius, he was again asked only this: whether he was a Christian. Again, aware of the good he had gained from the teaching of Christ, he confessed the school of divine virtue. For whoever denies anything either denies it because he condemns the thing itself, or he avoids confessing because he knows he is unworthy of it and a stranger to it. Neither is true of the real Christian. When Urbicius ordered him to be led away, a certain Lucius, who was also a Christian, saw how senseless the judgment was. He said to Urbicius: “What is the reason for punishing this man? He has not been convicted as an adulterer, fornicator, murderer, thief or robber, or of any wrongdoing at all. He only confesses that he bears the name of Christian. Urbicius, you do not judge in a way that suits the pious emperor, or the philosopher son of Caesar, or the sacred senate.”^[128]

13 Urbicius said nothing else in reply, but told Lucius, “You seem to me to be such a one too.” When Lucius said, “Certainly,” he ordered that Lucius also be led away. Lucius declared that he was grateful. He said he was being freed from such wicked masters, and was going to God, the good Father and King. Then a third man came forward and was likewise sentenced to be punished. Justin fittingly and consistently adds to this the words we quoted earlier: “I too, then, expect to be plotted against by one of those I have named,” and so on.

---

Notes

[87] “This apostle” is John. Eusebius has just finished the story of John and the young man, which he took from Clement of Alexandria.

[88] The “third heaven” and “paradise” allude to Paul’s account in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4. The Greek calls the written works hypomnemata, “memoirs” or “records.”

[89] Eusebius’s Greek here has “paradoxa” (strange or marvelous things, wonders), not John’s own word “sēmeia” (signs, John 2:11). The English “signs” follows John 2:11, where Eusebius is paraphrasing John.

[90] “Fourfold set” translates a Greek word (tetraktys) meaning a group of four; the older translation has “quaternion.” “Accepted” (homologoumena) means books agreed on by everyone; “disputed” (antilegomena) means books some people spoke against.

[91] Eusebius uses “spurious” (nothoi) for books known to church writers but not accepted as genuine. He also says they could be counted among the disputed books, and in 3.25.6-7 he treats heretical forgeries as worse than either.

[92] “Covenant books” translates the Greek “endiathēkous”, meaning “belonging to the (new) covenant”, that is, canonical. The older translation reads “canonical”.

[93] In the Greek, Justin’s quotation ends after “because of him.” The sentence beginning “It was indeed the devil’s doing...” is Eusebius’s own comment.

[94] “Ebionites” comes from a Hebrew word meaning “poor,” which Eusebius plays on when he says they held “poor” opinions of Christ.

[95] “Lord’s days” translates a Greek phrase (kyriakai hemerai) that means Sundays. Eusebius says “Ebionites” comes from the Hebrew word for “poor.”

[96] The “two masters” saying echoes Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16:13. The final sentence (“So much for those who...”) is Eusebius’s own comment, not part of the quotation from Clement of Alexandria.

[97] Clement’s claim that Paul had a wife rests on his reading of “syzygos” (yoke-fellow) in Philippians 4:3 (he cites it in Stromata 3). Most interpreters take the word to mean a colleague, so the reading is disputed. The Greek “ὦ αὕτη” means roughly “O you” or “O this woman,” rendered here as “my dear.”

[98] “Lights” translates “stoicheia,” a word that usually means “elements” but can also mean heavenly bodies or stars. Here it seems to be used figuratively for great leaders of the church.

[99] The “plate” (petalon) is the gold plate worn on the high priest’s turban (see Exodus 28:36). Polycrates speaks of John in priestly terms. The older translation’s “Caius” is the same man as Gaius.

[100] The Greek says “virgin daughters”; “unmarried” gives the sense. Eusebius quotes Acts 21:8-9 in his own wording.

[101] The emperor in question is Trajan. The Greek says Symeon was tortured “as a Christian” (hōs Christianos).

[102] “From an uncle of the Lord” translates ὁ ἐκ θείου τοῦ κυρίου, meaning Symeon came of that relationship. Elsewhere (3.11; 4.22) Hegesippus makes Clopas the brother of Joseph.

[103] “Falsely named knowledge” echoes 1 Timothy 6:20, where ψευδώνυμος γνῶσις is the phrase. “With bare head” (γυμνῇ τῇ κεφαλῇ) is an idiom meaning openly and boldly.

[104] Eusebius quotes Tertullian (Apology 2.6) through a Greek translation of the Latin. The word ἐπιστήμη normally means “knowledge,” and “way of life” is a free rendering. ἀποστερεῖν means to defraud or withhold what is owed.

[105] The “ten leopards” are the ten soldiers guarding Ignatius. The last phrase echoes 1 Corinthians 4:4, though Eusebius does not say so.

[106] Eusebius admits he does not know where Ignatius took this saying of Jesus; it is not found in the Gospels in these words. Compare Luke 24:39. The Greek word for “demon” here means a bodiless spirit or ghost.

[107] “Love of wisdom” is literally “philosophy.” Eusebius often uses the word for the Christian way of life.

[108] The “second view” is that Clement translated Hebrews. The Greek says “yesterday and the day before” for “recently”. The “second epistle” is the work we now call 2 Clement.

[109] “Interpreter” (hermēneutēs) could mean someone who translated for Peter or someone who explained his teaching; the Greek does not settle which.

[110] “Sayings” translates logia, which the older English renders “oracles”; it may mean sayings of the Lord or something broader. Scholars disagree about what work Papias meant.

[111] “Many tens of thousands” translates the Greek “many myriads”; a myriad is ten thousand.

[112] Lusius Quietus was a Moorish-born Roman general. He put down the Jewish revolt in Mesopotamia and was then made governor of Judea.

[113] The Greek says Trajan ruled “twenty years, six months short,” that is, nineteen and a half years. “Departed” (ἀπαλλαγέντος) is Quadratus’s word for the Saviour’s leaving this world, and the people he healed or raised are said to have remained for a considerable time after that.

[114] “Bethther” represents the Greek Bithther (Βίθθηρα), generally identified with Betar, the last stronghold of the Bar Kokhba revolt.

[115] “Philosophy” here means a way of life or manner of living, as often in Eusebius, not a system of speculation.

[116] Antinous was Hadrian’s favorite, who drowned in the Nile in AD 130; Hadrian had him honored as a god and founded the city of Antinoopolis in his name.

[117] Greek “Barchochebas” is Bar Kochba (Bar Kokhba), leader of the Jewish revolt against Rome of about AD 132–135.

[118] The Greek “μὰ τὸν Ἡρακλέα” (“by Hercules”) renders the Latin oath “mehercule” in Hadrian’s rescript.

[119] “The pairings above” refers to the Valentinian teaching of paired spiritual powers (called “syzygies”) in the heavenly realm.

[120] “Heretical” (hairetikos) in Paul’s phrase (Titus 3:10) means a person who stirs up factions or division. Eusebius is quoting Irenaeus (Against Heresies 3.3.4) here.

[121] The word translated “living as a stranger” (paroikousa) comes from paroikos, a resident foreigner or sojourner. It was used of Christian communities living as a pilgrim people in a place.

[122] The “sea-shells” are literally “heralds” (kērykes), a word that also meant trumpet-shells, sea snails with hard shells.

[123] Christians were called “atheists” because they refused to honor the gods of the city and the emperor.

[124] “Catholic” here means “universal,” the whole church. “Chief of police” translates eirenarch, a local official responsible for keeping order. “Great Sabbath” is as written in the Greek.

[125] Christians were called “atheists” because they refused to honor the gods of the city and the emperor. Polycarp turns the proconsul’s words against the pagan crowd. “Fortune” (Greek tyche) is the emperor’s fortune, by which people swore oaths. Do not call it a guardian spirit, which would be the Latin genius.

[126] The “eighty-six years” may refer to his age or to the time since he became a Christian. The Greek does not say which.

[127] The Asiarch was a wealthy leading official of the province of Asia, linked to the imperial cult and the sponsoring of public games. His exact duties are debated.

[128] “Pious emperor” translates Greek Eusebes, a pun on the title of Antoninus Pius.