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First, then, in the place of Judas, the betrayer, Matthias,
who, as has been shown was also one of the Seventy, was chosen to the
apostolate. And there were appointed to the diaconate, for the
service of the congregation, by prayer and the laying on of the hands
of the apostles, approved men, seven in number, of whom Stephen was
one. He first, after the Lord, was stoned to death at the time of
his ordination by the slayers of the Lord, as if he had been promoted
for this very purpose. And thus he was the first to receive the
crown, corresponding to his name, which belongs to the martyrs of
Christ, who are worthy of the meed of victory. Then James, whom
the ancients surnamed the Just on account of the excellence of his
virtue, is recorded to have been the first to be made bishop of the
church of Jerusalem. This James was called the brother of the Lord
because he was known as a son of Joseph, and Joseph was supposed to
be the father of Christ, because the Virgin, being betrothed to
him, "was found with child by the Holy Ghost before they came
together," as the account of the holy Gospels shows.
But Clement in the sixth book of his Hypotyposes writes thus: "For
they say that Peter and James and John after the ascension of our
Saviour, as if also preferred by our Lord, strove not after honor,
but chose James the Just bishop of Jerusalem."
But the same writer, in the seventh book of the same work, relates
also the following things concerning him: "The Lord after his
resurrection imparted knowledge to James the Just and to John and
Peter, and they imparted it to the rest of the apostles, and the rest
of the apostles to the seventy, of whom Barnabas was one. But there
were two Jameses: one called the Just, who was thrown from the
pinnacle of the temple and was beaten to death with a club by a fuller,
and another who was beheaded." Paul also makes mention of the same
James the Just, where he writes, "Other of the apostles saw I
none, save James the Lord's brother."
At that time also the promise of our Saviour to the king of the
Osrhoenians was fulfilled. For Thomas, under a divine impulse,
sent Thaddeus to Edessa as a preacher and evangelist of the religion
of Christ, as we have shown a little above from the document found
there?
When he came to that place he healed Abgarus by the word of Christ;
and after bringing all the people there into the right attitude of mind
by means of his works, and leading them to adore the power of Christ,
he made them disciples of the Saviour's teaching. And from that time
down to the present the whole city of the Edessenes has been devoted to
the name of Christ, offering no common proof of the beneficence of our
Saviour toward them also.
These things have been drawn from ancient accounts; but let us now
turn again to the divine Scripture. When the first and greatest
persecution was instigated by the Jews against the church of Jerusalem
in connection with the martyrdom of Stephen, and when all the
disciples, except the Twelve, were scattered throughout Judea and
Samaria, some, as the divine Scripture says, went as far as
Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, but could not yet venture to
impart the word of faith to the nations, and therefore preached it to
the Jews alone.
During this time Paul was still persecuting the church, and entering
the houses of believers was dragging men and women away and committing
them to prison.
Philip also, one of those who with Stephen had been entrusted with
the diaconate, being among those who were scattered abroad, went down
to Samaria, and being filled with the divine power, he first preached
the word to the inhabitants of that country. And divine grace worked
so mightily with him that even Simon Magus with many others was
attracted by his words. Simon was at that time so celebrated, and had
acquired, by his jugglery, such influence over those who were deceived
by him, that he was thought to be the great power of God. But at
this time, being amazed at the wonderful deeds wrought by Philip
through the divine power, he reigned and counterfeited faith in
Christ, even going so far as to receive baptism.
And what is surprising, the same thing is done even to this day by
those who follow his most impure heresy. For they, after the manner
of their forefather, slipping into the Church, like a pestilential
and leprous disease greatly afflict those into whom they are able to
infuse the deadly and terrible poison concealed in themselves. The
most of these have been expelled as soon as they have been caught in
their wickedness, as Simon himself, when detected by Peter,
received the merited punishment.
But as the preaching of the Saviour's Gospel was daily advancing, a
certain providence led from the land of the Ethiopians an officer of
the queen of that country, for Ethiopia even to the present day is
ruled, according to ancestral custom, by a woman. He, first among
the Gentiles, received of the mysteries of the divine word from
Philip in consequence of a revelation, and having become the
first-fruits of believers throughout the world, he is said to have
been the first on returning to his country to proclaim the knowledge of
the God of the universe and the life-giving sojourn of our Saviour
among men; so that through him in truth the prophecy obtained its
fulfillment, which declares that "Ethiopia stretcheth out her hand
unto God."
In addition to these, Paul, that "chosen vessel," "not of men
neither through men, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ himself
and of God the Father who raised him from the dead," was appointed
an apostle, being made worthy of the call by a vision and by a voice
which was uttered in a revelation from heaven.
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