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And thus when the divine word had made its home among them, the power
of Simon was quenched and immediately destroyed, together with the man
himself. And so greatly did the splendor of piety illumine the minds
of Peter's hearers that they were not satisfied with hearing once
only, and were not content with the unwritten teaching of the divine
Gospel, but with all sorts of entreaties they besought Mark, a
follower of Peter, and the one whose Gospel is extant, that he would
leave them a written monument of the doctrine which had been orally
communicated to them. Nor did they cease until they had prevailed with
the man, and had thus become the occasion of the written Gospel which
bears the name of Mark. And they say that Peter when he had
learned, through a revelation of the Spirit, of that which had been
done, was pleased with the zeal of the men, and that the work obtained
the sanction of his authority for the purpose of being used in the
churches. Clement in the eighth book of his Hypotyposes gives this
account, and with him agrees the bishop of Hierapolis named Papias.
And Peter makes mention of Mark in his first epistle which they say
that he wrote in Rome itself, as is indicated by him, when he calls
the city, by a figure, Babylon, as he does in the following words:
"The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth
you; and so doth Marcus my son."
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