baptize, it is they who have the baptism. ... We however say that those who come thence are not rebaptized with us but baptized, for indeed they receive not anything there where nothing is, but come to us that they may here receive where there is all grace and truth, since there 5 is but one grace and truth. Firmilian's Letter to Cyprian. BUT that they who are at Rome do not observe those things in all cases which are handed down from the beginning, and vainly allege the authority of Apostles; any one may know even from the fact, that concerning the 10 celebration of Easter, and concerning many other sacraments of divine matters, he may see that there are some diversities among them, and that all things are not observed among them alike, which are observed at Jerusalem, just as in very many other provinces also many things are 15 varied because of the difference of the places and peoples. And yet on this account there is no departure at all from the peace and unity of the Catholic Church, such as Stephen has now dared to make; breaking the peace against you, which his predecessors have always kept with 20 you in mutual love and honour, even herein defaming Peter and Paul the blessed Apostles, as if the very men delivered this who in their epistles execrated heretics, and warned us to avoid them. Whence it appears that this tradition is of men which maintains heretics, 25 and asserts that they have baptism, which belongs to the Church alone. The Edict of Valerian. A. N. L. CYPRIAN to his brother Successus, greeting.... But the truth concerning them is as follows, that Valerian had sent a rescript to the Senate, to the effect that bishops and 30 り diaconi in continenti animadvertantur, senatores vero et egregii viri et equites Romani dignitate amissa etiam bonis spolientur et si ademptis facultatibus Christiani [esse] perseveraverint, capite quoque multentur, matronae 5 ademptis bonis in exilium relegentur, Caesariani autem quicumque vel prius confessi fuerant vel nunc confessi fuerint confiscentur et vincti in Caesarianas possessiones descripti mittantur. ID. Ep. 80. LXIII. τὸ μὲν Καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν νοημάτων δέ, καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν ῥημάτων καὶ το τῆς συντάξεως αὐτῶν, εἰκότως ἕτερος οὗτος παρ ̓ ἐκεῖνον ὑπονοηθήσεται.. συνάδουσι μὲν γὰρ ἀλλήλοις τὸ εὐαγ γέλιον καὶ ἡ ἐπιστολή, ὁμοίως τε ἄρχονται. φησίν, ‘Εν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος· ἡ δέ, “Ο ἦν ἀπ ̓ ἀρχῆς. τὸ μὲν φησί, ‘Καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο, καὶ ἐσκή15 νωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν, καὶ ἐθεασάμεθα τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ, δόξαν ὡς μονογενοῦς παρὰ πατρός ἡ δὲ τὰ αὐτὰ σμικρῷ παρηλλαγμένα· “Ο ἀκηκόαμεν, ὃ ἑωράκαμεν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἡμῶν, ὃ ἐθεασάμεθα, καὶ αἱ χεῖρες ἡμῶν ἐψηλάφησαν, περὶ τοῦ λόγου τῆς ζωῆς· καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἐφανερώθη. ταῦτα 20 γὰρ προανακρούεται διατεινόμενος, ὡς ἐν τοῖς ἑξῆς ἐδήλωσε πρὸς τοὺς “ οὐκ ἐν σαρκὶ φάσκοντας · ἐληλυθέναι τὸν Κύριον· διὸ καὶ συνῆψεν ἐπιμελῶς, ‘Καὶ ὃ ἑωράκαμεν μαρτυροῦμεν, καὶ ἀπαγγέλλομεν ὑμῖν τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον, ἥ τις ἦν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα, καὶ ἐφανερώθη 35 ἡμῖν· ὃ ἐωράκαμεν καὶ ἀκηκόαμεν, ἀπαγγέλλομεν ὑμῖν. ἔχεται αὑτοῦ, καὶ τῶν προθέσεων οὐκ ἀφίσταται, διὰ δὲ τῶν αὐτῶν κεφαλαίων καὶ ὀνομάτων πάντα διεξέρχεται· ὧν τινὰ μὲν ἡμεῖς συντόμως ὑπομνήσομεν. ὁ δὲ προσ presbyters and deacons should immediately be punished; but that senators, and men of importance, and Roman knights, should lose their dignity, and moreover be deprived of their property; and if, when their means were taken away, they should persist in being Christians, then 5 they should also lose their heads; that matrons should be deprived of their property, and sent into banishment; but that people of Caesar's household, whoever of them had either confessed before, or should now confess, should have their property confiscated, and should be sent in 10 chains by assignment to Caesar's estates. Dionysius of Alexandria on the authorship of the Apocalypse. AND from the thoughts too, and from the words and their arrangement, this writer may reasonably be supposed different from the other. For the Gospel and the Epistle agree together, and begin in like manner. The one says, 15 'In the beginning was the Word'; the other, 'That which was from the beginning.' The one says, 'And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of an only-begotten from the Father'; the other the same a little varied, 'That which we have heard, 20 which we have seen with our eyes, which we beheld, and our hands handled, of the Word of life, and the life was manifested.' For this he makes his prelude and steadfastly maintains, as he makes plain in what follows, against those who say 'That the Lord has not come in flesh': 25 wherefore also he carefully adds, 'And that which we have seen we testify, and we declare unto you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us: that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you.' He is consistent with himself, and does not depart from his 30 purposes, but goes through all things under the same heads and names, of which we will shortly mention some. εχῶς ἐντυγχάνων εὑρήσει ἐν ἑκατέρῳ πολλὴν τὴν ζωήν, πολὺ ‘τὸ φῶς, ἀποτροπὴν τοῦ σκότους, συνεχῆ τὴν ἀλήθειαν, τὴν χάριν, τὴν χαράν, τὴν σάρκα καὶ τὸ αἷμα τοῦ Κυρίου, τὴν κρίσιν, τὴν ἄφεσιν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν, 5 τὴν πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἀγάπην τοῦ Θεοῦ, τὴν πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἡμᾶς ἀγάπης ἐντολήν, ὡς πάσας δεῖ φυλάσσειν τὰς ἐντολάς· ὁ ἔλεγχος τοῦ κόσμου, τοῦ διαβόλου, τοῦ ἀντιχρίστου, ἡ ἐπαγγελία τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος, ἡ υἱοθεσία τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἡ δι ̓ ὅλου ‘πίστις ̓ ἡμῶν ἀπαιτουμένη, “ὁ το Πατὴρ καὶ ὁ Υἱὸς πανταχοῦ· καὶ ὅλως διὰ πάντων χαρακτηρίζοντας, ἕνα καὶ τὸν αὐτὸν συνορᾷν τοῦ τε εὐαγγελίου καὶ τῆς ἐπιστολῆς χρῶτα πρόκειται, ἀλ λοιοτάτη δὲ καὶ ξένη παρὰ ταῦτα ἡ ἀποκάλυψις, μήτε ἐφαπτομένη, μήτε γειτνιῶσα τούτων μηδενὶ σχεδόν, ὡς 15 εἰπεῖν, μηδὲ συλλαβὴν πρὸς αὐτὰ κοινὴν ἔχουσα· ἀλλ ̓ οὐδὲ μνήμην τινα οὐδὲ ἔννοιαν οὔτε ἡ ἐπιστολὴ τῆς ἀποκαλύψεως ἔχει· (ἐῶ γὰρ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον·) οὔτε τῆς ἐπιστολῆς ἡ ἀποκάλυψις· Παύλου διὰ τῶν ἐπιστολῶν ὑποφῄναντός τι καὶ περὶ τῶν ἀποκαλύψεων αὐτοῦ, ἃς οὐκ 20 ἐνέγραψε καθ ̓ αὑτάς. ἔτι δὲ καὶ διὰ τῆς φράσεως τὴν διαφορὰν ἔστι τεκμῄρασθαι τοῦ εὐαγγελίου καὶ τῆς ἐπιστολῆς πρὸς τὴν ἀποκάλυψιν. τὰ μὲν γὰρ οὐ μόνον ἀπταίστως κατὰ τὴν ̔Ελλήνων φωνήν, ἀλλὰ καὶ λογιώτατα ταῖς λέξεσι, τοῖς συλλογισμοῖς, ταῖς συντάξεσι 25 τῆς ἑρμηνείας γέγραπται. πολλοῦ γε δεῖ βάρβαρόν τινα φθόγγον, ἢ σολοικισμόν, ἢ ὅλως ἰδιωτισμὸν ἐν αὐτοῖς εὑρεθῆναι. ἑκάτερον γὰρ εἶχεν, ὡς ἔοικε, τὸν λόγον, ἀμφοτέρους αὐτῷ χαρισαμένου τοῦ Κυρίου, τόν τε τῆς γνώσεως, τόν τε τῆς φράσεως, τούτῳ δὲ ἀποκάλυψιν μὲν ἑωρακέναι, He that reads carefully will find in either much mention of the life, the light, the turning away of darkness; and continually the truth, the grace, the joy, the flesh and the blood of the Lord, the judgement, the forgiveness of sins, the love of God for us, the command to us to love one another, the 5 need of keeping all the commandments, the conviction of the world, of the devil and of Antichrist, the promise of the Holy Spirit, the adoption of God, the faith which is throughout required of us, everywhere the Father and the Son. In short, if we mark them by all their characters, it 10 is plain to see that the complexion of the Gospel and of the Epistle is one and the same. But the Apocalypse is entirely different from these and foreign to them, neither touching nor bordering on any of them; scarcely, so to say, having even a syllable in common with them. Nay, 15 more, the Epistle (for I let alone the Gospel) contains neither mention nor thought of the Apocalypse, nor yet the Apocalypse of the Epistle, whereas Paul by his Epistles signified something even of his visions, which he did not separately insert. Moreover, we may conjecture from the 20 diction the difference of the Gospel and the Epistle from the Apocalypse. For the former are written not only without error, as regards the rules of Greek, but very elegantly in words, in reasonings, and in arrangement of the explanations. We are very far from finding in them 25 a barbarous word or a solecism, or any vulgarism at all. For he had, as it appears, both the one word and the other, as the Lord had granted both to him—that of knowledge, and that of expression. That the other saw a revelation |
