Section 219
The text on this page is estimated to be only 27.92% accurate
188 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. After the departure of these, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, also transmitted to us in writing what had been preach ed by Peter. And Luke^ the companion of Paul, committed to writing the gospel preached by him, i. e. Paul. Afterwards John the disciple of our Lord, the same that lay upon his bosom, also published the gospel, whilst he was yet at Ephesus in Asia." This is what this author says in the third book of the wrork al ready mentioned ; and in the fifth, he thus descants on the Reve_lation of John and the calculation of antichrist's name : " As mat ters are thus, and the number is thus found in all the genuine and ancient copies, and as they who saw John attest, reason itself shows that the number of the name of the beast is indi cated by the Greek letters which it contains." And a little further on he speaks of the same John : " We, therefore," says he, " do not venture to affirm any thing with certainty respecting the name of antichrist. For were it necessary that his name should be clearly announced to the present age, it would have been declared by him who saw the revelation. For it has not been long since it was seen, but almost in our own generation, about the end of Domitian's reign." These are what he states ^respecting the Revelation. He also mentions the First Epistle of John, extracting many testimonies from it : he also mentions the First Epistle of Peter. And he not only knew, but also ad mitted the book called Pastor, in these words : " Well is it said in that work which declares, * first of all believe that there is one God, who created and arranged all things,' " &c. He also quotes some expressions from the Wisdom of Solomon, almost in these words : " The vision of God is productive of im mortality, but immortality makes us to be next to God." He also mentions the commentaries of a certain apostolical presbyter, whose name he has passed by in silence ; he also adds his expo sitions of the sacred Scriptures. He moreover makes mention of Justin Martyr and Ignatius, taking some testimony also from the works written by these. He also promises in a separate work to refute some of the writings of Marcion. Hear also what he has written respecting the translation of the holy Scriptures by the seventy. " God," says he, " became man, and the Lord himseD