Monday, June 20, 2022

John A. Tvedtnes on Evidence from Early Christian Writings for a General Apostasy

  

The following is a portion of John A. Tvedtnes, chapter 1: Apostasy and Restoration, in Joseph Smith and the Ancient World (unpublished). See also Errol Amey, "On Origen’s Warning of a Potential Falling Away of the Corporate Church"

 

Evidence from Early Christian Writers

 

      Various Church Fathers wrote of the apostasy that took place in the early days of the Christian Church. Some might argue that these were examples of local apostasy rather than a general apostasy throughout the Church, but that is exactly how one would expect a general apostasy to come about, i.e., through smaller rebellions. The widespread nature of apostasy, both in temporal and spatial terms, suggests that it was a serious problem. Indeed, some of the Fathers clearly believed that the apostasy prophesied in the New Testament was under way.

      Ignatius (died A.D. 107) wrote of those “who endeavor to corrupt the Church of Christ” (Epistle to the Ephesians 16).[i] The fourth-century church historian Eusebius reported that Hegesippus (ca. A.D. 110-180), recounting events in the time of the emperor Trajan (A.D. 98-117),

 

records that the Church up to that time had remained a pure and uncorrupted virgin, since, if there were any that attempted to corrupt the sound norm of the preaching of salvation, they lay until then concealed in obscure darkness. But when the sacred college of apostles had suffered death in various forms, and the generation of those that had been deemed worthy to hear the inspired wisdom with their own ears had passed away, then the league of godless error took its rise as a result of the folly of heretical teachers, who, because none of the apostles was still living, attempted henceforth, with a bold face, to proclaim, in opposition to the preaching of the truth, “the knowledge which is falsely so-called.” (Ecclesiastical History 3.32.7-8, citing 1 Timothy 6:20)[ii]

 

      Hegisippus described how some of these problems had come about because of jealousy when Symeon, one of Jesus’ cousins, had been selected as bishop in Jerusalem in place of the Lord’s brother James, who had been slain:

 

Therefore they called the Church a virgin, for it was not yet corrupted by vain discourses. But Thebuthis, because he was not made bishop, began to corrupt it. He also was sprung from the seven sects among the people, like Simon, from whom came the Simonians, and Cleobius, from whom came the Cleobians, and Dositheus, from whom came the Dositheans, and Gorthaeus, from whom came the Goratheni, and Masbotheus, from whom came the Masbothaeans. From them sprang the Menandrianists, and Marcionists, and Carpocratians, and Valentinians, and Basilidians, and Saturnilians. Each introduced privately and separately his own peculiar opinion. From them came false Christs, false prophets, false apostles, who divided the unity of the Church by corrupt doctrines uttered against God and against his Christ. (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4.22)[iii]

 

      The late first century bishop Ignatius warned the Trallians that “there are some vain talkers and deceivers, not Christians, but Christ-betrayers, bearing about the name of Christ in deceit, and ‘corrupting the word’ of the Gospel” (Epistle to the Trallians 6, alluding to Paul’s words in Titus 1:10 and 2 Corinthians 2:17).[iv] In his Epistle to the Philadelphians 5, he mentions “the false prophets and the false apostles” who had already come before his time.[v] To the Ephesians he wrote that “the last times are come upon us” (Epistle to the Ephesians 11),[vi] confirming that the time of apostasy predicted in the New Testament had arrived. The Epistle to the Antiochians, attributed to Ignatius but probably not written before the sixth century, warns “against those heresies of the wicked one which have broken in upon us, to the deceiving and destruction of those that accept of them; but that he give heed to the doctrine of the apostles, and believe both the law and the prophets.”[vii]

      The Didache or “Teaching” of the Twelve Apostles, thought to have been written in the first century or early second century A.D., repeats some of the New Testament warnings about apostasy, declaring that

 

in the last days false prophets and corrupters shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love shall be turned into hate; for when lawlessness increaseth, they shall hate and persecute and betray one another, and then shall appear the world-deceiver as Son of God, and shall do signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands, and he shall do iniquitous things which have never yet come to pass since the beginning. (Didache 16)[viii]

 

      When the Didache was written, there were still prophets in the Church, for the document admonishes Christians to give aid to “every true prophet that willeth to abide among you” (Didache 13:1-3).[ix] Less than a century later, the office of prophet was no longer recognized in Christianity, as evidenced by the fact that Tertullian wrote that there were no more prophets after the coming of Christ (An Answer to the Jews 8, 11).[x] The loss of prophets made it necessary for Victorinus (died ca. A.D. 303) to redefine the office of Christian prophets of which Paul wrote (1 Corinthians 14:29; cf. Acts 11:27; 13:1; 15:32) as not revealers of divine truth, but as commentators on what had already been revealed in the scriptures (Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John 10.9).[xi]

      In an early second century apocryphal document, the resurrected Jesus tells his Apostles:

There shall come forth another doctrine, and a confusion, and because they shall strive after their own advancement, they shall bring forth an unprofitable doctrine. And therein shall be a deadly corruption (of uncleanness), and they shall teach it, and shall turn away them that believe on me from my commandments and cut them off from eternal life. But woe unto them that falsify this my word and commandment, and draw away them that hearken to them from the life of the doctrine and separate themselves from the commandment of life: for together with them they shall come into everlasting judgement. (Epistle of the Apostles 50)[xii]

 

      One of the causes of the apostasy was rebellion against early Church leaders. This rebellion was already under way in the first century. Clement of Rome, who died ca. A.D. 90, wrote to the Corinthians of “that shameful and detestable sedition” by which

 

the worthless rose up against the honoured, those of no reputation against such as were renowned, the foolish against the wise, the young against those advanced in years. For this reason righteousness and peace are now far departed from you, inasmuch as every one abandons the fear of God, and is become blind in his faith, neither walks in the ordinances of his appointment, nor acts a part becoming Christian, but walks after his own wicked lusts. (1 Clement 1, 3)[xiii]

 

      In the same epistle, he declared, “It is right and holy therefore, men and brethren, rather to obey God than to follow those who, through pride and sedition, have become the leaders of a detestable emulation” (1 Clement 14). The term “emulation” suggests that these false leaders taught an imitation form of Christianity. Clement further wrote that

 

Our apostles also knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that there would be strife on account of the office of the episcopate [bishop] . . . We are of opinion, therefore, that those appointed by them, or afterwards by other eminent men, with the consent of the whole Church, and who have blamelessly served the flock of Christ in a humble peaceable, and disinterested spirit, and have for a long time possessed the good opinion of all, cannot be justly dismissed from the ministry. For our sin will not be small, if we eject from the episcopate those who have blamelessly and holily fulfilled its duties . . . But we see that ye have removed some men of excellent behaviour from the ministry, which they fulfilled blamelessly and with honour. (1 Clement 44).[xiv]

 

      He noted that “Your schism has subverted [the faith of] many, has discouraged many, has given rise to doubt in many, and has caused grief to us all. And still your sedition continueth” (1 Clement 46).[xv] He added, “But now reflect who those are that have perverted you . . . It is disgraceful, beloved, yea, highly disgraceful, and unworthy of your Christian profession, that such a thing should be heard of as that the most stedfast and ancient Church of the Corinthians should, on account of one or two persons, engage in sedition against its presbyters [elders]” (1 Clement 47).[xvi]

      The rejection of Church leaders is also attested in other branches of the Church. Ignatius, bishop of Smyrna, who died in A.D. 107, wrote that “some indeed give one the title of bishop, but do all things without him. Now such persons seem to me to be not possessed of a good conscience, seeing they are not stedfastly gathered together according to the commandment” (Epistle to the Magnesians 4).[xvii] Cyprian wrote of those “who make a schism and, forsaking their bishop, appoint another false bishop for themselves from outside” (Epistles 75.6).[xviii] Clement of Alexandria (died ca. A.D. 215) wrote of

 

Those, then, that adhere to impious words, and dictate them to others, inasmuch as they do not make a right but a perverse use of the divine words, neither themselves enter into the kingdom of heaven, nor permit those whom they have deluded to attain the truth. But not having the key of entrance, but a false (and as the common phrase expresses it), a counterfeit key (antiklei~), by which they do not enter in as we enter in, through the tradition of the Lord, by drawing aside the curtain; but bursting through the side-door, and digging clandestinely through the wall of the Church, and stepping over the truth, they constitute themselves the Mystagogues of the soul of the impious. (Stromata 7.17)[xix]

 

      Justin Martyr, a second-century Christian philosopher, seems to have acknowledged that apostasy was already taking place in his days. He noted that Jesus “foretold that in the interval between His [first and second] advent, as I previously said, priests and false prophets would arise in His name, which things do actually appear” (Dialogue with Trypho 51).[xx] Hippolytus (died ca. A.D. 236) wrote one of his books “because of that apostasy or error which was recently invented out of ignorance” (Apostolic Tradition 1:4).[xxi]

      Tertullian (ca. A.D. 145-220), citing the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30) as a prophecy of what would happen in the Church, wrote, “For herein is figuratively described the difference of doctrines, since in other passages also the word of God is likened unto seed. From the actual order, therefore, it becomes clear, that that which was first delivered is of the Lord and is true, whilst that is strange and false which was afterwards introduced” (Prescription Against Heretics 31).[xxii] Though Tertullian believed that he represented the “wheat” and Christian break-off groups the “tares,” his comments are instructive about falsehood being introduced after the death of the apostles.

      The fourth-century Christian historian Eusebius also drew upon the parable of the wheat and the tares to describe events taking place in the time of Theophilus, bishop of Antioch (d. A.D. 190): “And as the heretics, no less then than at other times, were like tares, destroying the pure harvest of apostolic teaching, the pastors of the churches everywhere hastened to restrain them as wild beasts from the fold of Christ” (Ecclesiastical History 4.24.2).[xxiii]

      Dionysus, bishop of Corinth (ca. A.D. 170), wrote of apostates who were falsifying both his writings and the scriptures. “For I wrote letters when the brethren requested me to write. And these letters the apostles of the devil have filled with tares, taking away some things and adding others, for whom a woe is in store. It is not wonderful, then, if some have attempted to adulterate the Lord's writings, when they have formed designs against those which are not such” (To the Roman Church 4).[xxiv]

      Cyril, who served as bishop of Jerusalem A.D. 349-387, cited Paul’s prophecy of the apostasy from 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10 and added

 

Thus wrote Paul and now is the falling away. For men have fallen away from the right faith; and some preach the identity of the Son with the Father, and others dare to say that Christ was brought into being out of nothing. And formerly the heretics were manifest [openly]; but now the Church is filled with heretics in disguise. For men have fallen away from the truth, and have itching ears [2 Timothy 4:3-4] . . . Most have departed from right words, and rather choose the evil, than desire the good. This, therefore, is the falling away, and the enemy is soon to be looked for. (Catechetical Lectures 15.9)[xxv]

 

      Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus (died ca. A.D. 457), wrote of “the storm tossing the churches” in his day, writing, “And it intensifies our discouragement to think that these things are the prelude of the general apostasy. May your piety pray that since we are in this plight we may get the divine succor, that, as the divine Apostle phrases it, we may ‘be able to withstand the evil day.’ But if any time remain for this life’s business, pray that the tempest may pass away, and the churches recover their former calm, that the enemies of the truth may no more exult at our misfortunes” (Letter 63).[xxvi]

      In a letter to John, Bishop of Germanicia, Theodoret wrote, “About the present state of affairs, it is impossible to entertain any good hope. I apprehend that this is the beginning of the general apostasy. For when we see that those who lament what was done as they say, by violence, at Ephesus, show no signs of repentance, but abide by their unlawful deeds and are building up a superstructure at once of injustice and of impiety; when we see that the rest take no concerted action to deny their deeds and do not refuse to hold communion with men who abide by their unlawful action, what hope of good is it possible for us to entertain?” (Letter 147).[xxvii]

      Another of the Church Fathers who was concerned about the course of apostasy (heresy) in his time was Gregory, bishop of Nyssa (died ca. A.D. 385), who wrote that “in speculative enquiry fallacies readily find place. But where speculation is entirely at rest, the necessity of error is precluded. And that this is a true account of the case, may be seen if we consider how it is that heresies in the churches have wandered off into many and various opinions in regard to God, men deceiving themselves as they are swayed by one mental impulse or another; and how these very men with whom our treatise is concerned have slipped into such a pit of profanity.” (Answer to Eunomius’ Second Book).[xxviii]

      St. Basil (ca. A.D. 329-379), writing to the people of Chalcis, expressed concern over the turmoil that had overtaken the eastern churches and was now encroaching on other areas (Letter 222).[xxix] When Barses, bishop of Edessa (in Syria) had been exiled to Egypt by the emperor Valens, the “shepherd” being replaced by “a wolf,”[xxx] Basil wrote to Barses, expressing concern over the situation in the church, hoping for the best “unless indeed the apostasy is now nigh at hand, and the events that have lately happened are the beginnings of the approach of Antichrist” (Letter 264).[xxxi] In his Letter 243.3, addressed to the Bishops of Italy and Gaul, Basil wrote:

 

But at the present time we are alarmed, lest the mischief growing day by days like a flame spreading through some burning wood, when it has consumed what is close at hand, may catch distant objects too. The plague of heresy is spreading, and there is ground of apprehension lest, when it has devoured our Churches, it may afterwards creep on even so far as to the sound portion of your district. Peradventure it is because with us iniquity has abounded that we have been first delivered to be devoured by the cruel teeth of the enemies of God. But the gospel of the kingdom began in our regions, and then went forth over all the world. So, peradventure — and this is most probable — the common enemy of our souls, is striving to bring it about that the seeds of apostasy, originating in the same quarter, should be distributed throughout the world. For the darkness of impiety plots to come upon the very hearts whereon the “light of the knowledge” of Christ has shone.[xxxii]

 

      Basil’s contemporary, St. Jerome (died A.D. 420), cited portions of the two epistles of Peter and noted, “I . . . have merely shown that the Holy Spirit in prophecy foretold the teachers of this time and their heresy. Lastly, he more clearly denotes them, saying, ‘In the last days seducing mockers shall come, walking after their own lusts’” (Against Jovinianus 1.39).[xxxiii] Evidently, Jerome considered the “last days” of 2 Peter 3:3 to be in his own day.

      The Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah, a Jewish pseudepigraphic text that was expanded by a Christian hand no later than the fourth century A.D., describes the condition of the church prior to the Savior’s second coming:

 

And afterwards, at his approach, his disciples will abandon the teaching of the twelve apostles, and their faith, and their love, and their purity. And there will be much contention at his coming and at his approach. And in those days (there will be) many who will love office, although lacking wisdom. And there will be many wicked elders and shepherds who wrong their sheep [and they will be rapacious because they do not have holy shepherds]. And many will exchange the glory of the robes of the saints for the robes of those who love money; and there will be much respect of persons in those days, and lovers of the glory of this world. And there will be many slanderers and [much] vainglory at the approach of the Lord, and the Holy Spirit will withdraw from many. And in those days there will not be many prophets, nor those who speak reliable words, except one here and there in different places, because of the spirit of error and of fornication, and of vainglory, and of the love of money, which there will be among those who are said to be servants of that One, and among those who receive that One. And among the shepherds and the elders there will be great hatred towards one another. For there will be great jealousy in the last days, for everyone will speak whatever pleases him in his own eyes. And they will make ineffective the prophecy of the prophets who were before me, and my visions also . . . they will make ineffective, in order that they may speak what bursts out of their hearts. (Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah 3:21-31)[xxxiv]

 

      Another early Christian text that provides evidence for an apostasy and restoration is the Testament of the Lord, which was translated into Syriac in A.D. 687. According to this account, said to have been taken “From the Book of Clement on the End,”[xxxv] when Jesus appeared to the apostles after his resurrection he gave additional signs of the perilous times to come. He declared that

 

In the nations and in the churches there shall be great tumults. There shall arise among them wicked pastors, contemptuous, gluttonous, lovers of pleasures, lovers of riches, impure, lovers of money, garrulous, audacious, perverse, insolent, voluptuous, vainglorious, withstanding the ways of My gospel and flying from the narrow gate and rejecting all mortification for God’s sake, having no sympathy with My Passion, and despising all words of truth and slandering every God-fearing way, not penitent over their sins . . . their pastors have heard my precepts and have not kept them, neither have they taught My laws to the people, but they have become an example of all wickedness in their own persons . . . But they that shall hope on My name until they end, they shall live. Then they shall lay down for men precepts not according to My Will and traditions in which My Father is not well pleased. And my elect shall be despised and My saints mocked by them, and as unclean they shall be called in their midst, although they are pure and upright . . . And it shall come to pass in those days My Father shall gather from the generation pure and faithful souls, to whom I shall manifest Myself and shall take up My abode with them and I shall send them a good understanding of knowledge and rectitude and truth, and they shall not cease praising and confessing their God and My Father that sent Me, and they shall ever speak the truth and teach those whom My Father has tried and chosen, who are rightly directed in their hearts towards the kingdom, and shall make known knowledge and fortitude and intelligence.[xxxvi]

 

      An Ethiopic text entitled Testament of Our Lord and Our Savior Jesus Christ also has the resurrected Christ visiting his apostles to instruct them. Most of the text comprises a discussion of the last days and of what lies in store for the righteous and the wicked. The Savior warns his apostles about the Antichrist, who is identified with “the Seducer” (evidently referring to the devil), saying “the time has come, the harvest is near, he shall harvest the ones he should . . . and before many he shall present himself as the Christ, they shall worship him.”[xxxvii] Christ warns the apostles to beware of the heresies of Simon [Magus] and Cerinthus, who were leading many astray. At one point, he said, “my judgment shall come on the bishops and the pastors (or the priests), for they have made my people err,[xxxviii] because of the desire for their own pleasure.”[xxxix]

      A Syriac text entitled Revelation of the Twelve Apostles, has the apostles praying for knowledge about the difficult times that lay ahead. Simon Kepha (Peter) received a vision of the future and explained to his fellow apostles,

 

I received the Spirit in abundance; and I saw the time that is to be after us, full of offenses and evils and sins and lying: and the man in that [time] will be crafty, perverse and depraved, men that know not God, and understand not the truth; but a few of them shall understand their God . . . And after a time they will seek to perform miracles, in the name of our Lord Jesus, and they will not be able, because of their little faith; and they call and are not heard, because they do not call on him with all their hearts. But those who are separated from them, few in number, ask and are heard because their hearts speak the truth and know God, and understand his beloved Son, and do not deny the Spirit. And in this way they perform signs and great works of power; and these also in their wealth and in their faith are not suffered to live . . . and for the name of our Lord they shall be judged and beaten . . . and after these things shall have happened, the faith shall fail from the earth and orthodoxy shall come to an end: and those who are named as being baptised in our Lord and as confessing his name, shall be more miserable than all men; and they shall trample on the faith and talk perversely and they shall divide our Lord; and in that time there shall be reckoned many teachers, as the Spirit of the Father does not speak in them, and they shall divide our Lord; and the father of lies and the calumniator, that is, Satan, shall enter into them and disturb their minds; and their faith shall fail and it will come to pass that when they rise up and tear it, and when every man in his place will say that I am superior in the fear of God, and I confess him more correctly, that they shall seek our Lord and shall not find him, and they will call to him and he will not answer them.[xl]

 

      This passage is reminiscent of Nephi’s vision of the results of the apostasy, in which he wrote,

 

For it shall come to pass in that day that the churches which are built up, and not unto the Lord, when the one shall say unto the other: Behold, I, I am the Lord's; and the others shall say: I, I am the Lord's; and thus shall every one say that hath built up churches, and not unto the Lord—And they shall contend one with another; and their priests shall contend one with another, and they shall teach with their learning, and deny the Holy Ghost, which giveth utterance. (2 Nephi 28:3-4)

     

      The revelation of Peter continues by noting that in the end “the Lofty One talks with them; and from before him judgment shall go forth, and they shall bring upon them all these evils, and they will light upon them, until they shall return and become one true flock and one holy church, and they shall confess our Lord according as we received from him, and according as we believed in the Son the Life-Giver and Saviour of the World; and after this will be a flock and a church and a baptism, true and one.”[xli] Nephi, too, foresaw the time when there would be “one fold and one shepherd” (1 Nephi 22:25), which he also called “the true fold of God” (1 Nephi 15:15) and “the true church and fold of God” (2 Nephi 9:2).

      The apostasy is also described in the Nag Hammadi document known as the Apocalypse of Peter. According to this text, the resurrected Christ appeared to the apostles and allowed Peter to see a vision, which Jesus explained to him. Peter saw “the priests and the people running up to us with stones, as if they would kill us; and I was afraid that we were going to die” (Apocalypse of Peter VII, 72.5-9). Jesus explained that the people he saw were “blind ones who have no guide” (Apocalypse of Peter VII, 72.10-13).[xlii] The Savior then told Peter to listen to what the people were saying and the apostle realized that they were praising Christ (Apocalypse of Peter VII, 72.29-73.10). Jesus explained that “many will accept our teaching in the beginning. And they will turn from them again by the will of the Father of their error [i.e., the devil], because they have done what he wanted” (Apocalypse of Peter VII, 73.23-28).[xliii] He added,

 

And the guileless, good, pure one they push to the worker of death, and to the kingdom of those who praise Christ in a restoration. And they praise the men of the propagation of falsehood, those who will come after you. And they will cleave to the name of a dead man [Christ on the cross rather than the living Christ, as he subsequently explains], thinking that they will become pure. But they will become greatly defiled and they will fall into a name of error, and into the hand of an evil, cunning man and a manifold dogma, and they will be ruled heretically. For some of them will blaspheme the truth and proclaim evil teaching. (Apocalypse of Peter VII, 74.4-22)[xliv]

 

      In the passages that follow, Christ again alluded to the coming apostasy, saying that “many others, who oppose the truth and are the messengers of error, will set up their error and their law against these pure thoughts of mine . . . They do business in my word” (Apocalypse of Peter VII, 77.22-78.1).[xlv] “The kindred race of the sisterhood will appear as an imitation” (Apocalypse of Peter VII, 79.8-10).[xlvi] “And there shall be others of those who are outside our number who name themselves bishop and also deacons, as if they have received their authority from God. They bend themselves under the judgment of the leaders. Those people are dry canals” (Apocalypse of Peter VII, 79.22-31).[xlvii] Hearing this, Peter was concerned about the generations to come, whom he termed “little ones”:

 

But I said, “I am afraid because of what you have told me, that indeed little (ones) are, in our view, the counterfeit ones, indeed that there are multitudes that will mislead other multitudes of living ones, and destroy them among themselves. And when they speak your name they will be believed.” The Savior said, “For a time determined for them in proportion to their error they will rule over the little ones. And after the completion of the error, the never-aging one of the immortal understanding shall become young, and they (the little ones) shall rule over those who are their rulers. The root of their error he shall pluck out, and he shall put it to shame so that it shall be manifest in all the impudence which it has assumed to itself.” (Apocalypse of Peter VII, 79.32-80.21)[xlviii]

 

      The rooting out of error hints at a restoration of truth in later times.

 



[i] Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 1:56.

[ii] Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Second Series, 1:164. The quote at the end of the passage is from 1 Timothy 6:20.

[iii] Ibid., 1:199.

[iv] Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 1:68.

[v] Ibid., 1:82.

[vi] Ibid., 1:54.

[vii] Ibid., 1:110.

[viii] Ibid., 7:382.

[ix] Ibid., 7:381.

[x] Ibid., 3:160, 168.

[xi] Ibid., 7:353.

[xii] Montague Rhodes James, The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955), 503.

[xiii] Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 1:5-6.

[xiv] Ibid., 1:17.

[xv] Ibid., 1:18.

[xvi] Ibid.

[xvii] Ibid., 1:61.

[xviii] Ibid., 5:399

[xix] Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 2:554.

[xx] Ibid., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 1:221.

[xxi] Gregory Dix and Henry Chadwick, eds., Hippolytus, The Apostolic Tradition (Ridgefield CT: Morehouse, 1991), 2.

[xxii] Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 3:258.

[xxiii] Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Second Series, 1:202.

[xxiv] Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers,  8:765.

[xxv] Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Second Series, 7:106-7. The “itching ears” reference is from 2 Timothy 4:3-4.

[xxvi] Ibid., 3:268-9.

[xxvii] Ibid., 3:323.

[xxviii] Ibid., 5:260.

[xxix] Ibid., 8:261-2.

[xxx] Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History 14-15; ibid., 3:79-80.

[xxxi] Ibid., 8:303.

[xxxii] Ibid., 8:284.

[xxxiii] Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, 6:378.

[xxxiv] James H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (Garden City: Doubleday, 1985), 2:161.

[xxxv] J. P. Arendzen, “A New Syriac Text of the Apocalyptic Part of the ‘Testament of the Lord’,” The Journal of Theological Studies 2 (1900): 405.

[xxxvi] Ibid., 407-409.

[xxxvii] Louis Guerrier, “Le Testament en Galilée de Notre-Seugneur Jesus-Christ,” in Patrologia Orientalis (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1913), 9/3: 183, English translation by John A. Tvedtnes. The author of the text seems to have had in mind Paul’s prophecy in 2 Thessalonians 2, discussed above.

[xxxviii] Cf. Isaiah 3:12 and especially Jeremiah 23:13, 32; Micah 3:5.

[xxxix] Louis Guerrier, “Le Testament en Galilée de Notre-Seugneur Jesus-Christ,” 185.

[xl] J. Rendel Harris, The Gospel of the Twelve Apostles Together with The Apocalypses of Each One of Them (Cambridge University, 1900), 31-32.

[xli] Ibid., 33.

[xlii] James M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library, 3rd revised ed. (San Francisco: Harper, 1988), 373.

[xliii] Ibid., 374.

[xliv] Ibid., 374.

[xlv] Ibid., 375.

[xlvi] Ibid., 376.

[xlvii] Ibid., 376.