The Apostles After the Ascension

First, then, Matthias was chosen by lot to the apostleship in place of Judas the betrayer. He too, as has been shown, had been one of the Lord’s disciples. Then, by the prayer and laying on of hands of the apostles, tested men, seven in number, Stephen and those with him, were appointed to the diaconate, to serve the community. Stephen was the first after the Lord to be put to death. At the very time of his ordination, as though he had been promoted for this very purpose, he was stoned to death by the Lord’s murderers, and so he was the first to carry off the crown that matches his name, the crown of the martyrs of Christ who are worthy of victory. [a]

Then there was James, who was called the Lord’s brother, because he too was named a son of Joseph. Joseph was the father of Christ: the Virgin was betrothed to him, and before they came together she was found with child by the Holy Spirit, as the holy Scripture of the Gospels teaches. This same James, whom the men of old surnamed the Just because of his excellent virtue, was the first, they record, to be entrusted with the bishop’s throne of the church at Jerusalem. [b] Clement, in the sixth book of his Outlines, puts it this way: he says that Peter and James and John, after the Savior’s ascension, as men the Savior had already honored above the rest, did not claim glory for themselves, but chose James the Just as bishop of Jerusalem. [c] In the seventh book of the same work the same writer also says this about him: “After the resurrection the Lord handed on knowledge to James the Just and to John and Peter. They handed it on to the rest of the apostles, and the rest of the apostles to the Seventy, of whom Barnabas was one. Now there were two named James: one was the Just, who was thrown down from the pinnacle and beaten to death with a club by a fuller; the other was the one who was beheaded.” Paul too mentions this same James the Just, when he writes, “I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother.” [e]

At this time too our Savior’s promise to the king of the Osrhoenians was fulfilled. Moved by God, Thomas sent Thaddeus to Edessa as a preacher and evangelist of the teaching about Christ, as we showed a little earlier from the document found there. [f] When Thaddeus arrived there, he healed Abgar by the word of Christ and astonished everyone there with his extraordinary miracles. When he had brought them into a fit state of mind by his works, and led them to revere the power of Christ, he made them disciples of the saving teaching. From that day to this, the whole city of the Edessenes has been dedicated to the name of Christ, which is no small proof of our Savior’s kindness toward them too. [g]

Let these things be told as from ancient history. Now let us return to the divine Scripture. The first and greatest persecution was raised by the Jews themselves against the church at Jerusalem, at the time of Stephen’s martyrdom, and all the disciples except the Twelve alone were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Some of them, as the divine Scripture says, traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. They could not yet bring themselves to share the word of faith with the nations, and preached it to the Jews alone. [h] During this time Paul was still ravaging the church, going into the houses of believers, dragging off men and women, and handing them over to prison. Philip too, one of those appointed to the diaconate with Stephen, was among the scattered ones. He went down to Samaria and, filled with divine power, was the first to preach the word to the people there. So great was the divine grace working with him that even Simon the magician was drawn by his words, along with a great many others. Simon was so celebrated at that time, and held such sway by his sorcery over those he had deceived, that they thought him the great power of God. But now he too was astounded at the miracles Philip performed by divine power. He slipped in and pretended to have faith in Christ, even to the point of baptism. [i] It is worth marveling at that the same thing is still done today by those who follow the utterly foul heresy that comes from him. Using their forefather’s method, they slip into the Church like a plague or a scabby disease and do the greatest damage to anyone they can smear with the hard-to-heal and deadly poison hidden in themselves. Most of them have already been driven out once they were caught in their wickedness, just as Simon himself, when Peter exposed him for what he was, paid the penalty he deserved. [j]

But as the saving message grew day by day, a certain arrangement of events brought from the land of the Ethiopians an official of the queen there, for by ancestral custom that nation is ruled by a woman even to this day. He was the first of the Gentiles to receive the mysteries of the divine word from Philip, through a revelation, and he became the firstfruits of believers throughout the world. The story holds that he was the first, on returning to his native land, to preach the knowledge of the God of the universe and the life-giving stay of our Savior among humankind. So through him the prophecy was fulfilled in fact which says, “Ethiopia will hasten to stretch out her hand to God.” [k] In addition to these, Paul, the “chosen vessel,” was made an apostle, “not from men or through men, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ himself and of God the Father who raised him from the dead.” He was found worthy of the call by a vision, and by the voice from heaven that came with the revelation. [l]