An Assembly of Many Nations, as in the Acts

For we are told that in the age of the apostles there were gathered “devout men from every nation under heaven.” Among them were Parthians, Medes and Elamites, those who lived in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and the parts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabians. But that assembly was the lesser, in that not all who made it up were ministers of God. In the present company, by contrast, the bishops numbered more than two hundred and fifty, while the presbyters and deacons who came with them, and the crowd of acolytes and other attendants, were altogether beyond counting. [a]