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Rhodon.3717
| 3717 In
Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., v. 13. |
[a.d. 180.] This
Rhodon3718
was supposed
by St. Jerome to have been the author of the work against the
Cataphrygians, ascribed to Asterius Urbanus more probably.3719
| 3719 Vol. vii.
pp. 333–338, this series, where I neglected to insert a reference
to Routh, Rel. Sac., vol. ii. pp. 183–217. | Eusebius3720
| 3720 H. E., book
v. cap. 13. | gives us the fragment from his work
against Marcion, addressed to Callistion, which is here
translated. He tells us that he was a pupil of Tatian, and
expresses an intention of furnishing original solutions of Scriptural
problems stated by Tatian,3721
| 3721 Vol. ii. p. 62,
this series. | and by that
author explained in a manner apparently unsatisfactory. He also
appears to have written against the blasphemous Apelles,3722
| 3722 See Origen, vol.
iv. p. 567, this series. | whose Hexaëmeron was an
attempt to refute Moses; but whether he also fulfilled his promise
concerning an ᾽Επίλυσις
of Tatian’s Problems (or Questions), seems doubtful.
Routh has devoted to the fragment here translated six pages of
notes,3723
| 3723 Rel.
Sac., vol. i. pp. 437–446. | which he
subjoins to the Greek text (of Eusebius) and a Latin version of the
same.
Wherefore also
they3724
disagree among themselves, maintaining
as they do an opinion which has no consistency with itself. For
one of their herd, Apelles, who prides himself on the strictness of his
life,3725
| 3725 Πολιτείᾳ.
See Migne’s note. | and on his age, admits that there is
only one first principle,3726
| 3726 ᾽Αρχήν. [See vol. vii. p.
365, this series.] | yet says
that the prophecies have come from an opposing spirit, in which
opinion he is influenced by the responses of a soothsaying3727
maid named Philumene. But
others, among whom are Potitus and Basilicus, like Marcion3728
| 3728 Some
copies have “Marcion the sailor,” and so Tertullian
(de Præscriptionibus) speaks of him. [Vol. iii. cap.
30, p. 257, this series.] | himself, introduce two first
principles. These men, following the Pontic wolf, and not being
able to discover any more than he the division of things, have had to
recourse to rash assertion, and declared the existence of two first
principles simply and without proof. Others of them, again,
drifting from bad to worse, assume not two only, but even three
natures. Of these men the leader and champion is Syneros, as
those who adopt his teaching say.…
For the old man Apelles entered into conversation
with us, and was convicted of uttering many false opinions. For
example, he asserted that men should on no account examine into their
creed,3729
but that
every one ought to continue to the last in the belief he has once
adopted. For he declared that those who had rested their hope on
the Crucified One would be saved, provided only they were found living
in the practice of good works. But the most perplexing of all the
doctrines laid down by him was, as we have remarked before, what he
said concerning God: for he affirmed that there was only
one first principle, precisely as our own faith
teaches.…
On asking him, “Where do you get proof of
this? or how are you able to assert that there is only one first
principle? tell us,”—he said that the prophecies refuted
themselves, because they had uttered nothing at all that was
true: for that they were discordant and false, and
self-contradictory. As to the question, “How does it appear
that there is only one first principle?” he said he could
not tell, only he was impelled to that belief. On my thereupon
conjuring him to speak the truth, he solemnly declared that he was
expressing his real sentiments; and that he did not know
“how” there could be one uncreated God, but that he
believed the fact. Here I burst into laughter and rebuked him,
because he professed to be a teacher, and yet was unable to confirm
by arguments what he taught.
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