Chapter XX.—The Extant Works of the Writers of that Age.

1. There flourished many learned men in the Church at that time, whose letters to each other have been preserved and are easily accessible. They have been kept until our time in the library at Ælia, 1933 which was established by Alexander, who at that time presided over that church. We have been able to gather from that library material for our present work.

2. Among these Beryllus 1934 has left us, besides letters and treatises, various elegant works. He was bishop of Bostra in Arabia. Likewise also Hippolytus, 1935 who presided over another church, has left writings.

3. There has reached us also a dialogue of Caius, 1936 a very learned man, which was held at Rome under Zephyrinus, 1937 with Proclus, who contended for the Phrygian heresy. In this he curbs the rashness and boldness of his opponents in setting forth new Scriptures. He mentions only thirteen epistles of the holy apostle, not counting that to the Hebrews 1938 with the others. And unto our day there are some among the Romans who do not consider this a work of the apostle.

Footnotes

Ælia, the city built by Hadrian upon the site of Jerusalem (see Bk. IV. chap. 6). We do not know the subsequent history of this library of Alexander, but it had already been in existence nearly a hundred years when Eusebius examined it.

On Beryllus, bishop of Bostra in Arabia, see chap. 33.

On Hippolytus, see chap. 22.

On Caius and his discussion with Proclus, see Bk. II. chap. 25, notes 7 and 8.

Zephyrinus was bishop of Rome from 198 or 199 to 217. See Bk. V. chap. 28, note 5.

On the Epistle to the Hebrews and the opinions of the early Church in regard to its authorship, see Bk. III. chap. 3, note 17.