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The wondrous Resurrection of our Savior and His Ascension were already known to many. According to an ancient custom,

The regional governors had to inform the person vested with supreme power about all local news, so that nothing escaped the imperial eye. Pilate reported to the emperor Tiberius that throughout all Palestine there was a rumor about the Resurrection of our Saviour, Jesus, that he knew of His other miracles, and that in Him, Who had risen from the dead, many had already believed as God. 2 Tiberius, it is said, reported this to the senate, but the senate rejected the news, on the pretext that it had not previously examined it: according to an ancient law, no one could be recognized as a god among the Romans except by vote and decree of the senate. In reality, however, the salvific teaching of Divine preaching did not need human approval and protection. Although the Roman senate rejected the news of our Saviour, 3 Tiberius retained his former opinion and did not plot anything incongruous against Christ's teaching.

4 Tertullian, an excellent scholar of Roman law, and a man of renown in general, and one of the most illustrious, in his Apology of the Christians, written in Latin and translated into Greek, says verbatim thus:

5 "Let us speak of the origin of such laws. According to an ancient decree, the emperor could not recognize any god as such without prior consideration by the Senate. Marcus Aemilius did this with a certain idol Alvurnus. That your divine dignity is granted by human decision is in our favor. If a man does not like a god, he will not become a god; It turns out that a person should be merciful to God. 6 When news of this doctrine came to Tiberius, under whom the name of the Christians had entered the world, came to him from Palestine (Palestine was his birthplace), he communicated it to the senate, making it clear that he liked it. The Senate, however, rejected it as not having been considered beforehand. Tiberius remained unconvinced and threatened with death those who denounced Christians."

Heavenly Providence planted this thought in him with a special purpose, so that the word of the Gospel would first pass unhindered throughout the whole earth.

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By the power of heaven and its assistance, the salvific teaching illumined, as with a ray of sunshine, the entire universe, and immediately, in the words of the Holy Scriptures, "the voice of the wondrous 7 Evangelists and Apostles went through all the earth" "and their words to the ends of the world."

(2) And indeed, in every city, in every village (as full granaries) there arose Churches, uniting a multitude of people. People whose souls were shackled by the superstitious horror of idols, this ancient disease inherited from ancestors and from ancient error, were revived by the power of Christ, which His disciples taught and performed miracles, delivered themselves as if from terrible masters, freed themselves from the heaviest fetters. With disgust they turned away from all pagan polytheism, confessed that there was only one God, the Creator of all that exists, and began to honor Him according to the commandments of true piety, imbued with the Spirit of God, with intelligent service, the seeds of which our Savior sowed among people.

(3) The mercy of God was also poured out on other nations. In Caesarea of Palestine, Cornelius was the first to accept the faith of Christ together with his entire household (he had a vision from heaven, and the Apostle Peter served him), and in Antioch - very many Greeks, to whom the disciples who scattered after the persecution of Stephen preached. The Church of Antioch soon became numerous and prosperous. At that time most of the prophets of Jerusalem were there, and with them Barnabas, Paul, and many other brothers. There, for the first time, as if from an abundant inexhaustible spring, the name of Christians flowed. (4) And since Agabus, one of the prophets who were there, had foretold that there would be a famine, Paul and Barnabas were sent out to serve their brethren.

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Tiberius died after a reign of almost twenty-two years; power was given to Gaius after him. He immediately placed the Jewish crown on Agrippa, making him king over the tetrarchy of Philip and Lysanias, and a short time later entrusted him with the tetrarchy of Herod. This Herod (during his reign the Saviour suffered) he punished together with his wife Herodias for many crimes by lifelong exile. Joseph also testifies to this.

2 Under Gaius Philo, a very remarkable man, not only among our people, but also among those who had received a Greek education, became very well known. He was descended from an ancient Jewish family and was in no way inferior to those who were known in Alexandria for their duties. 3 How much and what kind of labor he put into the study of the sciences pertaining to the faith and the fatherland, is evident in practice to everyone. How strong he was in philosophy and in the liberal arts, the acquaintance with which the Greek education requires, there is no need to say about this. He studied Plato and Pythagoras with special diligence and, they say, surpassed all his contemporaries in this.

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