14. This is more clearly seen in the Epistle of the Apostles, which they sent not to the Jews or to the Greeks, but to those who believed in Christ from among the Gentiles. For when some of the Jews came to Antioch, where the Lord's disciples also began to be called Christians in the first place by faith in Christ, and they urged those who believed in the Lord to be circumcised and to obey the other ordinances of the law, and Paul and Barnabas came to Jerusalem to the rest of the apostles on this matter, and the whole church was gathered together, Peter said to them, "Men, brethren! you know that God has chosen from among you from among the days of old,44 that out of my mouth the Gentiles should hear the Word of the Gospel and believe; and God, who knows the heart, gave them a testimony, giving them the Holy Ghost as he did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Why then do you now tempt God, that you may put upon the necks of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we could bear? But we believe that by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we can be saved, even as they are (Acts 15:7-11). After him, Jacob said: "Men, brethren! Simon explained how God chose to take a people from the Gentiles in His name. And thus,45 the words of the prophets agree, as it is written: "Then I will turn and rebuild the fallen tabernacle of David, and that which is destroyed in it, I will build it up and raise it up, that other men and all the nations among whom my name is called may seek the Lord, saith the Lord who does these things" (Amos 11:11, 12).46 God knows His work from eternity.47 For my part, therefore, I do not intend to hinder those who turn to God from among the Gentiles, but to command them to abstain from the vanities of idols,48 from fornication, and from blood, and not to do to others what they do not want to do to themselves (Acts 15:14-20). And when these things had been said, and all had agreed, they wrote to them thus: Apostles and elders (and) brethren, greetings to the brethren of the Gentiles who are in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. For we have heard that some of those who have gone out from us have troubled you with speeches, breaking your souls, saying that you must be circumcised and keep the law, which we did not command them; then we, having gathered together in agreement, decided to send to you chosen men with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who gave up their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we have sent Judas and Silas, who will explain our opinion to you verbally. For it is pleasing to the Holy Spirit and to us not to lay any burden upon you except these necessary things: abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from fornication, and do not do to others what you do not want to do to yourself; wherefore, keeping yourselves, ye shall do well, walking in the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:23-29). From all this it is evident that they did not teach about the existence of another God, but gave a new covenant of freedom to those who had recently come to believe in God through the Holy Spirit. And by inquiring whether or not disciples should be circumcised, they clearly showed that they had no conception of another God.

15. In this case, they would not have such a fear of the first Testament that they would not even want to eat with the Gentiles. For even Peter, although he was sent to instruct them and was moved to do so by a vision, yet with great fear he spoke to them thus: "You know that it is forbidden for a Jew to associate or associate with a foreigner, but God has revealed to me that I should not consider any man filthy or unclean; therefore I came without questioning (Acts 10:28, 29), showing by these words that he would not have gone to them if he had not been commanded. In the same way, he would not have given them baptism so easily if he had not heard that they prophesied, since the Holy Spirit had rested upon them. And therefore he said: "Who can forbid those who have received the Holy Spirit to be baptized with water, even as we have" (Acts 10:47)? – inspiring those who were with him and showing that if the Holy Spirit had not rested upon them, then someone could have forbidden them baptism. And the Apostles who were with James allowed the Gentiles to act freely, leaving us to the Spirit of God. But they themselves, knowing the same God, held to the former customs, so that Peter, too, fearing to be reproached by them, although he had formerly eaten with the Gentiles for the sake of the vision and the Spirit that rested upon them, nevertheless separated himself from them and did not eat with them, when certain people came from James; so did Barnabas, according to Paul (Gal. 2:12:13). Thus the Apostles, whom the Lord made witnesses of all (His) activity and all doctrine – for Peter, James, and John are everywhere with Him – reverently acted in relation to the disposition of the law of Moses, showing that it came from one and the same God. And this they would not have done, as I have said, if they had been taught by the Lord that there is another father besides him who established the law.

Chapter XIII: Refutation of the Opinion that Paul Alone of the Apostles Knew the Truth

1. As for those who say that Paul alone knew the truth, and that the sacrament was revealed to him (only) by revelation, Paul himself will rebuke them49 when he says that one and the same God cooperated Peter in the apostleship of the circumcision, and of him among the Gentiles (Gal. 2. 8). Peter, therefore, was an apostle of the same God whom Paul had, and whom Peter proclaimed among the circumcised as God and the Son of God, Whom also Paul (preached) among the Gentiles. For our Lord did not come to save Paul alone, and God is not so poor. to have only one apostle who would know the decree of His Son. And Paul, saying, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good tidings, who preach good tidings of peace" (Rom. 10:15; Isa. 52:7), clearly showed that not one, but many, preached the truth. And again in the Epistle to the Corinthians, having enumerated those who saw God after His resurrection, He added: "Therefore I, or they, we so preach, and so you believed" (1 Cor. 15:11), acknowledging that the preaching of all those who saw God after His resurrection from the dead is the same.

2. And the Lord answered Philip, who wanted to see the Father, saying, "How long have I been with you, and you do not know me, Philip?" He who sees Me also sees the Father: how then do you say, Show us the Father? For I am in the Father, and the Father in Me, and from henceforth you know Him, and have seen Him (John 14:7-10). Therefore, to say that those to whom the Lord gave testimony that they both knew and saw the Father in Him, and that the Father is the truth, did not know the truth, is characteristic of people who bear false witness and have alienated themselves from the teaching of Christ. For why did the Lord send the twelve apostles to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, if they did not know the truth? How did the seventy (Apostles) preach, if they themselves did not know the truth of the preaching beforehand? Or how could Peter not know (the truth), to whom the Lord gave testimony that flesh and blood had not revealed to him, but the Heavenly Father (Matthew 16:17)? And just as Paul (was) an apostle not of man, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father (Gal. 1:1), (so also the rest of the apostles), for the Son brought them to the Father, and the Father revealed the Son to them.

3. And that Paul consented to the demand of those who had summoned him to the Apostles on a matter, and came to them in Jerusalem with Barnabas, not without reason, but that the freedom of the Gentiles might be confirmed by them, he himself speaks of this in his Epistle to the Galatians: Then after fourteen years I went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus with me. And I walked according to the revelation and communicated to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles (Gal. 2:1-2). And again he says: "We yielded for an hour, and submitted, that the truth of the gospel might be preserved among you" (Gal. 2:5).50 Therefore, if anyone, on the basis of the Acts of the Apostles, carefully examines the time of which it is written that he came to Jerusalem on the above-mentioned matter, he will find that the years indicated by Paul coincide with it. Thus, Paul's indication agrees and seems to be identical with Luke's testimony about the Apostles.

Chapter XIV: Of Luke, Paul's Companion, and of the Peculiarities of the Gospel History, Which Are Known Only through Him

1. And that Luke was Paul's inseparable companion and co-worker in the preaching of the gospel, he himself declares this, not boasting, but being impelled by the truth itself. For, he says, when Barnabas and John, called Mark, separated from Paul and sailed to Cyprus, we came to Troas (Acts 16:8ff.); and when Paul saw in a dream a man from Macedonia, saying, "Come to Macedonia and help us," he said, "we immediately decided to go to Macedonia, understanding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. And then he carefully shows the rest of his journey to Philippi, and how they spoke the first speech: "Sitting down," he says, "we talked with the women who were gathered together" (Acts 16:13), and who believed, and how many. And again he says, "And after the days of unleavened bread we sailed from Philippi, and arrived at Troas, where we tarried seven days" (Acts 20:5, 6). And all the rest of the particulars (of his journey) with Paul he relates in order, with all care indicating the places, cities, and the number of days before they came to Jerusalem, and what happened to Paul there, how he was bound to Rome, the name of the centurion who received him, and the names of the ships, and how they were shipwrecked, and on what island they were saved, how they were received philanthropically, and Paul helped the governor of this island, how from here they sailed to Puteoli and then arrived in Rome, and how long they stayed in Rome (Acts 21:27; 28). Being present at all this, Luke carefully described it in such a way that he could not be convicted of falsehood or arrogance, because all these (details) prove that he was older than all those who now teach otherwise, and knew the truth. That he was not only a companion, but also a co-worker of the Apostles, and especially of Paul, Paul himself declared this in the Epistles, saying: Demas left me and went to Thessalonica, Crescentius to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, Luke alone with me (2 Tim. 4:10:11), and thus shows that he was always with him and was not separated. And again in the Epistle to the Colossians he says: "Luke, the beloved physician, greets you" (Col. 4:14). But if Luke, who always preached with Paul, was called "beloved" by him, preached the gospel with him, and was commissioned by him to deliver the gospel to us, was taught nothing else from him, as is evident from his words, how can these men, who were never with Paul, boast that they had been taught the hidden and ineffable mysteries?

2. And that Paul simply taught what he knew, not only those who were with him, but also all those who heard him, this he himself shows. For when the bishops and elders, who had come from Ephesus and other nearby cities, gathered together in Miletus, because he was hastening to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost, he testified to them of many things, and spoke of what was to happen to him in Jerusalem, and added, "I know that you will see my face no more; therefore I testify to you this day that I am clean from the blood of all. For I have not failed to declare to you all the will of God. Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you bishops to govern the church of the Lord,51 which he purchased for himself with his own blood (Acts 20:25-28). Then, pointing to the evil teachers who were to appear, he said: "I know that after my departure grievous wolves will come to you, not sparing the flock. And men will arise from among yourselves, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. "I have not failed," he said, "to declare to you all the counsel of God" (Acts 20:29, 30). In this way, the Apostles simply and without looking at anyone taught everyone what they had been taught by the Lord. In the same way, Luke, in spite of no one, handed down to us what he had learned from them, as he himself testifies, saying: "As those who were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word from the beginning handed down to us" (Luke 1:2).

3. But if anyone removes Luke on the pretext that he did not know the truth, he will clearly reject the Gospel, of which he presents himself as a disciple. For through him we know very many things that are necessary in the Gospel, such as: the birth of John, the story of Zechariah, the coming of the angel to Mary, the proclamation of Elizabeth, the descent of the angels to the shepherds and the words they spoke, the testimony of Anna and Simeon concerning Christ, the fact that he remained in Jerusalem at the age of twelve, the baptism of John, of the number of years of the Lord when he was baptized, and that it was in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar; and in his teaching – about what was said to the rich: "Woe to you, you rich! for you have received your consolation. And, Woe to you, you who are full, for you will hunger; and those who laugh now, for ye shall weep. Woe unto you; when all men shall speak well of you, for so did your fathers also with false prophets (Luke 6:24-26). Through Luke alone we learned about all such circumstances – about many of the Lord's actions we learned from him, such as the multitude of fish caught by Peter's companions when they cast their nets at the Lord's command (Luke 5), about the woman who suffered for eighteen years and was healed on the Sabbath day (Luke 12), and about the man who was healed by the Lord's command. suffering from water sickness, whom the Lord healed on the Sabbath, and how He defended Himself about healing on that day; how He taught His disciples not to covet the first places, and that we should call the poor and weak, who cannot reward us; about a man who knocked at night to borrow loaves of bread and received them out of urgency of his need (Luke 11); about how during His reclining at the Pharisee's, the sinful woman kissed His feet and anointed Him with myrrh, and that in her favor the Lord said to Simon about the two debtors (Luke 7), also about the parable of the rich man who gathered all his harvest, and to whom it was said: "This night they will take your soul from you; but who shall receive what thou hast prepared (Luke 12:20), and of that the richer; who clothed himself in purple and feasted magnificently, and for the beggar Lazarus (Luke 16); about the answer that He gave to His disciples, when they said to Him: "Increase faith in us" (Luke 17:5); about His conversation with Zacchaeus the publican? (Luke 19), about the Pharisee and the publican, who prayed together in the temple (Luke 18), about the ten lepers whom He healed together on the way (Luke 17); about how He commanded the lame and blind to gather for marriage from the streets and alleys (Luke 18), and about the parable of the judge who did not fear God, whom the widow's persistence forced to protect her (Luke 13), and about the fig tree in the vineyard that did not bear fruit. And many other things can be found, which are said only by Luke, and which are used by both Marcion and Valentinus. And in addition to all this, he tells about what (the Lord), after the Resurrection, spoke to His disciples on the way, and how they recognized Him in the breaking of bread (Luke 24).