In the year three hundred and thirty-nine of the kingdom of the Greeks, in the month Heziran, on the fourth day of the same, which is the first day of the week, and the end of Pentecost—on the selfsame day came the disciples from Nazareth of Galilee, where the conception of our Lord was announced, to the mount which is called that of the Place of Olives, our Lord being with them, but not being visible to them. And at the time of early dawn our Lord lifted up His hands, and laid them upon the heads of the eleven disciples, and gave to them the gift of the priesthood. And suddenly a bright cloud received Him. And they saw Him as He was going up to heaven.
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And from thence they went up to the city, and proceeded to an upper room—that in which our Lord had observed the passover with them … As within the upper room the mystery of the body and of the blood of our Lord began to prevail in the world, so also from thence did the teaching of His preaching begin to have authority in the world. And, when the disciples were cast into this perplexity, how they should preach His Gospel to men of strange tongues which were unknown to them, and were speaking thus to one another: … A mysterious voice was heard by them, and a sweet odour, which was strange to the world, breathed upon them; and tongues of fire, between the voice and the odour, came down from heaven towards them, and alighted and sat on every one of them; and, according to the tongue which every one of them had severally received, so did he prepare himself to go to the country in which that tongue was spoken and heard.
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Also what James had written from Jerusalem, and Simon from the city of Rome, and John from Ephesus, and Mark from Alexandria the Great, and Andrew from Phrygia, and Luke from Macedonia, and Judas Thomas from India: that the epistles of an apostle might be received and read in the churches that were in every place, just as the achievements of their Acts, which Luke wrote, are read; that hereby the apostles might be known, and the prophets, and the Old Testament and the New; that so might be seen one truth was proclaimed in them all: that one Spirit spoke in them all, from one God whom they had all worshipped and had all preached … Everything, therefore, which had been spoken by our Lord by means of the apostles, and which the apostles had delivered to their disciples, was believed and received in every country, by the operation of our Lord, who said to them: “I am with you, even until the world shall end; … And by ordination to the priesthood, which the apostles themselves had received from our Lord, did their Gospel wing its way rapidly into the four quarters of the world. And by mutual visitation they ministered to one another.
1. Jerusalem received the ordination to the priesthood, as did all the country of Palestine, and the parts occupied by the Samaritans, and the parts occupied by the Philistines, and the country of the Arabians, and of Phœnicia, and the people of Cæsarea, from James who was ruler and guide in the church of the apostles which was built in Zion.
2. Alexandria the Great, and Thebais, and the whole of Inner Egypt, and all the country of Pelusium, and extending as far as the borders of the Indians, received the apostles’ ordination to the priesthood from Mark the evangelist
3. India, and all the countries belonging to it and round about it, even to the farthest sea, … from Judas Thomas
4. Antioch, and Syria, and Cilicia, and Galatia, even to Pontus, … from Simon Cephas, who himself laid the foundation of the church there
5. The city of Rome, and all Italy, and Spain, and Britain, and Gaul, together with all the rest of the countries round about them, … from Simon Cephas, who went up from Antioch;
6. Ephesus, and Thessalonica, and all Asia, and all the country of the Corinthians, and of all Achaia and the parts round about it, … from John the evangelist, who had leaned upon the bosom of our Lord;
7. Nicæa, and Nicomedia, and all the country of Bithynia, and of Inner Galatia, and of the regions round about it, … from Andrew, the brother of Simon Cephas,
8. Byzantium, and all the country of Thrace, and of the parts about it as far as the great river, the boundary which separates from the barbarians, … from Luke the apostle,
9. Edessa, and all the countries round about it which were on all sides of it, and Zoba, and Arabia, and all the north, and the regions round about it, and the south, and all the regions on the borders of Mesopotamia, received the apostles’ ordination to the priesthood from Addæus the apostle, one of the seventy-two apostles,
10. The whole of Persia, of the Assyrians, and of the Armenians, and of the Medians, and of the countries round about Babylon, the Huzites and the Gelæ, as far as the borders of the Indians, and as far as the land of Gog and Magog, and moreover all the countries on all sides, received the apostles’ ordination to the priesthood from Aggæus, a maker of silks, the disciple of Addæus the apostle.
References
- Teaching of the Apostles. ANF 8:667-672. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf08/anf08.ix.vii.html. Accessed January 9, 2023