vince. The mad attempt of Caligula to place his own statue in the temple of Jerusalem, was defeated by the unanimous resolution of a people who dreaded death much less than such an idolatrous profanation. Their attachment to the law of Moses was equal to their detestation of foreign religions. The current of zeal and devotion, as it was contracted into a narrow channel, ran with the strength, and sometimes with the fury, of a torrent.

crease.

which in some cases was perpetual, almost always extended to the third, to the seventh, or even to the tenth generation. The obligation of preaching to the Gentiles the faith of Moses, had never been inculcated as a precept of the law, nor were the Jews inclined to impose it on themselves as a voluntary duty.

Its gradual in- This inflexible perseverance, which appeared so odious or so ridiculous to the ancient world, assumes a more awful character, since providence has deigned to reveal to us the mysterious history of the chosen people. But the devout and even scrupulous attachment to the Mosaic religion, so conspicuous among the Jews who lived under the second temple, becomes still more surprising, if it is compared with the stubborn incredulity of their forefathers. When the law was given in thunder from mount Sinai; when the tides of the ocean and the course of the planets were suspended for the convenience of the Israelites; and when temporal rewards and punishments were the immediate consequences of their piety or disobedience, they perpetually relapsed into rebellion against the visible majesty the Lord Jehovah, it would have been impossible that of their Divine King, placed the idols of the nations in the sanctuary of Jehovah, and imitated every fantastic ceremony that was practised in the tents of the Arabs, or in the cities of Phoenicia. As the protection of Heaven was deservedly withdrawn from the ungrateful race, their faith acquired a proportionable degree of vigour and purity. The contemporaries of Moses and Joshua had beheld with careless indifference the most amazing miracles. Under the pressure of every calamity, the belief of those miracles has preserved the Jews of a later period from the universal contagion of idolatry; and in contradiction to every known principle of the human mind, that singular people seems to have yielded a stronger and more ready assent to the traditions of their remote ancestors, than to the evidence of their own senses.

Their religion

In the admission of new citizens, that unsocial people was actuated by the selfish vanity of the Greeks, rather than by the generous policy of Rome. The descendants of Abraham were flattered by the opinion, that they alone were the heirs of the covenant, and they were apprehensive of diminishing the value of their inheritance, by sharing it too easily with the strangers of the earth. A larger acquaintance with mankind, extended their knowledge without correcting their prejudices; and whenever the God of Israel acquired any new votaries, he was much more indebted to the inconstant humour of polytheism than to the active zeal of his own missionaries. The religion of Moses seems to be instituted for a particular country as well as for a single nation; and if a strict obedience had been paid to the order, that every male, three times in the year, should present himself before the Jews could ever have spread themselves beyond the narrow limits of the promised land. That obstacle was indeed removed by the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem; but the most considerable part of the Jewish religion was involved in its destruction; and the pagans, who had long wondered at the strange report of an empty sanctuary, were at a loss to discover what could be the object, or what could be the instruments, of a worship which was destitute of temples and of altars, of priests and of sacrifices. Yet even in their fallen state, the Jews, still asserting their lofty and exclusive privileges, shunned, instead of courting, the society of strangers. They still insisted with inflexible rigour on those parts of the law which it was in their power to practise. Their peculiar distinctions of days, of meats, and a variety of trivial though burdensome observances, were so many objects of disgust and aversion for the other nations, to whose habits and prejudices they were diametrically opposite. The painful and even dangerous rite of circumcision was alone capable of repelling a willing proselyte from the door of the synagogue.

The Jewish religion was admirably better suited to fitted for defence, but it was never dedefence than to signed for conquest; and it seems proconquest. bable that the number of proselytes was never much superior to that of apostates. The divine promises were originally made, and the distinguishing rite of circumcision was enjoined, to a single family. Under these circumstances, christiani- More liberal zeal When the posterity of Abraham had multiplied like ty offered itself to the world, armed with of christianity. the sands of the sea, the Deity, from whose mouth the strength of the Mosaic law, and delivered from the they received a system of laws and ceremonies, de- weight of its fetters. An exclusive zeal for the truth clared himself the proper and as it were the national of religion, and the unity of God, was as carefully inGod of Israel; and with the most jealous care sepa-calculated in the new as in the ancient system: and rated his favourite people from the rest of mankind. whatever was now revealed to mankind concerning the The conquest of the land of Canaan was accompanied with so many wonderful and with so many bloody circumstances, that the victorious Jews were left in a state of irreconcilable hostility with all their neighbours. They had been commanded to extirpate some of the most idolatrous tribes, and the execution of the Divine will had seldom been retarded by the weakness of humanity. With the other nations they were forbidden to contract any marriages or alliances, and the prohibition of receiving them into the congregation,

b See, in particular, Joseph. Antiquitat. xvii. 6. xviii. 3. and De Bel.

Judaic. i. 33. and 1. 9. Edit. Hevercamp.

i Jussi a Chio Cæsare, effigiem ejus in templo locare, arma Potius sumpsere. Tacit. Hist. v. 9. Philo and Josephus gave a very cir cumstantial, but a very rhetorical, account of this transaction, which exceedingly perplexed the governor of Syria. At the first mention of this idolatrous proposal, king Agrippa fainted away; and did not recover his senses till the third day.

nature and designs of the Supreme Being, was fitted to increase their reverence for that mysterious doctrine. The divine authority of Moses and the prophets was admitted, and even established, as the firmest basis of christianity. From the beginning of the world, an uninterrupted series of predictions had announced and prepared the long expected coming of the Messiah, who, in compliance with the gross apprehensions of Jews, had been more frequently represented under the character of a king and conqueror, than under that of a prophet, a martyr, and the Son of God. By his expiatory sacrifice, the imperfect sacrifices of the temple were at once consummated and abolished. The cere

All that relates to the Jewish proselytes has been very ably treated by Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, J. vi. c. 6. 7.

m See Exod. xxiv. 23. Deut. xvi. 16. the commentators, and a very sensible note in the Universal History, vol. i. p. 603. edit. fol. For the enumeration of the Syrian and Arabian deities, it may When Pompey, using or abusing the right of conquest, entered be observed, that Milton has comprised in one hundred and thirty imo the Holy of Holies, it was observed with amazement, "Nulla very beautiful lines the two large and learned syntagmas which Sel-intus Deum effigie, vacuam sedem et inania arcana. Tacit. Hist. den had composed on that abstruse subject. v. 9. It was a popular saying, with regard to the Jews, Nil præter nubes et cœli numen adorant.

How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shown among them?" (Numhers. xiv. 11.) It would be easy, but it would be un becoming, to justify the complaint of the Deity from the whole tenor of the Mosaic history,

o A second kind of circumcision was inflicted on a Samaritan or Egyptian proselyte. The sullen indifference of the Talmudists, with respect to the conversion of strangers, may be seen in Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, 1. vi. c. 6.

forty days after the death of Christ, and was governed almost as many years under the immediate inspection of his apostle, should be received as the standard of orthodoxy. The distant churches very frequently appealed to the authority of their venerable parent, and relieved her distresses by a liberal contribution of alms. But when numerous and opulent societies were estabexandria, Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome, the reverence which Jerusalem had inspired to all the christian colonies insensibly diminished. The Jewish converts, or, as they were afterwards called, the Nazarenes, who had laid the foundations of the church, soon found themselves overwhelmed by the increasing multitudes, that from all the various religions of polytheism enlisted under the banner of Christ: and the Gentiles, who, with the approbation of their peculiar apostle, had rejected the intolerable weight of the Mosaic ceremonies, at length refused to their more scrupulous brethren the same toleration which at first they had humbly solicited for their own practice. The ruin of the temple, of the city, and of the public religion of the Jews, was severely felt by the Nazarenes; as in their manners, though not in their faith, they maintained so intimate a connexion with their impious countrymen, whose misfortunes were attributed by the pagans to the contempt, and more justly ascribed by the christians to the wrath, of the Supreme Deity. The Nazarenes retired from the ruins of Jerusalem to the little town of Pella beyond the Jordan, where that ancient church languished above sixty years in solitude and obscurity. They still enjoyed the comfort of making frequent and devout visits to the Holy City, and the hope of being one day restored to those seats which both nature and religion taught them to love as well as to revere. But at length, under the reign of Hadrian, the desperate fanaticism of the Jews filled up the measure of their calamities; and the Romans, exasperated by their repeated rebellions, exercised the rights of victory with unusual rigour. The emperor founded, under the name of Elia Capitolina, a new city on mount Sion," to which he gave the privileges of a colony; and denouncing the severest penalties against any of the Jewish people who should dare to approach its precincts, he fixed a vigilant garrison of a Roman cohort to enforce the execution of his orders. The Nazarenes had only one way left to escape the common proscription, and the force of truth was on this occasion assisted by the influence of temporal advantages. They elected Marcus for their bishop, a prelate of the race of the Gentiles, and most probably a native either of Italy or some of the Latin provinces. At his persuasion, the most considerable part of the congregation renounced the Mosaic law, in the practice of which they had persevered above a century. By this sacrifice of their habits and prejudices, they purchased a free admission into the colony of Hadrian, and more firmly cemented their union with the catholic church."

monial law, which consisted only of types and figures, | tion over which they presided, united the law of Moses was succeeded by a pure and spiritual worship, equally with the doctrine of Christ. It was natural that the adapted to all climates, as well as to every condition primitive tradition of a church which was founded only of mankind; and to the initiation of blood, was substituted a more harmless initiation of water. The promise of divine favour, instead of being partially confined to the posterity of Abraham, was universally proposed to the freeman and the slave, to the Greek and to the barbarian, to the Jew and to the Gentile. Every privilege that could raise the proselyte from earth to heaven, that could exalt his devotion, secure his hap-lished in the great cities of the empire, in Antioch, Alpiness, or even gratify that secret pride, which, under the semblance of devotion, insinuates itself into the human heart, was still reserved for the members of the christian church; but at the same time all mankind was permitted, and even solicited, to accept the glorious distinction, which was not only proffered as a favour, but imposed as an obligation. It became the most sacred duty of a new convert to diffuse among his friends and relations the inestimable blessing which he had received, and to warn them against a refusal that would be severely punished as a criminal disobedience to the will of a benevolent but all-powerful Deity. Obstinacy and The enfranchisement of the church reasons of the from the bonds of the synagogue, was a believing Jews. work however of some time and of some difficulty. The Jewish converts, who acknowledged Jesus in the character of the Messiah foretold by their ancient oracles, respected him as a prophetic teacher of virtue and religion; but they obstinately adhered to the ceremonies of their ancestors, and were desirous of imposing them on the Gentiles, who continually augmented the number of believers. These judaizing christians seemed to have argued with some degree of plausibility from the divine origin of the Mosaic law, and from the immutable perfections of its great Author. They affirmed, that if the Being, who is the same through all eternity, had designed to abolish those sacred rites which had served to distinguish his chosen people, the repeal of them would have been no less clear and solemn than their first promulgation: that, instead of those frequent declarations, which either suppose or assert the perpetuity of the Mosaic religion, it would have been represented as a provisionary scheme intended to last only till the coming of the Messiah, who should instruct mankind in a more perfect mode of faith and of worship that the Messiah himself, and his disciples who conversed with him on earth, instead of authorizing by their.example the most minute observances of the Mosaic law, would have published to the world the abolition of those useless and obsolete ceremonies, without suffering christianity to remain during so many years obscurely, confounded among the sects of the Jewish church. Arguments like these appear to have been used in the defence of the expiring cause of the Mosaic law; but the industry of our learned divines has abundantly explained the ambiguous language of the Old Testament, and the ambiguous conduct of the apostolic teachers. It was proper gradually to unfold the system of the gospel, and to pronounce, with the utmost caution and tenderness, a sentence of condemnation so repugnant to the inclination and prejudices of the believing Jews. The Nazarene The history of the church of Jerusalem church of Jeru affords a lively proof of the necessity of those precautions, and of the deep impression which the Jewish religion had made on the minds of its sectaries. The first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were all circumcised Jews; and the congrega

salem.

P These arguments were urged with great ingenuity by the Jew Orobio, and refuted with equal ingenuity and candour by the christian Limborch. See the Amica Collatio, (it well deserves that name,) on account of the dispute between them.

q Jesus circumcisus erat; cibis utebatur Judaicis; vestitu simil; purgatos scabie mittebat ad sacerdotes; Paschata et alios dies festos religiose observabat: Si quos sanavit sabbatho, ostendit non tantum ex lege, sed et exceptis sententiis talia opera sabbatho, non interdicta. Grotius de Veritate Religionis Christianæ, 1. v. c. 7. A little afterwards (c. 12.) he expatiates on the condescension of the apostles.

r Pæne omnes Christum Deum sub legis observatione credebant,
See Eusebius, Hist. Ecclesiast. 1. iv. c. 5.
s Mosheim de Rebus Christianis ante Constantinum Magnum, p.

Sulpicius Severus, ii. 31.
153. In this masterly performance which I shall often have orca-
sion to quote, he enters much more fully into the state of the primi-
tive church, than he has an opportunity of doing in his General His-

tory.

t Eusebius, I. iii. c. 5. Le Clerc, Hist. Ecclesiast. p. 605. During this occasional absence, the bishop and church of Pella still retained the title of Jerusalem. In the same manner, the Roman pontiff's resided seventy years at Avignon; and the patriarchs of Alexandria have long since transferred their episcopal seat to Cairo.

u Dion Cassius, 1. lxix. The exile of the Jewish nation from Jerusalem is attested by Aristo of Pella; (apud. Euseb. 1. iv. c. 5.) and is mentioned by several ecclesiastica! writers: though some of them too hastily extend this interdiction to the whole country of Palestine. [Marcus was a Greek prelate. (See Doderlein. de Comnient. Ehionais, p. 10.)—G.]

w Eusebius, 1. iv. c. 6. Sulpicius Severus, ii. 31. By comparing their unsatisfactory accounts, Mosheim (p. 327, &c.) has drawn out a very distinct representation of the circumstances and motives of

this revolution.

The Ebionites.

The Gnostics.

When the name and honours of the While the orthodox church preserved church of Jerusalem had been restored a just medium between excessive veneto mount Sion, the crimes of heresy and schism were ration and improper contempt for the law of Moses, the imputed to the obscure remnant of the Nazarenes, various heretics deviated into equal but opposite exwhich refused to accompany their Latin bishop. They tremes of error and extravagance. From the acknowstill preserved their former habitation of Pella, spread ledged truth of the Jewish religion, the Ebionites had themselves into the villages adjacent to Damascus, and concluded that it could never be abolished. From formed an inconsiderable church in the city of Bercea, its supposed imperfections the Gnostics as hastily inor, as it is now called, of Aleppo, in Syria. The ferred that it never was instituted by the wisdom of the name of Nazarenes was deemed too honourable for Deity. There are some objections against the authorthose christian Jews, and they soon received from the ity of Moses and the prophets, which too readily presupposed poverty of their understanding, as well as of sent themselves to the sceptical mind; though they their condition, the contemptuous epithet of Ebionites. can only be derived from our ignorance of remote antiIn a few years after the return of the church of Jerusa-quity, and from our incapacity to form an adequate lem, it became a matter of doubt and controversy, judgment of the divine economy. These objections whether a man who sincerely acknowledged Jesus as were eagerly embraced and as petulantly urged by the the Messiah, but who still continued to observe the vain science of the Gnostics. As those heretics were, law of Moses, could possibly hope for salvation. The for the most part, averse to the pleasures of sense, they humane temper of Justin Martyr inclined him to answer morosely arraigned the polygamy of the patriarchs, the this question in the affirmative; and though he expres-gallantries of David, and the seraglio of Solomon. The sed himself with the most guarded diffidence, he ven- conquest of the land of Canaan, and the extirpation of tured to determine in favour of such an imperfect chris- the suspecting natives, they were at a loss how to retian, if he were content to practise the Mosaic ceremo- concile with the common notions of humanity and jusnies, without pretending to assert their general use or tice. But when they recollected the sanguinary list necessity. But when Justin was pressed to declare of murders, of executions, and of massacres, which the sentiment of the church, he confessed that there stain almost every page of the Jewish annals, they were very many among the orthodox christians, who acknowledged that the barbarians of Palestine had exnot only excluded their judaizing brethren from the ercised as much compassion towards their idolatrous hope of salvation, but who declined any intercourse enemies, as they had ever shown to their friends or with them in the common offices of friendship, hospi-countrymen. Passing from the sectaries of the law to tality, and social life. The more rigorous opinion the law itself, they asserted that it was impossible that prevailed, as it was natural to expect, over the milder; a religion which consisted only of bloody sacrifices and and an eternal bar of separation was fixed between the trifling ceremonies, and whose rewards as well as pundisciples of Moses and those of Christ. The unfortun-ishments were all of a carnal and temporal nature, ate Ebionites, rejected from one religion as apostates, could inspire the love of virtue or restrain the impetuand from the other as heretics, found themselves osity of passion. The Mosaic account of the creation compelled to assume a more decided character; and al- and fall of man was treated with profane derision by though some traces of that obsolete sect may be dis- the Gnostics, who would not listen with patience to covered as late as the fourth century, they insensibly the repose of the Deity after six days' labour, to the rib melted away either into the church or the synagogue.b of Adam, the garden of Eden, the trees of life and of knowledge, the speaking serpent, the forbidden fruit, and the condemnation pronounced against human kind for the venial offence of their first progenitors. God of Israel was impiously represented by the Gnostics, as a being liable to passion and to error, capricious in his favour, implacable in his resentment, mean

Le Clerc (Hist. Ecclesiast. p. 477, 535.) seems to have collected from Eusebius, Jerome, Epiphanius, and other writers, all the principal circumstances that relate to the Nazarenes or Ebionites. The nature of their opinions soon divided them into a stricter and a mild er sect; and there is some reason to conjecture, that the family of

Jesus Christ remained members, at least, of the latter and more mo derate party.

the learned Eusebius than on the vehement Tertullian, or the credu

The

y Some writers have been pleased to create an Ebion, the imaginly jealous of his superstitious worship, and confining ary author of their sect and name. But we can more safely rely on lous Epiphanius. According to Le Clerc, the Hebrew word Ebjonim may be translated into Latin by that of Pauperes. See Hist. Eccle[Ebionites."-The name of Ebionites was of earlier date. The first christians of Jerusalem were called Ebionites, on account of the poverty to which they were reduced by their deeds of benevolence. (See the Acts of the Apostles, c. 4. v. 34: and c. 11. v. 30. the epistle

siast. p. 477.

to the Galatians, c. 2. v. 10. Romans c. 15. v. 26.)

This name was also given to those Jewish christians who still retained their Judaizing opinions, and lived at Pella; they were finally accused of denying the divinity of Jesus Christ, and as such excluded from the church. The Socinians who have recently denied this doctrine, have availed themselves of the example of the Ebionites, to prove that the primitive christians held to the same opinions which this argument in all its force; Doderlin and other modern theolo they profess on this subject. Artemon among others, has developed

gians have proved that the Ebionites were falsely accused in this respect. (Commentaires de ebionoeis, 1770, § 1—8.)—G.]

z [Justin Martyr makes an important distinction, which Gibbon has neglected to mention. The first Jewish christians were called Ebionites, and had retired to Pella-those whom the bishop Marcus persuaded to give up in part at least the Mosaic law, and to return to Jerusalem, called themselves Nazarenes: those who persisted in their judaism preserved the name of Ebionites. These last only Justin Martyr expelled from the church, and blames with great severity he shows more lenity towards the Nazarenes, who, though they strictly obey in many respects the law of Moses, do not compel converted pagans to observe it, while the Ehionites properly so called, would force them to obey it. This appears to have been the principal difference, which existed between the opinions of these two sects. (See Dæderlin. p. 25.)-G.]

See the very curious Dialogue of Justin Martyr with the Jew Tryphon. The conference between them was held at Ephesus, in the reign of Antoninus Pius, and about twenty years after the return of the church of Pella to Jerusalem. For this date consult the accurate account of Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. ii. p.

511.

b Of all the systems of christianity, that of Abyssinia is the only one which still adheres to the Mosaic rites. (Geddes's Church History of Ethiopia, and Dissertations de la Grand sur la Relation du P. Lobo.) The eunuch of the queen Candace might suggest some sus VOL. I.-V 11

his partial providence to a single people, and to this transitory life. In such a character they could discover none of the features of the wise and omnipotent Father of the universe. They allowed that the religion of the Jews was somewhat less criminal than the idolatry of the Gentiles; but it was their fundamental doctrine, that the Christ whom they adored as the first and brightest emanation of the Deity, appeared upon earth to rescue mankind from their various errors, and to reveal a new system of truth and perfection. The most learned of the fathers, by a very singular condescension, tics. Acknowledging that the literal sense is repughave imprudently admitted the sophistry of the Gnos

picions; but as we are assured (Socrates, i. 19. Sozomen, ii. 24. Ludolphus, p. 281.) that the Ethiopians were not converted till the fourth century; it is more reasonable to believe, that they respected the sab. bath, and distinguished the forbidden meats, in imitation of the Jews, who, in a very early period, were seated on both sides of the Red Sea. Circumcision had been practised by the most ancient Ethiopians, from motives of health and cleanliness, which seem to be explained in the Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains, tom. it. p. 117.

e Beausobre, Histoire du Manicheisme, 1. i. c. 3. has stated their objections, particularly those of Faustus, the adversary of Augustin, with the most learned impartiality.

d Apud ipsos fides obstinata, misericordia in promptu: adversus omnes alios hostile odium. Tacit. Hist. v. 4. Surely Tacitus had seen the Jews with too favourable an eye. The perusal of Josephus must have destroyed the antithesis.

• Dr. Burnet (Archæologia, 1. ii. c. 7.) has discussed the first chapters of Genesis with too much wit and freedom.

f The milder Gnostics considered Jehovah, the Creator, as a Being of a mixed nature between God and the dæmon. Others confounded him with the evil principle. Consult the second century of the general history of Mosheim, which gives a very distinct, though concise, account of their strange opinions on this subject.

nant to every principle of faith as well as reason, they | rapid and extensive." They covered Asia and Egypt, deem themselves secure and invulnerable behind the established themselves in Rome, and sometimes peneample veil of allegory, which they carefully spread trated into the provinces of the west. For the most over every tender part of the Mosaic dispensation. part they arose in the second century, flourished duIt has been remarked with more in-ring the third, and were suppressed in the fourth or fifth, by the prevalence of more fashionable controversies, and by the superior ascendant of the reigning power. Though they constantly disturbed the peace, and frequently disgraced the name, of religion, they contributed to assist rather than to retard the progress of christianity. The Gentile converts, whose strongest objections and prejudices were directed against the law of Moses, could find admission into many christian societies, which required not from their untutored mind any belief of an antecedent revelation. Their faith was insensibly fortified and enlarged, and the church was ultimately benefited by the conquests of its most inveterate enemies."

[The assertion of Hegesippus is not so positive. It is only neces. sary to read the entire passage such as it is in Eusebius, to see how the first part is modified by the last. Hegesippus adds, that up to this time, the church had remained as pure and uncorrupted as a virgin. Those who strive to alter the doctrines of the Gospel, only toil ever in darkness," (Eusebius, book iii. c. 32. p. 84.)-G.] In the account of the Gnostics of the second and third centuries, Mosheim is ingenious and candid; Le Clerc dull, but exact; Beauso bre almost always an apologist; and it is much to be feared that the primitive fathers are very frequently calumniators. * See the catalogues of Irenæus and Epiphanius. It must indeed be allowed, that those writers were inclined to multiply the number of sects which opposed the unity of the church. 1 Eusebius, 1. iv. c. 15. Sozomen, I. ii. c. 32. See in Bayle, in the article of Marcion, a curious detail of a dispute on that subject. It should seem that some of the Gnostics (the Basilidians) declined, and even refused, the honour of martyrdom. Their reasons were singu. Jar and abstruse. See Mosheim, p. 359.

m See a very remarkable passage of Origen (Proem. ad Lucan.) That indefatigable writer, who had consumed his life in the study of the scriptures, relies for their authenticity on the inspired authority of the church. It was impossible that the Gnostics could receive our present gospels, many parts of which (particularly in the resurrection of Christ) are directly, and as it might seem designedly, pointed against their favourite tenets. It is therefore somewhat singular that Ignatius (Epist. ad Smyrn. Patr. Apostol. tom. ii. p. 34.) should choose to employ a vague and doubtful tradition, instead of quoting the certain testimony of the evangelists.

[Bishop Pearson has happily explained this singularity. "The first Christians remembered many of the words of Jesus Christ, which are not recorded in our Gospels, and were never even writ ten. Wherefore could not saint Ignatius who had lived with the apostles or their disciples, repeat in other words, that which St. Luke