CHAPTER XXX

OF BARDESANES, THE SYRIAN, AND THE WORKS OF HIS EXTANT

UNDER the same reign, Bardesanes lived, who dwelt in (Mesopotamia) the land between the rivers, where heresies abounded; a man of very great abilities, and a powerful disputant in the Syriac tongue. He composed dialogues against Marcion, and certain others of different opinions, and committed them to writing in his native language, together with many other works. These were translated, from the Syriac into the Greek, by his friends; for as a powerful assertor of the gospel, he had many followers. Among these there is a most able dialogue on Fate, addressed to Antonine. Many others also he is said to have written on occasion of the persecution which then arose, He was at first indeed a disciple of Valentine, but afterwards, rejecting his doctrine, and having refuted most of his fictions, he appeared to himself to have returned again to orthodox opinions. But he did not entirely wipe away the impurity of his old heresy. About this time, also, died Soter, bishop of the church at Rome.