CHAPTER X

OF PANTÆNUS THE PHILOSOPHER

ABOUT the same time, the school of the faithful was governed by a man most distinguished for his learning, whose name was Pantænus; as there had been a school of sacred literature established there from ancient times, which has continued down to our own, and which we have understood was conducted by men distinguished for eloquence, and the study of divine things. For the tradition is, that this philosopher was then in great eminence, as he had been first disciplined in the philosophical principles of those called stoics. But he is said to have displayed such ardour, and so zealous a disposition, respecting the divine word, that he was constituted a herald of the gospel of Christ to the nations of the east, and advanced even as far as India. There were even there yet many evangelists who were ardently striving to employ their inspired zeal after the apostolic example, to increase and build up the divine word. Of these Pantænus is said to have been one, and to have come as far as the Indies. And the report is, that he there found his own arrival anticipated by some who there were acquainted with the gospel of Matthew, to whom Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had preached, and had left them the same gospel in the Hebrew, which was also preserved until this time. Pantænus, after many praiseworthy deeds, was finally at the head of the Alexandrian school, commenting on the treasures of divine truth, both orally and in his writings.