Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
The apostle Peter, then, once the Lord had risen and gone up into the heavens, wanting to round out the number of the twelve apostles and select a replacement for Judas — someone chosen by God — addressed those gathered: 'Men, brothers, this writing had to reach fulfillment, which the Holy Spirit foretold through David's mouth concerning Judas, who acted as guide for those who arrested Jesus, given that he was counted among our number: Let his homestead become a waste, with no one to dwell in it; and, Let a different man take up his post' — thereby restoring the apostles' number to completeness in accordance with what David had spoken. Again, once the Holy Spirit had come down upon the disciples, so that all of them uttered prophecy and spoke in tongues, and certain onlookers jeered that they were drunk on fresh wine, Peter answered that they were not drunk, seeing as it was merely nine in the morning, but rather this was the fulfillment of what had been declared through the prophet: 'And it shall be in the final days, the Lord says, that I will pour my Spirit out upon every living creature, and they will prophesy.' It is God, therefore, who gave his word through the prophet that he would pour out his Spirit upon mankind, who indeed carried this out; and it is this very God whom Peter announces as having brought his own pledge to completion.
For Peter declares: "Fellow Israelites, listen to what I tell you: this Jesus of Nazareth was a man singled out by God in your midst, through the powerful deeds and wonders and signs that God worked by his hand, as you yourselves are well aware—this same man, given over according to God's settled purpose and foreknowledge, you seized and put to death, fastening him up by the hands of lawless men; but God raised him, releasing him from death's grip, since it could not hold him fast. For David says concerning him: I kept the Lord ever set before my sight, for he stands at my right side, so that I should not be shaken. Because of this my heart was glad and my tongue rang out in joy, and further, my very body shall dwell secure in hope, for you will not leave my life abandoned in the grave, nor let your Holy One undergo decay." He then goes on to speak plainly to them regarding the patriarch David, saying that he perished and was laid in a tomb, and that his burial-place remains among them even now. "Yet because he was a prophet," he continues, "and understood that God had bound himself by oath that a descendant from his own body would occupy his throne, he spoke in advance, looking ahead, about the rising of the Christ.
[Editorial note in the source: Vulgate and Syriac translators.] ...that his life was not left forsaken in the grave, and his flesh underwent no decay. This very Jesus," he continues, "God has raised, a fact we can all testify to; exalted, then, at the right hand of God, and having taken from the Father what was promised—the Holy Spirit—he has poured out this very thing you now witness and perceive. David, after all, never went up into heaven, yet he himself declares: The Lord spoke to my lord, Take your seat at my right hand till I place your foes beneath your feet as a stool. Let the whole house of Israel therefore be certain beyond doubt that God has made this same Jesus, the one you nailed to the cross, both Lord and Christ." On hearing this, the crowds asked, "What are we to do, then?" Peter answered them: "Turn back from your sins, and let every one of you be washed in Jesus's name for release from sin, and you will be given the Holy Spirit as a gift." In this way the apostles announced not some second God, nor a second Fullness; not a Christ who suffered and was raised while another, incapable of suffering, soared off on high; but a single, identical God who is Father, together with Christ Jesus who was brought back from among the dead. And to those without faith in the Son of God they proclaimed the very faith that rests in him, urging from the prophets that the Christ God had pledged to send, he had indeed sent—that is, Jesus, the one they themselves had nailed up, whom God brought back to life.
On another occasion, Peter, accompanied by John, encountered a man crippled since birth who sat begging at the temple gate known as Beautiful. Peter told him: "I possess neither silver nor gold; yet what I do have, I give you: by the power of the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, stand up and walk." Instantly his feet and ankle joints grew firm, and he stood, walking with them into the temple courts, leaping about and praising God. When the crowd gathered around them, astonished at what had happened, Peter addressed them: "Fellow Israelites, why does this astonish you, and why do you stare at us as though it were by some power or piety of our own that we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has honored his servant, whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate's face, even after he had decided to set him free. Instead, you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and demanded that a murderer be released to you instead; you killed the very source of life, whom God has since raised from death, and of this we are witnesses. Through faith in his name, this man whom you now see and recognize has been made strong by that name; the faith that comes by him has granted him this complete health in front of you all. Now, brothers, I recognize that ignorance drove your actions... yet in this way God fulfilled what he had announced long before through the lips of every prophet—that his Christ would suffer. Turn back, then, and change your ways, so that your sins may be wiped clean, and seasons of relief may arrive for you sent from the Lord's presence, and that he may dispatch the one appointed on your behalf, Jesus Christ, whom the heavens must keep until the era when all things are set right again, just as God announced long ago through his holy prophets. For Moses told our forefathers: The Lord your God will raise a Prophet for you from among your own people, just as he raised me; to him you must listen in everything he tells you. And any soul who refuses to listen to that Prophet will be cut off from the community. Likewise all the prophets, beginning with Samuel and continuing after him, everyone who has spoken, have also foretold these very days. You are heirs of the prophets and of the agreement God made with our ancestors, when he told Abraham: Through your offspring every nation on earth will find blessing. To you first, God, having raised up his servant, sent him to bring you blessing, so that each one of you might turn away from your evil deeds." In this manner Peter, together with John, delivered to them a plain announcement, declaring as good tidings that what God had promised the ancestors had now come to pass through Jesus—not, mind you, proclaiming a different God, but the Son of God, who had also become man and suffered, leading Israel to know him, announcing his rising from among the dead, and demonstrating that everything the prophets foretold about the Christ's suffering had been carried out by that same God.
So it was that when the chief priests convened once more, Peter spoke to them without fear: "Leaders of our people and elders of the nation, if we today stand accused over a kindness shown to a sick man, by which he was restored, let this be known to every one of you, and to the whole nation of Israel—it was accomplished by the power of the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you put on the cross and whom God brought back from death; it is by that name alone that this man now stands before you sound and whole. This is the stone which you builders threw away, and it has become the cornerstone. And no other name has been given under heaven among mankind by which salvation may come to us." So the apostles were not substituting some different God for the one they had always proclaimed; rather they told the people that the Christ who had been crucified was none other than Jesus, raised up by that same God who had sent forth the prophets, and who had granted salvation to humanity through him.
They were left bewildered, both by the cure itself (since, as the record notes, the man upon whom this healing sign had been performed was over forty years old) and by what the apostles taught and their reading of the prophets. Once the chief priests released Peter and John, the pair returned to the remaining apostles and the Lord's followers—the assembly, that is—and told them everything, including how fearlessly they had spoken in Jesus's name. Hearing this, the whole assembly raised their voices together to God, saying: "Master, you are the one who fashioned heaven and earth and sea and everything within them, who spoke through the Holy Spirit by the mouth of David your servant, our father: Why did the nations rage in fury, and the peoples devise empty schemes? The rulers of the earth took their positions, and the leaders banded together as one, opposing the Lord and his Anointed. For truly, within this very city, they assembled against your holy servant Jesus, the one you anointed—Herod and Pontius Pilate together with the nations and the peoples of Israel—to carry out whatever your hand and counsel had determined beforehand would take place."
Such are the utterances of the assembly, out of which every congregation traces its origin; such are the utterances of the great city, belonging to the citizens of the fresh covenant; such are the utterances of the apostles, the utterances of the Lord's own disciples, of those who, once the Lord had ascended, were brought to completion by the Spirit and who called upon the God who fashioned heaven and sea and earth, the one announced beforehand by the prophets, together with his Son Jesus, chosen by God—recognizing no rival deity. Valentinus was nowhere among them at that time, nor was Marcion, nor any of their disciples, nor the corrupters allied with them. It was on this account that the maker of all things heeded them. For, the record states, the location where they had assembled trembled, and every one of them was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke God's message fearlessly to anyone open to belief. With mighty power, it goes on, the apostles bore witness to the rising of the Lord Jesus, declaring to the people: "The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, the one you seized and put to death, hanging him upon a tree. This is the one God has lifted up as Ruler and Deliverer through his own splendor, to grant Israel a change of heart and forgiveness of wrongs; and we bear witness to these matters, as does the Holy Spirit, given by God to all who put their trust in him." And daily, it continues, both in the temple precincts and moving from home to home, they never stopped instructing and announcing the good news concerning Christ Jesus, God's Son. This, indeed, was the knowledge that brings salvation, perfecting before God all who acknowledge his Son's arrival.
Now, given that certain people brazenly claim that the apostles, in their preaching to the Jews, were unable to present any deity beyond the one already accepted among them, we answer as follows: if the apostles merely addressed people according to a notion long since fixed in their minds, then nobody obtained truth from them at all, still less from the Lord himself—since these same people hold that he too spoke in that fashion. On such a view, these very critics likewise possess no truth, but only adopted teaching suited to whatever view of God they already carried, according to what could be tolerated. By this logic no standard of truth would exist anywhere; every follower would claim the message reached each person simply as that person felt it and could take it in. And the Lord's arrival would then be pointless and unnecessary, if his sole purpose was to leave undisturbed, in each person, whatever notion about God had already taken root. Beyond that, it would have been a far tougher task for them to declare that the very man the Jews had watched being nailed to a cross was in fact the Christ, the Son of God, their King without end. Clearly, then, they were no longer speaking to their former way of thinking. For those who confronted the Jews openly as murderers of the Lord would, with even greater boldness, have announced that Father set above the Craftsman—had that been true—rather than each person's mere assumption; and it would have counted as a far smaller failing had it truly been a loftier Savior to whom they owed their ascent, one who, being immune to suffering, had never actually been fastened to any cross. Just as the apostles addressed the nations not by their existing beliefs but declared plainly that their gods were no gods but demonic images, so too they would have announced to the Jews a different, higher, more perfect Father, had they known of one—rather than nourishing and confirming their mistaken notion of God. And in the same way, when freeing the nations from their error and pulling them away from their own gods, the apostles certainly did not lead them into some further error; instead, by drawing them away from what were not gods at all, they revealed the one who alone was God, the genuine Father.
From what Peter told Cornelius the centurion at Caesarea, along with the nations gathered with him—the first occasion the message of God was declared to them—we can gather what the apostles announced, what shape their preaching took, and what view they held about God. For, the account says, this Cornelius was a reverent man who, together with his entire household, held God in awe, gave generously to the poor, and prayed to God without ceasing. Around the ninth hour he saw a messenger of God appear to him and say: "What you have given the poor has risen up as a remembrance before God. So send for Simon, called Peter." When Peter had received the vision, in which a voice from heaven told him, "Do not treat as unclean what God has purified"—this was because the God who, through the law, had separated clean from unclean had now purified the nations through the blood of his Son, whom Cornelius likewise worshiped. Arriving before him, Peter declared: "I now truly grasp that God shows no partiality toward persons, but welcomes, from every nation, whoever reveres him and does what is right." By these words he made it evident that the very God Cornelius had already revered—known to him by way of the law and the prophetic writings, on whose account he had given alms—is indeed God in truth. What was missing was complete understanding. So Peter continued: "You are aware of the message spread through the whole of Judea, starting in Galilee following the baptism John proclaimed: how Jesus the Nazarene, anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and power, traveled about doing good and curing all who were under the devil's oppression, because God stood with him. And we can testify to everything he did, both across Jewish territory and in Jerusalem—the very man they put to death by hanging him upon a tree. This man God brought back to life on the third day, and allowed him to be seen, not by the whole populace, but by witnesses handpicked beforehand by God—by us, who shared food and drink with him following his rising from the dead. And he charged us to proclaim to the people and to bear witness that he has been appointed by God as Judge over both the living and the dead. All the prophets testify concerning him, that whoever puts faith in him obtains forgiveness of sins through his name."
The Apostles, then, proclaimed the Son of God to men who did not know him, and his coming, to those who had already been instructed about God; yet they introduced no second deity. Had Peter known of any such distinction, he would gladly have declared to the nations that the Jews' God was one, and the Christians' God a different one; and since all of them stood in awe before the angelic vision, they would have trusted whatever he told them. Yet Peter's very words make clear that he retained for them the same God they had already known, testifying that Jesus was that God's Son, the one who judges both the living and those who have died, in whose name he also directed them toward washing that would free them from sin. And that is not all — he further testified that this same Jesus was God's Son, who — anointed by the Holy Spirit — bears the title Christ Jesus, and that this is the very man born of Mary, as Peter's own testimony makes plain. Are we to suppose, then, that Peter did not yet have the perfect knowledge which these men later discovered? If so, then Peter is imperfect according to them, and the rest of the Apostles are imperfect as well; and they will have to come back to life and become disciples of these men, so that they too may become disciples not of the Apostles but of their own perverse opinion. This is why each of them holds a different opinion, each embracing error as he was able to grasp it. But the Church, scattered across the whole world, resting on a firm foundation laid by the Apostles, holds fast to a single unchanging conviction about God and his Son. Again, Philip, when the Ethiopian queen's eunuch was returning from Jerusalem and reading the prophet Isaiah, alone with him, whom did he proclaim? Was it not the one about whom the prophet spoke, saying: "Like a sheep he was brought to be slaughtered, and like a lamb silent before the one shearing it, so he did not open his mouth"? "But who will describe his origin? For his life has been taken away from the earth." That this one was Jesus, and that the writing had found its fulfillment in him, the eunuch came himself to believe; he at once asked for baptism, declaring, "I believe Jesus is the Son of God." He was then dispatched to the Ethiopian territories, there to proclaim what he himself had now come to believe: that the one God had been announced in advance through the prophets, and that his Son had now taken on human form, and had been brought like a sheep to be offered up, and all the other things the prophets say concerning him. Paul too, after the Lord addressed him from heaven and revealed to him that by harassing his disciples he was harassing the Lord in person, and sent Ananias to him so that he might see again and be baptized, "preached in the synagogues at Damascus with all boldness, that this is the Christ, the Son of God." This is the secret he declares was disclosed to him — that the one who suffered under Pontius Pilate is ruler over all, King, God, and Judge, having received this power from him who is God of all, because he became obedient even to death, death on a cross. And that this is true is shown by what he preached to the Athenians at the Areopagus, where, since no Jews were present to hinder him, he was free to proclaim the true God with boldness, saying to them: "The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all life and breath and everything; and he made every nation of men of one blood, to dwell upon the whole face of the earth, having determined beforehand their appointed times, that they should seek what is divine, if perhaps they might feel after it and find it, though indeed it is not far from any one of us. for it is in him that we exist and are stirred and have our very being — as indeed some among your own poets have declared, 'for we too belong to his lineage.' Since, then, we belong to God's lineage, we should not suppose the divine nature resembles gold, silver, or stone, shaped by human skill or fancy. The times of ignorance, then, God overlooked, and now commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness, by the man whom he has appointed, having given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." In this passage he proclaims to them, though no Jews were present, not only that God is the maker of the world, but also that he made the one human race to dwell over all the earth — just as Moses likewise said: "When the Most High apportioned the nations, when he dispersed Adam's sons, he fixed the borders of the peoples to match the count of God's angels"; yet those who believe are no longer subject to angelic rule, but stand instead under the Lord's own authority. "For the Lord's portion is his people Jacob, Israel the cord of his inheritance."
And again at Lystra in Lycaonia, when Paul was with Barnabas, and had enabled a man lame from birth to walk by calling on our Lord Jesus Christ's own name, and the crowd wanted to honor them as gods on account of this astonishing deed, he said to them: "We too are men, of the same nature as you, bringing you good tidings, urging you to turn from these empty things toward the God who lives, who fashioned heaven and earth and sea and everything within them; who in generations past permitted every nation to walk its own path, yet did not leave himself without a witness, doing good, sending you rain from the sky and seasons that bear fruit, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness." Since all his epistles agree with these proclamations, we have shown this elsewhere, expounding the apostle from the epistles themselves in their proper place. But as we work through these proofs drawn from Scripture, and since many points have been touched on in various ways while we present them briefly and compactly, we ask that you too give heed to them patiently rather than finding them wearisome, understanding that what Scripture proves can only be established from Scripture itself.
Stephen too, again — who was chosen by the Apostles as the first deacon, and who was the first of all men to follow in the footsteps of the Lord's martyrdom, being the first killed for the confession of Christ — spoke boldly among the people and taught them, saying: "The glorious God showed himself to our forefather Abraham, saying to him: 'Leave your country and your relatives, and go into the land that I will point out to you.' And he brought him into this land which you now inhabit, and gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length." God spoke to him thus, that his descendants would be sojourners in a foreign land, and would be brought into slavery, and would be afflicted four hundred years; "'but the nation to which they are enslaved I will judge,' says the Lord. 'And afterward they will come out and serve me in this place.'" He granted him the covenant of circumcision, and thus Isaac was born to him. The remainder of Stephen's speech likewise announces this identical God, present with Joseph and the patriarchs alike, who also conversed with Moses.
And that the entire teaching handed down by the Apostles announces a single, identical God — the one who brought forth Abraham, who gave him the promise of an inheritance, who established the covenant of circumcision at the appointed time, who called his descendants out of Egypt, keeping them distinct through circumcision, since he granted it as a mark so that they would not resemble the Egyptians — this same God as maker of all things, this same as Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, this same as God of glory — anyone who wishes may learn and see from these very words and from the Acts of the Apostles, that this one God exists, above whom there is no other. But if there were indeed another God above him, we would say, arguing from the abundance of his works by comparison, that this one is better than that other. For he is shown to be better by his works, as we have already said; and while those others can point to no work of their supposed Father, this one alone is shown to be God. If anyone, troubled by these questions, thinks that what the Apostles said about God must be understood allegorically, let him examine our foregoing arguments, in which we have shown that there is one God, founder and fashioner of everything that exists, and have refuted and laid bare what those others say; and he will find that our arguments agree with the teaching of the Apostles, and that things stand just as they taught and were persuaded — that there is one God, the fashioner of all things; and when he has driven from his mind that great error and that blasphemy against God, he will find in himself the reason for it, coming to know both the law given through Moses and the grace of the New Testament, each suited to its own era, both granted by that single, identical God for humanity's good.
For all those of perverse opinion, moved by the legislation given through Moses, considering it unlike and contrary to the teaching of the Gospel, never turned to inquire into the reasons for the differences between the two Testaments. Having thus abandoned the Father's love, and puffed up by Satan, they turned to the doctrine of Simon Magus, drifting in their thinking away from the one who truly is God, imagining that they themselves had discovered more than the Apostles, by inventing another God; and they suppose that the Apostles, still holding Jewish views, preached the Gospel, while they themselves are more sincere and wiser than the Apostles. Hence Marcion and his followers turned to mutilating the Scriptures, not acknowledging some of them at all, and trimming down Luke's Gospel and Paul's letters, declaring that only these, as they themselves have shortened them, are legitimate. We, however, will refute them, God granting it, even from what remains among them still preserved, in another treatise. As for the rest, all puffed up with the false name of knowledge, they too suppose that they have discovered more than the Apostles: they acknowledge Scriptures, but bring in two gods, set apart from one another, one good and one evil; while the followers of Valentinus, using more respectable names, speak of a Father and a Lord and a God, showing this to be the Fashioner — yet hold a purpose or sect that is more blasphemous still, for they say he was sent forth not from any of those beings within the Fullness, but from that defect which was cast out beyond the Pleroma. All this has been brought upon them by their ignorance of the Scriptures and of the dispensation of God. We, for our part, will treat both of the cause of the difference between the Testaments, and again of their unity and harmony, in what follows.
That the Apostles, then, and their disciples, taught just as the Church preaches, and that in teaching thus they were made perfect — for which reason also they were called to perfection — Stephen shows: for while teaching these very things, while still upon the earth, he saw the glory of God and Jesus at the right hand, and said, "Look — I see the sky torn open, and the Son of man standing at God's right hand." Having said this, he was stoned, and so fulfilled his perfect teaching, following in every way the pattern set by the master of martyrdom, and interceding on behalf of those who were putting him to death, saying, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." Thus were they made perfect, who knew one and the same God, present with the human race from beginning to end through varied dispensations — just as the prophet Hosea states: "I gave many visions, and through the prophets' hands I spoke in figures." Those, then, who gave up their lives even unto death for the Gospel of Christ — how could they have spoken according to some notion merely implanted in men by common opinion? Had they done this, they would not have suffered; but because they preached things contrary to what those who did not accept the truth believed, they therefore suffered. It is plain, then, that they did not abandon the truth, but preached with all boldness to both Jews and Greeks: to the Jews, that this Jesus whom they themselves had crucified is the Son of God, judge of the living and the dead, who has received from the Father an eternal kingdom in Israel, as we have shown; and to the Greeks, proclaiming one God who made all things, and his Son Jesus Christ.
This appears yet more plainly from the Apostles' letter, addressed not to Jews or Greeks but to those very Gentile converts who had already come to trust in Christ, strengthening that trust. For certain individuals had traveled down from Judea to Antioch — the very city where the Lord's disciples were first given the name Christians, because of their allegiance to Christ — and these men were urging believers to accept circumcision and observe the rest of the Law's requirements. Over this dispute Paul and Barnabas traveled up to Jerusalem to consult the other Apostles, and the entire congregation gathered together. Peter addressed them: "Brothers, you are aware that in earlier days God selected me from among you, so that through my own mouth the nations would hear the gospel message and come to trust it; and God, who reads the heart, vouched for them by granting them the Holy Spirit exactly as he did for us, drawing no line between us and them, purifying their hearts through faith. Why, then, do you now test God by placing on the disciples' necks a burden that neither our ancestors nor we ourselves could carry? No — we hold that it is by the favor of our Lord Jesus Christ that we will be saved, just as they will." James spoke next, saying: "Brothers, Simeon has explained how God first turned his attention to the nations, to draw from among them a people bearing his name. This matches what the prophets declared, as the writing states: 'After these events I will come back and rebuild David's fallen tent; I will restore its ruins and raise it up once more, so that the remainder of humanity may seek out the Lord — including every nation called by my name, says the Lord who accomplishes these things, known to him from ages past.' My judgment, therefore, is that we should not burden those Gentiles who are turning toward God, but rather instruct them to keep away from the defilement of idols, from sexual immorality, and from blood; and whatever they would not want done to themselves, they should not do to others." Once this had been said and everyone had reached agreement, they composed this letter: "The Apostles and the elder brothers, to the brothers of Gentile birth throughout Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, greetings. We have learned that some who came from our number have unsettled you with their words, troubling your minds by insisting, 'You must undergo circumcision and observe the Law' — though we gave them no such directive. It therefore seemed right to us, having reached one mind, to select representatives and send them to you alongside our dear friends Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their very lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ's name. We are accordingly sending Judas and Silas, who will confirm this decision to you in person, by speaking directly. For the Holy Spirit and we ourselves judged it best to place on you no heavier requirement than these essentials: that you keep away from what has been offered to idols, from blood, and from sexual immorality; and whatever you would not wish done to yourselves, refrain from doing to others. Keep clear of these things and you will do well, guided by the Holy Spirit." From all this it is evident that they were not teaching of some other Father, but were extending, through the Spirit, the new covenant of liberty to those newly coming to believe in God. And by the very fact that they inquired whether the disciples still needed to be circumcised or not, they plainly showed that they had no conception of any other God.
Yet they did not have such fear regarding the first Testament that they would not even eat together with the Gentiles. For Peter too, though sent for their instruction and struck by so great a vision, nevertheless addressed them with much caution, saying: "You yourselves know that it is not lawful for a Jewish man to associate with, or come near, one of another nation; but God has shown me that I should call no man common or unclean. Therefore I have come without objection" — by these words indicating that he would not have gone to them unless he had been commanded. Likewise he would not readily have granted baptism, unless he had heard them prophesying once the Holy Spirit came to rest upon them. And for this reason he said: "Can anyone forbid water for baptizing these, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?" — thereby persuading those who were with him, and showing that unless the Holy Spirit had rested upon them, there would have been someone to forbid their baptism. Now those around James, though the apostles freely permitted the Gentiles to act as they did, granting us this by the Spirit of God — these same men, since they knew the same God to be the true God, persevered in their former observances, so much so that even Peter, fearing that he would be blamed by them, though earlier he had shared meals with the Gentiles on account of the vision and of the Spirit resting upon them, when certain men arrived from James he drew back and refused to share their table; and Paul reported that Barnabas acted likewise. Thus the apostles, made by the Lord witnesses to everything he did and taught — for Peter and James and John are everywhere found standing together with him — conducted themselves scrupulously with regard to the ordinance of the law that is according to Moses, demonstrating that it came from one and the very same God. This they certainly would not have done, as we said before, if they had learned from the Lord of another Father besides him who made the ordinance of the law.