note 626: See Epiph., H. 51, who here falls back on Hippolytus.]

[Footnote 627: In the Christian village communities of the district of
Arsinoe the people would not part with chiliasm, and matters even went
the length of an "apostasy" from the Alexandrian Church. A book by an
Egyptian bishop, Nepos, entitled "Refutation of the allegorists"
attained the highest repute. "They esteem the law and the prophets as
nothing, neglect to follow the Gospels, think little of the Epistles of
the Apostles, and on the contrary declare the doctrine set forth in this
book to be a really great secret. They do not permit the simpler
brethren among us to obtain a sublime and grand idea of the glorious and
truly divine appearance of our Lord, of our resurrection from the dead
as well as of the union and assimilation with him; but they persuade us
to hope for things petty, perishable, and similar to the present in the
kingdom of God." So Dionysius expressed himself, and these words are
highly characteristic of his own position and that of his opponents; for
in fact the whole New Testament could not but be thrust into the
background in cases where the chiliastic hopes were really adhered to.
Dionysius asserts that he convinced these Churches by his lectures; but
chiliasm and material religious ideas were still long preserved in the
deserts of Egypt. They were cherished by the monks; hence Jewish
Apocalypses accepted by Christians are preserved in the Coptic and
Ethiopian languages.]

[Footnote 628: See Irenaeus lib. IV. and Tertull. adv. Marc. lib. II. and
III.]

[Footnote 629: It would be superfluous to quote passages here; two may
stand for all Iren. IV. 9. 1: "Utraque testamenta unus et idem
paterfamilias produxit, verbum dei, dominus noster Iesus Christus, qui
et Abrahae et Moysi collocutus est." Both Testaments are "unius et emsdem
substantiae." IV. 2. 3: "Moysis literae sunt verba Christi."]

[Footnote 630: See Iren. IV. 31. 1.]

[Footnote 631: Iren. III. 12. 15 (on Gal. II. 11 f.): "Sic apostoli,
quos universi actus et universae doctrinae dominus testes fecit, religiose
agebant circa dispositionem legis, qnae; est secundum Moysem, ab uno et
eodem significantes esse deo"; see Overbeck "Ueber die Auffassung des
Streits des Paulus mit Petrus bei den Kirchenvatern," 1877, p. 8 f.
Similar remarks are frequent in Irenaeus.]

[Footnote 632: Cf., e.g., de monog. 7: "Certe sacerdotes sumus a Christo
vocati, monogarniae debitores, ex pris