Chapter 13

§ 1.

But as for those who say, that Paul alone knew the Truth, to whom by Revelation the Mystery was made known,¹ let them be refuted by Paul himself, where he says,² that one and the same God wrought for Peter unto the Apostleship of the Circumcision, and for himself towards the Gentiles.³ Peter therefore was the Apostle of the same God as Paul; and Whom Peter preached in the Circumcision as God, and the Son of God, Him Paul also preached unto the Gentiles. For our Lord came not surely to save Paul alone; nor was God so poor as to have one Apostle only, who may know the Economy of His Son. Paul too himself, where he says,⁴ How beautiful are the feet of them who preach glad tidings of good things, who preach the Gospel of Peace, hath made it plain, that the preachers of the Gospel were not one, but several. And again in the Epistle to the Corinthians, after making mention of all who saw God after His Resurrection he concludes,⁵ But whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed; confessing that their preaching is all one and the same, who saw God after His Resurrection from the dead.

§ 2.

And the Lord also to Philip, when he wished to see the Father, made answer,⁶ Am I so long time with you, and hast thou not known Me?⁷ O Philip, he that seeth Me, seeth also the Father. How sayest thou, Shew us the Father? I am in the Father, and the Father in Me, and from henceforth ye have known and seen Him.⁸ Those then, to whom the Lord gave testimony, that in Him they both knew and saw the Father (now the Father is Truth), to say that they knew not the Truth, belongs to false witnesses, and to such as are alienated from the doctrine of Christ.⁹ For to what end sent the Lord the 12 Apostles to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, if they knew not the truth! And how did the seventy preach, except they had themselves first known the virtue of their preaching? Or how could Peter be ignorant,¹⁰ to whom the Lord gave testimony, that flesh and blood revealed it not unto him, but the Father which is in Heaven?

As therefore Paul was an Apostle not of men nor by man,¹¹ but by Jesus, and God the Father, [so were the other Apostles]; the Son both leading them to the Father and the Father revealing to them the Son.

§ 3.

But that Paul, to content those who summoned him before the Apostles on the question,¹² went up to them with Barnabas unto Jerusalem, not without purpose, but that the liberty of the Gentiles might receive confirmation from them, he saith himself in the Epistle to the Galatians:¹³ Then 14 years afterwards I went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking also Titus with me. And I went up by revelation, and compared with them the Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles. And again he saith,¹⁴ For an hour we yielded to be subject,¹⁵ that the truth of the Gospel might remain with you. If accordingly one will diligently search out of the Acts of the Apostles the time of which it is written, I went up to Jerusalem on account of the aforesaid question: he will see that the years, above stated by Paul, harmonize. Thus is there agreement, and almost sameness, between the preaching of Paul on the one hand, and Luke’s witness touching the Apostles on the other.