8); to the judgment denounced by Saint Peter upon
Ananias and Sapphira, which he calls an "imprecation of death." (Jewish
and Heathen Test. Vol. iii. p. 166, et seq.)
The instances here alleged serve, in some measure, to show the nature of
Porphyry's objections, and prove that Porphyry had read the Gospels with
that sort of attention which a writer would employ who regarded them as
the depositaries of the religion which he attacked. Besides these
specifications, there exists, in the writings of ancient Christians,
general evidence that the places of Scripture upon which Porphyry had
remarked were very numerous.
In some of the above-cited examples, Porphyry, speaking of Saint
Matthew, calls him your Evangelist; he also uses the term evangelists in
the plural number. What was said of Celsus is true likewise of Porphyry,
that it does not appear that he considered any history of Christ except
these as having authority with Christians.
III. A third great writer against the Christian religion was the emperor
Julian, whose work was composed about a century after that of Porphyry.
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