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Translated by John Parker
St Dionysius the Areopagite Resources Online and in Print
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64 Pages
Page 4
This touch of nature, preserved in a chronicle, written more than 1400 years ago, by an illustrious statesman, who was son of a Bishop celebrated for learning and sanctity, may fairly be deemed, by an unprejudiced mind, reasonable proof that the "Divine Names" were written previous to A.D. 98.
N.B. As the result of some research I affirm that our Saviour's last commission is the Key to Church history in the first century. As He commanded the Apostles to preach the Gospel throughout the world, so the Gospel was preached when St. Paul wrote his Epistle to the Colossians, Chap. I. v. 23 (tou~ khruxqe/ntoj e0n pa&sh| kti/sei), and with such success amongst the most learned and noble, that, but for the cruel massacre of Flavius [9] Clemens and his family for the Christian Faith, there would have been a Christian Emperor in the first century. As Jesus said, "Ye shall be witnesses of Me unto the uttermost parts of the earth "(Acts Chap. 1. v. 8), so the Apostles planted the Church of Christ in Gaul, Spain and Britain, with its threefold ministry; and by the end of the second century there was an organised Church throughout each of those territories [10].
Dr. Schneider informs me "that in Germany they now admit that the external proofs are in favour of genuineness of Dionysius, but they confine themselves to the internal proofs. They pretend that the doctrine is too clear and precise to have been written in the apostolic age."
How could the chief Areopagite, the convert and companion of St. Paul, and the familiar friend of St. John, Theologus, have understood theology!!
9. [i] Burton, Ecc. Hist., Vol. I. p. 367.
10. [k] Mansi I. 698, Jaffi. Regesta Rom. Pon. 2nd Ed., p. 10, by Ewald.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names.asp?pg=4
