A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

67are in Edessa kill their wives who commit adultery, nor theirsisters, but they withdraw from them, and give them over to thejudgment of God; nor do those who are in Hatra stone thievesto death; but wherever they are, and in whatever place they arefound, the laws of the several countries do not hinder them fromobeying the law of their Christ; nor does the Fate of the celestial [055]governors 29 compel them to make use of the things which theyregard as impure.(e) Eusebius, Hist. Ec., V, 10. (MSG, 20:455.)Missions in the extreme East.They say that Pantænus displayed such zeal for the divine wordthat he was appointed a herald of the Gospel of Christ to thenations of the East and was sent as far as India. 30 For indeed therewere still many evangelists of the word who sought earnestly touse their inspired zeal, after the example of the Apostles, for theincrease and building up of the divine word. Pantænus was oneof these, and he is said to have gone to India. The report is thatamong persons in that country who knew of Christ he found theGospel according to Matthew, which had anticipated his ownarrival. For Bartholomew, one of the Apostles, had preachedto them and left them the writing of Matthew in the Hebrewlanguage, and they had preserved it till that time.29 A reference to astrological doctrine.30 There is good reason for believing that by India is meant what is nowunderstood as India, and not Arabia. There was no little intercourse betweenIndia and the West, and we have the direct testimony of Dio Chrysostom,circa 100, that there was intercourse between Alexandria and India, and thatIndians came to Alexandria to study in the schools of that city. See DCB, art.“Pantænus.”