[21] ἱερευς το πεταλον πεφορεκως--"Pontifex ejus (sc. _Domini_) auream laminam in fronte habens." So translated by S. Hieron. _Lib. de Vir. Illust._, xlv. The πεταλον is the LXX. rendering of צִיץ, the projecting leaf or plate of radiant gold (Exod. xxviii. 26, xxxix. 30), associated with the "mitre" (Lev. viii. 9). Whether Polycrates speaks literally, or wishes to convey by a metaphor the impression of holiness radiating from St. John's face, we probably cannot decide. [22] Acts xix. 20, 21. In this description of Ephesus the writer has constantly had in view the passages to which he referred in the _Speakers Commentary, N.T._, iv., 274, 276. He has also studied M. Renan's _Saint Paul_, chap, xii., and the authorities cited in the notes, pp. 329, 350. [23] St. John ii. 2, iv. 14. [24] "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against," etc. Eph. vi. 12-17. [25] _Saint Paul_, Renan, 318, 319. [26] For the almost certain reference here to the Chaldean Sybil Sambethe, see Apoc ii. 20, Archdeacon Lee's note in _Speaker's Commentary, N.T._, iv. 527, 534, 535, and Dean Blakesley (art. _Thyatira, Dict. of the Bible_). [27] 1 John iv. 1, 3. [28] 1 John ii. 7, ii. 24, iii. 11; 2 John vv. 5, 6. The passage in ii. 24 is a specimen of that simple emphasis, that presentation of a truth or duty under two aspects, which St. John often produces merely by an inversion of the order of the words. "Ye--what ye _heard_ from the beginning let it abide in you. If what from the _beginning_ ye heard abide in you" (ὁ ηκουσατε απ' αρχης ... ὁ απ' αρχης ηκουσατε). The emphasis in the first clause is upon the _fact_ of their having _heard_ the message; in the second upon this feature of the message--that it was given in the _beginning_ of Christianity amongst them, and kept unchanged until the present time. Cf. εντολη παλαια (ii. 7) with αρχαιος = "of the early Christian time," in Polycarp, _Ep. ad Philipp._, i.