(1) On a certain Sunday[194] in the year 170 or thereabouts, Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, wrote a letter to the Church at Rome through their Bishop Soter, of which Eusebius has preserved the following among other passages (_Eccl. Hist._, iv. 23):—Ἐπιστολὰς γὰρ ἀδελφῶν ἀξιωσάντων με γράψαι ἔγραψα. Καὶ ταύτας οἱ τοῦ διαβόλου ἀπόστολοι[195] ζιζανίων γεγέμικαν, ἃ μὲν ἐξαιροῦντες, ἃ δὲ προστιθέντες. Οἷς τὸ οὐαὶ κεῖται.[196] Οὐ θαυμαστὸν ἄρα,[197] εἰ καὶ τῶν Κυριακῶν ῥᾳδιουργῆσαί τινες ἐπιβέβληνται γραφῶν, ὁπότε καὶ ταῖς οὐ τοιαύταις ἐπιβεβουλεύκασι. The κυριακαὶ γραφαὶ are in all likelihood the Gospels (the Syriac renders “the writings of our Lord”), but may also include the Pauline Epistles and the O.T. If we are to take the words of Dionysius in their strict sense, it would appear that these writings, like his own letters, had been corrupted by means of “additions” and “omissions.” The last sentence, if it is put correctly, and if it has been faithfully transmitted, leads us to infer that in his letter to Corinth Soter had expressed his surprise that the writings of the Lord should have been falsified. To which Dionysius replies that certain letters of his own had been falsified also, and that it was therefore no wonder if they did the same to the writings of the Lord, seeing they tampered also (or, _even_) with those that were inferior to them. The simplest explanation of the words is, undoubtedly, that Dionysius sought to console himself over the fate that had befallen his letters, by reflecting that it was not surprising that they had falsified his letters of less importance, seeing they had presumed to do the same _even_ to the writings of the Lord. On the first interpretation, one would certainly expect Dionysius to use a stronger expression to describe his feelings at the manipulation of the sacred writings than the mere οὐ θαυμαστόν. Who are meant by τινές? One most naturally thinks of Marcion. According to a later account, Soter, whom Jerome does not mention among the writers, composed a book against the Montanists. [Sidenote: Artemonites.]