Two of the converts of the first century are mentioned in the Talmud and receive there an excellent testimonial. The first is Nicodemus, identical, according to the writer in the "Jewish Encyclopædia," with Nicodemus ben Gorian. He is said to have been a great saint. The other is Jacob of Kefar Sakanya (Simai). He once met R. Eliezer in the upper market-place of Sepphoris and asked his opinion on a curious ritualistic question bearing upon Deut. xxiii. 8. As R. Eliezer declined to give an opinion, Jacob acquainted him with the interpretation of Jesus derived from Micah i. 7. R. Eliezer was pleased with the interpretation, and was consequently suspected of Christian leanings by the governor (Abodah Zarah, 17. a). On another occasion, Jacob went to heal R. Eleasar ben Dama of a poisonous bite by a serpent in the name of Jesus, but his uncle, R. Ishmael, would not allow it. Jacob said to him, Rabbi Ishmael, my brother, let me heal him, and I will prove to you from the Torah, that it is allowed, but R. I. was obstinate. In the meantime the patient died, and his uncle apostrophized the corpse in these words: "Happy art thou Ben Dama that thy body is pure and thy soul departed in purity, as thou hast not transgressed the words of thy fellow rabbis" (Abodah Zarah, 27. b). CHAPTER II. SUB-APOSTOLIC OR PATRISTIC PERIOD. Besides Hegesippus, one reckoned among the church fathers was Epiphanius, a native Jew of Palestine, who embraced Christianity at sixteen years of age, and eventually became Bishop of Constantia, and died at sea (according to Bartolocci) in 403 A.D. He wrote a book entitled, "Panarion," in which he gives information about eighty heretical sects, including Jewish; also a treatise on Biblical weights and measures and on the lives of the Prophets, in which he makes Hebrew quotations.