After Nero and Domitian, in the reign of the emperor whose times we are now examining, an account holds that a persecution against us was stirred up partially and city by city, through risings of the populace; in which Symeon the son of Clopas—whom we have shown to have been appointed the second bishop of the church at Jerusalem—we have received that he ended his life by martyrdom.
And a witness to this is that very man whose various words we have already used before, Hegesippus; who, indeed, recounting certain things about the heretics, adds, declaring how this man, having undergone accusation at their hands at that time, was for very many days tortured in manifold ways as a Christian, and after astounding both the judge himself and those about him to the utmost, met an end like to the Lord's passion.
But there is nothing like hearing the writer himself, recording these very things word for word somewhat thus: 'From these heretics, that is to say, certain ones accuse Symeon the son of Clopas of being descended from David and a Christian; and so he bears witness, being a hundred and twenty years old, under Trajan Caesar and the consular Atticus.'
And the same writer says that his accusers also—at a time when those of the royal tribe of the Jews were being sought out—happened to be arrested as being themselves of that tribe. And one might say, by reasoning, that Symeon too was among those who had been eyewitnesses and hearers of the Lord, using as evidence the length of the time of his life, and the fact that the writing of the Gospels makes mention of Mary the wife of Clopas, whose son the account has already shown him to have been.
And the same writer says that others also, from one family of those called the brothers of the Saviour, whose name was Jude, survived into the same reign, after the martyrdom already recounted earlier which they had undergone for their faith in Christ under Domitian.
And he writes thus: 'They come, then, and take the lead of every church, as witnesses and as of the family of the Lord; and when deep peace had come upon every church, they remained until Trajan Caesar—until the time when the aforesaid Symeon, son of Clopas, of the Lord's divine kin, having been falsely accused by the sects, was himself likewise charged on the same ground before Atticus the consular. And being tortured for many days, he bore witness, so that all, including the consular, marvelled exceedingly how, being a hundred and twenty years old, he endured; and he was ordered to be crucified.'
In addition to these things, the same man, recounting the events of the times indicated, adds that up to those times the Church remained a pure and incorrupt virgin, since those who were attempting—if indeed any such existed—to corrupt the sound rule of the saving proclamation were as yet lurking in some obscure darkness.
But when the sacred band of the apostles had reached the various ends of their life, and that generation had passed away of those who had been counted worthy with their own ears to hear the inspired wisdom, then the organized system of godless error took its beginning, through the deceit of those who taught otherwise; who also, inasmuch as no one of the apostles any longer remained, henceforth attempted with bared head to counter-proclaim the falsely-named knowledge against the proclamation of the truth.