At this time also Rhodo, of Asian race, who had been a disciple at Rome of Tatian (whom we have known from earlier mention), as he himself relates, composed various books; and among the rest he set himself in array also against the heresy of Marcion, which, he records, had in his day split into differing opinions. Listing those who had caused the division, he refutes with precision the false teachings devised by each of them.
Hear, then, him also writing thus: 「For this reason they have become at variance even among themselves, laying claim to an inconsistent opinion. For from their herd is Apelles, who is revered for his manner of life and his old age. He admits one First Principle, but says that the prophecies are from an opposing spirit, being persuaded by the utterances of a possessed maiden named Philoumene.」
「And these, following the Pontic wolf, and not finding the division of things any more than he did, turned to easy facility, and declared two First Principles, baldly and without proof. Others again, drifting from them into yet worse error, suppose not only two but even three Natures; of whom the chief and leader is Syneros, as those who put forward his school assert.」
And the same writer relates that he had also come into discussion with Apelles, saying thus: 「For the old man Apelles, when he conversed with us, was convicted of saying many things amiss. Hence he used to say that one ought not to investigate the doctrine at all, but that each should remain as he had believed; for he declared that those who had set their hope on the Crucified would be saved, only if they were found in good works. But the most obscure of all the matters he laid down was, as we said before, that concerning God. For he asserted one First Principle, even as our own teaching does.」
Then, after setting forth all his opinion, he adds, saying: 「But when I said to him, ‘Whence is this proof of yours, or how can you say that there is one First Principle? Tell us,’ he said that the prophecies refute themselves, because they have spoken nothing true at all, for they are inconsistent and false and contradict one another; but as to how there is one First Principle, he said that he did not know it, but was merely so inclined.」
「Then, when I adjured him to speak the truth, he swore that he was speaking truly when he said that he did not understand how the unbegotten God is one, but that he believed this. But I laughed and condemned him, because, though he professed to be a teacher, he did not know how to establish what he taught.」
In the same treatise, addressing Callistio, the same writer confesses that he himself had been a disciple of Tatian at Rome. He says also that a Book of Problems had been compiled with care by Tatian, in which Tatian undertook to set forth what was obscure and hidden in the divine Scriptures; and Rhodo himself announces that in his own treatise he will set out the solutions to Tatian's Problems. There is extant also a commentary of his on the Hexaemeron, the Six Days of creation.
This same Apelles, at any rate, committed countless impieties against the law of Moses, blaspheming the divine words in many treatises, and devoting no small zeal—so it seemed at least—to their refutation and overthrow, as he supposed. So much, then, concerning these men.