Besides all these, there are also studiously composed by him the two treatises On the Promises. And his subject was Nepos, a bishop of those in Egypt, who taught that the promises made to the saints in the divine writings would be fulfilled in a more Jewish manner, and supposed that there would be a certain thousand years of bodily luxury upon this earth.
Thinking, then, to confirm his own opinion from the Apocalypse of John, he composed and entitled a certain treatise on this matter, A Refutation of the Allegorists.
Against him Dionysius takes his stand in the books On the Promises—in the first setting forth his own opinion which he held concerning the doctrine, and in the second treating of the Apocalypse of John; where, mentioning Nepos at the outset, he writes thus concerning him:
“But since they bring forward a certain treatise of Nepos, on which they greatly rely as though it irrefutably demonstrated that the kingdom of Christ will be upon earth, I, in many other respects, accept and love Nepos, both for his faith and his diligence and his study in the Scriptures and his much psalmody, by which many of the brethren are even now gladdened; and I hold the man in great reverence, the more so in that he has gone to his rest before us—but truth is dear, and to be honoured above all things; and one ought to praise and assent ungrudgingly, if anything be rightly said, but to examine and set right, if anything appear not soundly written.
And against one present and laying down doctrine by bare speech, unwritten conversation would have sufficed, persuading and reconciling those who oppose by question and answer; but when a writing has been put forth, as it seems to some most persuasive, and when certain teachers reckon the Law and the Prophets as nothing, and neglect to follow the Gospels, and disparage the letters of the apostles, but promise the teaching of this treatise as though it were some great and hidden mystery, and do not allow our simpler brethren to think anything lofty and magnificent, neither concerning the glorious and truly divine appearing of our Lord, nor concerning our resurrection from the dead and our being gathered together unto Him and made like Him, but persuade them to hope for things petty and mortal and such as the present in the kingdom of God—it was necessary that we too should discourse, as with our brother Nepos present.”
To these things, after others, he subjoins, saying: “Now when I was in the Arsinoite nome, where, as thou knowest, this doctrine long before was so prevalent that schisms and apostasies of whole churches had come about, having called together the presbyters and teachers of the brethren in the villages—the brethren who wished also being present—I exhorted them to make the examination of the question publicly.
And when they brought to me this book as though it were some weapon and impregnable wall, I sat together with them for three days in succession, from morning until evening, and attempted to set right the things that had been written.
There too I greatly admired the brethren’s steadfastness and love of truth and aptness to follow and intelligence, as in order and with fairness we made the questions and the difficulties and the agreements—on the one hand declining by every means to cling contentiously to things once held, even if they should appear not to be right; and on the other hand neither shrinking from the contradictions, but as far as possible attempting to grapple with the matters before us and to establish them; nor, if reason prevailed, being ashamed to change our minds and to assent; but with good conscience and unfeignedly, and with hearts laid open before God, receiving the things established by the proofs and teachings of the Holy Scriptures.
And at last the leader and introducer of this teaching, the one called Coracion, in the hearing of all the brethren present, confessed and testified to us that he would no longer hold to it, nor discuss concerning it, nor make mention of it, nor teach it, as being sufficiently persuaded by the things spoken against it. And of the other brethren, those present rejoiced at the common discussion and at the condescension and concord shown toward all.”