CHAP. V. Who were Bishops of Jerusalem from our Saviour, even to these times.
MOreover, the space of time which the Bishops of Jerusalem spent in their Presidency over that See I could in no wise find preserved in writing. For, as report says, they were very short lived: But thus much I have been informed of from old records, that unto the Siege of the Jews in Adrian's time, there were in number fifteen successions of Bishops there: all whom, they say, were by birth Hebrews, who had sincerely embraced the knowledge of Christ; in so much that by those, who were then able to give judgment as to such matters, they were approved to be worthy of the Episcopal Office. For that whole Church at Jerusalem was made up of be∣lieving Jews, who had continued steadfast in the faith from the Apostles times even to the then Siege: wherein the Jews, revolting again from the Romans, were vanquished and destroyed by no small wars. The Bishops therefore that were of the circumcision then ceasing, it will be now requisite to give a catalogue of them in their order from first to last. The first therefore was James called the brother of the Lord; after him the se∣cond was Simeon; the third Justus; the fourth Zaccheus; the fifth Tobias; the sixth Benjamin; the seventh John; the eighth Matthias; the ninth Philip; the tenth Seneca; the eleventh Justus; the twelfth Levi; the thirteenth Ephres; the fourteenth a 1.1 Joseph; the fifteenth and last Judas: And thus many were the Bishops of the City of Jerusalem, from the Apostles to this time we are now treating of; all which were of the Circum∣cision. But now, Adrian being in the twelfth year of his Empire, Telesphorus the seventh from the Apostles, succeeded Xystus, who had com∣pleated the tenth year of his Episcopal Office over the Romans; and within a years space and b 1.2 some months Eumenes, the sixth in order, succeeded in the Presidency over the Alexandrian Church; his immediate predecessour there having sate eleven years.