Ecclesiastical History

-thers, and having been refined and educated in those same crucibles The author uses the metaphor of smelting furnaces (kurays) to describe the rigorous intellectual environment of classical academies., they became champions of Christianity. For even the ministers of those godless religions did not hesitate to admit the children of Christians into their schools and to instruct them. Thus, everywhere—in Alexandria, Edessa, and elsewhere—renowned Christian men appeared, distinguished by two types of wisdom: the Christian and the externalArmenian: artaknokn. In early Christian literature, "external" refers to secular, non-Christian, or pagan Greek philosophy and science..

But not all of these men sought the same kind of knowledge. For there were those whose only aim was to learn the tenets of the Christian religion; and there were those who were prepared to compete in the struggle of philosophy, to contend with the pagan teachers themselves. For this latter group, it was not enough to merely adopt the Gospel teachings; one also had to master external philosophy and theologyArmenian: astvadsabanutyun. Here, it likely refers to the study of the nature of the divine as understood by both Christians and pagans., and to understand their various systems and sectsArmenian: aghand. While often translated as "heresy," it originally referred more broadly to philosophical schools or religious factions., to know from where they originated. We see this education fully realized in the Church of Christ, where many were familiar with all the Homeric and Platonic ideas, as well as their distorted and vain systems.

And this was the school where many of the Fathers of the Church studied. Some of them, having strayed from the holy path, no longer remained among the Fathers; rather, through inconsistent and false teachings, they became the progenitors and founders of errant sects, and were severed from the Body of ChristA theological term referring to the unified Church.. As one of the later writers says, they became "the moth and the worm of corruption." But others, established upon the unshakeable rock of religion, remained champions of the faith through their words and writings. Yet, because they too were humans like us, clothed in mor- The text breaks off mid-word: mar-. It likely completes to "mortal" (mardanman) or "mortal flesh" (marmnov).