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Christ's teaching as a foreign heresy and alien to God, and they commanded by letters not to accept it. This, then, is what the present prophecy seems to signify in saying: Woe to the land of winged ships beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, he who sends hostages in the sea. Instead of which Symmachus said apostles, stating: he who sends apostles in the sea, while Aquila rendered it as ambassadors, saying: he who sends ambassadors in the sea. Do you see how the word pronounces woe upon the aforesaid rulers of the Jews and their land, whose evil has reached even to Ethiopia. Therefore, according to Symmachus, it is said: Woe to the land whose sound is winged, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. By which it signifies that even beyond the country of the Ethiopians and the ends of the earth the sound of the wickedness of those inhabiting the land of the Jews went forth by means of certain, as it were, flying ships, and their apostles, carrying letters of papyrus and sailing over the waters and traversing the sea, ran to every part of the earth, slandering the word about our Savior. And even now it is the custom for Jews to call 'apostles' those who carry circular letters from their rulers. These things, then, it enigmatically stated about them, and next, instead of: for swift messengers will go, all the other interpreters have said: Go, swift messengers, so that it is the beginning of a command. And it seems to me that this command was spoken to the disciples of our Savior, whom he named swift messengers because they were evangelists of good things to all men, in contrast to the Jewish apostles he indicated. So he says to them: you messengers of good things, you disciples of Christ, go, just as the Savior himself commanded you, saying: 'Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,' and: 'Go and make disciples of all nations in my name.' And going, he says, be swift and lightly equipped, so that you might make the journey easy, which he himself again exhorted the same ones, saying: 'Take nothing for the journey,' and: 'Acquire no gold, nor silver, nor copper for your belts, no bag for the journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor a staff.' Whence he fittingly called them swift messengers, and he commands them to go to a nation that is lofty and strange and to a harsh people; for they were not sent to acquaintances or to any relatives and brothers, but to some alienated, unknown, and foreign men among all the nations, among whom they were truly lofty, standing on no firm foundation, but wandering and 'carried about by every wind' of polytheistic error. And these same were also a harsh nation, being hostilely and inimically disposed toward the word of godliness. Nevertheless, he urges the swift messengers to go to them and preach to them, and also to cross to the ends of the earth. Therefore he adds: what is beyond it, or according to Symmachus: after which there is nothing beyond; and this alienated and lofty nation was also without hope, as the Apostle says: 'we were at that time without hope and without God in the world.' And this present prophet himself, proceeding in the next sections, prophesies about those without hope, saying: 'and the despairing among men will be filled with gladness'; they are sent, then, to a nation without hope and to a nation trodden down by the devil and every demonic power. Then he instills courage in them, saying: Now all the rivers as an inhabited country; their country will be inhabited; for now upon your journey the rivers of the earth will be inhabited and all their countries. And through these things it seems to me he enigmatically refers to the rivers as the multitudes of the peoples who will come to know God, and their countries as the churches; for as above 'with a wave

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Χριστοῦ διδασκαλίαν ὡς αἵρεσιν ξένην καὶ ἀλλοτρίαν θεοῦ, παρήγγελόν τε δι' ἐπιστολῶν μὴ παραδέχεσθαι αὐτήν. τοῦτο δὴ οὖν αὐτὸ σημαίνειν ἔοικεν ἡ μετὰ χεῖρας προφητεία ἐν τῷ λέγειν· Οὐαὶ γῆς πλοίων πτέρυγες ἐπέκεινα ποταμῶν Αἰθιοπίας, ὁ ἀποστέλλων ἐν θαλάσσῃ ὅμηρα. ἀνθ' οὗ ὁ Σύμμαχος ἀποστόλους εἶπε φήσας· ὁ ἀποστέλλων ἀποστόλους ἐν θαλάσσῃ, ὁ δὲ Ἀκύλας πρεσβευτὰς ἐξέδωκεν εἰπών· ὁ ἀποστέλλων ἐν θαλάσσῃ πρεσβευτάς. ὁρᾷς ὅπως ὁ λόγος τοὺς προλεχθέντας Ἰουδαίων ἄρχοντας ταλανίζει καὶ τὴν γῆν αὐτῶν, ἧς ἡ κακία καὶ μέχρις Αἰθιόπων ἔφθασε. διὸ κατὰ τὸν Σύμμαχον εἴρηται· οὐαὶ γῆ, ἧς ὁ ἦχος πτερωτός, ἡ πέραθεν ποταμῶν Αἰθιοπίας. δι' ὧν σημαίνει ὡς καὶ πέραν τῆς Αἰθιόπων χώρας καὶ τῶν ἐσχατιῶν τῆς γῆς ὁ τῆς πονηρίας ἦχος τῶν τὴν Ἰουδαίων γῆν οἰκούντων διά τινων ὥσπερ ἱπταμένων πλοίων προῆλθεν, οἵ τε ἀπόστολοι αὐτῶν ἐπιστολὰς βυβλίνας ἐπικομιζόμενοι ὑπεράνω τε τῶν ὑδάτων ναυτιλλόμενοι καὶ τὴν θάλασσαν ἐμπλέοντες ἁπανταχοῦ γῆς διέτρεχον τὸν περὶ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἐνδιαβάλλοντες λόγον. ἀποστόλους δὲ εἰσέτι νῦν ἔθος ἐστὶν Ἰουδαίους ὀνομάζειν τοὺς ἐγκύκλια γράμματα παρὰ τῶν ἀρχόντων αὐτῶν ἐπικομιζομένους. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν περὶ τούτων ᾐνίξατο, ἑξῆς δὲ ἀντὶ τοῦ· πορεύσονται γὰρ ἄγγελοι κοῦφοι, εἰρήκασιν οἱ λοιποὶ πάντες ἑρμηνευταί· πορεύεσθε ἄγγελοι κοῦφοι, ὡς εἶναι ἀρχὴν προστάγματος. καί μοι δοκεῖ τουτὶ τὸ πρόσταγμα πρὸς τοὺς μαθητὰς τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν εἰρῆσθαι, οὓς διὰ τὸ πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ἀγαθῶν εὐαγγελιστὰς εἶναι ἀγγέλους κούφους ὠνόμασε πρὸς ἀντιδιαστολὴν ὧν ἐδήλωσεν Ἰουδαϊκῶν ἀποστόλων. φησὶν οὖν πρὸς αὐτούς· οἱ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἄγγελοι, ὑμεῖς οἱ Χριστοῦ μαθηταί, πορεύεσθε, ὥσπερ οὖν αὐτὸς ὁ σωτὴρ διετάξατο πρὸς ὑμᾶς λέγων· «πορεύεσθε δὲ μᾶλλον πρὸς τὰ πρόβατα τὰ ἀπολωλότα οἴκου Ἰσραήλ», καί· «πορευθέντες μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί μου». πορευόμενοι δέ φησι, κοῦφοι γένεσθε καὶ εὐσταλεῖς ὡς ἂν ῥᾳδίαν τὴν πορείαν ποιῆσθε, ὃ δὴ καὶ αὐτὸς πάλιν παρῄνει τοῖς αὐτοῖς λέγων· «μηδὲν ἄρητε κατὰ τὴν ὁδόν», καί· «μὴ κτήσησθε χρυσὸν μηδὲ ἄργυρον μηδὲ χαλκὸν εἰς τὰς ζώνας ὑμῶν, μὴ πήραν εἰς ὁδὸν μηδὲ δύο χιτῶνας ἔχειν μήτε ὑποδήματα μήτε ῥάβδον». ὅθεν εὐθυβόλως ἀγγέλους κούφους αὐτοὺς εἶπε, κελεύει δὲ πορεύεσθαι πρὸς ἔθνος μετέωρον καὶ ξένον καὶ πρὸς λαὸν χαλεπόν· οὐ γὰρ πρὸς γνωρίμους οὐδὲ πρὸς οἰκείους τινὰς καὶ ἀδελφοὺς ἀπεστέλλοντο, ἀλλὰ πρός τινας ἀπεξενωμένους ἀγνώστους ἄνδρας καὶ ἀλλογενεῖς τοὺς ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, ἐν οἷς ἦσαν μετέωροι ἀληθῶς ἐπὶ μηδενὸς ἑδραίου ἑστῶτες, πλανώμενοι δὲ «καὶ περιφερόμενοι παντὶ ἀνέμῳ» τῆς πολυθέου πλάνης. οἱ δ' αὐτοὶ καὶ χαλεπὸν ἔθνος ἦσαν, ἐχθρῶς καὶ πολεμίως διακείμενοι πρὸς τὸν τῆς θεοσεβείας λόγον. ὅμως δ' οὖν πρὸς τούτους παρακελεύεται ἀπιέναι τοὺς ἀγγέλους τοὺς κούφους καὶ τούτοις κηρύττειν, διαβαίνειν δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ πέρατα τῆς γῆς. διὸ ἐπιλέγει· τίς αὐτοῦ ἐπέκεινα, ἢ κατὰ τὸν Σύμμαχον· μεθ' ὃν οὐκ ἔστιν ἐπέκεινα· τοῦτο δὲ τὸ ἀπεξενωμένον καὶ μετέωρον ἔθνος καὶ ἀνέλπιστον ἦν, ὡς λέγειν τὸν Ἀπόστολον· «ἦμέν ποτε ἐλπίδα μὴ ἔχοντες καὶ ἄθεοι ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ». καὶ αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ μετὰ χεῖρας προφήτης προϊὼν ἐν τοῖς ἑξῆς περὶ τῶν ἀνελπίστων θεσπίζει λέγων· «καὶ οἱ ἀπηλπισμένοι τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐμπλησθήσονται εὐφροσύνης»· πρὸς ἔθνος γοῦν ἀνέλπιστον ἀποστέλλονται καὶ πρὸς ἔθνος καταπεπατημένον ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου καὶ πάσης τῆς δαιμονικῆς ἐνεργείας. Εἶτα θάρσος τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐντίθησι λέγων· νῦν οἱ ποταμοὶ πάντες ὡς χώρα κατοικουμένη· κατοικηθήσεται ἡ χώρα αὐτῶν· νῦν γὰρ ἐπὶ τῇ ὑμετέρᾳ πορείᾳ οἱ ποταμοὶ τῆς γῆς κατοικηθήσονται καὶ πᾶσαι αἱ χῶραι αὐτῶν. αἰνίττεσθαι δὲ διὰ τούτων μοι δοκεῖ ποταμοὺς μὲν τὰ πλήθη τῶν τὸν θεὸν ἐπιγνωσομένων λαῶν, χώρας τε αὐτῶν τὰς ἐκκλησίας· ὡς γὰρ ἀνωτέρω «κύματι