Jerome. Lives of Illustrious Men 33
33 Bardesanes the heresiarch PL 23, 647
Bardesanes of Mesopotamia is reckoned among the distinguished men. He was at first a follower of Valentinus and afterwards his opponent and himself founded a new heresy. He has the reputation among the Syrians of having been a brilliant genius and vehement in argument. He wrote a multitude of works against almost all heresies which had come into existence in his time. Among these a most remarkable and strong work is the one which he addressed to Marcus Antoninus On fate, and many other volumes On persecution which his followers translated from the Syriac language into Greek. If indeed so much force and brilliancy appears in the translation, how great it must have been in the original.
Bardesanes in Mesopotamia clarus habitus est, qui primum Valentini sectator, deinde confutator, novam haeresim condidit. Ardens ejus a Syris praedicatur ingenium, et in disputatione vehemens. Scripsit infinita adversum omnes pene haereticos, qui aetate ejus pullulaverant. In quibus clarissimus ille et fortissimus liber, quem M. Antonino de Fato tradidit: 873 et multa alia super persecutione volumina, quae sectatores ejus de Syra lingua verterunt in Graecam. Si autem tanta vis est et fulgor in interpretatione, quantam putamus in sermone proprio?
Βαρδησάνης ἐν Μεσοποταμίᾳ λαμπρὸς φανεὶς, πρῶτον μὲν Βαλεντίνου σπουδαστὴς, ὕστερον δὲ ἀντίπαλος, καινὴν αἵρεσιν συνεστήσατο. Τούτου παρὰ τῶν Σύρων θερμοτάτη κηρύττεται εὐφυΐα καὶ ἐν διαλέξει σφοδροτάτη. Ἔγραψε πάμπολλα κατὰ πασῶν σχεδὸν τῶν αἱρέσεων τῶν ἐπὶ τῶν χρόνων αὐτοῦ ἀνακυψασῶν ἐν οἷς περιφανής ἐστιν καὶ γενναῖος ὁ λόγος, ὃν Μάρκῳ Ἀντωνίνῳ περὶ Μοίρας ἐπέδωκεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἄλλα πολλὰ περὶ διωγμοῦ τεύχη, 874 ἅπερ οἱ τούτου σπουδασταὶ ἀπὸ τῆς Σύρας εἰς Ἑλληνικὴν διάλεξιν μετέφρασαν. Ὅπου δὲ τοσαύτη ἰσχύς ἐστι καὶ λαμπρότης ἐν τῇ ἑρμηνείᾳ, πόσην νομίζομεν ἐν τῷ οἰκείῳ λόγῳ ἔχειν ἀρετήν.