Letter 500: The pressure to accommodate, to soften, to avoid the fight that orthodoxy requires — I know this pressure, Herakleides.

To Theodosius the Deacon. On the saying: "Who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple-keeper of the great Artemis?" Since you wished to learn about the words set down in the Acts of the Apostles, "Who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple-keeper of the great Artemis and of the image that fell from Zeus?" [Acts 19:35; the diopetes was the cult statue believed to have fallen from heaven], know this: that the utterance is not Scripture's own, but that of the town clerk of the Ephesians; and I consider it superfluous to expound the babbling fabrications of charlatans. Concerning these I think that Melito too has spoken [Melito of Sardis, second-century bishop]: "Lawless men recounted to me their idle chatter; but it was not like your law, O Lord." [cf. Psalm 119:85]

Σζ΄. — ΘΕΟΔΟΣΙΩ ΔΙΑΚΟΝΩ (42). Εἰς τὸ εἰρημένον· «Τίς οὐκ οἶδε τὴν Ἐφεσίων πόλιν νεωκόρον οὖσαν τῆς μεγάλης Ἀρτέμιδος;» Ἐπειδὴ ἠθέλησας μαθεῖν τὸ ἐν ταῖς πράξεσι τῶν ἀποστόλων κείμενον· «Τίς οὐκ οἶδε τὴν Ἐφεσίων πόλιν νεωκόρον εἶναι τῆς μεγάλης Ἀρτέμιδος, καὶ τοῦ διοπετους;» ἴσθι, ὅτι οὐκ ἔστι τῆς Γραφῆς ἡ φωνή, ἀλλὰ τοῦ γραμματέως τῶν Ἐφεσίων· καὶ περιττὸν ποιοῦμαι, ἀγυρτικὰς λογοποιΐας ἑρμηνεύειν· περὶ ὧν οἶμαι καὶ τὸν Μελιτὸν εἰρηκέναι· «Διηγήσαντό μοι παράνομοι ἀδολεσχίας· ἀλλ’ οὐχ ὡς ὁ νόμος σου, Κύριε.»