I wonder if I read the passage correctly. It seems to me there are three pairs of 'teachers' here:Now this work of mine in writing (γραφὴ) is not artfully constructed (τετεχνασμένη) for display; but my memoranda (μοι ὑπομνήματα) are stored up against old age, as a remedy against forgetfulness, truly an image and outline of those vigorous and animated discourses which I was privileged to hear, and of blessed and truly remarkable men (λόγων τε καὶ ἀνδρῶν μακαρίων καὶ τῷ ὄντι ἀξιολόγων).
Of these the one, in Greece (τούτων ὃ μὲν ἐπὶ τῆς Ἑλλάδος), an Ionic; the other in Magna Graecia (οἳ δὲ ἐπὶ τῆς Μεγάλης Ἑλλάδος: the first (θάτερος) of these from Coele-Syria, the second from (ὃ δὲ ἀπ') Egypt, and others in the East (ἄλλοι δὲ ἀνὰ τὴν ἀνατολήν). The one was of the land of (καὶ ταύτης ὃ μὲν τῆς τῶν) Assyria, and the other (ὃ δὲ ἐν) a Hebrew in Palestine.
When I came upon the last (ὑστάτῳ δὲ περιτυχὼν) (he was the first in power), having tracked him out concealed in Egypt, I found rest. He, the true, the Sicilian bee, gathering the spoil of the flowers of the prophetic and apostolic meadow, engendered in the souls of his hearers a deathless element of knowledge.
Well, they preserving the tradition of the blessed doctrine derived directly from the holy apostles, Peter, James, John, and Paul, the sons receiving it from the father (but few were like the fathers), came by God's will to us also to deposit those ancestral and apostolic seeds. And well I know that they will exult; I do not mean delighted with this tribute, but solely on account of the preservation of the truth, according as they delivered it. For such a sketch as this, will, I think, be agreeable to a soul desirous of preserving from escape the blessed tradition.
1. (first pair) of Ionia, of Magna Graecia
2, (second pair) of Syria, of Egypt
3. others of the East
4 .(third pair) of Assyria, a Hebrew of Palestine
I wonder what to make of the strange pairing here. And am I right in assuming that the 'Hebrew of Palestine' - the last of the last pair - is the one found hidden in Egypt? If so doesn't that imply the pairing is chronological? Any ideas? Thoughts?