The Famous Liar and the Apostolic Truth 63 ancient philosophic tradition, was the man from the 6th century. As usual, Diogenes Laertius mentions the works attributed to the phi- losopher, none of which are preserved entirely19. A work Περὶ χρησμῶν, mentioned in NESTLE - ALAND, is not named at all, although Diogenes Laertius refers to several, extensive works, as to Theogony mentioned by Jeremias20. The source of the title Περὶ χρησμῶν is apparently Jerome, who writes dicitur autem iste versiculus in Epimenidis Cretensis poetae Oraculis reperiri ... denique ipse liber Oraculorum titulo praenotatur (Comm. in ep. ad Tit.. PL 7,606,). Obviously, Jerome had not himself seen the work, but uses an indirect source21. The only writer known to me, who mentions a Greek title, Χρησμοί of Epimenides, is Socrates Scholas- ticus (Ἐπει πόθεν ὁρμώμενος ἔλεγε Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται, κακὰ θηρία, γαστέρες ἀργαι, εἰ μὴ τοὺς Ἐπιμενίδου τοῦ Κρητὸς, ἀνδρὸς τελεστοῦ, ἀνεγνώκει Χρησμούς, Historia ecclesiastica 3,16 PG 67,421. DIELS and KRANZ (who do not mention Socrates Scholasticus at all) have the frag- ment quoted in Tit in a section Ἐπιμενίδου Θεογονία ἢ Χρησμοί. An old assumption is that the verse is taken from the prologue of the work22. It is not easy to understand the reason for identifying these works, but it explains why scholars use both names23. The work Περὶ χρησμῶν in NESTLE – ALAND is still a mystery to me (even Jerome’s words would sug- gest a title Oracula / Χρησμοί, or Liber Oraculorum, if any), because, for example, neither the Suda nor Photius mention it either24 . JACOBY, for his part, assumes four works (Χρησμοί, Θεογονία, Κρητικά and Περὶ ‘Ροδου. Τελχινιακὴ ἱστορία), and attributes the quotation to Χρησμοί. QUINN supposes that the writer of Tit has used a florilegium without any direct contact to Epimenides’ work25, but it is difficult to prove even that 19 Some scholars have rejected the attribution to Epimenides, because the verse is not written in Cretan dialect (LOCK, Pastoral Epistles, 134). The observation is, of course, cor- rect, but overlooks the fact that people writing, for example, epic used Homeric language regardless where they lived. The genre and not the native city defined the language used in Greek poetry. 20 Diogenes Laertios mentions the poetic works On the Birth of the Curetes and Cory- bantes, Theogony (5000 lines), On Minos and Rhadamanthus and and the epos of Argos and Iason (6500 lines) and the prose works On Sacrifices and Cretan Constitution. 21 According to C. ZIMMER (“Die Lügner-Antinomie in Titus 1,12”, Linguistica Biblica 59 [1987] 80), Jerome’s words base “nur auf ein ungewisses Hörensagen”. 22 For example, KERN, ”Epimenides“, 1976 (with references to the older literature). 23 The argument of JACOBY to attribute the verse to “ΧΡΗΣΜΟΙ (ΚΑΘΑΡΜΟΙ)” is the passage in Jerome (p. 390). 24 RENEHAN warned the editors in his article (1973) of the words that Nestle – Aland still uses in the latest edition: “A classical scholar would note in the apparatus criticus simply ‘Epimenides, frag. 1 DIELS and KRANZ,’ and this is best.”