Short answers, pulled from the story.
Heliodorus of Emesa uses the phrase to claim hereditary priesthood according to scholar Tim Whitmarsh. Uncertainties remain about whether this was a literal family title or a literary device.
A surviving manuscript of the Aethiopica sits today in Venice at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana under the shelf number Gr. 410 on folio 94v. This Venetian codex represents one of the key textual traditions scholars use to reconstruct the original work.
Scholars debate whether the Aethiopica originated in the 220s AD or the 370s AD. The text itself offers no internal calendar date to resolve this conflict definitively.
Later tradition claims that Heliodorus became a Christian bishop after writing his famous novel but Richard L. Hunter describes this account as likely fictional folklore rather than historical fact. No contemporary evidence supports the idea that he held ecclesiastical office during his lifetime.
Heliodorus stands among other ancient Greek novelists such as Chariton and Xenophon of Ephesus. Achilles Tatius contributed Leucippe and Clitophon and Longus created Daphnis and Chloe.