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Patrology — Topic 5

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Patrology — Topic 5

5.1 Theophilus of Antioch

Eusebius of Caesarea testifies that Theophilus was the sixth bishop of Antioch, (about 169 to 180). He was born near the Euphrates to pagan parents, was well educated, and converted to Christianity at a mature age. The truth of Christianity for him was confirmed by the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies. Eusebius also speaks of Theophilus as an active and successful fighter against heresies (Gnostics) and reports that Theophilus wrote books against Marcion, Valentine, the interpretation of the Gospel and the parables of Solomon. In other words, in the person of Theophilus of Antioch we have not only an Apologist, but also a polemicist and exegete. Still, none of these works survived, except his ‘Three Books to the Autolycus’, which is apologetic and at the same time deals with various theological aspects of Church teaching: teaching about the knowledge of God, triadology, freedom of will in man and others.

In his doctrine on the cognition of God, he makes it clear that, in accordance with His nature, God cannot be seen by bodily eyes, but only by spiritual ones. And that was not for everyone, but only for those whose eyesight was purified from passions, which clouded the internal sight of the soul. In his teaching about God, Theophilus speaks emphatically about God as a Person, he says that God is wrathful towards the ungodly but is kind and merciful to those who love and fear Him. The Apologist gives a number of apophatic denominations which he applies to the whole Godhead:

“God is infinite because he did not come into being, immutable because he is immortal. He is called God because He put all things in His strength and δια το θεειν: the word θεειν means to run, move, produce, feed, see, govern, animate all things.”

That is, in His essence, as He is, God is incognisable and therefore His description is more suited to negative definitions and even the name “God” is not absolute, but rather relative, derived from Providence over the world. Yet God is made cognisable by His actions in the world, by His manifestations and above all by His power over the world:

“He is called Lord, because He reigns over everything, Father, because He exists above all things, Creator and Maker, because He created all things, the Most High, because He is above all things, the Almighty, because He governs and contains all things. For both the heights of heaven and the depths of the abysses, and the limits of the universe are in His hand, and there is no resting place for Him (Acts 7:49). Heaven is His work, earth is His creation, sea is His creation, man is His work and likeness, sun, moon and stars are His elements, created in signs, in times, days and years (Gn 1:14), for the service and benefit of people; and God created everything from nothingness into existence, that from His works His greatness may be known and understood”.

Thus, St Theophilus was one of the first Christian theologians to clearly, though briefly, formulate the doctrine of two ways of knowing God: cataphatic (affirmative) and apophatic (negative): God is invisible, but is known through His Providence and actions.

An important merit of St Theophilus is that he is the first to use the term “Trinity” (Trias) to denote the unity of the three Divine Hypostases. He refers to the first three days of creation as images of the Trinity - God, His Word and His Wisdom.

If we try to assess his method, we can say that St Theophilus seeks to demonstrate to his Gentile addressee, who is familiar with all the charges against Christians, two things:

Christians are innocent of what they are accused of

Gentiles themselves, as their history and culture show, are often guilty of exactly those crimes which they now bring against Christians.

The work ends with historical calculations, including complex chronological calculations, which aim to reconcile biblical history and Roman Hellenistic history. The author has one more goal - to prove that the Old Testament Scriptures are older than any Greek and especially Roman writings, and therefore more authentic.

5.2 Justin the Philosopher

Justin was born in the end of the first - beginning of the second century in Flavia (Neapolis), a Roman colony, which was built in the place of the ancient city of Shechem in Palestine. His parents were evidently pagans, as he himself points out, giving their Roman names. His hunger for knowledge of truth was awakened in him early on and he searched diligently through the various philosophical systems of the time. But nothing satisfied his hunger for truth. Stoics, because the Stoic philosopher, to whom Justin came to learn, had no great passion for the problems of cognition of God. The school of Aristotelians (Peripatetics) - also cooled his ardour, because the teacher of philosophy demanded payment in advance for lessons, and he ceased to attend classes (apparently - not because he did not want to pay for training, but rather because in his very idealistic mind it was difficult to combine a high divine truth and such an explicit pragmatism). The Pythagoreans asked him whether he had first studied music, astronomy and geometry (these were “lower” disciplines that diverted the mind from sensual forms and prepared it for speculation and an introduction to the secret teaching). But Justin apparently had little inclination for these sciences, or, to learn them sufficiently, had neither the zeal nor the strength. He left this school too.

He soon fell in with the Platonists, and here he realised that he had found what he desired. They spoke of God, of the contemplation of the incorporeal, the divine. Justin even then began to scoff that he had finally become a philosopher, until one encounter occurred to him. While out walking he met a certain well mannered Christian elder, with whom he had a conversation that changed the rest of his life. The old man told him that man could not know God on his own, not even by diverting his mind from the material world, and that such a revelation was only the work of divine grace and inspiration from on high. The old man told Justin of men who had had this kind of revelation of knowledge about God and the world - the prophets. At the same time the stranger criticised Plato’s teaching in particular for his view of the transmigration of souls.

It was not only this conversation that led his heart to Christ, but also what he had seen before in the conduct of Christians in public trials and executions. Justin had also heard the accusations against Christians of cannibalism, other horrible sins, lasciviousness, etc. And as he pondered these things, even before accepting Christianity, he began to think of the injustice of the persecutions and slanders levelled against Christians. He wrote:

“I myself, when I was still satisfied with Plato’s teaching, heard how Christians were reviled, but seeing how they fearlessly meet death and all that is considered terrible, I considered it impossible that they were given over to vice and debauchery. For what libertine and impenitent, who finds pleasure in eating human flesh, can willingly accept death, to be deprived of his pleasures? Would he not, on the contrary, endeavour in every way to continue his present life and hide himself from the authorities, rather than declare himself for condemnation to death?”

He then became an itinerant preacher, travelled through various cities and finally arrived in Rome, where he opened one of the first Christian schools. Justin himself considered himself a philosopher to the end of his days, dressed as a philosopher and confessed to be a philosopher before he died. Around 166, Justin and six of his companions were captured and, after confessing to being Christians, beheaded.

Justin seems to have been a prolific writer, but only three of his works have survived in full - two Apologies and a Dialogue with Trypho the Jew.

Both Apologies appear to have been composed in the middle of the 2nd century. The 1st Apology was written around 150 and is addressed to the pagan emperors. Here the absurdity of the accusations against Christians is considered, the author appeals to the common sense of educated and enlightened emperors, counting on the pious and philosophical, asking them not to punish people merely for their name but to investigate these matters more thoroughly and Justin is convinced that with a thorough investigation these people will turn out to be completely innocent. “The name Christian, like the name philosopher, does not yet prove guilt or innocence itself, but only deeds.” Also Justin dismisses the charge of atheism - if Christians reject the worship of gods, it is only because such gods must not be worshipped, but the One God must be worshipped. And besides, Justin seeks to show that Christians are the best support for emperors in obeying civil laws, as long as those do not affect the Christian religion. In the same Apology we can also find a detailed description of the worship of Christians, a description of worship, of the Sacraments of the Church - Baptism, the Eucharist; Justin tells the emperor about them (even in a sense breaking the secret discipline – disciplina arcana) in order to show that Christians are not doing anything illegal at their meetings.

Here, too, we can find a certain religious concept of Justinian - he compares Christianity with other religions and cults - and explains some outward similarities and parallels between them and Christianity by the fact that the demons, to whom the details of the Incarnation of God have been revealed through the prophetic books of the Old Testament try to imitate the true religion, and they know that the main mass of Christians will be converted from the pagans, and they try to parody prophecies and images from the Old Testament, to divert the called out from the True Church and salvation. It’s from this angle that he interprets various pagan myths.

St. Justin’s 2nd Apology is shorter. It is written concerning the fact that the prefect of Rome beheaded three innocent Christians just for professing their faith. Also, this Apology mentions the idea that the persecution of Christians is inspired by demons.

The “Dialogue with Trypho the Jew” is the largest work of St Justin, of 142 chapters and written on the basis of a two-day discussion with a certain Rabbi Trypho and his companions. Obviously, these were not representatives of strictly orthodox Judaism, but already Hellenized Jews who lived in the Diaspora among the Gentiles. It is most likely that this dialogue took place in Ephesus (as Eusebius of Caesarea points out). Here Justin is apologizing to an educated Jew, and the sphere of discourse is the Scriptures of the Old Testament and its interpretation.

It is the conviction of Justin - that the Old Testament of Moses is temporary, but that Christianity is an eternal Covenant. The apologist justifies the worship of Christ as God, and that the Gentile Christians already constitute a new Israel, the true chosen people of God.

Justin favours more those passages of the Old Testament where it speaks of the rejection of Israel and the election of the Gentiles (he finds such passages in the prophets).

Justin had other works which are now lost; these are mentioned by Eusebius and Irenaeus.

5.3 Melito of Sardis

Very little is known about him. Eusebius of Caesarea preserves a citation from Polycrates of Ephesus who calls him “Melito the Eunuch”, which probably refers to his abstinent way of life. He was bishop of Sardis in Lydia in Asia Minor and took part in the Council of Laodicea in 167 on the question of celebrating Easter, where he adhered to the tradition of Asia Minor, just as Apostle John and Polycarp of Smyrna (to celebrate Easter on Nisan 14 - coinciding with the Jewish Easter). He is also known to have presented an Apology to Emperor Marcus Aurelius in 169 (preserved in fragments), and he died c. 190. St. Melito was one of the first pilgrims to the Holy Land, reported in church writings, where he went to collect books of the Old Testament in Hebrew.

Besides the Apology, another work has come down to us: On the Passover. Antiquity attributes to Melito many other writings, of which, unfortunately, only the titles have survived. Eusebius of Caesarea and Saint Anastasius of Sinai mention a total of 21 works by Melito.

In the Apology St. Melito seeks to prove to the emperor that Christians are excellent citizens of the Roman Empire, obey all laws, and even - that Christians are the cause of the constancy of nature, and for the sake of Christians God is slow to destroy the world, expecting that many more people will become Christians and will be saved. Christians, because of their life and proximity to God, are a kind of conductor of grace and spiritual order in the world, and thus have a beneficial influence on it.

In the 20th century a remarkable poem ‘On Easter’, previously lost, was discovered and published. Curiously, Melito derives the word “Easter” itself not from the Hebrew word “pesach”, which means “to pass by”, but from the Greek word πάσχω - “to suffer”. Thus - the Old Testament Passover is the sacrament of the prototypical future suffering of Christ.

The Fall, the cause of which Melito sees in man’s violation of God’s will in Paradise, brought incalculable evil to the human race, which spread to all men:

“Adam left an inheritance to his children:

Not chastity, but fornication.

Not incorruption, but corruption.

Not honour, but dishonour.

Not liberty, but slavery.

Not kingdom, but tyranny.

Not life, but death.

Not salvation, but perdition.”

St. Melito sees the redemptive deed of the Lord Jesus Christ in taking the punishment of man for Adam’s sin: the Lord was “judged for the condemned and buried for the buried”. The Lord Jesus freed us from the service of the world, delivered us from our slavery to the devil, sealed our souls with His Spirit and the members of our body with His blood. The consequence of Christ’s death and resurrection is this: Christ “set the condemned free, quickened the dead, raised the buried, abolished death, triumphed over the enemy, trampled hell, bound the strong, raised man to the height of heaven.”

As for the allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament text, Melito says that every allegory divides the text into two parts - the signifying (what lies on the surface) and signified (prototype, mysterious hidden meaning). With the coming of the Truth, there is no need for symbols to signify it, so the Old Testament worship of God has lost its relevance: “But the image was emptied, giving meaning to the Truth, and the law was fulfilled, giving meaning to the Gospel.”

5.4 “Letter to Diognetus”

The author of this work is unknown to us, and various suppositions have

been made about its authorship. Dramatic is the history of the codex of the 13th century, the Codex Argentoratensis, in which this work was found. This codex was a collection of writings of Justin the Philosopher. In the 16th century the text was published it as the work of Justin, whereas the codex burned in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War at the moment of the siege of Strasbourg.

The epistle lacks any chronology, but this is probably the 1st half of the 2nd century, since Christianity is still a new religion here. Against the early (mid to late 1st century) origin of this work one adduces the argument that there is a sharp criticism of Jewish worship.

The epistle is addressed to Diognetus, a certain Gentile, who asks a number of questions about Christians and the nature of Christian worship:

“I see, most excellent Diognetus, your strong desire to know the Christian worship of God. You carefully inquire of Christians, in which God they trust and what service they render to Him? What inspires them all to despise the world itself and not to fear death? Why do they not acknowledge the gods revered by Hellenes and do not worship the Jewish religion? Where does the love they have for one another come from?”

And the author gives the answers to these questions in relation to the Christian teaching. To begin with, the author distinguishes Christianity from all other religious beliefs of that time and critiques them. Paganism is criticised for its idolatry and man-made idols made of corruptible materials: stone, copper, iron and clay. It is stressed that these materials are not sacred, since they may have already been used to make other things, including lowly needs. All these things are made by craftsmen and can be converted into other things. Besides, these precious images of gods need their keepers so that they are not stolen, and they themselves thus show their powerlessness.

The author makes it clear that the worship of Christians is a supernatural and divine matter, not a fiction or human tradition. What follows is a text that could be defined as a hymn to Christianity:

“Christians are not distinguished from other men by their country, language, or worldly customs. They do not have a special town or city, do not use a special vocabulary and lead a life indistinguishable from that of others. … They live in their fatherland, but as strangers; they participate in everything as citizens, and tolerate everything as strangers. For them every foreign country is a fatherland, and every fatherland is a foreign country. They marry like everyone else, they bear children, only they do not abandon them. … They are on earth, but are citizens of heaven (see Phil. 3:18-20). They obey the laws, but by their lives they surpass the laws themselves. They love all and are persecuted by all. … They are dishonoured, but they are thereby glorified (1 Cor. 4:10); they are slandered, and they are proved righteous; they are reviled, and they are blessed (1 Cor. 4:12)… The Jews arm themselves against them as against foreigners, and the Hellenes persecute them, but their enemies cannot tell why they hate them”.

The author stresses the exclusivity of Christianity, according to which God the Father does not send anyone to save mankind, but His Son Himself, the Creator of this world and of man. The author points to the attributes of God that were revealed in the Saviour’s first coming, such as kindness, gentleness and love. Another attribute, justice, will be revealed in the Second Coming and the Last Judgment.

The author stresses the importance of human freedom of choice, which God does not infringe upon, but on the contrary, protects.

With regard to Divine Revelation, the author, in contrast to Justin the Philosopher, for example, stresses the utter newness of Christianity (at least for the Gentiles) in the sense of true knowledge of God. Its inaccessibility to the pagans before Christ’s return was demonstrated by the fact that pagan philosophers took water or air or something else corruptible as God. God demonstrated not only love, but also longsuffering. Why did God not manifest Himself earlier in human history, but only now? The answer to this question is that God waited until mankind had a real desire for God and had lost faith in their own ability to know God alone, without the help of God Himself and His Revelation. And when mankind came to this state, God himself appeared on earth in the person of Jesus Christ.

Salvation for Christians lies in the imitation of God. The main attribute of God to be imitated is divine love and goodness:

“Marvel not that man may be an imitator of God. He can, if He wills. For it is not the beatitude to have power over others, or to be stronger than the weakest, or to be rich and oppress the lowest, thus no one can imitate God; it is not worthy of His greatness. But he that taketh upon himself the burdens of his neighbour, he that hath excellency in anything doeth good to another inferior himself, he that receives gifts from God distributeeth to the needy, and is made a God to them that receive from his hand; he is an imitator of God.”

And through such imitation of divine virtues, Christians come to know God in themselves from their own virtues.

In the Epistle to Diognetus we also encounter the idea of the mysterious presence of Christ in the hearts of Christians (Ap. Paul: “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me”). That is, if God has revealed Himself in the Incarnation of God, He also reveals Himself to His saints who imitate Him: “The Word was from old, but has appeared in the last time; it has proved to be ancient and is always born again in the hearts of the saints”. The result of a holy life is the inner transformation of man and his enrichment with spiritual gifts.

  • 5.1 Theophilus of Antioch
    • 5.2 Justin the Philosopher
    • 5.3 Melito of Sardis
    • 5.4 “Letter to Diognetus”

The author of this work is unknown to us, and various suppositions have

been made about its authorship. Dramatic is the history of the codex of the 13th century, the Codex Argentoratensis, in which this work was found. This codex was a collection of writings of Justin the Philosopher. In the 16th century the text was published it as the work of Justin, whereas the codex burned in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War at the moment of the siege of Strasbourg.

Early Christian Apologists (2)

Theophilus of Antioch, Justin the Philosopher, Melito of Sardis, “Letter to Diognetus”

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