The Textual Tradition of Theophilus of Antioch by Robert M

THE TEXTUAL TRADITION OF THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH BY ROBERT M. GRANT This paper is a prolegomenon to a translation of Theophilus with a commentary, which is to appear in the new series Corpus Apologetarum, edited by the editors-in-chief of Vigiliae Christianae and the author. It is intended to discuss two problems: (1) the traditions in which Theophilus' work was transmitted, and (2) the text provided by the oldest manuscript. I Theophilus completed his treatise Ad Autolycum during the reign of Commodus, for in III 27 he employs a chronographical work which ends with the death of Marcus Aurelius. This fact does not imply that the first two books cannot have circulated separately at an earlier date, or that the materials used in those books (especially in the second book) cannot have been derived from or used in other treatises such as his lost work against Marcion. When we find later writers apparently making use of the first book or the first two books we cannot be certain that they know the third, and when they apparently employ materials derived from the second book they may be using the treatise against Marcion, for the second book has many anti-Marcionite statements in it. The work of Theophilus was known both in the west and in the east. In the west it was used in Africa, at Rome and in Gaul. At Carthage the books Ad Autolycum were known to Tertullian, who certainly used them in his A pologeticum, written in 197. We find Theophilean materials especially in the Fuldensian version of chapter 19. Traces of Theophilus are also to be found in the second book Adversus Marcionem 1, and the peculiar Genesis text of his work Adversus Hermogenem corresponds with that of 147 Theophilus and proves that he used the latter's lost work against Hermogenes 2. A later trace of Theophilus in Africa is probably provided by the apologist Lactantius, who mentions Theophilus' book De temporibus a Autolycum and makes use of the second and third books 3. The only other Christian writers Lactantius knows are the Africans Minucius Felix, Tertullian, and Cyprian, and he came from Africa himself. Another line of western tradition passes through Rome. Irenaeus of Lyons, who wrote Adversus haereses about 185, seems to have known either the first two books Ad Autolycum or the treatise against Marcion ?. It is much more probable that Irenaeus found these books at Rome, the center of anti-Marcionite activity, than that he encountered them at Lyons or elsewhere in Gaul. Moreover, we know that at least the first book was available at Rome in the third century, when Novatian imitated Ad Autolycum 1, 3 in his De trinitate 2. As late as the fifth century all three books were available in Gaul, for Gennadius of Marseilles, a leader in the revival of Hellenism 5, says that he has read "three books concerning faith" under the name of Theophilus of Alexandria; they are quite different in style from the Alexandrian's other works 6. The comment of "Theophilus" on God's division of light from darkness, cited by Paulus Diaconus in the eighth century 7, actually comes from Augustine. The eastern tradition provides a considerably greater amount of evidence. At Antioch itself the treatise may have been known to Paul of Samosata and to the council which condemned him in 268, although absolute proof of such knowledge cannot be provided 8. At a later date we find use of Theophilus in the little geographical treatise called Expositio totius mundi 9. This treatise .

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