St Theophilus of Antioch

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St Theophilus of Antioch SAINT OF THE DAY 13-10-2020 St Theophilus of Antioch (c. 120-185) was brought up as a pagan, but a thorough reading of the Holy Scriptures encouraged his conversion. He made a great contribution to Christian apologetics. Of his numerous writings, referred to by Eusebius of Caesarea and St Jerome (who included Theophilus in his On Illustrious Men), we have received the three books To Autolycus. These are dedicated to a pagan friend who denigrated the Christian faith and to whom Theophilus explained how God was knowable by reason from all that He created. “Just as the soul of man is not visible, escaping human sight, but is perceived by observing the movements of the body, so God too cannot be seen with human eyes, but is seen and understood through His Providence and His works”. In an original style rich in similes, Theophilus argues clearly how sin embedded in the heart prevents man from understanding God: “Man must keep his soul pure like a clear mirror. When rust settles on a mirror, the image of man cannot be reflected in it; thus, when sin takes root in man's soul, he cannot have the vision of God”. The second book dedicated to his friend Autolycus is the oldest book that has come down to us in which the term Trinity appears, which Theophilus defines as “God, His Word and Wisdom” and sees an image of Him already in the account of the first three days of Creation. Some of his insights into the Trinitarian mystery were then taken up and developed by other Christian authors, while other, vaguer ones, were not followed up. In 169 he became bishop of Antioch, whose Church had been founded by St Peter. He was zealous in fighting heresies. Eusebius informs us that St Theophilus wrote a treatise against the heresy of Hermogenes and “an eminent work” against Marcion. The latter was a heretic who produced a doctrine that needed to eliminate the whole of the Old Testament and to cut out the many passages of the New Testament that proved the link between the two Testaments and which, therefore, did not fit in with his ideas. A heresy that has undergone various mutations over the centuries, without ever disappearing..

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VERY EARLY TRINITARIAN EXPRESSIONS Stuart E
Tyndale Bulletin 65.1 (2014) 141–152 VERY EARLY TRINITARIAN EXPRESSIONS Stuart E. Parsons Summary While older scholarship identified the earliest use of Trinitarian terminology near the end of the second century in the work of Theophilus of Antioch, some recent studies have challenged this view. However, while affirming certain insights of these newer studies, it is necessary to revisit them in light of the historical setting of the second- century apologists. In reality, Theophilus and other early apologists evidenced a certain implicit Trinitarianism by affirming unity, distinction, eternal pre-existence and economic subordination in the Godhead. Studies of early Trinitarian terminology must look beyond explicit descriptions of the Godhead. They must consider also broad patterns of implicit Trinitarianism. 1. Introduction Older concepts of the Trinitarianism of the second-century apologist, Theophilus of Antioch, have been challenged of late. This is significant, since he has often been considered the first Christian to use Trinitarian terminology.1 These older concepts assert that when Theophilus writes that God, his Logos, and his Sophia are types of a triad (τριάς), he is making the earliest terminological reference (c. 180) to the Trinity.2 J. N. D. Kelly represents this older perspective when he 1 For example, E. Venables, ‘Theophilus (4)’ in Dictionary of Christian Biography (London: Murray, 1911; repr., Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994): 982. 2 Theophilus, Autol., 2.15. On the date of Ad Autolycum, Harnack estimates c. AD 180 as an upper limit for the final letter, since the last emperor it lists is Marcus Aurelius who died in that year. While Erbes argues for a third-century date, claiming that Theophilus did not intend to record recent historical events but only important ones, this is not borne out by the amount of trivial historical information included, nor by his argument about history.
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