1. rd
3 Century
Doctrine from Schismatics
quot;I know only one God, Jesus
Christ, and apart from Him no other
who was born or could suffer⌠It
was not the Father who died but the
Son.â â Bishop Zephyrinus or Rome
2. Hermeneutics
Alexandria Antioch
Allegorical Literal
â˘Plain, Historical â˘Plain
Sense United the Two
â˘Typological Sense Testaments
â˘Spiritual Sense â˘Typological
Only for the History was Godâs
Spiritual plan unfolding
3. School at Alexandria
Pantaenus (d. ca. 200)
Established catechetical school in 180
Former Stoic philosopher who converted
Sought to reconcile faith and philosophy
Pressed for the conversion of philosophers to Christianity
No works remain, only quotes by Clement and later historians.
Went to India as a missionary preacher
4. Clement of Alexandria
150-211/216
â˘Divided Christians into two categories
â˘Simple â unlearned, uneducated, physical
â˘Relied on faith and a literal meaning
â˘Gnostic â educated, spiritual, mystic
â˘Sought âdeeperâ meanings
â˘Must seek philosophical understanding of the bible
â˘Referred to Plato as divine, nearly inspired
â˘Taught Christian universalism
â˘Doctrine later declared erroneous by Rome (1748)
â˘Doctrine of God, Logos and Sprit
â˘God is unchangeable (impassible)
â˘Logos and Spirit are created beings
â˘Divided the Logos-Son from the Logos within God
â˘Made the Logos-Son a creature
â˘Christ gave gnosis as the cure to sin
5. Origen
Excepted Clementâs division of Christians and universalism
Taught that even demons would be reunited with God
Platonic in thinking that the spirits imprisoned in the body will be
purified by fire
Sought symbolic truths in every letter of the Scriptures
Used the exegesis of Heracleon (Valentinus) on John
Believed that the word of God was an organic Logos
Taught a hierarchal structure of the Trinity
Taught three separate hypostases
One only in harmony of wills (symphonia)
God was a perfect unity
God is unknowable, transcendent
Logos was one of many emanations of the Father
Borrowed Platoâs Logos as rational principle
The Son is divine, only as He participates in the Father
An image of first rank
Spirit proceeds from the Son
Has power in the Saints alone
Divine, but not Deity.
First Textual Critic for New Testament and Septuagint
Believed that some of the Pauline Corpus was pseudonymous
6. Schism in Rome
199-235
â˘Zephyrinus, Bishop of Rome, 199-217
â˘Recognized by Rome as carrying the Tradition of the Church
â˘Believed in the unity of the Godhead and the Godhead of Jesus
Christ
â˘Believed in one God, Jesus Christ
â˘Denied Patripassianism in that the Son died, not the Father
â˘Regarded the rising Logos doctrine as ditheism
â˘Protected Sabellius
â˘His actual views were recorded by opponents
â˘Believed that God revealed Himself in different
modes, or manifestations
â˘Modern Scholarship aligns Sabellius with Irenaeus
â˘God was one Person
â˘Sabellianism lasted until 5th century in Rome and Asia Minor
7. â˘Hippolytus, Schismatic âAntipopeâ
â˘Wrote against Noetus as means to Zephyrinus
â˘Believed that the Father died because the Son was the Father
â˘Called Christ the one God
â˘Smyrna Church condemned Noetus in 180
â˘Noetusâ disciple, Cleomenes, influenced Zephyrinus
â˘Declared Heraclitus as the progenitor of all heresies
â˘Doctrine of the Godhead
â˘Three personages
â˘The Father
â˘First writer to apply parental rule to Father
â˘Son
â˘Preincarnate Word
â˘Incarnate Son
â˘Spirit
â˘Reconciled with Rome before his death in 236
8. Montanism
â˘Montanism
â˘Began early 2nd Century
â˘Founded in Hierapolis (Papias)
â˘Focused on the holy Spirit
â˘Spirit was just now being given to the Church
â˘Montanus claimed to be the Word of God
â˘Claimed new revelations
â˘The belief that the prophecies of the
Montanists superseded and fulfilled the
doctrines proclaimed by the Apostles
â˘Died out in 8th century
â˘Sect of Sabellian-Montantists existed in 5th
century Rome
9. Schism from Africa
â˘Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus (Tertullian)
â˘Orthodox until 200 then Montanist (Schism)
â˘Never reconciled with Rome
â˘Not mentioned in Nicene Debates
â˘Had a strong distaste of Greek Philosophy
â˘Introduced new theology into the church during Montanist phase
â˘Trinity
â˘tres Personae, una Substantia
â˘Damasus, Bishop of Rome (366-384) redefined statement to
reflect Nicene formula
â˘Consubstantia (One Person)
â˘God is indivisible, distinct only in manifestation
â˘Word (Reason) was always with the Father
â˘Generation from Eternity
â˘Preincarnate Word
â˘Incarnate Son
â˘Spirit proceeded from the Son
10. â˘Praxeas
â˘Unknown
â˘Believed to be associated with Rome
â˘Some Scholars believe him to be Irenaeus
others Callistus, Bishop of Rome
â˘Name found as a corrector of Noetus
â˘Opposed by Tertullian
â˘Prevented Rome from falling to the âNew
Prophecy.â
â˘Christ was the Father incarnate, Jesus died only
in His humanity as the Son
â˘Jesus was the name of the flesh; Christ was
the divine
11. Tertullianâs Formula
quot;tres Personae, una Substantiaâ â Three Persons, One Substance
Latin Greek
Substantia Hypostasis
(Person) (Person)
Personae Prosopon
(Face) (Face)
For the Father is the entire substantia, but the Son is a
derivation and portion of the whole. Against Praxeas 9
12. Cyprian of Carthage
â˘Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage
â˘Defended against Romeâs ascendency to
power
â˘Accused Stephen of breaking tradition
and assuming power
â˘Fault against Roman Baptism
â˘Rome baptized in the Name of
Jesus Christ
â˘Believed that the Church was one single
unit
â˘No Salvation outside the church
â˘Church united through the Bishops
â˘Refused Doctrinal Development
13. Dyo-Dionysius
Dionysius of Rome ,Grecian by birth, was Pope Dionysius of Alexandria, named
elected bishop in 259, after the martyrdom of 'the Great', was the Pope of
Sixtus II in 258. The office had been vacant Alexandria from 248 until his death on
for nearly a year due to difficulty in electing a November 17, 265 after seventeen
new bishop during the violent persecution years as a bishop. He was the first
which Christians faced. When the persecution Pope to have the title quot;the Greatquot;
had begun to subside, Dionysius was raised to attached to his name (before a Bishop
the office of Bishop of Rome. Emperor of Rome even). We have information
Valerian I, who had led the persecution, was on Dionysius because during his
captured and killed by the King of Persia in lifetime, Dionysius wrote many
260. The new emperor, Gallienus, issued an correspondence letters. Only one
edict of toleration, bringing the persecution original letter survives to this day, the
of Christians to an end and giving the Church remaining letters are found re-written
legal status. On the protest of some of the in the works of Eusebius.
faithful at Alexandria, he demanded from the
bishop of Alexandria, also called
Dionysius, explanations concerning his
doctrine regarding the relation of God to the
Logos, which was satisfied.
14. D. Of Rome to D. of Alexandria
â˘âNext, I may reasonably turn to those who divide and cut to pieces and
destroy that most sacred doctrine of the Church of God, the Divine
Monarchy, making it as it were three powers and separated substances
(hypostaseis) and three deities. I am told that some among you who are
catechists and teachers of the Divine Word, take the lead in this
tenet, who are diametrically opposed, so to speak, to Sabelliusâs
opinions; for he blasphemously says that the Son is the Father, and the
Father the Son, but they in some sort preach three Gods, as dividing the
sacred Monad into three substances (hypostaseis) foreign to each other
and utterly separate.
â˘For it is the doctrine of the presumptuous Marcion, to sever and divide
the Divine Monarchy into three origins,âa devilâs teaching, not that of
Christâs true disciples and lovers of the Saviourâs lessons.
â˘For if He came to be Son, once He was not; but He was always, if (that
is) He be in the Father, as He says Himself, and if the Christ be Word and
Wisdom and Power (which, as ye know, divine Scripture says), and these
attributes be powers of God.
â˘Neither then may we divide into three Godheads the wonderful and
divine Monad
15. Paul of Samosata
â˘Paul of Samosata (200-275)
â˘Godhead
â˘Jesus was a mere man, but became God
after baptism
â˘Man-become-God by the Logos
â˘Removed in 269 by a synod of Antioch
â˘Reinstalled by the Queen of Syria