THEOPHILUS
of ANTIOCH
 (d.c. 178)
 

 

The following introduction is adapted from the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church

THEOPHILUS, (later 2nd cent.), Bishop of Antioch and one of the ‘Christian Apologists’. Of his writings, only his ‘Apology’, in three books addressed to Autolycus, has survived. Its purpose was to set before the pagan world the Christian idea of God and the superiority of the doctrine of Creation over the immoral myths of the Olympian religion. Theophilus developed the doctrine of the Logos a stage further than any of his Christian predecessors, distinguishing between the λόγος ἐνδιάθετος, the intelligence of the Father, and the λόγος προφορικός, the Word brought forth externally in order to create. He is also the first theologian to use the word ‘Triad” (τριάς) of the Godhead. Among his (lost) treatises were writings against Marcion and Hermogenes. F. Loofs endeavoured to show that considerable portions of his work against Marcion were incorporated in Irenaeus’ ‘Treatise Against Heresies’, but his contention has won little support.

The sole MS authority for the ‘Ad Autolycum’ is Cod. Marcianus 496 (11th cent.), all other known MSS being direct descendants. Editio princeps by J. Frisius and C. Gesner (Zurich, 1546). Crit. edns. by M. Marcovich (Patristische Texte und Studien, 44; 1995) and, with Eng. tr., by R. M. Grant (Oxford, 1970). J. P. Migne, PG 6. 1023–168. F. Loofs, Theophilus von Antioch und die anderen theologischen Quellen bei Irenäus (TU 46 (2); 1930). R. Rogers, Theophilus of Antioch (Lanham, Md., 2000). CPG 1 (1983), pp. 53 f. (nos. 1107–9), and Suppl. (1998), p. 12. P. Nautin in DPAC 2 (1984), cols. 3405 f.; Eng. tr. in Encyclopedia of the Early Church, 2 (1992), pp. 831 f.; N. Zeegers in TRE 33 (2002), pp. 368–71, all s.v.

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