Saint Theophilus of Antioch

A convert who became a bishop

Theophilus is one of those early pastors whom the Church venerated as saints without any canonical process being necessary: his episcopate, his fight for the faith and his liturgical memory sufficed to fix his cult. He succeeds Eros on the see of Antioch, and he governs that Church for about fifteen years, around 169-183^[7][8]. Saint Jerome and Eusebius number him among the first successors of the apostles on that see^[9][10].

The details of his private life escape us almost entirely, as with many saints of the early centuries. What we know of him comes from his own books and from the notices devoted to him by Eusebius of Caesarea and Saint Jerome^[11][12]. Theophilus nowhere mentions his office in his extant writings: it is the tradition of the Church of Antioch that identified him as its bishop^[13].

Conversion through Scripture

The prologue of To Autolycus recounts the author's conversion with remarkable simplicity. Theophilus was a pagan. Reading the Holy Scriptures, especially the prophets, he discovered the truth of the Christian faith and let himself be converted^[14][15]. This path of conversion is typical of the apologists of the second century: they are not first of all witnesses of miracles, but readers of the Bible who find in the Old Testament the announcement of Christ.

A dialogue written for a cultured pagan

The only work of Theophilus to have reached us is To Autolycus (Trois livres à Autolycus), a series of three books addressed to a cultured pagan friend named Autolycus^[16][17][18]. The project is apologetic: to show that the Christian faith is reasonable, ancient, rooted in history and in the Scriptures, and superior to idolatry.

Unlike other apologists who lean heavily on Greek philosophy, Theophilus draws his arguments almost entirely from the Old Testament^[19]. The prophetic books, the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Proverbs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Hosea form the heart of his demonstration. He also cites the New Testament: the Sermon on the Mount, the epistles of Paul (Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, the Pastoral letters), and the opening of the Gospel according to Saint John^[20][21].

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” : Gospel according to Saint John, 1:1 (liturgical translation)^[22]

The first Christian use of the word “Trinity”

Theophilus's most famous contribution to theology is the earliest extant Christian use of the word “Trinity” (in Greek trias). In book II, chapter 15, he comments on the first three days of Genesis, before the creation of the luminaries, and he sees in them the figure (typos) of the Trinity: God, his Word (Logos) and his Wisdom (Sophia)^[23][24][25].

This is not yet the later Trinitarian formula (Father, Son and Holy Spirit): Theophilus names God, his Word and his Wisdom. But the structure is indeed that of the Trinitarian mystery: one God, and in him personal relations that are not creatures. The word trias seems to have been in use before Theophilus; it is he who left the earliest extant Christian attestation of it^[26]. Later, Tertullian would introduce the Latin term trinitas^[27].

This theology is rooted in the reading of Scripture. Theophilus identifies the Logos as the Son of God, the Word through whom the Father created all things^[28][29]. As the article Gospel according to Saint John shows, the evangelist John opens his account with this mystery of the Word; Theophilus, along with the other apologists, is among the first to meditate on it for the Church.

Quoting John while naming the evangelist

A notable fact places Theophilus at the heart of second-century biblical studies: in To Autolycus II, 22, he quotes the opening of the Gospel according to John (1:1-3) and he names the evangelist^[30][31]. This is the earliest extant testimony of such a quotation with attribution. The Ignispedia article Lazarus of Bethany has already noted it: “Earliest extant author to quote John 1:1 while naming the Evangelist, around 180”^[32].

Theophilus does not name Jesus in this passage; he uses the title of Word of God, who is also his Son^[33]. The Christology is already clear: the Word through whom all things were created is the Son, and he is God.

A bishop facing heresies

The Church of Antioch, in the second century, is one of the greatest in the Christian world: a crossroads of missions, cultures and controversies. Theophilus succeeds Eros there around 169, and he exercises a pastoral charge marked by doctrinal combat^[34]. Eusebius of Caesarea praises his zeal against heretics, especially against Marcion^[35][36].

Besides To Autolycus, Theophilus composed several works now lost, whose titles are known to us from Eusebius and Jerome: a treatise against the heresy of Hermogenes, a treatise against Marcion, catechetical writings, and commentaries on the Gospel and on Proverbs^[37][38][39]. Jerome judged these commentaries stylistically inconsistent; they have not survived^[40].

A witness of the Antiochene tradition

Theophilus stands in the line of the great pastors of Antioch, between the apostolic times and the peace of the Church. The article Saint Ignatius of Antioch tells of the martyrdom of the first of these bishops whose letters we possess; the article Saint Polycarp of Smyrna and the article Saint Irenaeus of Lyons show how the same faith is handed on, in the same century, from the East to Gaul. Theophilus is one of its links: a pastor who writes to convert, to catechize and to defend.

In book III of To Autolycus, Theophilus sets out a chronology from the foundation of the world, from Adam to Marcus Aurelius^[41][42]. He places the creation of the world around 5529 BC and gives a total of 5,698 years down to his own time (III, 28)^[43].

This dating places him among the holders of the short chronology, that is, on the order of a few thousand years since the creation of Adam. As the Ignispedia article Bible recalls, the Church has not settled the exact figure for the age of the world: what belongs to faith is that the universe has a beginning and that it is created out of nothing^[44]. Theophilus's chronology is a traditional witness among others (Eusebius, Saint Augustine, Saint Bede), not a dogma^[45]. For the modern debate on the six thousand years, one may also consult the article Is the World Only 6,000 Years Old?.

A Father of the Church venerated from antiquity

Theophilus is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, in Orthodoxy and in the Eastern Churches^[46]. He is ranked among the Fathers of the Church and the apologists of the second century. His feast is set on 13 October^[47].

Tradition places his death around 181-185; Nominis indicates the year 181, the received infobox 18 October 183, and modern criticism proposes a range between 183 and 185^[48][49]. The Roman Martyrology celebrates him on 13 October and presents him as the bishop of Antioch who composed a book to defend the faith against Marcion^[50].

A work handed down by copyists

To Autolycus has reached us through the Greek transmission, edited notably by Migne (Patrologia Graeca, t. VI), by von Otto (Corpus apologetarum christianorum saeculi secundi, 1861) and, in French, in Sources Chrétiennes no. 20 (Cerf, Paris, 1948)^[51][52]. It is this last edition that Ignispedia already cites in its articles on the Christian origins^[53].

The historical importance of Theophilus is considerable: he bears witness to the Christology of the years 170-180, to the reading of John in the Church of Antioch, to the use of the word Trinity before Tertullian, and to the apologetic defense of the faith faced with paganism and heresies.

Saint Theophilus of Antioch is depicted as a bishop of the early centuries, often bearded, vested in the chasuble or the Eastern pallium, sometimes with a book (his To Autolycus or the Scriptures). Ancient engravings, like the woodcut of the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493), show him as a bishop in half-length; the engraved portrait by William Cave (1637-1713), in his collection on the Fathers of the Church, is one of the most widely circulated images of him^[54].

The frescoes and stained glass that show him alongside the other Fathers of Antioch recall his place in the apostolic succession of that Church, one of the oldest in the Christian world.

The feast of Saint Theophilus of Antioch is set on 13 October^[55]. This is the date retained by the Ignispedia calendar (saints of 13 October), where Theophilus is celebrated alongside Saint Gerald of Aurillac and Saint Edward the Confessor.

A faith that lets itself be taught by Scripture

The first lesson of Theophilus is that of a conversion through reading. A pagan becomes a Christian, then a bishop, because he read the prophets and the Psalms. To ask Saint Theophilus is to ask for a heart docile to the Word of God, able to meditate on it until it receives the faith.

The clarity of the Trinitarian mystery

The second lesson is clarity within the mystery. Theophilus does not invent the Trinitarian doctrine: he names it, with the words of his time, in order to hand it on. In an age when theological language is still seeking itself, he knew how to speak of God, his Word and his Wisdom without confusing the persons or dividing the substance. He is a precious intercessor for all who seek to speak of the faith with precision.

“For all things were created through him and for him.” : Epistle to the Colossians, 1:16 (liturgical translation)^[56]

An apologist for our time

Finally, Theophilus is the natural patron of those who defend the faith before culture. He wrote for a cultured friend, not for a closed circle; he followed the method of Scripture, not that of empty rhetoric. In a world rediscovering the questions of creation, of time and of the mystery of God, his voice as an apologist remains current.

• Gospel according to Saint John: the prologue (1:1-3) that Theophilus is the first to quote while naming the evangelist.
• Saint Ignatius of Antioch: the martyr bishop of Antioch of the preceding century.
• Saint Irenaeus of Lyons: the great doctor of the same period, against the Gnostics.
• Saint Justin Martyr: the other great apologist of the second century.
• Lazarus of Bethany: where Theophilus's quotation of John 1:1 is already noted.
• Bible: the tradition of the short chronology, to which Theophilus contributes.
• Saint Gerald of Aurillac: the other saint of 13 October, a Christian lord of the tenth century.