Who is theophilus of antioch

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He wrote a defense and explanation of Christianity called To Autolycus. It's quite long, and it covers a lot of what Christianity was to the early church. Like other long writings, there's no surprises in it. All the early Christian writers say the same things about what the apostles taught.

Theophilus is actually the first person to use a word that means "Trinity. For the sun is a type of God, and the moon of man.

And as the sun far surpasses the moon in power and glory, so far does God surpass man. And as the sun remains ever full, never becoming less, so does God always abide perfect, being full of all power, and understanding, and wisdom, and immortality, and all good.

But the moon wanes monthly, and in a manner dies, being a type of man; then it is born again, and is crescent, for a pattern of the future resurrection. In like manner also the three days which were before the luminaries, are types of the Trinity, of God, and His Word, and His wisdom. To Autolycus II Theophilus also calculated the amount of time from Adam to his day, based on the birth dates in the Old Testament.

He came up with 5, years through A. This is somewhat different from the dates we would calculate because he, like all other 2nd century Christian writers and some NT writers , used the Septuagint , a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Some of the birth dates are off by years between the Masoretic and Septuagint texts. Seth, for example, was born when Adam was years old in the LXX, rather than as in the Masoretic text.

His dates create quite an interesting prophecy, though, since Rome fell in A. Return to Early Christianity. Home Contact Me. Privacy Policy. Free Bible study lessons. These are not for the faint of heart, but they teach the Bible without compromising, without excuses, and for disciples. Paul Pavao has written three full-length books and three booklets.

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Delivered monthly. According to his 'apology to Autolycus' he was apparently born to pagan parents, about the year He became a convert to Christianity after he had studied the Holy Scriptures.

Eusebius and Jerome , among others, noted that Theophilus wrote a number of works against the heresies that prevailed in his day. Jerome also credited Theophilus with the works Commentaries on the Gospels and on the Book of Proverbs. The only work of his that has come down to us, however, is the Apologia ad Autolycum , in three volumes that apparently were written at different times.

This work is addressed to his friend Autolycus as a rebuttal apparently of disparaging comments about Christianity by Autolycus.

In his Apologia, we have the first direct reference to the Trinity in a manner that its use is not new. Please consider supporting OrthodoxWiki. From OrthodoxWiki.