Methodius of Olympus

Steven Avery

Steven Avery

Administrator
Methodius of Olympus (d. 311)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methodius_of_Olympus

Any mention in Berriman, Henderson, Burgon ?
The English edition below says first published in 1869.

Oration on Simeon and Anna
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0627.htm
https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf06.xi.viii.html
https://books.google.com/books?id=H8XpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA187
with commentary
https://christiandefense.org/oneness/the-trinity-and-the-early-church-debunking-the-oneness-myth/

Methodius of Olympus (c. A.D. 305)
Writing in the very early fourth century, Methodius’s work was widely read and highly valued. Jerome refers to him several times as does Epiphanius, Gregory Nyssen, Andrew of Caesarea, Eustathius of Antioch, and Theodoret. He is definitive as to his doctrine and, of course, extraordinarily Trinitarian in his view of God:


For the kingdom of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is one, even as their substance is one and their dominion one. From wich huch Whence also, with one and the same adoration, we worship the one Deity in three Persons, subsisting without beginning, uncreated, without end, and to which there is no successor. For neither will the Father ever cease to be the Father, nor again the Son to be the Son and King, nor the Holy Ghost to be what in substance and personality He is. For nothing of the Trinity will suffer diminution, either in respect of eternity, or of communion, or of sovereignty (Oration on the Psalms, 5).

The Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, explains Methodius, were in divine accordance in purpose and will, being inseparable:

Whence also in this place they are not only said to hymn with their praises the divine substance of the divine unity, but also the glory to be adored by all of that one of the sacred Trinity, which now, by the appearance of God in the flesh, hath even lighted upon earth. They say: “The whole earth is full of His glory.” For we believe that, together with the Son, who was made man for our sake, according to the good pleasure of His will, was also present the Father, who is inseparable from Him as to His divine nature, and also the Spirit, who is of one and the same essence with Him (Oration concerning Simon and Anna on the Day that they met in the Temple, 2).
 
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Steven Avery

Steven Avery

Administrator
Brian Winter said:
I don't believe so. I see nothing in Henderson or Berriman, and Burgon cites Methodius only a couple times, or three, but not in this verse.
Click to expand...

Yes, he has the 1 Tim stuff almost all p. 424-501.

So this is a pretty solid allusion, early, that has slipped under the radar. I just ran into because I was looking for the same phrase on that commentary page for Lactantius.
 
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Brianrw

Member
Good find. I have this in my notes too, it's marked with a note that there's some question as to the author. I don't think it much affects the date, however. We should try and find the Greek text for it to verify the verbiage...
 
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Brianrw

Member

Additional Reference​

Same work, chapter 4: "But He refers likewise to that concourse of angels, which hath now come to meet us, by the divine and ever adorable manifestation of the Saviour Himself in the flesh, although He in His very nature cannot be beheld by us, as Isaiah has even before declared. But when He says, "As the years draw nigh, thou shalt be recognised," He means, as has been said, before, that glorious recognition of our Saviour, God in the flesh, who is otherwise invisible to mortal eye." I'd still like to check the Greek if I can find it.
 
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