Introduction to This Volume

How this book is arranged

This is the fourteenth volume of a series that gathers the writings of the early Church in order of date, from the generation after the apostles down to the eighth century. This volume holds Dionysius of Alexandria, Gregory Thaumaturgus, Methodius and the Writers of the Later Third Century, from the period about AD 250 – 311.

Within each work the text is divided into chapters and numbered sections, so that any passage can be found again and cited. The small bold figures in the text are the section numbers.

The translations

The text is in English only. Wherever a modern English version has been prepared for SermonIndex it is used here; otherwise the book prints an older public-domain translation. In both cases the wording is the translator’s own: older translations have not been altered beyond dividing them into sections. The sources for every work are listed at the back of the book, together with the licence under which each text is released. The modern English version prepared for SermonIndex is used for Fragments: Against Porphyry, On Created Things, On Job, On Martyrs (Methodius of Olympus); the other works are printed in older public-domain translations.

In this volume

Dionysius was a pupil of Origen and bishop of Alexandria from about AD 247 until his death in AD 264. Little of what he wrote survives whole, but his letters and fragments record the persecutions under Decius and Valerian, the dispute over rebaptism, and his discussion of the authorship of Revelation.

Gregory, called Thaumaturgus, the Wonderworker, was a pupil of Origen and later bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus. His Panegyric on Origen gives a rare first-hand account of how Origen taught.

Theognostus taught in Alexandria in the later third century and wrote the Hypotyposes, or Outlines, of which only fragments remain.

Pierus was a presbyter and teacher at Alexandria in the later third century.

Theonas was bishop of Alexandria in the last decades of the third century.

Anatolius came from Alexandria, was known for his learning in mathematics and philosophy, and became bishop of Laodicea in Syria. He is remembered for his work on the date of Easter.

Phileas was bishop of Thmuis in Egypt and was put to death in the persecution of AD 306.

Malchion was a priest of Antioch and a teacher of rhetoric who debated Paul of Samosata at the council of Antioch in AD 268.

Alexander of Lycopolis was a philosopher in the Platonist tradition who wrote a short work against the teaching of Mani, about AD 300.

The Derision of Gentile Philosophers is a short satire on the disagreements of the Greek philosophers. Its author is otherwise unknown and its date is uncertain.

The Syriac documents of Edessa gather legends and records of the church in that city, among them the story of King Abgar and the teaching of Addai, and the acts of its early martyrs. They are a mixture of history and tradition, and the introduction to each states what is known of it.

Victorinus was bishop of Pettau in Pannonia and died as a martyr about AD 304. His commentary on Revelation is the earliest in Latin.

Pamphilus was a presbyter and scholar at Caesarea in Palestine, the friend and teacher of Eusebius. He was martyred in AD 309.

Methodius was a bishop in Asia Minor and a martyr, who died about AD 311. His Banquet of the Ten Virgins is a dialogue in praise of virginity, and several of his other works take issue with parts of Origen’s teaching.

The Banquet of the Ten Virgins is a dialogue in praise of virginity made up of eleven discourses. The fourth discourse is not in the text used for this book, so the sequence passes from the third to the fifth.

Dates and authorship

Dates are approximate and are debated by scholars. Each work begins with a short introduction that states what is known about its author and its date, and what is uncertain.