The Great Cloud of Witnesses · The Martyrs' Church
Theophilus of Antioch
died c. 185Early Church
The bishop of Antioch who is the first writer known to have used the word Trinity for God.
Summary
- Lived died c. 185.
- Stood in The Martyrs' Church (AD 100–313).
- Hangs on The Fathers.
- Tradition: Early Church.
The life
Theophilus was the sixth bishop of Antioch in Syria, serving roughly from 169 to the early 180s. Antioch was the third city of the empire and the place where the disciples were first called Christians, and by his time the church there was old enough to count its bishops back to the apostles.
He says he was born near the Tigris and Euphrates, raised a pagan, and converted by reading the Scriptures. He describes the moment plainly: he had thought the prophets were fables until he read them, and then he found that they had spoken of things before they happened, and he believed.
One work of his survives, in three books, addressed to a cultured pagan friend named Autolycus who had asked to be shown this God of yours. It is called To Autolycus, and it is an argument, a rebuke, and an invitation at once.
The first book answers the demand for a demonstration. Show me your God, Autolycus had said. Theophilus answers: show me your man, show me the human being inside you, and then I will show you my God, because a rusted mirror shows nothing and a clouded soul sees nothing. God is known by what he does, as the soul is known by what the body does, and as the pilot of a ship is known by the ship's course.
The second book takes apart the Greek myths and then walks through the opening chapters of Genesis at length. It is here, discussing the first three days of creation before the sun and moon were made, that Theophilus writes that those days are types of the trias, the triad, of God, and his Word, and his Wisdom. That is the first known use of the word Trinity, in any language, for the Christian God. It is a passing phrase in a commentary, not a formula; the formula came later, in Latin, from Tertullian.
The third book argues chronology. Theophilus reckoned the years from creation to his own day against Greek and Roman records to show that Moses was older than any Greek writer, and that the Christian faith rests on the oldest documents in the world rather than the newest religion in it.
Eusebius and Jerome mention other works of his, against Marcion, against the heretic Hermogenes, catechetical writings, and commentaries, all lost.
He died about 185. What survives is one book to one skeptical friend, and a single word that the whole church took up.
Sources: Theophilus, To Autolycus (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2); Eusebius, Church History IV.20, IV.24; Jerome, On Illustrious Men 25; Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 2.
What was happening while he lived4 moments · AD 100–313
- c. 112Pliny writes to Trajan for instructionsPliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia-Pontus, had already been executing Christians and wrote to ask the emperor whether he was doing it correctly. His letter (*Letters* 10.96) says they met before dawn on a fixed day, sang "a hymn to Christ as to a god," and bound themselves by oath not to steal, cheat, or commit adultery. Trajan answered that Christians must not be hunted down, but must be punished if properly accused and unwilling to recant.
- c. 155Polycarp of Smyrna is burned in the stadiumThe old bishop had been a disciple of the apostle John. When the governor told him to curse Christ and go free, the account written by his own congregation records his answer: "Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?" The traditional date is 155 or 156; some scholars argue for as late as 167.
- c. 165Justin Martyr is beheaded at RomeThe philosopher who had written open letters defending Christians to two emperors was tried by the city prefect Rusticus with six companions. The court record survives as the *Acts of Justin*. Asked what teachings he held, he explained them; asked to sacrifice, he refused, and the group was scourged and beheaded.
- 177The martyrs of Lyons and VienneMob violence in Gaul turned into arrests, torture, and days in the amphitheater. The churches there wrote an account that Eusebius preserved (*Church History* 5.1). Two names stayed: Pothinus, the bishop, over ninety years old, who died in prison, and Blandina, a slave woman whose owners feared she would break first and who outlasted them all.
Go further
Read them yourself. Public-domain works are free to read in full; the rest open where the book can be found.
Search Theophilus of Antioch at the Internet Archive · every work MannaFest cites
Why this one hangs here
The first writer we know of who used the word Trinity for God.
Hangs on The Fathers: The men who carried the faith out of the apostles' hands, and wrote down what they had received.
Standing beside himThe Martyrs' Church · 40 on this stretch of wall
A 22-year-old mother who kept a diary in prison and walked into the arena at Carthage singing.
Stayed with his people through plague and persecution, then walked to his own beheading and paid the executioner.
Traced his teaching straight back to the apostle John through Polycarp, and wrote the first great takedown of the gnostics.
Kept wearing his philosopher's cloak after he met Christ, argued the faith to the emperor's face, and was beheaded for it.
Wanted to die with his martyred father as a boy, and spent the rest of his life laying six versions of the Old Testament side by side.
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The lawyer who gave the church the word Trinity and told Rome that the blood of the martyrs is seed.