Melito of Sardis

Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, a man of the apostolic age and one of John's own disciples, did not only teach the doctrine of the thousand years, but also asserted the apocalypse was written by divine inspiration.

Melito, who flourished next after Justin, wrote a commentary upon this prophecy, and he, being bishop of Sardis, one of the seven churches, could neither be ignorant of their tradition about it nor impose upon them.

Irenaeus, who was contemporary with Melito, wrote much upon it, and said that the number six, six, six was in all the ancient and approved copies, and that he had it also confirmed to him by those who had seen John face to face, meaning no doubt his master Polycarp for one.

At the same time Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, asserted it, and so did Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Origen soon after.

And their contemporary, Hippolytus the Martyr, metropolitan of the Arabians, wrote a commentary upon it.

Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, a man of the apostolic age and one of John's own disciples, did not only teach the doctrine of the thousand years, but also asserted the apocalypse was written by divine inspiration.

Melito, who flourished next after Justin, wrote a commentary upon this prophecy, and he, being bishop of Sardis, one of the seven churches, could neither be ignorant of their tradition about it nor impose upon them.

Irenaeus, who was contemporary with Melito, wrote much upon it, and said that the number 666 was in all the ancient and approved copies, and that he had it also confirmed to him by those who had seen John face to face, meaning no doubt his master Polycarp for one.

At the same time Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, asserted it, and so did Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Origen soon after.

And their contemporary, Hippolytus the Martyr, metropolitan of the Arabians, wrote a commentary upon it.

Pointing to a few threads of evidence, scholars like Joan Taylor argue that this location was known prior to Constantine.

For example, writing in the middle of the second century, the Christian bishop Melito of Sardis mentions that Jesus was killed in the middle of Jerusalem, in the middle of the street.

Although Melito might just be using poetic language here, it could indicate that the author was aware of a local tradition that recognized a location within the second century walls as the site of the crucifixion.

Another possible clue was discovered in the basement of the church.

But what's surprising is that many other ancient Christians argued the exact opposite.

Melito of Sardis told Marcus Aurelius in the 2nd century that Christian belief bloomed among your people in the time of Augustus.

And Paulus Orsius argued that Augustus was literally an agent of God's will.

They thought that Rome's political revolution of turning from a republic to an empire... was the necessary precursor to Christianity's sacred revolution.

We find people from late antiquity onwards, in fact, actually from the second century onwards, crediting Augustus with creating the space into which Christianity would emerge.

That was really interesting.

You have quotes from people like Melito of Sardis.

He's telling Marcus Aurelius that Christianity bloomed in the time of Augustus because the imagery in later books like Revelation, where figures like Nero are painted as a destroyer, that Augustus has talked positively.

Luther's Bible still has the Apocrypha in them, but he's not going to use them to establish doctrine.

And this goes all the way back, you can go back to Melito of Sardis and some others who are coming up with canon lists, but really I would say the controversy comes to a head with Jerome, and Jerome is the first person who's going to translate the Bible into the Latin and creates the Vulgate, right? Okay, he wants to create Scripture in the common tongue, which is Latin at the time.

And what Jerome does is he separates out the Apocrypha and says, these are not Holy Scripture, these are other writings.

Augustine disagrees with Jerome.

Um, their, the-

the-There's a very long, uh, tradition, even amongst the Christians, uh, s- found in, in Jerome, in Origen, Melito of Sardis, uh, recognizing that the apocryphal books were not canon scripture.

Well, there you go.

Wasn't laid up in the temple.