Paul Of Samosata

▪ bishop of Antioch

flourished 3rd century

      heretical bishop of Antioch in Syria and proponent of a kind of dynamic monarchian doctrine on the nature of Jesus Christ (see Monarchianism). The only indisputably contemporary document concerning him is a letter written by his ecclesiastical opponents, according to which he was a worldly cleric of humble origin who became bishop of Antioch in 260.

      Paul held that it was a man who was born of Mary, through whom God spoke his Word (Logos). Jesus was a man who became divine, rather than God become man. A similar speculative Christology was found among the primitive Ebionites of Judaea; in Theodotus and Artemon of Rome (both of whom were excommunicated); and perhaps in other early Christian writers (and suggested by phrases in the New Testament, such as Acts 2:36). The biblical scholar Lucian of Antioch and his school were influenced by Paul. The 7th-century Paulicians of Armenia may have claimed to continue his traditions, hence their name.

      Between 263 and 268 at least three church councils were held at Antioch to debate Paul's orthodoxy. The third condemned his doctrine and deposed him. But Paul enjoyed the patronage of Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, to whom Antioch was then subject, and it was not until late in 272, when the emperor Aurelian defeated Zenobia and brought Antioch under Roman imperial rule again, that the actual deposition was carried out.

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