Titus of Bostra
Encyclopedia
Titus of Bostra (died c.378) was a Christian theologian and bishop. Sozomen
names Titus among the great men of the time of Constantius
.
. Julian wrote to Titus, as bishop of Bostra that he would hold him and the clergy responsible for any disorder after the re-establishment of paganism
. Titus replied that though the Christians were equal in number to the pagans they would obey him and keep quiet. Julian then wrote to the Bostrians urging them to expel Titus because he had calumniated them by attributing their quiet conduct not to their own good dispositions but to his influence. Titus remained bishop at Bostra until c. 371.
According to Socrates Titus was one of the bishops who signed the Synodal Letter, addressed to Jovian by the Council of Antioch (363), in which the Nicene Creed
was accepted, though with a clause "intended somewhat to weaken and semiarianize the expression homoousios".
. Hanson's evidence is based on Titus of Bostra's teaching that the immortal souls of the dead would be purified in purgatory
till all were saved:
, cii, he speaks of his "mighty" (fortes) books against the Manichaean and nonnulla alia. He places his death under Valens
. Of the nonnulla alia only fragments of exegetical writings have survived. These show that Titus followed the Antiochene School of Scripture exegesis in keeping to the literal as opposed to the allegorical interpretation. The Contra Manichæos is the most important work of the kind that has come down to us, of value is because of the number of quotations it contains from Manichaean writers. In one passage Titus seems to favour Origen
's view that the pains of the damned are not eternal. The work consists of four books of which the fourth and the greater part of the third are only extant in a Syriac translation.
The Greek and Syriac texts of the Contra Manichæos were published by Paul de Lagarde
(Berlin, 1859). Earlier editions of the Greek text suffer from an insertion from a work of Serapion owing to the misplacement of a leaf in the original codex. For this. and other writings attributed to Titus see Migne
and Gallandi. The genuine exegetical fragments of this commentary were published by Sickenberger in Texte u. Untersuchen, VI, i (new series). Bardenhewer-Shahan, Patrology (St. Louis, 1908), 270-1.
Sozomen
Salminius Hermias Sozomenus was a historian of the Christian church.-Family and Home:He was born around 400 in Bethelia, a small town near Gaza, into a wealthy Christian family of Palestine....
names Titus among the great men of the time of Constantius
Constantius II
Constantius II , was Roman Emperor from 337 to 361. The second son of Constantine I and Fausta, he ascended to the throne with his brothers Constantine II and Constans upon their father's death....
.
Life
Sozomen also tells of a trick played upon Titus by Julian the ApostateJulian the Apostate
Julian "the Apostate" , commonly known as Julian, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer....
. Julian wrote to Titus, as bishop of Bostra that he would hold him and the clergy responsible for any disorder after the re-establishment of paganism
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
. Titus replied that though the Christians were equal in number to the pagans they would obey him and keep quiet. Julian then wrote to the Bostrians urging them to expel Titus because he had calumniated them by attributing their quiet conduct not to their own good dispositions but to his influence. Titus remained bishop at Bostra until c. 371.
According to Socrates Titus was one of the bishops who signed the Synodal Letter, addressed to Jovian by the Council of Antioch (363), in which the Nicene Creed
Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed is the creed or profession of faith that is most widely used in Christian liturgy. It is called Nicene because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Nicaea by the first ecumenical council, which met there in the year 325.The Nicene Creed has been normative to the...
was accepted, though with a clause "intended somewhat to weaken and semiarianize the expression homoousios".
Universal reconciliation
Titus of Bostra is one of various early church writers claimed as an early Universalist by J. W. Hanson (1899) of the Universalist Church of AmericaUniversalist Church of America
The Universalist Church of America was a Christian Universalist religious denomination in the United States . Known from 1866 as the Universalist General Convention, the name was changed to the Universalist Church of America in 1942...
. Hanson's evidence is based on Titus of Bostra's teaching that the immortal souls of the dead would be purified in purgatory
Purgatory
Purgatory is the condition or process of purification or temporary punishment in which, it is believed, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven...
till all were saved:
Works
St. Jerome names Titus among writers whose secular erudition is as marvellous as their knowledge of Scripture; in his De Viris IllustribusDe Viris Illustribus (Jerome)
De viris illustribus is a collection of short biographies of 135 authors, written in Latin, by the 4th century Latin Church Father Jerome. He completed this work at Bethlehem in 392-3 CE. The work consists of a prologue plus 135 chapters, each consisting of a brief biography. Jerome himself is...
, cii, he speaks of his "mighty" (fortes) books against the Manichaean and nonnulla alia. He places his death under Valens
Valens
Valens was the Eastern Roman Emperor from 364 to 378. He was given the eastern half of the empire by his brother Valentinian I after the latter's accession to the throne...
. Of the nonnulla alia only fragments of exegetical writings have survived. These show that Titus followed the Antiochene School of Scripture exegesis in keeping to the literal as opposed to the allegorical interpretation. The Contra Manichæos is the most important work of the kind that has come down to us, of value is because of the number of quotations it contains from Manichaean writers. In one passage Titus seems to favour Origen
Origen
Origen , or Origen Adamantius, 184/5–253/4, was an early Christian Alexandrian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished writers of the early Church. As early as the fourth century, his orthodoxy was suspect, in part because he believed in the pre-existence of souls...
's view that the pains of the damned are not eternal. The work consists of four books of which the fourth and the greater part of the third are only extant in a Syriac translation.
The Greek and Syriac texts of the Contra Manichæos were published by Paul de Lagarde
Paul de Lagarde
Paul Anton de Lagarde was a polymath German biblical scholar and orientalist. He also took some part in politics. He belonged to the Prussian Conservative party, and was a violent antisemite. The bitterness which he felt appeared in his writings...
(Berlin, 1859). Earlier editions of the Greek text suffer from an insertion from a work of Serapion owing to the misplacement of a leaf in the original codex. For this. and other writings attributed to Titus see Migne
Migné
Migné is a commune in the Indre department in central France.-References:*...
and Gallandi. The genuine exegetical fragments of this commentary were published by Sickenberger in Texte u. Untersuchen, VI, i (new series). Bardenhewer-Shahan, Patrology (St. Louis, 1908), 270-1.
Further reading
- P. G. Walsh, James Walsh (1985), Divine Providence and Human Suffering, p. 53 et seq.
- Nils Arne Pedersen (2004), Demonstrative proof in defence of God. A study of Titus of Bostra's Contra Manichaeos - The work's sources, aims and relation to its contemporary theology