Epiphanius of Salamis in the context of "Nicene Creed"

⭐ In the context of the Nicene Creed, Epiphanius of Salamis is considered…

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⭐ Core Definition: Epiphanius of Salamis

Epiphanius of Salamis (Ancient Greek: Ἐπιφάνιος; c. 310–320 – 403) was the bishop of Salamis, Cyprus, at the end of the 4th century. He is considered a saint and a Church Father by the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic Churches, and some Presbyterians. He gained a reputation as a strong defender of orthodoxy. He is best known for composing the Panarion, a compendium of eighty heresies, which included also pagan religions and philosophical systems. There has been much controversy over how many of the quotations attributed to him by the Byzantine Iconoclasts were actually by him. Regardless of this, he was clearly strongly against some contemporary uses of images in the church.

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👉 Epiphanius of Salamis in the context of Nicene Creed

The Nicene Creed, also called the Creed of Constantinople, is the defining statement of belief of Nicene Christianity and in those Christian denominations that adhere to it.

The original Nicene Creed was first adopted at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. According to the traditional view, forwarded by the Council of Chalcedon of 451, the Creed was amended in 381 by the First Council of Constantinople as "consonant to the holy and great Synod of Nice." However, many scholars comment on these ancient Councils, saying "there is a failure of evidence" for this position since no one between the years of 381–451 thought of it in this light. Further, a creed "almost identical in form" was used as early as 374 by St. Epiphanius of Salamis. Nonetheless, the amended form is presently referred to as the Nicene Creed or the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed.

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Epiphanius of Salamis in the context of Jewish–Christian gospels

The Jewish–Christian Gospels were gospels of a Jewish Christian character quoted by Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius, Epiphanius, Jerome and probably Didymus the Blind. All five call the gospel they know the "Gospel of the Hebrews", but most modern scholars have concluded that the five early church historians are not quoting the same work. As none of the works survive to this day, attempts have been made to reconstruct them from the references in the Church Fathers. The majority of scholars believe that there existed one gospel in Aramaic/Hebrew and at least two in Greek, although a minority argue that there were only two, in Aramaic/Hebrew and in Greek.

In the standard edition of Schneemelcher, he creates three different Jewish–Christian gospels by dividing up the references in the church fathers. Schneemelcher uses the following working names for the three proposed gospels:

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Epiphanius of Salamis in the context of Ebionites

Ebionites (Ancient Greek: Ἐβιωναῖοι, romanized: Ebiōnaîoi, derived from Hebrew language אֶבְיוֹנִים, ʾEḇyōnīm, meaning 'the poor' or 'poor ones') as a term refers to a nontrinitarian Mosaic Law-observant Jewish-Christian sect that existed in Palestine and Transjordan during the early centuries of the Common Era.

Since historical records by the Ebionites are scarce, fragmentary and disputed, much of what is known or conjectured about them derives from the polemics of their Gentile-Christian opponents, specifically the Church FathersIrenaeus, Origen, Eusebius, and Epiphanius of Salamis—who saw the Ebionites as an unorthodox sect more or less distinct from other Jewish-Christian sects, such as the Nazarenes.

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Epiphanius of Salamis in the context of Junia (New Testament person)

Junia or Junias (Biblical Greek: Ἰουνία/Ἰουνίας, Iounia/Iounias) was a Christian in the first century known from Paul the Apostle's letter to the Romans.

There has been dispute surrounding both Junia's gender and apostolic status, although she has been viewed as female through most of Christian history as well as by the majority of scholars. The precise nature of her apostolic status, however, has been more debated. With the exception of the reference to a masculine "Junias" in the Index Discipulorum, purportedly from Epiphanius of Salamis (fourth century), the first texts regarding Junia as a male named Junias come from 12th century manuscripts and the first named author to describe Junia as a male was Giles of Rome in the 13th century.

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Epiphanius of Salamis in the context of Book of Jubilees

The Book of Jubilees is an ancient Jewish apocryphal text of 50 chapters (1,341 verses), considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, as well as by Haymanot Judaism, a denomination observed by members of the Ethiopian Jewish community. Jubilees is considered one of the pseudepigrapha by the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant churches. Apart from Haymanot, the book is not considered canonical within any of the denominations of Judaism.

It was well known to early Christians, as evidenced by the writings of Epiphanius, Justin Martyr, Origen, Diodorus of Tarsus, Isidore of Alexandria, Isidore of Seville, Eutychius of Alexandria, John Malalas, George Syncellus, and George Kedrenos. The text was also utilized by the community that collected the Dead Sea Scrolls. No complete Hebrew, Greek or Latin version is known to have survived, but the Geʽez version is considered to be an accurate translation of the fragments in Biblical Hebrew found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

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Epiphanius of Salamis in the context of Panarion

In early Christian heresiology, the Panarion (Koine Greek: Πανάριον, derived from Latin panarium, meaning "bread basket"), to which 16th-century Latin translations gave the name Adversus Haereses (Latin: "Against Heresies"), is the most important of the works of Epiphanius of Salamis. It was written in Koine Greek beginning in 374 or 375, and issued about three years later, as a treatise on heresies, with its title referring to the text as a "stock of remedies to offset the poisons of heresy." It treats 80 religious sects, either organized groups or philosophies, from the time of Adam to the latter part of the fourth century, detailing their histories, and rebutting their beliefs. The Panarion is an important source of information on the Jewish–Christian gospels, the Gospel of the Ebionites, and the Gospel of the Hebrews.

The treatise can be considered a sequel to the Ancoratus (374), which takes the form of a letter to the church of Syedra in Pamphylia, describing how the "barque" of the church can counteract the contrary winds of heretical thought, and become "anchored" (ἀγχυρωτός); hence the title of the work; the Ancoratus even outlines the content of the Panarion within its text.

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Epiphanius of Salamis in the context of Gospel of the Ebionites

The Gospel of the Ebionites is the conventional name given by scholars to an apocryphal gospel extant only as seven brief quotations in a heresiology known as the Panarion, by Epiphanius of Salamis; he misidentified it as the "Hebrew" gospel, believing it to be a truncated and modified version of the Gospel of Matthew. The quotations were embedded in a polemic to point out inconsistencies in the beliefs and practices of a Jewish Christian sect known as the Ebionites relative to Nicene orthodoxy.

The surviving fragments derive from a gospel harmony of the Synoptic Gospels, composed in Greek with various expansions and abridgments reflecting the theology of the writer. Distinctive features include the absence of the virgin birth and of the genealogy of Jesus; an Adoptionist Christology, in which Jesus is chosen to be God's Son at the time of his Baptism; the abolition of the Jewish sacrifices by Jesus; and an advocacy of vegetarianism.

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