Epiphanios of Salamis

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Epiphanios of Salamis (fresco in Gračanica Monastery )

Epiphanios of Salamis ( Latin Epiphanius; * around 315 in Besanduk near Eleutheropolis (today: Bet Guvrin, Israel) in Judea ; † April 12, 403 ) was Bishop of Constantia ( Salamis ) in Cyprus .

Life

Epiphanios came from Eleutheropolis ( Bet Guvrin ) in the south of Palestine , where there were individual Jewish communities. Occasionally it was claimed that he was himself of Jewish origin; however, there is no real evidence of this. In his youth he spent some time with early Christian monks in Egypt and, as a young man, founded a monastery near Eleutheropolis in 335 , which he headed for 30 years after his ordination as presbyter by the bishop of Eleutheropolis.

He was elected Bishop of Constantia (Salamis) in Cyprus in 367 and also promoted monasticism there.

Epiphanios saw Origen as the originator of all heresy , especially Arianism , and fought him bitterly “in all languages ​​of the world”, as Rufinus says of him (quoted from BBKL, see web links), because he was Greek, Syriac, Hebrew, Coptic and Latin knowledgeable. Epiphanios became the main author of the first origins dispute . He attended the Synod of Antioch in 378 and then the Synod of Rome in 382 . In 394 he came to Jerusalem and preached in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Church of the Resurrection) against the followers of Origen. In a letter of 394 dealing with Origen's errors, he emphasizes the earthly existence of Paradise , similarly in the Ancoratus . Here he also deals with the geography of the four rivers of Paradise. For example, he equates the Gihon with the Nile . It flows from Paradise through Ethiopia and Egypt and finally flows into the Mediterranean.

The argument with Origen and his followers occupied Epiphanios until his end. In the winter of 402, Theophilus of Alexandria asked Epiphanios to travel to Constantinople because John Chrysostom , Bishop of Constantinople, had given Origen's followers refuge. Epiphanios was supposed to fight the alleged Origenism of John Chrysostom. In this last dispute he was unsuccessful during his lifetime: Epiphanios died the following year at sea on the return journey from Constantinople to Cyprus before Chrysostom was sentenced.

Works

His earliest writing is Ancoratus ("The Anchored") from 374, a polemic against Origen and Arianism. Among his writings, the most important is his Panárion (“medicine cabinet” against the snake bites of heresy, also known as Adversus haereses and mostly quoted as Haereses , written 374–377), a directory of 80 “heretical” teachings, to which Epiphanios, however, in addition to Alogern and Monarchians also reckon non-Christian philosophical and religious currents or parties such as the Stoa or the Sadducees . In 392 he wrote a book in Constantinople on the biblical weights and measures (De mensuris et ponderibus) .

Expenditure:

  • Janus Cornarius . D. Epiphanin Episcopi Constantiae Cypri, Contra octoaginta haereses opus, Panarium, sive Arcula, aut Capsula Medica appellatum, continens libros tres, & tomos sive sectiones nes toto septem. Una cum aliis eiusdem D. Epiphanii operibus… Hergavius ​​& Oporinus, Basel 1560 (digitized version ) ; Hieronymus de Marnef & Guliemum de Cavellat, Paris 1566 (digitized version )
  • Epiphanius: Ancoratus and Panárion. Vol. 1 and 2, ed. v. Karl Holl. Hinrichs, Leipzig 1915/22; Vol. 3, ed. v. Hans Lietzmann. Hinrichs, Leipzig 1933.
  • The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis. Book I. (Sects 1-46) (Nag Hammadi Studies 35). Translated by Frank Williams. Brill, Leiden 1987, ISBN 90-04-07926-2 .
  • The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis. Books II and III (Sects 47-80, De Fide). Translated by Frank Williams. Brill, Leiden 1994, ISBN 90-04-09898-4 .
  • About the twelve stones in the high priest's breastplate (De duodecim gemmis rationalis). Edited from Codex Vaticanus Borgianus Armenus 31 and translated by Felix Albrecht and Arthur Manukyan (Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies 37), Gorgias Press, Piscataway 2014, ISBN 978-1-4632-0279-8 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günter Stemberger : Jews and Christians in late ancient Palestine. Hans-Lietzmann-Vorlesungen, Volume 9, De Gruyter, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019555-2 , p. 10.
  2. ↑ Alessandro Scafi: Mapping Paradise. A History of Heaven on Earth. South Sea International Press, Hong Kong 2006, ISBN 0-7123-4877-8 , p. 40.
predecessor Office successor
Gelassios Archbishop of Cyprus
367–403 		Stavrinos
personal data
SURNAME Epiphanios of Salamis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Epiphanius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bishop of Salamis in Cyprus
DATE OF BIRTH at 315
PLACE OF BIRTH Besanduk near Eleutheropolis , Judea
DATE OF DEATH April 12, 403
Place of death Mediterranean Sea