HistoricalChristian.Faith

Methodius of Olympus on the Old Testament Canon

Dates: c. 290 AD (Methodius of Olympus, also called Methodius of Patara or Eubulius; a Greek bishop and theologian of Asia Minor, an early critic of Origen whose chief surviving work, the Banquet of the Ten Virgins (Symposium), was composed c. 290; reckoned a martyr under the Diocletianic persecution, d. c. 311) · Wikipedia
Summary: A turn-of-the-fourth-century Greek bishop — pointedly not of Origen’s party — twice handles a disputed book as Scripture. In his Banquet of the Ten Virgins he introduces Wisdom of Solomon 3:16 with the bare formula “the Scripture which says”; and (on a work of contested authenticity) the Oration on Simeon and Anna strings Sirach 16:6 under “as it is written” alongside a Psalm. He compiles no canon-list, so he renders no canon-verdict; but his practice puts a second Greek witness, independent of the Alexandrian school, on the “using” side of the divide — a datapoint between Dionysius and Lactantius, on the eve of Nicaea.

Claims & evidence

He cites the Wisdom of Solomon (3:16) as “the Scripture”

And that you may not take refuge behind a safe wall, bringing forward the Scripture which says, “As for the children of the adulterers, they shall not come to their perfection,”…

— The Banquet of the Ten Virgins, Discourse II (Theophila), ch. 3, in the Ante-Nicene Fathers translation, source.¹ The quoted words — “As for the children of the adulterers, they shall not come to their perfection” — are Wisdom of Solomon 3:16, a deuterocanonical text. Methodius (here in the mouth of his interlocutor Marcella) introduces it with the unqualified label “the Scripture which says” — the same formula he and his contemporaries reserve for the protocanon — and presses it as an authority that must be reckoned with in the debate over the divine ordering of every birth. The use is firmly attested: the Banquet is Methodius’s undisputed major work.

He strings Sirach (16:6) under “as it is written,” beside a Psalm

Now smoke is a sign and sure evidence of wrath; as it is written, There went up a smoke in His anger, and fire from His countenance devoured; and in another place, Amongst the disobedient people shall the fire burn…

— Oration on Simeon and Anna, §12, in the Ante-Nicene Fathers translation, source.² The single formula “as it is written” governs two quotations set in parallel: “There went up a smoke in His anger, and fire from His countenance devoured” is Psalm 18:8 (17:9 LXX), and the clause joined to it “in another place,” “Amongst the disobedient people shall the fire burn,” is Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 16:6 — the deuterocanonical wisdom book ranged under the very heading of written Scripture, on the same footing as the Psalm beside it.

Notes

• The Sirach citation rests on a work of contested authenticity. The Oration on Simeon and Anna is transmitted under Methodius’s name but is widely regarded as of doubtful authenticity — possibly a later homily ascribed to him. The witness it supplies is therefore softer than the Banquet’s: if genuine, it is a second Methodian instance of a disputed book read as Scripture; if not, it is at least an early Greek homilist handling Sirach as “written.” The Wisdom citation in the Banquet, by contrast, carries the full weight of an undisputed work.
• An anti-Origenist Greek witness. Methodius is notable precisely because he wrote against Origen on the resurrection and the pre-existence of souls. His easy use of the deuterocanon as Scripture is thus independent of the Alexandrian catechetical tradition that produced Dionysius — the “using” practice was not confined to one school but was the common Greek instinct, even among Origen’s critics.
• Use, not a canon-list. Like Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Hippolytus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Dionysius, and Lactantius, Methodius nowhere enumerates the Old-Testament books, so he renders no canon-verdict. He bears on the canon question as a witness to late-third-century Greek practice — the datapoint weighed in the argument “Did the early church reject the deuterocanon…?” (assessed contested), against the flat claim that the primitive church did not reckon these books Scripture.

Sources