Pantaenus

FRAGMENTA.

SOME FEW FRAGMENTS OF PANTÆNUS, THE ALEXANDRIAN PHILOSOPHER, ILLUSTRIOUS AFTER THE MIDDLE OF THE SECOND CENTURY

I. These exist in the *Eclogues from the Prophets*, which were perhaps written by Theodotus and collected by Clement of Alexandria (6) or some other person, § 56, p. 1002, ed. Potter, Works of S. Clem. Al.

"He set his tabernacle in the sun" (Ps. xix, 4). Some, therefore, say that the Savior placed His own body in the sun, as Hermogenes does. But regarding the "body," some say it is His tabernacle, others that it is the Church of the faithful. But our Pantænus said that the prophets utter their words indefinitely for the most part, and that they use the present tense for the future, and again the present tense for the past.

^A When he had related that Julian was made bishop of Alexandria in the first year of Commodus, he subjoins in chapter 10: "At that time there presided over the school of the faithful there a man most distinguished for his learning, whose name was Pantænus." FABRICIUS. Commodus began his reign after his father in the year 180, Severus in 193, Caracalla with his father Severus in 198, but after his father in 211.

(6) Clement of Alex. In his *Hypotyposes*, a work now long lost, we know that he commemorated Pantænus as his teacher, and that interpretations of Holy Scripture and traditions were brought forward in the same place. For Eusebius shows this in book 6 of his *History*, chapter 13: "Equal to these" (Eusebius had mentioned before, eight books of Clement's *Stromata*) "are those accounts of his inscribed *Hypotyposes*, in which he mentions by name Pantænus as a teacher, and writes down his interpretations and sets forth his traditions."

(7) But our Pantænus said. Regarding this sentiment of Pantænus (it is said in Dupin's *Bibliotheca of Ecclesiastical Authors*, vol. I, p. 119, Latin ed.), "mention is made in Theodotus as if it were uttered by him, not written." But in truth Cave, in *Literary History*, under that name, thinks these were taken from the books of Pantænus, no differently than Halloix does, yet not *κατὰ λέξιν* [word for word]. And Lardner wishes these to have pertained to a certain commentary of Pantænus on the nineteenth Psalm, since he judges that all things which follow in Theodotus are the work of Pantænus himself. But while Dupin, in the place cited above, only assigns to him the canon established for interpreting Holy Scripture, he handles this matter more correctly, for the words placed just below, *ὃ καὶ νῦν φαίνεται* [which also now appears] and what follows, seem to pertain more to the eclogist than to Pantænus. But Hermogenes, who is commemorated here as the arch-heretic, against whom Theophilus of Antioch, Origen, Tertullian, and others wrote, Halloix noted in *Vies des Pères Orientaux*, vol. II, p. 851, where he also shows that Theodoret deals with him in *Haer. Fab.*, book I, cap. 19, where that opinion of Hermogenes concerning the body of Christ being placed in the sun is recounted. Which opinion, indeed, being brought forward in this Eclogues portion in hardly Greek speech, owes its origin to the East.

Moreover, Anastasius Sinaita, in two places ^B brought forward in his *Fragments of Papias*, see pp. 15 and 16, commemorated Pantænus together with other writers who understood the entire work of the six days, that is the *Hexaemeron*, and paradise, as referring to Christ and the Church; and that from there Pantænus wrote a book on the Hexaemeron, Halloix gathered for himself, but less firmly, I think. Finally, Maximus, in the preface ascribed to the Works of S. Dionysius the Areopagite, made mention of the writings of Pantænus, p. 36. See the place above in the notes to S. Apollinaris, p. 156. ^C From this, therefore, it is clear that Pantænus established this canon for understanding prophecies, which is most useful and plainly necessary, which all interpreters of Holy Scripture use today: namely, that words are for the most part set down in the prophets indefinitely—that is, sometimes the present for the future, the future for the past, the past for the future, and so on regarding others. For the prophets in that full light of revealed truth beheld all things, however much to happen long after, as clearly and lucidly as if they had them before their eyes, and they were already happening, or had already been done. HALLOIX.

(8) *ἀορίστως τὴν προφητείαν ἐκφέρειν*. Potter says: "It seemed to Sylburgius that it ought to be read in reverse order, *τῷ παρωχηκότι ἀντὶ τοῦ ἐνεστῶτος* [past for present]; the following words certainly hint at that." But that, in my opinion, one can scarcely gather from the following words of the eclogist, where only those prior things of Pantænus: *ἀορίστως τὴν προφητείαν ἐκφέρειν λέξεις* [to utter the prophecies indefinitely as to words], if I am not mistaken, are looked at. Furthermore, Didymus says that the "present for the past" is accustomed to be used, in the *Work* concerning the Trinity, book I, cap. 3, p. 542, first edited at Bologna not so long ago: "For the Holy Spirit, who is all-seeing and powerful, is accustomed to foretell: for this, because some things about to happen as if they had already happened, and this, others that have happened as if they were still happening, or about to be." But here is omitted that of Pantænus: "To use the present tense for the future," whereas on the contrary it is added by Didymus that a style of speaking according to the idiom of the Hebrew language is sufficiently obvious among the prophets, by which past for future are put. Which likewise Tertullian commemorated in these words, an equal of Pantænus, in *adv. Marcion.*, book III, cap. 5: "Future things are sometimes announced as if already transacted; for it belongs to the Divinity, whatever He has decreed, to consider as perfect, because there is no difference of time with Him, for with Him eternity itself directs the uniform state of time. And it is more familiar to prophetic divination, that what it foresees, while it foresees it, it demonstrates as already seen and thus already done, that is, in every way as future; just as through Isaiah: 'I gave my back to stripes, and my cheeks to palms, and my face I turned not away from spittings.'" Finally, the same... ^D

^A Dionysius, the holy Areopagite, teaches us that these reasons which I have mentioned are called by divine Scripture "predestinations" and "divine wills." Similarly, those around Pantænus—who became the teacher of the great Clement of the Stromata—say that in Scripture they are called "divine wills." Hence, when asked by certain men who are proud in their extrinsic erudition how Christians suppose that God knows the things that are, to those who assume that He knows things intelligible through the intellect and things sensible through the senses, we answer (for they were responding), "He does not know sensible things in a sensible manner, nor intelligible things in an intelligible manner. For it is not possible," as reason shows, "for Him who is above the things that are to comprehend the things that are through the things that are; but we say that He knows the things that are as His own wills." We add also for this reason the argument: if He made all things by will, and no reason contradicts this, then to say that God knows ^B His own will is always pious and just; and since He made each of the things that were made by willing it, therefore God knows the things that are as His own wills, since He made the things that are by willing them. From this, indeed, I myself suppose that Scripture has spoken of these reasons as: "I have known," etc.

^C ...has passed. "Which also now appears." For "He set" is used both for the past and for the future. For the future: "Because, this period of the present state having been fulfilled, the Lord will come, and the just—that is, the faithful, in whom He rests as in a tabernacle (for all are one body, of the same kind, having received the same faith and justice)—will be restored into the same unity. But some, indeed, as head; others, as eyes; these, indeed, as ears; others, as hands; these, finally, as chests; others, indeed, as feet, will be placed in the sun, shining." ...from this, I myself suppose, "But as His own wills," "Unerrant ^D contemplations from harmonious study concerning divine things," etc.

RHODON: NOTICE

Rhodon, an Asian by birth, instructed in the Scriptures at Rome by Tatian, of whom we spoke above, published many things; and his chief work is against Marcion, in which he reports how even the Marcionites themselves differ among themselves; and how Apelles, an old man and another heretic, was once convicted by him and held up to ridicule because he said he did not know the God whom he worshipped. He mentions in the same book, which he wrote to Callistio, that he had been a hearer of Tatian at Rome. But he also composed elegant treatises on the Hexaemeron, and a distinguished work against the Phrygians (1); and he flourished in the times of Commodus and Severus.

(1) Jerome is of the opinion that Rhodon is the author of the three books against the Montanists, which are extant in Eusebius, [bk. V, ch. 16 and 17]. Thus also below, ch. 39.