Letter 96: A translation by Jerome of Theophilus's paschal letter for the year 401 A.D. In it Theophilus refutes at length the heresies of Apollinaris and Origen. About this page Source.
The Paschal Letter of Theophilus for the Year 401
(Translated from the Greek by Jerome)
[Summary: In this paschal letter Theophilus refutes at length the heresies of Apollinaris and Origen, showing that both ultimately destroy the truth of the Incarnation — Apollinaris by denying that Christ took a fully human mind, Origen by treating the body as a prison and the soul as pre-existent. Both errors, Theophilus argues, flow from the same Greek philosophical source: the assumption that matter and embodiment are inherently degrading to the divine. Against this, the paschal mystery stands as the definitive answer — the God who takes on flesh, dies, and rises in that same flesh has sanctified the body and destroyed the pretensions of those who despise it.]
Human translation - New Advent (NPNF / ANF series)
Latin / Greek Original
Original text not yet available in this corpus.
This letter still needs a Latin or Greek source-text backfill. The source link, when available, is preserved so the text can be checked and added later.
View sourceRevision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from New Advent / NPNF.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001096.htm
Related Letters
A translation by Jerome of Theophilus's paschal letter for the year 402 A.D. Like that of the previous year (Letter XCVI.) it deals mainly with the heresies of Apollinarius and Origen. About this page Source.
1. Never since I began to write to you, and to long for your writing in return, have I met with a better opportunity for our exchanging communications than now, when my letter is to be carried to you by a most faithful servant and minister of God, who is also a very dear friend of mine, namely, our son Cyprian, deacon. Through him I expect to re...
1. I thank you that, instead of a mere formal salutation, you wrote me a letter, though it was much shorter than I would desire to have from you; since nothing that comes from you is tedious, however much time it may demand. Wherefore, although I am beset with great anxieties about the affairs of others, and that, too, in regard to secular matte...
This letter is extant also among those of Procopius of Gaza, to whose works it properly belongs. As this Procopius flourished a century later than Jerome, the letter cannot be addressed to him. About this page Source.
1. I have heard that my letter has come to your hand. I have not yet received a reply, but I do not on this account question your affection; doubtless something has hitherto prevented you.