THE SEMITIC SCHOOL OF CHRISTIAN PATRISTICS

Abstract

The Jewish community of Antioch was not monolithic. Communities of different currents tended to gather separately. Apparently, some of them, having received the news of the coming of the Messiah from the apostles, became the first centers of Christianity in Antioch, providing the basis for the future theological school. Such Semitic features of Antiochian patristics as literalism, historicism, and a kind of mystical materialism provoked criticism from other schools. On the other hand, Aramaic-speaking Christians could rightly call the Hebrew-Aramaic Bible "our Scriptures." As heirs to Old Testament prophets and legislators, Syrian apologists addressed the "Greeks" in a paternal tone. Theophilus of Antioch and Theodore of Mopsuestia even show a direct dependence on the rabbinic tradition of interpretation.