In an attempted response to my piece, Refuting Jeff Durbin on Mormonism, James R. White made reference to Melito of Sardis as supporting Trinitarian Christology. In reality, the opposite of true.
In section 9 of On Pascha, Melito writing c. 190 wrote the following about Jesus:
He is in all things.
He is law, in that he judges.
He is word, in that he teaches.
He is grace, in that he saves.
He is father, in that he begets.
Commenting on this passage, Alistair Stewart-Sykes wrote the following:
Note that Christ himself is described here as father! This is an example of the naïve modalism, or better christocentric monotheism, espoused by Melito. In time, modalism became recognized as heretical because of its inadequacies, but it would be unreasonable to apply such a title to Melito, in whose period the complexities of the Trinitarian relationships had not been discussed. (Melito of Sardis, On Pascha [trans. Alistair Stewart-Sykes; Popular Patristic Series vol. 20; Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001], 39 n. 3)
And Durbin wonders why I would ever accuse White of eisegesis . . .
Update
Update
A friend, Errol Amey, did share the following from another commentator on Melito and his Christology:
"Bonner, the first editor of 'On Pascha,' characterized Melito's Christology as essentially a pneumatic Christology, and more precisely as a 'naive modalism.' In other words Bonner felt that Melito did not make a clear distinction between the persons of the Trinity and thought that Melito believed that Christ was empowered by the Holy Spirit. This was a common idea in the second century, but it is not that of Melito. Melito sees Christ as the Creator clothed in flesh. So at 'On Pascha' 66, 86 it is the Creator who comes down from heaven, and at 'On Pascha' 70 he is enfleshed. 'On Pascha' 47, 66 state that the Lord put on humanity as a garment. Although this is clearly defective by the standards of later centuries, it is orthodox within the context of the second century in that Melito is maintaining the fundamental truths that Jesus Christ was God and that he was flesh. So although Melito's Christology may thus conceivably be described as modalist, this is not a very helpful definition. His Trinitarian theology concentrates on the relationship between the Father and the Son. This is characterized by Hall as 'christocentric monotheism'; by this Hall means that for Melito, Christ is God and God is Christ. There is no real distinction between the Father and the Son, indeed at one point we read that Christ, 'Insofar as he begets, he is father, insofar as he is begotten, he is Son.' Although there has been an attempt to interpret this passage as referring to the sons whom Christ begets in salvation, thinking to rescue Melito from any imputation of heresy, elsewhere we hear that 'he bears the Father and is borne by him.' However strange this may seem to our ears, in the context of the second century this is not heretical."
('Popular Patristics' 55:39-40)
