Commenting
on the (non-creedal Trinitarian) Christology of Melito of Sardis, Johannes
Quasten (Catholic) wrote:
The conception of the divinity and
preexistence of Christ dominates Melito's entire theology. He calls him: θεος,
λογος, πατηρ, υιος, πρωτοτοκος του θεου, δεσποτης, ο βασιλευς Ισραηλ, υμων
βασιλευς. The title 'Father' for Christ is unusual. It occurs in an important
passage describing the various functions of Christ:
For born as a son, and led forth as a lamb,
sacrificed as a sheep, buried as a man, he rose from the dead as God, being y
nature God and man. Who is all things: in that he judges, Law, in that he
teaches, Word, in that he saves, Grace, in that he begets, Father, in that he
is begotten, Son, in that he suffers, the sacrificial sheep, in that he is
buried, Man, in that he arises, God. This is Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the
glory to the ages of ages (8-10 Bonner).
The complete identification of Christ with the
Godhead itself could be interpreted in favor of the monarchian modalism of a
later period. If that were the case it would explain the neglect and eventual
loss of Melito's works. Johannes Quasten, Patrology,
Volume 1: The Beginnings of Patristic Literature from the Apostles Creed to
Irenaeus [Allen, Tex.: Christian Classics], 244)
Such honesty
is a contrast to many Trinitarian apologists like James White who abuse Melito
of Sardis to support (creedal) Trinitarianism from having an early pedigree.
For more, see, for e.g., Was Melito of Sardis a Proto-Trinitarian? (cf. Melito of Sardis, On Pascha 82; A Triad of Early Christians Against the Trinity Being an Apostolic Belief)
