Did Melito of Sardis have a Nicene view of God?

This anachronistic question intentionally points to a deeper question: does Melito make similar judgments about God and Christ as Nicaea?

The question is anachronistic because Melito of Sardis (100–180 AD) lived during the 100s, while the Nicene Creed was produced in 325 AD. What I'm really asking is whether Melito of Sardis makes judgments about God and Christ in Scripture in ways akin to the Nicene Creed.

Here, I am applying the distinction David Yeago made in 1994 between judgments and concepts. The concept of homoousia at Nicaea comes from a later time and philosophical context. Yet this concept represents a series of positive and negative judgments about God and Christ found in Scripture.

In particular, the Nicene Creed concludes that the Son is consubstantial with the Father because the Son is begotten of the Father. What is born of God is God—true God from true God. Related to this eternal generation of the Son from the Father is the fact that both fall on the side of being the Creator of heaven and earth. Thus, the Father and Son are what God is—the creator of heaven and earth. The Son is true God from true God because he is the natural born Son of the Father.

I have argued that Irenaeus of Lyon makes similar judgments in his extant writings, demonstrating that he makes Nicene judgments about God and Christ, even if he uses different concepts. I think the same can partially be said about Melito, with some caveats.

First, we do not have a full theological work from Melito. We have a long paschal homily, Peri Pascha, and some fragments. The homily genre does not allow for the comprehensive theological reflection on God and Christ that Irenaeus's writings provide. We must therefore be more cautious in our assessment than we would be with Irenaeus.

That said, I believe Melito parallels Irenaeus in his judgments about God and Christ, which gives him a Nicene-like view of God. Ultimately, Melito, Irenaeus, and Nicaea make judgments about Scripture in accordance with the rule of truth. This is why, at another time, I will argue that the apostles themselves have a Nicene view of God and Christ.

With these caveats stated, here are three ways that Melito's judgments about God and Christ parallel the Nicene Creed.

First, Melito places the Son and Father on the side of the creator, not the creature

Melito explains, "When God in the beginning had made the heaven and earth and all the things in them through his Word [διὰ τοῦ λόγου], he fashioned from the earth man, and gave him a share of his own breath" (PP §47)

Melito replicates the common apostolic distinction that God created through his Word. All things came into being from the Father and through the Son.

For example:

• John 1:3: All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (δι' αὐτοῦ πάντα ἐγένετο)

• 1 Corinthians 8:6: Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. (δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα)

• Colossians 1:16: For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. (δι' αὐτοῦ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα)

• Hebrews 1:2: But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. (δι' οὗ ἐποίησεν τὸν αἰῶνα)

• Psalm 33:6 (LXX 32:6): Through the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. (τῷ λόγῳ τοῦ κυρίου οἱ οὐρανοὶ ἐστερεώθησαν)

When Melito speaks of God creating all things through his Word, he aligns his language with Scripture. He also parallels Irenaeus of Lyon who similarly writes, "He is Father, he is God, the founder, the maker, the creator who made those things by himself (that is, through his Word and his Wisdom)—heaven and earth, the seas, and everything in them" (Against Heresies 2.30.9).

As Melito concludes his homily, he ends with a passage of dense praise for Christ in which he calls him (1) Creator, (2) enfleshed, and (3) eternally working:

"It is he that made heaven and earth from ages past, and fashioned man in the beginning, who is proclaimed through the law and prophets, who was enfleshed upon a virgin, who was hung upon a tree, who was buried in the earth, who was raised from the dead and went up to the heights of heaven, who sits at the Father's right hand, who has power to save every man, through whom the Father did his works from beginning to eternity; he is the Alpha and the Omega; he is beginning and end, beginning inexpressible and end incomprehensible; he is the Christ; he is the king; he is Jesus; he is the captain; he is the Lord; he is the one who rose from the dead; he is the one who sits at the Father's right hand; he carries the Father and is carried by the Father—to him be glory and power for ever. Amen." (PP §104–5)

Importantly, Melito sees the Son and Father as eternally related in the works of the Father that occur through the Son. The Father created through the Son, and this work happened from the beginning (John 1:1–3).

Second, the Son is Son because begotten, the Father is Father because he begets

Melito can say bluntly, "God has been murdered" (PP, §96). Yet he does not conflate the Father and Son as being God without distinction. Earlier, he spoke of the various activities and relations of God and said: "inasmuch as he begets, Father; inasmuch as he is begotten, Son" (PP §8).

Melito thus speaks of the Father and Son being constituted as Father and Son by begetting and being begotten. Admittedly, Melito in his homily Peri Pascha says little about this distinction, and often makes direct statements about Christ's divinity.

This reminds me of the difference between Augustine's homilies and his theological works like De Trinitate. When addressing a general audience, Augustine speaks plainly without the nuanced distinctions of his more technical theological writings. We should not expect Melito to present his fully developed theology of God and Christ in a sermonic setting.

It is worth considering his near contemporary Irenaeus of Lyon who, writing theological works, explains more thoroughly how he understands God and Christ in relation to each other. Irenaeus states, "the Father is God and the Son is God, since He who is born of God is God" (Apostolic Preaching §47). And this matters because "What makes Christ God is "the generation from the most high Father" (Against Heresies 3.19.2). In other words, God the Son is the divine Son because he is begotten.

Two factors suggest that Melito may share Irenaeus's theological position. First, both Irenaeus and Melito were formed in the same apostolic setting. Irenaeus studied with Polycarp in Smyrna, who had listened to John and other apostles. Melito in Sardis was part of the same ecclesial region. John in Revelation addresses letters to both Smyrna (Rev 2:8) and Sardis (Rev 3:1). Other historical evidence suggests a tight-knit community of churches existed in this region during the 100s (e.g., the Letters of Ignatius, writings of Papias, theological similarities among these writers, the paschal emphasis of the Asian churches).

Second, an unknown author in the 200s who denied Christ's divinity remembered both Melito and Irenaeus as sharing a common theology of God and Christ: "For who does know the books of Irenaeus and Melito and rest, which proclaim Christ as God and man?" (Fr 8a). If we accept that at least some fragments attributed to Melito are authentic, we can recognize a close theological association with Irenaeus.

All that said, we cannot fully assess Melito's theology from a homily alone, as preaching rarely allows for dense theological reflection. His brief statement that "inasmuch as he begets, Father; inasmuch as he is begotten, Son" (PP §8) suggests a way of distinguishing Father from Son that aligns with biblical and Nicene language.

The Nicene Creed concludes that the Son is consubstantial with the Father because the Son is begotten of the Father. What is born of God is God—true God from true God.

Third, the Word became flesh, uniting God and man in Christ

"He rose from the dead as God, being by nature God and Man" (PP §8). Melito does not mean Christ became God at the resurrection; but, he means that he rose according to divine power. Elsewhere in Peri Pascha, he declares: "God has been murdered" (PP, §96).

Melito does not mean this figuratively. While Friedrich Nietzsche famously proclaimed, "God is dead, and we have killed him" in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Melito means something quite different. Nietzsche referred to killing God as the moral norm of society; Melito meant we killed God by shedding his blood.

Melito straightforwardly asserts that God died. This statement has led some to wonder if he held a modalist view of God (Hall, 1979: xliii). However, Melito does distinguish the Father from the Son in his writings, and seems to make a statement similar to Paul's in Acts 20:28, where the apostle speaks about the church God "obtained with his own blood."

In sermonic contexts, rhetorical impact often takes precedence over precise theological distinctions. Later, Cyril of Alexandria would make similar statements but qualify them by saying that God the Word from the Father suffered in his own flesh.

In any case, Melito affirms that God became man, and given the homily's context, did so for our salvation.

Newly discovered fragments of Melito's writings provide further insight into his view of the Incarnation. In what may be another homily, Melito writes of the Word: "He put on a body from a virgin because of men, he who is Word with you; and God is Word, and Word is man, and man is with Word" (New Fr. 2).

In the same fragment, Melito ties together Christ's divine and human identity, reinforcing both his divinity and redemptive purpose in the Incarnation:

"And because he was God and is God, little in body and great in soul, despised on earth and glorified in the heavens, scorned by men and magnified by the Father, this is the Man who was sent by the Father to the world because he is God, both Man upon earth and God in heaven, and he is God over all creation. It is he that led you [to the Father . . .]; he makes you believe in him [and] loves you. Now he is the true Christ, and his is the glory for ever." (New fr. 2)

Conclusion

The extant writings of Melito cannot definitively tell us whether he makes the same judgments about God and Christ as the Nicene Fathers. However, the judgments we do find in Melito parallel Nicene affirmations:

• The Father creates through the Son

• The Father and Son are distinguished by their being Father and Son through the implied relations of begetting and being begotten

• The Father and Son are eternal and creators

• The Son became human yet remains God

Due to limited evidence, we cannot say much more. But given how Melito is remembered as an ally of Irenaeus in affirming Christ's divinity, I suspect his other writings (now lost) would parallel Irenaeus's and exhibit more Nicene judgments about God and Christ.

Further reading