The Synod of Jerusalem (a. 400) in the Anti-Origenist “Letter Dossier” of Jerome

Origeniana Duodecima: Origen's Legacy in the Holy Land–A Tale of Three Cities: Jerusalem, Caesarea and Bethlehem

Jerusalem, 28. Juni 2017

While the role of Theophil of Alexandria in the so called First Origenist Controversy has been intensively investigated (cf. recently by K. Banev, Theophilus of Alexandria and the First Origenist Controversy. Rhetoric and Power, Oxford, 2015), the position of the Palaestinian episcopate (above all, John of Jerusalem) has so far been rather underexposed. In my presentation I should therefore like to analyse the letter of the synod of Jerusalem in 400 (transmitted only by Jerome, ep. 93) and the dissent of bishop Dionysius of Lydda (ep. 94). My special interest is with the context of transmission of these two letters in a dossier of several letters in connection with the First Origenistic Controversy, which was compiled by Jerome (ep. 63, 86, 89, 91, 87, 88, 51, 95, 90, 92, 96, 93, 94), and its “Sitz im Leben”.