Adolf von Harnack and Arthur Cushman McGiffert

“ Both men with their families became zealous Christians. The historian’s grandfather became within his own circle a highly esteemed interpreter of Scripture, and held fast his profession even in the time of Julian. The descendants of the wealthy Alaphion founded churches and convents in the district, and were particularly active in promoting monasticism. Sozomen himself had conversed with one of these, a very old man. He tells us that he was brought up under monkish influences and his history bears him out. ”

“ He was diligent in the cure of souls, labouring hard and successfully for the conversion of the numerous Gnostic communities and other heretical sects which still maintained a footing within the diocese. He himself claims to have brought more than a thousand Marcionites within the pale of the church, and to have destroyed many copies of the Diatessaron of Tatian, which were still in ecclesiastical use; and he also exerted himself to improve the diocese, which was at once large and poor, by building bridges and aqueducts, beautifying the town, and by similar works. ”

“ It is painful, therefore, to find him in his subsequent Epitome classing Nestorius as a heretic, and speaking of him with the utmost hostility. Some of Theodoret's dogmatic works are no longer extant: of his five books Περὶ ἐνανθρωπήσεως, for example, directed against Cyril after the council of Ephesus, we now possess fragments merely. A good deal of what passes under his name has been wrongly attributed to him. ”

“ Among the apologetico-dogmatic works of Theodoret must be reckoned his ten discourses Πepi πpovoias.
Theodoret gives a valuable exposition of his own dogmatic in the fifth book of his Airetxgs kaxouv0iag eπitog, already referred to. [1] This, the latest of his works in the domain of church history (it was written after 451) , is a source of great though not of primary importance for the history of the old heresies. ”

“ As a man he retained the impressions of his youth, and his great work was to be also a monument of his reverence for the monks in general and for the disciples of Hilarion in particular. After studying law in Beirut he settled down as an advocate in Constantinople, where he wrote his Εκκλησιαστική Ἱστορία about the year 440. ”

“ A flattering and bombastic dedication to Theodosius II. is prefixed. When compared with the history of the ecclesiastical historian Socrates (q.v.) , it is plainly seen to be a plagiarism from that work, and that on a large scale. ”

“ Moller, art. “Theodoret,” in Herzog-Hauck’s Realencykl.; Venables’s article in Smith and Wace's Dict. of Christian Biography; also Bardenhewer's Patrologie, p. 345 ff. On the sources of Theodoret’s church history see Jeep, Quellenuntersuchungen z. d. Griech. Kirchenhistorikern (Leipzig, 1884) ; and especially Güldenpenning, Die Kirchengesch. des Theodoret von Kyrrhos (Halle, 1889) . (A. Ha.; A. C. McG.)
↑ Roman Catholic writers vary greatly in their estimate of Theodoret’s christology and of his general orthodoxy. ”