Methodius of Olympus

Methodius of Olympus died 311 AD. He is considered important in the history of theological literature. He also opposed various views of Origen like the body of those resurrected being a different body.

Besides being a controversial theologian as well as a prolific and polished author we know very little of his work as a bishop or Christian. Chronologically, his works can only be assigned in a general way to the beginning of the 4th century when Constantine was recreating Christianity in a new image.

He does make mention of Athenagoras of Athens but was also not mentioned by Eusebius.

Methodius of Olympus was the first systematic opponent and critic of Origen of Alexandria. Jerome present one of the earliest accounts of him as the Bishop of Olympos in Lycia He was also mentioned as a later Bishop of Tyre. The record shows that Tyrannio and Paulinus were bishops there but no mention of Methodius. He was also influenced by Plato's philosophy, and uses regularly ises the allegorical explanation of Scripture to make his points.

He did write a dialogue on Free Will (peri tou autexousiou), which is considered an important treatise attacking the Valentinians and other Gnostic views of the origin of evil and in proof of the freedom of the human will.

Jerome tells is that Methodius wrote a well-received refutation of Porphyry.

In the Methodius of Olympus, On the distinction between foods (De cibis) he states "On the distinction between foods, and on the heifer mentioned in Leviticus, with the ashes of which sinners were sprinkled" but the the red heifer is actually mentioned in Numbers, chapter 19, not in Leviticus.

"We should not so much concern ourselves with food, and with which animals have cloven hooves, as with righteousness and with the food of understanding and with works of love towards God."

“It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication.”

" Do the scriptures contradict themselves, or do the prophets disagree with the law? But rather the Lord’s books agree among themselves to praise him worthily and to send us into one and the same knowledge and life, and one hope that is to come, if the veil of the scriptures is drawn aside. It is impossible for it to be drawn aside, unless we turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so with an uncovered face we shall know his glory, which is proclaimed in the old books, [6.] not making him a house of ivory and gold (for this is not what the prophet commands). If the Jews are in error about Christ in this way, we know that the Deity takes no pleasure in the dead wiles of human ingenuity, but in those things which are living and never decay"

"The time is past, there is no more ash, it is no longer written on tablets of stone, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, compelling those who are under the law to serve the Lord against their will, but on tablets of flesh for those who would live forever to serve God of their free will."

" For if a man dies in spiritual death, and you enter his house, that is to say, his way of life and his works, you have immediately defiled your conscience and darkened your mind. However, if you repent before the evil can fester in your soul and body, you will come and purify yourself with the holy body. Every vessel that is open, and has no cover tied on it, is unclean. But every soul that is tied up with bonds of love and bound around, cannot receive that defilement. But that which is open through weakness, and does not bear the seal of Christ upon it, is defiled by the wiles of the Devil. Thus Jeremiah told the people, saying, “For death has come in through their doors.” He calls their senses doors. "