1In a fragment of the debate at Antioch, Malchion presses Paul of Samosata to say whether the Word was united with Christ's body as soul with body, by substance, or present only by participation, as in other men.
2Malchion replies to Paul that Christ is one composite of God the Word and a human body, and rejects Paul's view that Wisdom dwelt in him only by participation, as a man in a house.
disputed · Brief excerpts from the minutes of the disputation between Paul and the presbyter Malchion (Antioch, 264-268), preserved by Leontius of Byzantium (6th century, Greek, found by Pitra) and by Peter the Deacon (519/520, Latin). Whether the minutes were genuine, and whether the words given to Paul are his, is debated (Bardy 1923 accepts them; others treat the florilegium fragments with caution). Paul's own words reach us only as his opponents quote them.
Standing
This work stood outside the church of its own time, and no later tradition receives it. Paul was condemned and deposed by a synod of bishops at Antioch about 268, and no tradition honours him; he stood outside the church of his own generation.
Date
ca. 264-268 (approximate) · Date of the disputation reported in the minutes; the quoting authors are of the 6th century.
Written at
Antioch, Syria (approximate)
Language
Greek
Genre
other
Reference system
The site's own numbering: 1 = the Greek dialogue excerpt printed by Pitra (Analecta sacra 3, 600-601), 2 = Malchion's Latin reply in Peter the Deacon (PL 65:444D-445A). Loofs (1924) and de Riedmatten (1952) number the fragments differently. The fragments of Paul already on the site in Documents of the Synod of Antioch (Routh I-V, from Leontius of Byzantium, Justinian and the Contestatio of Eusebius of Dorylaeum) are not repeated here.
SBL abbreviation
Frag.Not yet checked
Clavis
CPG number not yet checked
Text from
J.-B. Pitra, ed., Analecta sacra spicilegio Solesmensi parata, vol. 3 (Paris, 1883), pp. 600-601; J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologia Latina 65 (Paris, 1847), cols. 444-445 (Printed editions in the public domain; archive.org OCR (Greek) and the Open Greek and Latin digital text of PL (Latin, CC BY-SA 4.0))
Critical editions
Friedrich Loofs, Paulus von Samosata, TU 44.5 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1924); Henri de Riedmatten, Les Actes du procès de Paul de Samosate (Fribourg: Éditions St-Paul, 1952); Gustave Bardy, Paul de Samosate, 2nd ed. (Louvain: Spicilegium sacrum Lovaniense, 1929) (cited, not reproduced)