Commodian (or Commodianus)
Home > Church Fathers > Commodian Commodian (or Commodianus) At a Glance Treatise Genre: (5/5) ***** Reliability of Dating: (5/5) ***** Length of Text: Greek Original Language: Ancient Translations: Modern Translations: English Estimated Range of Dating: 240-260 A.D. Chronological List of Early Christian Writings Discuss this text on the Early Writings forum. Text Instructions of Commodianus Latin Texts: Commodianus Latin Texts: Commodianus Resources Catholic Encyclopedia: Commodianus Offsite Links Excerpt from Commodianus' Carmen Apologeticum Books Claudio Moreschini and Enrico Norelli, Early Christian Greek and Latin Literature, Vol. 1, pp. 381-383 Siegmar Dpp and Wilhelm Geerlings, Dictionary of Early Christian Literature, pp.
139-140 Recommended Books for the Study of Early Christian Writings Information on Commodian S. Dpp writes, "Very little is known of the life of Commodian, a poet; thus his homeland and place of activity (North Africa?) are unknown. The son of pagan parents, Commodian turned late to Christianity; whether, as one codex asserts, he was really an episcopus, cannot be decided. The 5th-c. date given for his life by H. Brewer, among others, was refuted by K. Thraede, who rightly places Commodian's work in the middle of the 3rd century. As a result, Commodian must be regarded as one of the first Christian poets of the Latin West." (Dictionary of Early Christian Biography, p. 139) Claudio Moreschini writes, "The only reference to Commodian by ancient writers is in the Famous Men of Gennadius of Marseilles, a church historian from the end of the fifth century.
Gennadius says that Commodian was converted during his studies in secular literature; after his conversion, he wanted to do something in thanksgiving to Christ, the author of his salvation, and wrote a work against the pagans 'in a middle style resembling verse' (mediocri sermone quasi versu). But since he was not sufficiently knowledgeable about Christian doctrine, his work was better in its polemics than in its teaching. 'For this reason, when discussing the promises of God against the pagans, he gave them a rather trite and rough meaning, so to speak, astonishing the pagans and making us despair, and this on the basis of Tertullian, Lactantius, and Papias.' Perhaps it was for this doctrinal inadequacy that the Decretum Gelasianum, an 'index of prohibited books' attributed to Pope Gelasius I (492-496), condemned Commodian's work." (Early Christian Greek and Latin Literature, vol.
1, p. 381) Claudio Moreschini continues, "But while Gennadius's statement is true in some respects, it also raises difficulties, because it dates Commodian after Lactantius, while the most common view is that he lived in the third century. On the basis of Gennadius, Courcelle places him in fifth-century Gaul. One of Commodian's works, The Instructions (Instructiones) is composed of two books and divided into chapters; its content could be inferred from an acrostic based on the first letter of each verse. The final composition of the second book has the title Nomen gasei; when the initial letters are read from bottom to top, they yield the words, Commodianus mendicus Christi. This gaseus is meant to give Commodian's name.
Among the various hypotheses about the meaning of gaseus the most likely is that it is a corruption of a Hebrew word for 'poet.' 'Beggar of Christ' is to be taken in a spiritual sense." (Early Christian Greek and Latin Literature, vol. 1, p. 381) Claudio Moreschini writes further, "Commodian would thus have been a native of the East, a point confirmed by some of his information about eastern pagan cults, but would have lived in Africa; in Salvatore's hypothesis, he resided in the Africa of Cyprian's time. In The Instructions (Instructiones) he repeats the positions taken in principle by the bishop of Carthage; the question of the lapsi, the place of the martyrs and confessors in the church, and the condemnation of the schism of Novatus and Felicissumus are all echoed in Commodian's verses.