Cyprian
Home > Church Fathers > Cyprian Cyprian At a Glance Treatise Genre: (4/5) ***** Reliability of Dating: (3/5) *** Length of Text: Greek Original Language: Ancient Translations: Modern Translations: English Estimated Range of Dating: 246-258 A.D. Chronological List of Early Christian Writings Discuss this text on the Early Writings forum. Text Ante-Nicene Fathers: CyprianThe Unity of the Church Patrologia Latina: Cyprian Resources Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Cyprian of Carthage Offsite Links St. Cyprian and the Reconciliation of Apostates Prudentius' Portrait of St. Cyprian The De mortalitate of Cyprian: Consolation and Context The Theology of St. Cyprian of Carthage: The Unity of the Church and the Role of the Bishop Learning from the Church Fathers: Cyprian Cyprian, Augustine, and the Donatist Schism The Lord's Supper in the Theology of Cyprian of Carthage The Comma Johanneum and Cyprian Cyprian and Tertullian on the Lord's Prayer Cyprian, the "Pope" of Carthage Book Review: Cyprian and Roman Carthage A Tale of Two Bishops: St.
Cyprian and the Novatianists Cyprian, Donatism, Augustine, and Augustana VIII: Remarks on the Church and the Validity of Sacraments Tertullian, Cyprian, Augustine Dictionary of African Christian Biography: Cyprian Books Lewis Ayres, Frances Young, and Andrew Louth, Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature, pp. 152-160 Siegmar Dpp and Wilhelm Geerlings, Dictionary of Early Christian Literature, pp. 148-153 Claudio Moreschini and Enrico Norelli, Early Christian Greek and Latin Literature, Vol. 1, pp. 364-380 Johannes Quasten, Patrology (4 Volume Set), Vol. 2, pp. 340-383 Recommended Books for the Study of Early Christian Writings Information on Cyprian A. Hoffman writes, "Caecilius Cyprianus, also named Thascius (ep.
66 pr.; Acta procons. 3)--was probably born at the beginning of the 3rd c. and was bishop of Carthage 248/249-258. His high level of education, considerable wealth, friends in the equestrian and senatorial classes, the degree to which he was known in Carthage, and his treatment as an honestior at his trial all suggest that his family belonged to the leading circles of Carthage and that he was at least of the equestrian class. According to Jerome (vir. ill. 67), after the usual rhetorical training he worked as a teacher of oratory (or an orator); he may perhaps also have aimed at a career as administrator or even have begun it. Under the influence of the presbyter Caecilian he turned to Christianity in his early to mid-forties (Pontius, Vita Cypr.
4). After baptism and, with it, the abandonment of his previous activity as well as the distribution of a large part of his personal property, Cyprian soon became a presbyter and in 248/249 a bishop. His quick rise seems to have been due especially to the community (ep. 43.1 and 4; Pontius, Vita Cypr. 5), which evidently supported the influential, wealthy, and charitable convert as its patronus. Among the Carthaginian clergy, on the other hand, there was until 253 a noticeable opposition centered on five presbyters who had been passed over in the episcopal election." (Dictionary of Early Christianity, p. 148) Claudio Moreschini writes, "It was probably in 248-249 that Cyprian made a collection of biblical passages, the Testimonia, relating to central problems of Christian teaching.
The treatise, To Quirinius: Testimonies against the Jews (Ad Quirinum testimonia adversus Iudaeos), is in three books and was requested by a friend who wanted a compendium of the church's teaching on Judaism and on the relationship and opposition between Judaism and Christianity. The collection is of shapeless material, testimonia pure and simple, texts already commonly used in the second century in anti-Jewish polemics ... and its purpose is the traditional one. From the same period comes another treatise, likewise a compilation, which contains material taken chiefly from Tertullian and Minucius Felix, and which has for its purpose, as did the material from those two writers, to combat pagan religion; its title is That Idols Are not Gods (Quod idola dii non sint).