Sabellius (fl. ca. 215) was a third century priest and theologian who most likely taught in Rome, but may have been an African from Libya. Basil and others call him a Libyan from Pentapolis, but this seems to rest on the fact that Pentapolis was a place where the teachings of Sabellius thrived, according to Dionysius of Alexandria, c. 260.^[1] What we know of Sabellius is drawn mostly from the polemical writings of his opponents. The Catholic Encyclopedia "New Advent" cautions: It is true that it is easy to suppose Tertullian and Hippolytus to have misrepresented the opinions of their opponents.^[1]. Sabellius' opposition to the emerging idea of the Trinity led to his excommunication as a heretic by Pope Calixtus I (Callistus) in AD 220. Wace and Bunsen have both suggested that Calixtus' action was motivated more by a desire for unity rather than by conviction.^[2]

Sabellius taught that God was indivisible, with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit being three modes or manifestations of the same divine Person. A Sabellian modalist would say that the One God successively revealed Himself to man throughout time as the Father in Creation; the Son in Redemption; and the Spirit in Sanctification and Regeneration. (Because of this focus on God's revelation of himself to man, Modalism is often confused with "Economic Trinitarianism"). This understanding has been called Sabellianism and Modalistic Monarchianism.^[3] The suggestion of development and change within the Godhead was seen as contradicting the concept of impassibility. It also stood in contrast to the position of distinct persons existing within a single godhead by representing Father, Son and Spirit as different “modes” (hence the term "modalism"), “aspects” or “faces” that God presented successively to the world.

According to Epiphanius of Salamis, Sabellius used the sun’s characteristics as an analogy of God’s nature. Just as the sun has "three powers" (warmth, light, and circular form), so God has three aspects: the warming power answers to the Holy Spirit; the illuminating power, to the Son; and the form or figure, to the Father.^[4]. Von Mosheim described Sabellius' views thusly: But while Sabellius maintained that there was but one divine person, he still believed the distinction of Father, Son and holy Spirit, described in the Scriptures, to be a real distinction, and not a mere appellative or nominal one. That is, he believed the one divine person whom he recognized, to have three distinct forms, which are really different, and which should not be confounded.^[5]

The Teachings of Sabellius were most vigorously opposed by Tertullian in North Africa and Hippolytus of Rome who both proposed an hierachical trinity of subordinate persons.^[6] Tertullian gave Sabellius' doctrine the name Patripassianism, meaning ‘the father suffered’, since Sabellius made no true distinction of persons between the Father and the Son. This is a distortion of Sabellius' teaching according to Clissold, who quotes scholars who have appealed to Epiphanius' writings.^[7] Epiphanius (died 403) says that in his time Sabellians were still numerous in Mesopotamia and Rome - a fact confirmed by an inscription discovered at Rome in 1742, evidently erected by Sabellian Christians.^[8]

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