Letter 96: A translation by Jerome of Theophilus's paschal letter for the year 401 A.D. In it Theophilus refutes at length the heresies of Apollinaris and Origen. About this page Source.
The Paschal Letter of Theophilus for the Year 401
(Translated from the Greek by Jerome)
[Summary: In this paschal letter Theophilus refutes at length the heresies of Apollinaris and Origen, showing that both ultimately destroy the truth of the Incarnation — Apollinaris by denying that Christ took a fully human mind, Origen by treating the body as a prison and the soul as pre-existent. Both errors, Theophilus argues, flow from the same Greek philosophical source: the assumption that matter and embodiment are inherently degrading to the divine. Against this, the paschal mystery stands as the definitive answer — the God who takes on flesh, dies, and rises in that same flesh has sanctified the body and destroyed the pretensions of those who despise it.]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
Related Letters
1. Whatever your rank may be in connection with the course of this world, I have the greatest confidence in addressing you as my much-loved, true-hearted Christian fellow-servant Olympius. For I know that this name, in your esteem, excels all other glorious and lofty titles.