80 Jesus, Prophet ofIslam
Diodorus
Diodoruswasa Bishopof Tarsus.He isregardedas one of the most
important leaders of the Antiochene branch of Christianity. He held
that the world is subject to change, but that change itself is a condi
tion which implies a beginning and an end and requires the on
looker to conclude that there is constancy behind il. Thus both the
infinite variety of forms in existence and the wisdom displayed in
the very process of change itself, to which all forms are subject,
points to their underlying unity of origin and indicates the exist
ence and presence of their Creator and Sustainer -and there could
only be one such Creator.
Diodorus emphasised the complete manhood of Jesus whom,
he emphasised, had a human soul and human flesh.
Lucian (Died in 312 AD)
Lucian's reputation for his fear of God was no less than rus fame as
a man of learning. He knew both Hebrew and Greek. He remained
outside the communion of the Church from 220 to 290 AD. His
purity and profound knowledge attracted a large number of peo
ple and soon rus school became the seedbed of what later became
branded as Arian doctrine. Arius was one of rus pupils.
Lucian believed in the grammatical and literal exegesis of the
Scriptures, He opposed the tendency to look for symbolic and alle
gorical meanings within them and believed in an empirical and
critical approach towards them. The very fact that this controversy
existed at all demonstrates that by the end of the 3rd century AD,
people were beginning to rely more and more on the written record
and less and less on the oral transmission of whatJesus had taught,
This in itself is an indication of how quickly the teaching of Jesus
in its totality was lost,.
Lucian was a great scholar. He revised the Septuagent, the first
Greek translation of the Old Testament, and also eliminated many
of the changes which had been made to sorne of the Gospels when
they were translated from Aramaic or Hebrew into Greek. He also
selected the four Gospels which, according to him, were the most
reliable of the true Gospels. These Gospels were not the same as
the four Gospels commonly accepted by the Pauline Church to
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