Diodore of Tarsus

d. before 394. Bishop of Tarsus. After a thorough secular and religious education in his native Antioch and in Athens, he became a Christian monk and a persuasive, influential teacher in Antioch. His two most distinguished disciples were Theodore of Mopsuestia* and John Chrysostom.* In 372 he was banished from Antioch to Armenia by Emperor Valens, but in 378 he became bishop of Tarsus. An opponent of paganism and generally regarded as orthodox, he was nevertheless condemned by a synod at Antioch in 499 as the author of Nestorianism.* This condemnation meant that copies of his writings were doomed to destruction. Some scholars have assigned various extant treatises to him, but only De fato seems sure. Large fragments are also extant in catenae on the Octateuch (Genesis to Ruth) and on Romans. His original writings, however, covered a wide range of topics. He expounded cosmology, defended the Faith against heresies of many kinds, and wrote many commentaries on Scripture. In the latter he followed the historical-grammatical method of exegesis in opposition to the allegorical method of Alexandria.