Victorinus of Poetovium – the First Latin Exeget

Abstract

Victorinus of Poetovium (modern Ptuj in Slovenia) was a Pannonian bishop at the main custom post on the confines of the Eastern and Western Empire (near the border of Pannonia and Noricum). He was martyred during the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian. The hypothesis that he was martyred later during the reign of Numerian is unsupported by evidence. St. Victorinus was the first Latin exegete. His writings reveal a mixture of the Judeo-Christian (Papias of Hierapolis, St. Ireneus of Lyon) and the Alexandrian exegesies (Origen). The Commentary on the Apocalyps, the short tract On the construction o f the world (De fabrica mundi) and commentary on the Parable o f the ten Virgins are the remnants of his great literary heritage, which was described by St. Jerome. Victorinus didn’t consider the biblical texts systematically but rather he commented on short selected fragments of the Bible. Following the Alexandrian allegorical exegesis, St. Victorinus focused on the different meanings of the number Seven. His allegorical treatment of the biblical text frequently became a typology. The John’s Apocalypse was crucial to the interpretation of Holy Scripture in St. Victorinus’ exegesis. Victorinus seems to have been the first to lay down the principle of interpretation in relation to the Book of Revelation. He accentuated that the God’s preaching is the only one but it is expressed in different ways in the Holy Scripture. He pointed up Christocentrisism of the biblical Revelation and the spiritual sense of each biblical text, which was closely connected and regarded the Holy Spirit as the main Author of all Scripture. Victorinus stressed also the unanimity of the biblical message in both the Old and the New Testaments.