Wulfila
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Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since July 2007 | Arian bishops | 4th century bishops | Goths | Ancient Roman Christianity | Late Antiquity | Theologians | Bible translators | Inventors of writing systems | 310 births | 383 deaths
Wulfila (meaning "little wolf")[1] (ca. 310 – 383; or latin: Ulfilas), bishop, missionary, and bible translator, was a Goth or half-Goth who had spent time inside the Roman Empire at the peak of the Arian controversy. Ulfilas was ordained a bishop by Eusebius of Nicomedia and returned to his people to work as a missionary. To escape religious persecution by Gothic chief Athanaric,[citation needed] he obtained permission from Constantius II to immigrate with his flock of converts to Moesia and settle near Nicopolis ad Istrum, in what is now northern Bulgaria. There, Ulfilas translated the Bible from Greek into the Gothic language. For this he devised the Gothic alphabet.[2] Fragments of his translation have survived, including the Codex Argenteus, in the University Library of Uppsala in Sweden. Ulfilas converted many among the Goths, preaching an Arian Christianity, which, when they reached the western Mediterranean, set them apart from their overwhelmingly[citation needed] "orthodox" (i.e. Trinitarian) neighbors and subjects.
Historical sourcesThere are five primary sources for the study of Ulfilas's life. Two are by Arian authors, three by Trinitarians.[3]
There are significant differences between the stories presented by the two camps. The Arian sources depict Ulfilas as an Arian from childhood. He was then consecrated as a bishop around 340 and evangelized among the Goths for 7 years during the 340s. He then moved to Moesia (within the Roman Empire) under the protection of the Arian Emperor Constantius II. He later attended several councils and engaged in continuing religious debate. They date his death in 383. The accounts by the Trinitarian historians differ in several details, but the general picture is similar. According to them, Ulfilas was an orthodox Christian for most of his early life. He was only converted to Arianism somewhere around 360, and then only because of political pressure from the pro-Arian ecclesiastical and governmental powers. The sources differ in how much they credit Ulfilas with the conversion of the Goths. Socrates Scholasticus gives Ulfilas a minor role, and instead attributes the mass conversion to the Gothic chieftain Fritigern, who adopted Arianism out of gratitude for the military support of the Arian emperor. Sozomen attributes the mass conversion primarily to Ulfilas, though he also acknowledges the role of Fritigern. For several reasons, modern scholars depend more heavily on the Arian accounts than the Trinitarian accounts. Auxentius was clearly the closest to Ulfilas, and so presumably had access to more reliable information. The Trinitarian accounts differ too widely among themselves to present a unified case. Debate continues as to the best reconstruction of Ulfilas's life. The Creed of Ulfilas
The creed of Ulfilas, which concludes a letter praising him written by his foster-son and pupil the Scythian[citation needed] Auxentius of Durostorum (modern Silistra) on the Danube, who became bishop of Milan, distinguishes God the Father ("unbegotten") from God the Son ("only-begotten"), who was begotten before time and who created the world, and the Holy Spirit, created by the Father through the Son:
Maximinus, a 5th century Arian theologian, copied Auxentius' letter, among other works, into the margins of one copy of Ambrose's De Fide; there are some gaps in the surviving text.[5] HonoursWulfila Glacier on Greenwich Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named for Bishop Ulfilas. See alsoNotes and references
External links
bg:Вулфила ca:Úlfila cs:Wulfila da:Wulfila de:Wulfila es:Ulfilas fr:Wulfila fy:Wulfila gl:Ulfilas got:𐍅𐌿𐌻𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌰 it:Ulfila hu:Wulfila nl:Wulfila no:Wulfila nn:Wulfila pl:Wulfila pt:Úlfilas ru:Вульфила sk:Wulfila sr:Вулфила fi:Wulfila sv:Wulfila | ||||||||||||||||
