Beryllus

, bishop of Bostra in Arabia, flourished about the year 230. After he had for a long time governed his see with great prudence and fidelity, he fell into several new and uncommon opinions, asserting that Christ before his incarnation had no proper subsistence, nor any divinity, but that of the Father residing in him. The bishops being assembled in order to dissuade him from this error, and having had several conferences with him upon that subject, Origen was desired to engage in the dispute, which he did with such success, that Beryllus immediately retracted his opinion. He wrote several treatises and epistles, particularly to Origen, in which he returned him, thanks for the pains which he had taken in recovering him from his errors. Eusebius tells us, that he left behind him several monuments of an elegant genius by which Henry Valesius in his notes upon that passage supposes that he means the hymns and poems which Beryllus probably wrote. | There was extant in St. Jerom’s time, the dialogue between Origen and our bishop, in which the latter was convinced of his erroneous notions and this seems to be the same work which is mentioned by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History, where he tells us, that there were extant at that time the acts of Beryllus and the synod assembled upon his account, in which were inserted the questions of Origen urged against him, and the whole series of the conference between them. ¹