The Agenda-Driven Revision of Melito of Sardis

This article critiques the interpretive approach of philosopher Dale Tuggy, who seeks to recast the Christology of the second-century church father Melito of Sardis, portraying him as a "two-stage logos theorist," in which the logos is an attribute of God that becomes a distinct being at creation. Drawing on Melito's On Pascha and Fragments, this study argues that such revisions are agenda-driven, akin to those employed by groups like Jehovah's Witnesses and Oneness Pentecostals. A detailed examination of Melito's texts reveals a high Christology consistent with later orthodox formulations: Christ is eternally divine by nature, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, preexistent, and incarnate as both God and man. Key passages affirm the Son's immateriality, eternality, and role in creation, while refuting Tuggy's unitarian conclusions through contextual analysis and biblical parallels. The article concludes that Melito exemplifies proto-Trinitarian orthodoxy, and Tuggy's eisegesis imposes foreign theological concepts, demonstrating the perils of ideological bias in patristic scholarship. Keywords: Melito of Sardis, Dale Tuggy, Christology, Unitarianism, Trinitarianism, On Pascha, Patristics, Historical Revisionism, Early Church Fathers, Incarnation, Preexistence, Subordinationism