Linus

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

(Λίνος)

This is a name which holds a large place in the history of the early Church. We first find mention of it in  2 Timothy 4:21, where St. Paul, writing from his Roman prison, conveys to his friend the greetings of Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, and Claudia. Linus was thus a friend of Paul and Timothy in the closing years of the Apostle’s life. In the Apostolic Constitutions (vii. 46) he is regarded as the son of Claudia of  2 Timothy 4:21 (Λίνος ὁ Κλαυδίας), which is perhaps doubtful (see articleClaudia). But the name Linus is found both in Irenaeus ( c. Haer . Iii. iii. 3) and in Eusebius ( He [Note: E Historia Ecclesiastica (Eusebius, etc.).]III. ii., iv. 9, xiii.), where he is regarded as the successor of St. Peter and the first bishop of Rome after the Apostles, although Tertullian ( de Praescr . 32) assigns this dignity to Clement. No details of any kind are given regarding the episcopate of Linus, and the date of his tenure of office is uncertain. Although Eusebius regards Clement as the successor of Linus, and Tertullian reverses the order, it is not improbable that both held office at the same time and that the episcopal power as wielded by them was of a very attenuated nature. Perhaps both held their position during the lifetime of St. Peter. According to Eusebius ( He [Note: E Historia Ecclesiastica (Eusebius, etc.).]III. xiii.) the episcopate of Linus lasted for a period of twelve years, but no dates can be fixed with any certainty. Harnack gives as probable a.d. 64-76. Linus has been regarded as the author of various works, but there is no evidence in support of this view. He is the reported author of (1) the Acts of St. Peter and St. Paul; (2) an account of St. Peter’s controversy with Simon Magus; (3) certain decrees prohibiting women from appearing in church with uncovered heads. The Roman Breviary states that he was a native of Voltena in Etruria, and that he died as a martyr of the faith, being beheaded by order of Saturninus, whose daughter he had healed of demoniacal possession. His memory is honoured by the Western Church on 23 September, and the Greek Menaea regards him as one of the Seventy.

Literature.-J. Pearson, de Serie et Successione primorum Romae Episcoporum , London, 1688; A. Harnack, Die Chronologic der altchristlichen Literatur , Leipzig, 1897; J. B. Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers , pt. i.2, 1890.

W. F. Boyd.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Linus. One of the Christians at Rome from whom St. Paul sends greetings at the end of the Second Epistle to Timothy (  2 Timothy 4:21 ). All writers agree that he is identical with the first Bishop of Rome. Thus Irenæus: ‘Peter and Paul, when they founded and built up the Church of Rome, committed the office of its episcopate to Linus.’ And Eusebius: ‘Of the Church of the Romans after the martyrdom of Paul and Peter, the first to be appointed to the office of Bishop was Linus, of whom Paul makes mention at the end of his letter to Timothy.’ His episcopate lasted about twelve years, but there is considerable difference of opinion as to its date.

Morley Stevenson.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

 2 Timothy 4:21 put third, "Eubulus greeteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus"; therefore not yet bishop, but a Christian then at, Rome; afterward its bishop (Irenaeus, iii. 3, section 3; Eusebius, H. E. iii. 2). Irenaeus implies that Linus was made bishop by Paul and Peter before Peter's death; but the Scripture evidence is against Peter's having been at Rome at all, and certainly before Paul's death. Pearson fixes on A.D. 55-67 as the period of Linus' episcopate. Tertullian (Praescr. Haer. 32) asserts that Clement (third bishop) also was consecrated by Peter. The statements of the fathers are mutually conflicting and unsatisfactory.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Li'nus. (a net). A Christian at Rome, known to St. Paul and to Timothy,  2 Timothy 4:21, who was the first bishop of Rome, after the apostles. (A.D. 64).

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

One of Paul's companions. ( 2 Timothy 4:21)

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Christian at Rome whose greetings were sent to Timothy by Paul.  2 Timothy 4:21 .

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

A Christian at Rome, whose salutation Paul sent to Timothy,  2 Timothy 4:21 .

Holman Bible Dictionary

 2 Timothy 4:21

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(usually Λῖνος , but prop. Λίνος, the name originally of a mythological and musical personage, perhaps from λίνον , linen), one of the Christians at Rome whose salutations Paul sent to Timothy ( 2 Timothy 4:21). A.D. 64. He is said to have been the first bishop of Rome after the martyrdom of Peter and Paul (Irenseus, Adv. Haeres. 3:3; Eusebius. Hist. Eccles. 3:2, 4, 13, 14, 31; 5:6; comp. Jerome, De Viris. Illust. 15; Augustine, Epist. 53:2; Theodoret, ad  2 Timothy 4:21), but there is some discrepancy in the early statement respecting his date (see Heinichen a d Euseb. 3:187; Burton, Hist. of the Christ. Church; Lardner, Works, 2:31, 32, 176,187). "Eusebius and Theodoret, followed by Baronius and Tillemont (Hist. Eccles. 2:165, 591), state that he became bishop of Rome after the death of St. Peter. On the other hand, the words of Ireneus, '[Peter and Paul] when they founded and built up the Church [of Rome], committed the office of its episcopate to Linus,' certainly admit, or rather imply the meaning that he held that office before the death of St. Peter; as if the two great apostles, having, in the discharge of their own peculiar office, completed the organization of the Church at Rome, left it under the government of Linus, and passed on to preach and teach in some new region. This proceeding would be in accordance with the practice of the apostles in other places. The earlier appointment of Linus is asserted as a fact by Ruffinus (Praecf. isn Clem. Recosgn.), and by the author of chapter 46, book 7 of the Apostolic Constitutions. It is accepted as the true statement of the case by bishop Pearson (De Serie et Successione Priorum Roman Episcoporum, 2:5, § 1) and by Fleury (Hist.  Ecclesiastes 2:26). Some persons have objected that the undistinguished mention of the name of Linus between the names of two other Roman Christians in  2 Timothy 4:21 is a proof that he was not at that time bishop of Rome. But even Tillemont admits that such a way of introducing the bishop's name is in accordance with the simplicity of that early age. No lofty pre-eminence was attributed to the episcopal office in the apostolic times."

According to the Roman Breviary, Linus was born at Volterra, but an old papal catalogue represents him as an Etrurian. According to tradition, he went to Rome when 22 years of age, made there the acquaintance of Peter, and was sent by him to Besanqon, in France, to preach the Gospel. After his return to Rome Peter appointed him his coadjutor; but, according to the Breviary, he was the one who prinus post Petrum gubernavit ecclesiam. He is said to have enacted, on his accession to the bishopric, that, in accordance with  1 Corinthians 11:5, women should never enter the church with their heads uncovered.

The duration of his episcopate is given by Eusebius (whose It. E. 3:16, and Chronicon give inconsistent evidence) as A.D. 68-80; by Tillemont, who, however, reproaches Pearson with departing from the chronology of Eusebius, as 66-78; by Baronius as 67-78; and by Pearson as 55-67. Pearson, in the treatise already quoted (1:10), gives weighty reasons for distrusting the chronology of Eusebius as regards the years of the early bishops of Rome, and he derives his own opinion from certain very ancient (but interpolated) lists of those bishops (see 1:13, and 2:5). This point has been subsequently considered by Baraterius (De Successione Antiquissima Eisc. Rome. 1740), who gives A.D. 56-67 as the date of the episcopate of Linus.

"The statement of Ruffinus, that Linus and Cletus were bishops in Rome while St. Peter was alive, has been quoted in support of a theory which sprang up in the 17th century, received the sanction even of Hammond in his controversy with Blondel (Works, ed. 1684, 4:825; Episcopatus Jura, 5:1, § 11), was held with some slight modification by Baraterius, and has recently been revived. It is supposed that Linus was bishop in Rome only of the Christians of Gentile origin, while at the same time another bishop exercised the same authority over the Jewish Christians there. 'Tertullian's assertion (De Prescr. Haeret. § 32) that Clement [the third bishop] of Rome was consecrated by St. Peter has been quoted also as corroborating this theory, but it does not follow from the words of Tertullian that Clement's consecration took place immediately before he became bishop of Rome; and the statement of Ruffinns, so far as it lends any support to the above-named theory, is shown to be without foundation by Pearson (2:3, 4). Tilemont's observations (page 590) in reply to Pearson only show that the establishment of two contemporary bishops in one city was contemplated in ancient times as a possible provisional arrangement to meet certain temporary difficulties. The actual limitation of the authority of Linus to a section of the Church in Rome remains to be proved. Ruffinus's statement ought, doubtless, to be interpreted in accordance with that of his contemporary Epiphanius (Adv. Haer. 27:6, page 107), to the effect that Linus and Cletus were bishops of Rome in succession, not contemporaneously. The facts were, however, differently viewed, (1) by an interpolator of the Gesta Pontificum Damasi, quoted by J. Voss in his second epistle to A. Rivet (App. to Pearson's Vindiciae Ignatiane); (2) by Bede (Vita S. Benedlicti, § 7, page 146, edit. Stevenson), when he was seeking a precedent for two colltemporaneous abbots presiding in one monastery and (3) by Rabanus Malrtns (De Chorepiscopis, in Opp. ed. Migne, 4:1197), who ingeniously claims primitive authority for the institution of chorepiscopi on the suppossition that Linus and Cietus were never bishops with full powers, but were contemporaneous chorepiscopi employed by St. Peter in his absence from Rome, and at his request, to ordain clergymen for the Church at Rome."

Linus is reckoned by Pseudo-Hippolytus, and in the Greek Menaea, among the seventy disciples. According to the Breviary, he cured the possessed, raised the dead, and was beheaded at the instigation of the consul Saturninus, although he had restored the latter's daughter from a dangerous illness. He was buried in the Vatican, by the side of St. Peter. Various days are stated by different authorities in the Western Church, and by the Eastern Church, as the day of his death. According to the most generally received tradition, he died on September 23. A narrative of the martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul, printed in the Bibliotheca Patrum (Paris, 1644, volume 8), and certain pontifical decrees, are incorrectly ascribed to Linus, but he is generally considered as the author of a history of Peter's dispute with Simon Magus. See Herzog, Real-Encyklop. 8:421; Lipsius, Die Papst Kataloge des Eusebius (Kiel, 1868, 8vo).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

lī´nus ( Λίνος , Lı́nos (  2 Timothy 4:21 )): One of Paul's friends in Rome during his second and last imprisonment in that city. He was one of the few who remained faithful to the apostle, even when most of the Christians had forsaken him. And writing to Timothy when he realized that his execution could not be very far distant - for he was now ready to be offered, and the time of his departure was at hand ( 2 Timothy 4:6 ) - he sends greeting to Timothy from four friends whom he names, and Linus is one of them. There is a tradition that Linus was bishop of the church at Rome. "It is perhaps fair to assume, though of course there is no certainty of this, that the consecration of Linus to the government of the Roman church as its first bishop was one of the dying acts of the apostle Paul" (H.D.M. Spence, in Ellicott's New Testament Commentary on 2 Tim).

Irenaeus - bishop of Lyons about 178 Ad - in his defense of orthodox doctrine against the Gnostics "appeals especially to the bishops of Rome, as depositories of the apostolic tradition." The list of Irenaeus commences with Linus, whom he identifies with the person of this name mentioned by Paul, and whom he states to have been "entrusted with the office of the bishopric by the apostles... With the many possibilities of error, no more can safely be assumed of Linus ... than that he held some prominent position in the Roman church" (Lightfoot's "Dissertation on the Christian Ministry," in Commentary on Phil , 220 f).

"Considering the great rarity of this Greek mythological name as a proper name for persons, we can hardly doubt that here, as Irenaeus has directly asserted, the same Roman Christian is meant who, according to ancient tradition, became after Peter and Paul the first bishop of Rome. Among the mythical characters in Apostolical Constitutions, vii, 46 occurs Linos ho Klaudias , who is declared to have been ordained by Paul as the first bishop of Rome. He is thus represented as the son or husband of the Claudia whose name comes after his in   2 Timothy 4:21 .

"These meager statements have been enlarged upon by English investigators. The Claudia mentioned here is, they hold, identical with the one who, according to Martial, married a certain Pudens (85-90 Ad), and she, in turn, with the Claudia Rufina from Britain, who is then made out to be a daughter of the British king, Cogidumnus, or Titus Claudius Cogidubnus. For a refutation of these assumptions, which, even chronologically considered, are impossible, see Lightfoot, Clement , I, 76-79" (Zahn, Introduction to the New Testament , 20).

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Li´nus, one of the Christians at Rome whose salutations Paul sent to Timothy . He is said to have been the first bishop of Rome after the martyrdom of Peter and Paul.