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Bible Dictionaries
Tritheists
Charles Buck Theological Dictionary
or A sect of the sixth century, whose chief was John Ascunage, a Syrian philosopher, and at the same time a Monophysite. This man imagined in the Deity three natures or substances absolutely equal in all respects, and joined together by no common essence; to which opinion his adversaries gave the name of Tritheism. One of the warmest defenders of this doctrine was John Philoponus, an Alexandrian philosopher and grammarian of the highest reputation; and hence he has been considered by many as the author of this sect, whose members have consequently derived from him the title of Philoponists. This sect was divided into two parties, the Philoponists and the Cononites; the latter of whom were so called from Conon, bishop of Tarsus, their chief. They agreed in the doctrine of three persons in the Godhead, and differed only in their manner of explaining what the Scriptures taught concerning the resurrection of the body. Philoponus maintained, that the form as well as the matter of all bodies was generated, and corrupted, and that both, therefore, were to be restored in the resurrection. Conon held, on the contrary, that the body never lost its form; that its matter alone was subject to corruption and decay, and was consequently to be restored when this mortal shall put on immortality.
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Buck, Charles. Entry for 'Tritheists'. Charles Buck Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/cbd/t/tritheists.html. 1802.
