Ammonius

AMMONIUS, am-mō´ne-us, OF ALEXANDRIA: An Alexandrian of the third century who is thought to have made one of the earliest attempts to prepare a harmony of the Gospels. Eusebius (Hist. eccl., vi. 19) and Jerome (De vir. ill., lv.) strangely confuse him with Ammonius Saccas. He may have been a younger contemporary of Origen. Of his work nothing is known except what may be gathered from a statement of Eusebius (Epist. ad Carpianum), that he put beside the text of the Gospel of Matthew the parallel passages from the three other Gospels. Whether he wrote out the parallels in full, or merely indicated them by some system of reference, and whether or not he also included the variants from Matthew can only be conjectured. His work was probably intended for the learned rather than for general use. The so-called Ammonian sections are contained in the edition of the “Tables” of Eusebius (i.e., his gospel harmony), using the Authorized Version as text, prepared by S. H. Turner (New York, 1860). See Bible Text, II., 1, § 4.

Bibliography: McGiffert in Eusebius, Hist. eccl., in NPNF, i. 38, 39; 267.