Polychronius

Polychronius bishop of Apamea, and brother of Theodore of Mopsuestia, was one of the most prominent exegetes of the school of Antioch in the 4th century. Of his life nothing further is known. He wrote commentaries on Job, Daniel, and Ezekiel. Of his commentary on Daniel we have a great many fragments. He explains the book as referring to Antiochus Epiphanes, and not to the anti- Christ; in the fourth monarchy he sees the Macedonian empire, and in the ten heads the diadochai. He everywhere contends for the historical sense and opposes the allegorical interpretation, as well as the theory of a twofold sense. Though he was never formally condemned, yet he was nevertheless considered a heretic. See Plitt-Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v., but more especially Bardenhewer, Polychronius (Freiburg, 1879), and Moller's review, in Schurer, Theol. Literaturzeitung, 1879, col. 255 sq. (B.P.)