Twenty-Four Elders: Revelation and the Old Testament Canon in Victorinus and Melito

Abstract

Melito of Sardis, it is here argued, reported an Old Testament canon of twenty-four books (rather than twenty-five) and went on to link this figure with the twenty-four elders in Revelation. From Melito, Victorinus of Poetovio took up this exegesis and eventually added his own variation; it is from him that the Latin tradition knows of these interpretations, along with the count of twenty-four books. Further grounds are examined for linking the writings of Melito and Victorinus, including especially their relation to those of Irenaeus and Papias. A reconsideration of Melito’s place in the patristic tradition is also urged, with the suggestion that he wrote his Extracts in Rome ca. 150 and was a pivotal influence in the West.