Demas (I)

I. DEMAS, whom St. Paul speaks of in his Epistles, was of Thessalonica. He was at first one of the most zealous Disciples that this Apostle had. He was very serviceable to him at Rome during his imprisonment. But some years after, (about the year of Jesus Christ 65.) he forsook him to follow a more secular life, and withdrew to Thessalonica, the place of his birth. Epiphanius informs us, that he renounced the faith, and was engaged in the heresy of Cerinthus, Ebion, and others, who held Jesus Christ to be a mere man. Dorothæus in his Synopsis says, that when he came to Thessalonica, he became a Priest to some of Est. Grot. Menoc. Cornel. in 2 Tim. iv. 2 Tim. iv. 10. Epiphan. hæres. 51.the Idols of the Country. Others affirm, that he recovered after this fall; and Estius conjectures, that St. Ignatius in his Epistle to the Magnesians speaks of him, calling him, their Bishop worthy of God. But all this is grounded only upon a false supposition, that the second Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy was written during this Apostle’s first imprisonment at Rome, and before the Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon.

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