St . Jerome had long ago suggested that the man with whom the Samaritan woman was living signified Dositheus
she entered the church built upon the side of Mount Gerizim around Jacob's well; that well where the Lord was sitting when hungry and thirsty He was refreshed by the faith of the woman of Samaria. Forsaking her five husbands by whom are intended the five books of Moses, and that sixth not a husband of whom she boasted, to wit the false teacher Dositheus, she found the true Messiah and the true Saviour.
Purvis agrees that Dositheus is the most likely candidate.
It is further suggested that the representation of Jesus as greater than Moses reflects not only a polemic with Samaritan (or a Samaritan-like) Mosaism, but also a polemic with a northern Palestinian sectarian movement engaged in the promotion of a particular figure as the Mosaic eschatological prophet. The hints received from the Gospel suggest that the heresiarch was the leader of a baptizing sect, a wonder-worker, and someone who claimed that he was a divine being. Christian and Samaritan traditions relating to sectarian movements in Samaria would indicate that the most likely candidates for this unnamed prophet-magus would be Simon, Meander, and Dositheus. The writer is inclined to identify him with Dositheus, although Acts viii 9-24 would suggest Simon.
(James D. Purvis, The Fourth Gospel and the Samaritans. p. 178-179, my bold)
Giuseppe wrote: ↑Sat Mar 04, 2023 10:02 am
St . Jerome had long ago suggested that the man with whom the Samaritan woman was living signified Dositheus
Since you are interested in Pilate, the Saint and Doctor Jerome was also very active around the time that the Nicene Creed of 325 CE was updated with the Nicene Creed of 381 CE. In the updated creed Pontius Pilate is added, and the anathema clause consisting of the five sophisms of Arius, is removed.
Comparison between creed of 325 and creed of 381
The following table, which indicates by square brackets the portions of the 325 text that were omitted or moved in 381, and uses italics to indicate what phrases, absent in the 325 text, were added in 381, juxtaposes the earlier (AD 325) and later (AD 381) forms of this creed in the English translation given in Philip Schaff's compilation The Creeds of Christendom (1877).[45]
