Pantanus, a Stoic philosopher, born in Sicily (though some have erroneously supposed him to be a Hebrew) about the beginning of the reign of Commodus. He presided over the celebrated school of Alexandria, where, from the time of St Mark, the founder of that church, they had always a divine that was eminent for his learning and piety, to explain the Holy Scriptures, and to instruct them in human learning. This employment he was obliged to leave; for when the Indians required of Demetrius bishop of Alexandria to send them one to instruct them in Christianity, he sent Pantanus, who undertook the mission with joy, and behaved himself very properly in it. We are told, that the Indians had been tinctured with Christianity by St Bartholomew the apostle; and that Pantanus met with the Hebrew original of St Matthew's gospel, which the apostle had left there. St Jerome says that Pantanus brought it with him; and that it was, in his time, preserved in the library of Alexandria. But we suspect St Jerome to be mistaken in this respect. When Pantanus returned to Alexandria, he reaffirmed the government of the school of that city, which, it is probable, he had, during his absence, committed to the care of St Clement, a presbyter of Alexandria. He explained the Scriptures publicly, under the reign of Severus Antoninus Caracalla; and was, in St Jerome's opinion, more serviceable to the church by his discourses than by his writings. He published some commentaries upon the Bible, which are lost. "That the prophets often express themselves in indifferent terms, and that they make use of the present time instead of the past and future," is a rule of Pantanus, which has been followed by all succeeding interpreters. Theodorus has related this rule; but he speaks of it as if Pantanus had rather said than written it.

We may have some notion of Pantanus's manner of explaining the Scriptures by the like performances of St Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and others who were brought up in that school.