Christian Discourse in Late Antiquity: Hermeneutical, Institutional and Textual Perspectives

263 Pages·2020·1.029 MB·English

by  Anna Usacheva (editor), Anders-Christian Jacobsen (editor)

Christian Discourse in Late Antiquity

Anna Usacheva, Anders-Christian Jacobsen (eds.)
Christian Discourse in
Late Antiquity
Hermeneutical, institutional and textual Perspectives
Ferdinand Schöningh
Cover illustration:
Evangelist portrait of Mark from the 6th-century gospel manuscript preserved at the Ethiopian monastery
of Abuna Garima (the photo available in the public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Illumination-from-Abba-Garima-gospel.jpg).
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data available online: http://dnb.d-nb.de
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without prior written permission from the publisher.
© 2020 Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, an Imprint of the Brill-Group
(Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Netherlands; Brill USA Inc., Boston MA, USA; Brill Asia Pte Ltd, Singapore;
Brill Deutschland GmbH, Paderborn, Germany)
www.schoeningh.de
Cover design: Evelyn Ziegler, Munich
Production: Brill Deutschland GmbH, Paderborn
ISBN 978-3-506-70346-0 (hardback)
ISBN 978-3-657-70346-3 (e-book)
Table of Contents
Introduction  .................................................. vii
Anna Usacheva, Anders-Christian Jacobsen
Hermeneutical Aspects of the Formation of Christian Discourse
1. Les discours de Pierre contre Simon dans les Clémentines:
stratégies rhétoriques pour atteindre l’inaccessible et énoncer
l’indicible  ..................................................... 3
Bernard Pouderon
2. The Patristic Reception and Interpretation of John 17:21.
A Case Study: Jovinian vs Jerome  ............................... 31
Valentina Marchetto
3. L’herméneutique du Nouveau Testament dans le Contra Faustum
manichaeum d’Augustin  ....................................... 53
Isabelle Bochet
4. The Spiritual Pay-Off of Searching the Scriptures:
The Principle of the Bible’s Usefulness in the Exegesis of Origen
and Chrysostom  ............................................... 87
Miriam DeCock
Philosophical Aspects of the Formation of Christian Discourse
5. Spiritual Life and Philosophical Reason: Features of
Philosophical Exegesis in Origen’s Commentary on John . . . . . . . . . 109
Alfons Fürst
6. The Contact Theories of Epistemology in Aristotle and
Gregory Nazianzen: “then shall I know, even as also I am known”
(1 Cor 13:12)  .................................................... 125
Anna Usacheva
vi Table of Contents
Institutional Aspects of the Formation of Christian Discourse
7. Catechetical Exegesis: Cyril of Jerusalem’s Use of Biblical
Exegesis in His Catechetical Lectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Anders Christian Jacobsen
8. Biblical Techniques for the Interpretation of the Nicene Creed:
the Case of Athanasius’ De synodis  ............................. 161
Samuel Fernández
9. Ipsius domini et apostolorum habemus exemplum et praecepta:
Functions of the Biblical Text in De ecclesiastics officiis of
Isidore of Seville  ............................................... 175
Sergey Vorontsov
Textual Aspects of the Formation of Christian Discourse
10. A New Look at Enoch and Elijah in the Apocalypse of Elijah  ..... 197
Ivan Miroshnikov and Alexey Somov
11. Beyond the Text; the Three Lives of Vat. Gr. 2306 +
Vat. Gr. 2061A + Crypt. A.δ.XXIII  ................................ 225
Luisa Fizzarotti
Information about the Authors of the Volume  .................. 247
Introduction
Usacheva, Jacobsen
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος
Jn 1:1
In principio erat verbum
Ieronimus
In principio erat sermo
Erasmus
Neither the eloquent and passionate words of the Apologia de In Principio Erat
Sermo, nor the elaborated demonstration of the advantages of his new transla-
tion of the Gospel according to John had persuaded the opponents of Erasmus
to validate his replacement of “the word” in the famous Jn 1:1 with “the conver-
sation”. Though closer to the original Greek text, the new translation was not
accepted because it challenged the traditional mindset and horizon of expec-
tations of the Catholic community of the Quattrocento. Scandalized by such
a reaction, Erasmus seethed with indignation against opponents who did not
understand that the issue was above all one of interpretation of the Latin and
was not a purely theological matter.
This short example sheds light on the long-standing tradition of reading the
Bible and all Jewish and Christian religious and philosophical texts through
the prism of Christian dogma. Curiously, the very words “word” vs “conversa-
tion” describe symbolically the nature of the tension between the one-way
doctrinal reading of the Jewish and Christian texts and a more open-minded
and divergent scholarly approach which provides scope for questioning and
investigating the Christian heritage.
Even nowadays this tension has not entirely evaporated from Patristic re-
search. How useful is it to the academic community to see in the writings of
Christian authors not only witnesses of their faith but also a work of literature
carrying with it the shreds of the historical, socio-cultural, institutional, politi-
cal, rhetorical and philosophical circumstances of their time, circumstances
that influenced the way these authors spoke about their faith? In other words,
how productive is it to consider Christian literature as literature (sic!), which
obeys certain rules of literary production, applies certain literary and rhetori-
cal techniques and reflects the horizon of the philosophical, theological, insti-
tutional and also literary expectations of its time? These questions were placed
before the participants of the International Multidisciplinary Conference enti-
tled “Theology as a Way of Reception of Bible: Invention or Fiction of the Patristic
Epoch?”. Held by the University of Aarhus on 1–4 June 2017, the meeting
viii Usacheva, Jacobsen
became the final accord of the Marie Skłodowska Curie Individual Research
Project devoted to the study of the Theological Orations of Gregory Nazianzen
in the intellectual context of Late Antiquity. The main goal of the conference
was to encourage specialists working with different aspects of the Christian lit-
erary heritage to meet and discuss their research approaches to Christian writ-
ings, whose status in most cases can be loosely described as a cross between
historical documentary and literary fiction. Papyrologists and paleographers,
biblical scholars, theologians and patrologists shared their experience of inves-
tigating Christian literature qua literature and also of studying how the rules,
techniques and criteria of text-writing and text-reading had eventually found
an echo in the formation of Christian discourse.
This Conference in Denmark continued the discussion started in 2015 at the
conference in Tours entitled “Dire Dieu ou Comment parler et écrire sur Dieu
selon les Pères de l’Église”, organized by Bernard Pouderon, within the program
Christophe Plantin of the Centre d’études supérieures de la Renaissance, at-
tached to the Université François-Rabelais de Tours. The first conference in
France, which attracted twelve European scholars from different Academic
Institutions, stimulated a vibrant discussion of the methodological aspects of
patristic discourse and resulted in a collective volume entitled “Dire Dieu. Les
principes méthodologiques de l’écriture sur Dieu en patristique” (B. Pouderon,
A. Usacheva (eds.), Collection Théologie historique, Th. No 124, Les Éditions
Beauchesne, 2017). The second conference in Denmark summoned sixteen
scholars from Europe, the United States and Latin America. The fascinating
discussion of various significant principles of Christian literary production
showed that these literary principles had a considerable influence on the for-
mation of Christian discourse. Thus, Biblical and philosophical hermeneutics,
institutional factors and even the manuscript culture and textual transmission
of Late Antiquity modified and shaped the way Christian thinkers wrote and
thought about God.
This volume inspired by the Conference in Denmark seeks to explore ex-
amples of the discernible effects of exegetic principles, Church policies and
practices, and characteristics of literary culture, on the theological ideas of
Christian authors. Accordingly, the four sections of the volume survey herme-
neutical, philosophical, institutional and textual aspects of the formation of
Christian discourse. The first article by Bernard Pouderon opens the section
devoted to the Hermeneutic Aspects of the Formation of Christian Discourse.
Pouderon studies the so-called Kerygmata Petrou (Preachings of Peter) in the
Clementine Homilies. In this text, various rhetorical strategies are employed for
the sake of the argument. Thus, the editor of the Clementines creates in his
writing an atmosphere of secrecy and esoterism. He proceeds slowly to unravel
Introduction ix
his divine knowledge to the narrow circle of the advanced adherents worthy
of the honour. The intrigue shapes the whole dialogue of Peter and Simon and
is resolved only at the end, where Peter condemns the esoteric doctrine of his
opponent. Pouderon argues that Peter and Simon symbolise two competing
“gnostic” or “esoteric” doctrines, which insist on the unique truth which each
of them reveals. He associates the teaching of Simon with the tradition estab-
lished by Marcion and identifies echoes of traditional Judaism in the teaching
of Peter. It is remarkable that although Simon and Peter are equally sceptical
towards dialectics and the power of logical argumentation, they both demon-
strate remarkable rhetorical skills which help them in their discourse.
Valentina Marchetto in her contribution critically examines the wide range
of patristic witnesses to the doctrine of Jovinian, which has a long tradition of
a somewhat biased confessional interpretation. In order to sufficiently con-
textualize Jovinian’s ideas about baptism and other sacraments, and especial-
ly about marriage and celibacy, Marchetto reviews the relevant views of his
contemporaries and the historical circumstances of the Jovinian debate. She
concentrates particularly on a parallel analysis of the debate between Jerome
and Jovinian concerned with ecclesiastic, sacramental and ascetic doctrines
and revolving around John 17:20–21. The conflicting theological concepts of
Jerome and Jovinian guided their contrasting interpretations of the same bib-
lical passage. While Jerome depicted his opponent as a serious threat to ortho-
dox ecclesiology, Marchetto points out that the main ambition of his teaching
consisted in reassessing the status of monks, whose modus vivendi, he argues,
had no superiority over that of married Christians.
The article of Isabelle Bochet studies Hermeneutics of the New Testament
in Contra Faustum Manichaeum by Augustine. While both Augustine and his
opponent intended to reveal the true interpretation of the New Testament
texts, they arrived at incompatible interpretations as a result of their contrast-
ing theologies. The practice of exegesis based on assumptions that are foreign
to the text itself calls into question the validity of such biased interpretations.
If we accept that the patristic technique for mastering a biblical text is simply a
matter of purely doctrinal preferences, we come close to proclaiming the theo-
logical perception of the Bible a mere fiction. Consequently, the keen interest
Manicheans showed in a primitive form of biblical criticism could hardly be re-
garded as less correct than contemporary literary criticism or Augustine’s theo-
logical interpretation. To clarify these questions, Bochet thoroughly examines
the hermeneutic principles both authors applied to the New Testament. She
concludes her scrutiny by demonstrating that Augustine’s interpretation has
the advantage of canonic consistency because, as opposed to the Manicheans,
the orthodox tradition did not deprive certain biblical texts of sacred status.
x Usacheva, Jacobsen
Thus, in Bochet’s argumentation, the fact that orthodox authors interpreted
texts which they considered sacred, while Manicheans criticized the authen-
ticity of texts that had no special value for them, eventually resolved the her-
meneutic dispute between Augustine and Faustus in favour of the bishop
of Hippo.
Miriam DeCock focuses her attention on the principle of the Bible’s use-
fulness in the exegeses of Origen and John Chrysostom. Familiar from Plato’s
Respublica and Cicero’s De Inventione, the principle of the usefulness of the
text was deeply rooted in Hellenic culture. Christian authors also sought to
demonstrate the benefits or usefulness of the Holy Scripture. DeCock ex-
amines the ways in which Origen and John Chrysostom argued for the use-
fulness of two passages from the Gospel according to John: The Cleansing of
the Temple and The Woman at the Well. DeCock demonstrates that although
both authors were eager to show the usefulness of the biblical text, nonethe-
less their methods of unearthing the proofs of this usefulness as well as the
discovered benefits of the text were different. Origen insisted that one must
penetrate below the surface of the biblical text to discern its ultimate useful-
ness, while Chrysostom was content with the literal text’s benefits. However,
DeCock also shows that Origen often read non-literally, but that he turned to
non-literal reading when the text presented him with some sort of exegetical
or philological problem. Thus, DeCock demonstrates a principal methodologi-
cal distinction between the two traditions of Christian exegesis, namely, their
perception of the ways in which the biblical text could be explained as useful.
The next section of the volume, devoted to Philosophical Aspects of the
Formation of Christian Discourse, is opened by Alfons Fürst and his study of
the features of philosophical exegesis in Origen’s Commentary on John. Fürst
scrutinizes grammatical, philological, exegetical and also philosophical as-
pects of Origen’s hermeneutics. He argues that a fundamental interconnection
between exegesis and philosophy was an integral characteristic of Adamantius’
biblical studies, which identifies him as an adherent of the intellectual tra-
dition of the Hellenic philosophical schools. In such a way, Origen applied
technical philosophical terminology and used the prolegomena of philosophi-
cal schools in his theological discourse. Struggling with the obscurity of the
biblical texts, Origen not only explicated enigmatic passages with the aid of
clear passages but also used knowledge of various fields of ancient science.
In the background of the concept of ἐπίνοιαι, which helped Origen to explain
the different biblical names of Christ, was the theory of homonymy developed
by Hellenic philologists and philosophers. Fürst emphasizes the significance
of Origen’s metaphysics of freedom developed in the Commentary of John.
Skeptical of the natural determinism of the human constitution, Origen placed