Clement of Alexandria on Trial (Vigiliae Christianae,)

204 Pages·2010·2.59 MB·English

by  Ashwin-Siejkowski

Clement of Alexandria on Trial
Supplements
to
Vigiliae Christianae
Texts and Studies of Early Christian
Life and Language
Editors
J. den Boeft
B.D. Ehrman
J. van Oort
D.T. Runia
C. Scholten
J.C.M. van Winden
VOLUME 101
Clement of Alexandria on Trial
The Evidence of ‘Heresy’ from Photius’
Bibliotheca
By
Piotr Ashwin-Siejkowski
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2010
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ashwin-Siejkowski, Piotr, 1964-
Clement of Alexandria on trial : the evidence of “heresy” from Photius’ Bibliotheca /
by Piotr Ashwin-Siejkowski.
p. cm. — (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae, ISSN 0920-623X ; v. 101)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-17627-0 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Christian heresies—History—Early church, ca. 30-600. 2. Clement, of Alexandria, Saint,
ca. 150-ca. 215. Outlines. 3. Photius I, Saint, Patriarch of Constantinople, ca. 820-ca. 891.
Bibliotheca. Codex 109. I. Title. II. Series.
BR65.C65O983733 2010
230’.13092—dc22
2009051703
ISSN 0920-623x
ISBN 978 90 04 176 270
Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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printed in the netherlands
contents v
For my family
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contents vii
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
List of Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Note on Translations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1. Photios and his Political and Cultural Background . . . . . . 5
2. The Bibliotheca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3. Clement of Alexandria as seen by Photios . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4. Structure of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
PART ONE: METAPHYSICS
Chapter One
The Existence of Eternal Matter and the Eternity of Ideas . . . . 23
1. The Philosophical Background of Clement’s Thought . . . 24
2. Philo of Alexandria as an Important Precursor of
Clement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3. Clement’s own Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4. Clement’s Opinion about the Eternity of Matter . . . . . . . . 34
5. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Chapter Two
The Belief in Many Worlds before the Creation of Adam . . . . 39
1. Heraclitus of Ephesus and his Influence on Clement’s
Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2. The Role of Jewish and Jewish-Christian Apocalyptic . . . 44
3. The Evidence from Book 5 of the Stromateis . . . . . . . . . . . 46
PART TWO: LOGOS-THEOLOGY
Chapter Three
The Teachings about Two Logoi of the Father . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
1. Philo of Alexandria and the Nature of the Logos . . . . . . . 58
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2. Valentinian Exegesis of the Prologue to John’s Gospel
and the Logos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Chapter Four
The Assumption that the Son of God
is a Creature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
1. The Origin of the Logos in Philo of Alexandria’s
Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
2. Sapiential and Jewish-Christian Narratives and Clement’s
U nderstanding of the Origin of the Logos . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
3. The Evidence from the Excerpta ex Theodoto . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4. The Gnostic γενεά as the Challenge to Logos-Theology . . 88
Chapter Five
The Docetic View of Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
1 Controversies over the Logos’ Body in Clement’s Oeuvre . 96
2. Docetic Christology: The Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
PART THREE: ANTHROPOLOGY
Chapter Six
The Transmigration of Souls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
1. Metempsychosis as a Philosophical Issue in Clement’s
Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
2. Reincarnation in Clement’s Surviving Works . . . . . . . . . . 120
Chapter Seven
The Creation of Eve from Adam in a Blasphemous and
Shameful Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
1. Eve as a Literary Motif in Early Christian and Gnostic
Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
2. Eve as a Metaphor in Philo’s Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
3. Eve in Clement’s Hermeneutics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Chapter Eight
The Sexual Encounters of Angels with Human Women and the
Children Conceived . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
1. Genesis 6.2-4 as the crux interpretatorum . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
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2. Genesis 6.2-4 and its Challenge to Clement’s
Hermeneutics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
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