“They Saw What They Said They Saw”: Sense Knowledge in Early Christian Polemic

1988 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Hauck
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
Sense Perception ◽  
Human Form ◽  
Knowledge Of God ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Divine Knowledge ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Common Shape

A curious parallel exists between two early Christian discussions of prophetic or divine knowledge. Both deal with the Christian problem of sense knowledge about the divine in a thought world dominated by Platonic thinking: how can Christians base their knowledge of the divine upon the reports of the apostles who claim to have seen God in a human shape? The first of these discussions arises from criticisms from outside; Celsus, the second-century Platonist critic of Christianity, calls the Christians a carnal race who say that God is corporeal and has a human form, and complains, “How are they to know God unless they lay hold of him by sense-perception?” (C. Cel. 7.27, 37). The second comes from within the Christian camp, and is to be found in the Clementine Homilies. In this rather enigmatic text Simon Magus, the arch-heretic, accuses Peter in his reliance upon his apostolic experience of “introducing God in a shape,” and opposes to apostolic sense knowledge his own visionary experiences (Hom. 17.3). The examination of these two texts demonstrates that in their common terms and the common shape of their arguments the issue of the knowledge of the apostles was common in Christian polemics. It was also a problem for philosophically minded Christians who would prefer to place the knowledge of God, even if historically mediated by Jesus, in the intelligible knowledge of the soul, rather than in the senses.

The Power of God in Some Early Christian Texts

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Edwards
Keyword(s):  
First Principles ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Clement Of Alexandria ◽  
Philosophical School ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Common ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
Power Of God

This chapter delineates a typology of the power of God in early Christian sources, including the New Testament, Justin Martyr, and other apologists of the second century, such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Athanasius. It argues that any investigation of the concept of dunamis in early Christian writings must begin with an acknowledgement of the Scriptures, maintaining that late antique Christianity should be considered as a distinct philosophical school, which had its own first principles, interpreted its own texts, and gave its own sense to terms that it used in common with other schools. Thus, a specifically Christian notion of divine power could have been born of reflection on the common ‘reservoir’ of Christian thought, any other influence being strictly secondary.

Marcionites, Early Christians, and Knowledge of God

2021 ◽  
pp. 149-169
Author(s):  
Claire Hall
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Knowledge Of God ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Divine Knowledge ◽  
The World

The Marcionite movement of the mid 2nd century rejected the Old Testament God, claiming that he was separate from the God of Christ. The Marcionite movement posed difficult questions about prophecy: what it was, who had access to it, and what we could know from it. Particularly, the Marcionites questioned the long distant past of the Israelite prophets, throwing doubt on their legitimacy and on whether they could be relied on as sources of true divine knowledge. But they also prompted discussions on a number of related theological issues: in particular, what does it mean to know God and Christ? What does it mean to know the world through prophecy? And what can we say about God in a world in which scripture is not the basis of sound knowledge? This chapter tracks these two closely related strands, examining Marcionite theological views and how they fit into the broader picture of pagan Greek and early Christian epistemology. It provides the context in which to understand Origen’s anti-Marcionite writings and his epistemology, both issues of prime importance for understanding his view of prophecy.

Divine Sensations: Sensory Language and Rhetoric in Bernard of Clairvaux's ‘On Conversion’

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-77
Author(s):  
Line Cecilie Engh
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Song Of Songs ◽  
Sense Perception ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Human Sense ◽  
Taste And Smell ◽  
Central Claim

What does it mean to speak of God in a sensory language? Christian exegetes in the middle ages were steeped in a Biblical language of visions and voices, not to mention the anthropomorphic and sensual imagery of the Song of Songs. Although they had inherited early Christian theologians' distrust towards human sense perception, medieval preachers and theologians from the twelfth century onwards talked about divinity in metaphorical language that systematically evoked not just seeing and hearing, but also the senses of touch, taste, and smell. This article discusses the wildly imagistic, sensory, and sensual language of the Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux. Focusing on Bernard's sermon ‘On Conversion’ ( De conversione), given in Paris in 1140, I will interrogate the underlying theoretical assumptions in Bernard's rich rhetoric, and his emphasis on the senses. The central claim I make is that in these representations of the divine, embodied experience is both affirmed and negated at the same time. To bring out this point, I will consider why medieval Christian writers such as Bernard of Clairvaux and Peter the Venerable regarded Jewish and Muslim exegetes' ‘carnal’ hermeneutics—and the latter's use of sensual and sensuous imagery to convey conceptions of divine bliss—as radically different from their own approaches.

The First Resurrection Appearance and the Ending of Mark's Gospel

1972 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 308-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. W. Trompf
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Second Line ◽  
Mary Magdalene ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Christian Literature ◽  
The Common ◽  
The One

Early Christian literature leaves us with apparently conflicting traditions about the first appearance of the risen Lord, although these traditions can be reduced to at least two main classes. On the one hand, some writers give Peter pride of place; he heads the list in Paul's ‘official’ παράδοσις of I Corinthians xv, and takes priority in both Luke (xxiv. 34) and the late second-centuryGospel of Peter(xiii. 57 – xiv. 60). On the other hand, some connect women with the first appearance; Matthew presents an albeit brief account of Jesus meeting the three women who had visited the tomb (xxviii. 9–10), whilst John (xx. 11–18) and the longer ending of Mark (xvi. 9) single out Mary Magdalene as the special recipient of the first appearance. As appearances of the resurrected kúpios came to acquire importance for the early Church in establishing apostolic authenticity and leadership, it is surprising that this second line of tradition persisted along with the contradictory ‘pro-Petrine’ material. Was it a source of embarrassment for those wishing to give pre-eminence to Peter? The question has usually been evaded because of the common supposition that Matthew was the first to ‘invent’ the tradition of such an appearance to women, so as to overcome ‘the impasse presented by Mark's (empty tomb) story’ before passing on towards the great summation of his Gospel; but it is also possible to affirm that Matthew (who is pro-Petrine enough, cf. xvi. 17–19) made astonishingly little out of this appearance, sparing as his comments are.

STRENX SECTION 900

Alloy Digest ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (7) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Fracture Toughness ◽  
High Strength ◽  
Bend Strength ◽  
Bend Channel ◽  
Cold Formed Steel ◽  
The Common ◽  
Hot Rolled ◽  
Common Shape ◽  
Minimum Yield ◽  
Steel Section

Abstract Strenx Section 900 is a cold-formed steel section made of hot-rolled, high-strength steel with a minimum yield strength of 900 MPa (131 ksi). Its high strength combined with naturally stiff form enables construction of stronger and lighter structures. The common shape is a U-bend channel. This datasheet provides information on composition, physical properties, tensile properties, and bend strength as well as fracture toughness. It also includes information on forming, machining, and joining. Filing Code: SA-792. Producer or source: SSAB Swedish Steel Inc..

Sexual Defilement in Early Christian Texts

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Blidstein
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Sexual Ethics ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The Family ◽  
Main Target ◽  
Christian Society

Chapter 7 demonstrates that sexual sin became the main target for purity discourse in early Christian texts, and attempts to explain why. Christian imagery of sexual defilement drew from a number of traditions—Greco-Roman sexual ethics, imagery of sexual sin from the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple texts, and both Jewish and pagan purity laws, all seen through the lens of Paul’s imagery of sexuality and sexual sin. Two broad currents characterized Christian sexual ethics in the second century: one upheld marriage and the family as the basis for a holy Christian society and church, while the second rejected all sexuality, including in marriage. Writers of both currents made heavy use of defilement imagery. For the first, sexual sin was a dangerous defilement, contaminating the Christian community and severing it from God. For the second, more radical current, sexuality itself was the defilement; virginity or continence alone were pure.

Connecting Gospels

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
Common Belief ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Single Field ◽  
Vantage Points ◽  
Canonical Texts ◽  
Normative Status ◽  
Two Bodies ◽  
Shed Light

By the late second century, early Christian gospels had been divided into two groups by a canonical boundary that assigned normative status to four of them while consigning their competitors to the margins. The project of this volume is to find ways to reconnect these divided texts. The primary aim is not to address the question whether the canonical/non-canonical distinction reflects substantive and objectively verifiable differences between the two bodies of texts—although that issue may arise at various points. Starting from the assumption that, in spite of their differences, all early gospels express a common belief in the absolute significance of Jesus and his earthly career, the intention is to make their interconnectedness fruitful for interpretation. The approach taken is thematic and comparative: a selected theme or topic is traced across two or more gospels on either side of the canonical boundary, and the resulting convergences and divergences shed light not least on the canonical texts themselves as they are read from new and unfamiliar vantage points. The outcome is to demonstrate that early gospel literature can be regarded as a single field of study, in contrast to the overwhelming predominance of the canonical four characteristic of traditional gospels scholarship.

scholarly journals Comprendre la loi ephebarchique d’Amphipolis

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 145
Author(s):  
Μιλτιάδης Χατζόπουλος
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Legal Document ◽  
The Common

The author of the present article reviews the objections that have been raised to Calliope Lazaridou’s and his own interpretation of the recently published ephebarchical law from Amphipolis. To this end he exposes the overall plan of this legal document, devoting a special section to two of its articles which present a problem. He then examines the objections that have been raised a) against the identity of the two existing copies, b) against the common inspiration of the ephebarchical law of Amphipolis and the gymnasiarchical law of Beroia, and against the connection between the ephebarchical law and writings of classical authors on the education of the young. He concludes that the text engraved in 24/3 B.C. reproduces the provisions of the ephebarchical law promulgated under the Antigonids in the frst third of the second century B.C.

scholarly journals Textual Criticism, Translation Studies, and Symmachus’s Version in the Book of Job

Textus ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Alison Salvesen
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Textual Criticism ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Book Of Job ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Variant Reading ◽  
Descriptive Translation Studies

Abstract The late second century CE translator/reviser Symmachus took a very different approach to the versions of his predecessor Aquila. His renderings do not appear to have survived in Jewish circles but were much admired by early Christian scholars, thanks to their preservation in Origen’s Hexapla. However, for textual critics of the Hebrew Bible Symmachus’ free approach has limited his value since his readings cannot be easily retroverted, unlike those of Aquila or Theodotion. In the case of the book of Job, although Symmachus’ “transformations” (to use a term from Descriptive Translation Studies) differ in nature from the freedoms observed in OG Job, while rejecting the narrow isomorphism of Aquila and Theodotion he nevertheless adheres quite closely to his Hebrew Vorlage. This offers the possibility of identifying elements significant for textual criticism in his rendering, including variant reading traditions or a different consonantal text.

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