Paul M. Blowers
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199660414
- eISBN:
- 9780191745980
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199660414.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies, Theology
Chapter 3 explores the most important legacies of Hellenistic Jewish cosmology for early Christian doctrine on Creator and creation. “Hellenistic-Jewish cosmology” is not a single finalized system or ...
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Chapter 3 explores the most important legacies of Hellenistic Jewish cosmology for early Christian doctrine on Creator and creation. “Hellenistic-Jewish cosmology” is not a single finalized system or worldview operative among Jewish communities in the Diaspora that had made their ultimate peace with Greco-Roman thought. The diverse literature of Second Temple Judaism, rather, evidences a complex process of critical adaptation and reformulation, providing important precedents for early Christianity on a number of levels, including the connection of cosmology and moral wisdom. The Wisdom of Solomon and Philo of Alexandria were indisputably the two most influential Hellenistic Jewish sources on patristic theologians. Wisdom of Solomon, in particular, projected a new teleology of creation, an integrative worldview that tied together the origins and destiny of material creation against the backdrop of God’s immanent action in the “meantime” of salvation history. Philo’s profound influence is assessed in terms of his nuanced philosophical interpretation of the “beginning” in Genesis 1, his ambiguous but important teaching on creation ex nihilo, and his highly sophisticated theory about “simultaneous” and “double” (ideal and actual) creation.Less
Chapter 3 explores the most important legacies of Hellenistic Jewish cosmology for early Christian doctrine on Creator and creation. “Hellenistic-Jewish cosmology” is not a single finalized system or worldview operative among Jewish communities in the Diaspora that had made their ultimate peace with Greco-Roman thought. The diverse literature of Second Temple Judaism, rather, evidences a complex process of critical adaptation and reformulation, providing important precedents for early Christianity on a number of levels, including the connection of cosmology and moral wisdom. The Wisdom of Solomon and Philo of Alexandria were indisputably the two most influential Hellenistic Jewish sources on patristic theologians. Wisdom of Solomon, in particular, projected a new teleology of creation, an integrative worldview that tied together the origins and destiny of material creation against the backdrop of God’s immanent action in the “meantime” of salvation history. Philo’s profound influence is assessed in terms of his nuanced philosophical interpretation of the “beginning” in Genesis 1, his ambiguous but important teaching on creation ex nihilo, and his highly sophisticated theory about “simultaneous” and “double” (ideal and actual) creation.
Geoffrey Mark Hahneman
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198263418
- eISBN:
- 9780191682537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198263418.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies, Early Christian Studies
There is clearly a strong case for proposing that the Fragment is an Eastern list of New Testament works originating from the fourth century. This provenance is supported by many details. Eusebius ...
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There is clearly a strong case for proposing that the Fragment is an Eastern list of New Testament works originating from the fourth century. This provenance is supported by many details. Eusebius appears to be the individual within the history of the Canon who developed and prompted New Testament catalogues, and thus the Fragment most probably derives from some time after Eusebius. Several remarkable parallels with Epiphanius would seem to confirm a Syrian/Palestinian provenance around 375 for the Fragment, specifically the inclusion of the Wisdom of Solomon in a New Testament catalogue, the mention of a Marcionite Laodiceans and the presence of Revelation without comment. These, combined with the public reading of the Revelation of Peter noted in the Fragment and Sozomen, and various similarities with Jerome (392), seem to confirm that the Muratorian Fragment is not a Western late second-century document, but is instead a late fourth-century Eastern catalogue.Less
There is clearly a strong case for proposing that the Fragment is an Eastern list of New Testament works originating from the fourth century. This provenance is supported by many details. Eusebius appears to be the individual within the history of the Canon who developed and prompted New Testament catalogues, and thus the Fragment most probably derives from some time after Eusebius. Several remarkable parallels with Epiphanius would seem to confirm a Syrian/Palestinian provenance around 375 for the Fragment, specifically the inclusion of the Wisdom of Solomon in a New Testament catalogue, the mention of a Marcionite Laodiceans and the presence of Revelation without comment. These, combined with the public reading of the Revelation of Peter noted in the Fragment and Sozomen, and various similarities with Jerome (392), seem to confirm that the Muratorian Fragment is not a Western late second-century document, but is instead a late fourth-century Eastern catalogue.
Michael C. Legaspi
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190885120
- eISBN:
- 9780190885151
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190885120.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies, Early Christian Studies
Aristobulus and the author of Wisdom of Solomon conceived of wisdom in much the same way that earlier Greek, non-Jewish thinkers did: as knowledge of the whole—of things human, cosmic, and ...
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Aristobulus and the author of Wisdom of Solomon conceived of wisdom in much the same way that earlier Greek, non-Jewish thinkers did: as knowledge of the whole—of things human, cosmic, and divine—which underlies, requires, and informs the life of virtue. Moreover, they readily identified sophia with wisdom as found in the Jewish scriptures, especially in the figure of Solomon and in the Pentateuchal narratives. Their engagement with the scriptures yields a wisdom program centered on rational monotheism, virtue, and the hope of immortality. This program, however, was also characterized by a strong emphasis on the national form of wisdom. In its capacity as ruling knowledge, wisdom must also belong to human leaders. Understanding wisdom in these terms, as that which brings the metaphysical, cosmic, social, and personal into harmony, Hellenistic Jews commended their way of life to the nations.Less
Aristobulus and the author of Wisdom of Solomon conceived of wisdom in much the same way that earlier Greek, non-Jewish thinkers did: as knowledge of the whole—of things human, cosmic, and divine—which underlies, requires, and informs the life of virtue. Moreover, they readily identified sophia with wisdom as found in the Jewish scriptures, especially in the figure of Solomon and in the Pentateuchal narratives. Their engagement with the scriptures yields a wisdom program centered on rational monotheism, virtue, and the hope of immortality. This program, however, was also characterized by a strong emphasis on the national form of wisdom. In its capacity as ruling knowledge, wisdom must also belong to human leaders. Understanding wisdom in these terms, as that which brings the metaphysical, cosmic, social, and personal into harmony, Hellenistic Jews commended their way of life to the nations.
