Adam and the Logos: Aphrahat’s Christology in Demonstration 17 and the “Imponderables of Hellenization”
Aphrahat’s presumed unawareness of contemporary theological developments has often puzzled scholars, who as a result have deemed his theological views “archaic” and bereft of any Hellenic influence. This image, which has begun to be questioned by a series of studies, can be further corrected by an e...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
De Gruyter
2016
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| In: |
Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum
Year: 2016, Volume: 20, Issue: 3, Pages: 437-468 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Aphraates, Taḥwyāṯā
/ Christology
/ Adam, Biblical person
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| IxTheo Classification: | HB Old Testament KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity NBF Christology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Aphrahat’s presumed unawareness of contemporary theological developments has often puzzled scholars, who as a result have deemed his theological views “archaic” and bereft of any Hellenic influence. This image, which has begun to be questioned by a series of studies, can be further corrected by an examination of the central section, dealing with the begetting of Adam, of a Demonstration devoted to proving “that Christ is God and Son of God” (= Dem. 17). The paper argues that in this passage Aphrahat is indebted to an exegetical tradition, attested by Philo of Alexandria, which read in the double account of the creation of Adam in Genesis (1:26–27 and 2:7) a two-staged making of the protoplast. It further proposes that Aphrahat fine-tuned this interpretation through the application to Adam of the prolation of the Logos, a schema that had in Philo its most prominent attestation and had been long appropriated by Greek Christian writers. Finally, it suggests that Demonstration 17 integrates the schema of the prolation with an Adamitic Christology, thus merging theological models traditionally linked to two cultural worlds (respectively Hellenic and Semitic) often posited as largely separate.The avowed model of the second part of my subtitle is Philippe Derchain, Les impondérables de l’hellénisation: Littérature d’hiérogrammates (Monographies Reine Elisabeth 7; Turnhout: Brepols, 2000). |
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| ISSN: | 1612-961X |
| Contains: | In: Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/zac-2016-0046 |