By the Same Word: Creation and Salvation in Hellenistic Judaism and Early Christianity / Edition 1

by Ronald Cox

Overview

Middle Platonism explained how a transcendent principle could relate to the material world by positing an intermediary, modeled after the Stoic active cause, that mediated the supreme principle’s influence to the world while preserving its transcendence. Having similar concerns as Middle Platonism, Hellenistic Jewish sapientialism, early Christianity, and Gnosticism appropriated this intermediary doctrine as a means for understanding their relationship to God and to the cosmos. However, these traditions vary in their adaptation of this teaching due to their distinctive understanding of creation and humanity’s place therein. The Jewish writings of Philo of Alexandria and Wisdom of Solomon espouse a holistic ontology, combining a Platonic appreciation for noetic reality with an ultimately positive view of creation and its place in human fulfillment. The early Christians texts of 1 Cor 8:6, Col 1:15-20, Heb 1:2-3, and the prologue of John provide an eschatological twist to this ontology when the intermediary figure finds final expression in Jesus Christ. Contrarily, Poimandres (CH 1) and the Apocryphon of John, both associated with the traditional rubric “Gnosticism”, draw from Platonism to describe how creation is antithetical to human nature and its transcendent source.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783110193428
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	07/16/2007
Series:	Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft , #145
Pages:	406
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.06(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Ronald Cox, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction     1
The Fusion of Creation Myth and Salvation History     1
Identifying the Vorleben of the Christological Creation Myth     4
A Liturgical Vorleben     4
A Hebraic Sapiential Vorleben     6
A Hellenistic Jewish Vorleben     12
Hellenistic Sapiential and Exegetical Traditions     12
"Gnosticism"     16
A Middle Platonic Vorleben     20
One Cosmology, Three Soteriologies: A Study of the Appropriation of Middle Platonic Intermediary Doctrine by Hellenistic Sapientialism, Early Christianity and Gnosticism     24
The Question behind this Study     24
The Thesis of this Study     24
Methods and Methodological Caveats     25
Summary of Introduction     27
Middle Platonic Intermediary Doctrine     28
A Transcendent Supreme Principle     31
Demiurgic Activity and the Intermediate Principle     35
Prepositional Metaphysics     43
Excursus #1: The Prepositional Phrase [characters not reproducible]     47
The Anagogic Function of the Intermediate Principle     51
Summary of Chapter Two     55
Salvation as the Fulfillment of Creation: The Roles of the Divine Intermediary in Hellenistic Judaism     56
Wisdom of Solomon     58
Introduction     58
Sophia as Cosmological Agent in Wisdom of Solomon 6-10     61
Sophia's Ontology     64
Sophia's Cosmogonic Function     70
Sophia's Administration of the Cosmos     74
Sophia, Salvation and Anthropological Fulfillment     77
"She makes them friends of God"     77
Sophia and the Unity of Creation and "Salvation"     81
Excursus #2: Sophia and "Salvation History" in Wisdom of Solomon 10     83
Excursus #3: The Mystical and Philosophical Aspects of "Friendship with God"     84
Conclusion to "Wisdom of Solomon"     87
Philo of Alexandria     87
Introduction     87
The Questions of Intermediary Activity as they are Raised by Philo - Sacr. 8     91
God?     94
Between God and Creation: An Intermediary Nexus     96
The Many Names of the Intermediary     96
The Ways of Being of the Philonic Intermediary     99
The Functions of the Intermediate Nexus: The Logos of Cosmology     102
The Logos as Agent of Creation     103
The Instrumental Use of the Logos: The Logos as [characters not reproducible]     104
The Logos as Divider: The Logos as [characters not reproducible]     111
The Paradigmatic Use of the Logos: The Logos as [characters not reproducible]     116
"This teaching is Moses', not mine."     118
The [characters not reproducible] and the Form of Reason     122
Philo's Cosmological Ideas     125
The Stoic Aspect: The Logos and Cosmic [characters not reproducible]     127
The Anthropological Role of the Logos     130
A Page from Stoic Anthropology     130
The Logos and Psychic Anagogy     133
Conclusion to "Philo of Alexandria"     138
Summary of Chapter Three     140
Salvation as the Reparation of Creation: The Roles of the Divine Intermediary in New Testament Christology     141
Ontology and Eschatology in Conflict 1 Corinthians 8:6 - An Introductory Case Study     141
The Origin and Nature of 1 Cor 8:6     141
Function of Text     141
Origin of the Text     143
Whose Soteriology? Corinthian vs. Pauline Soteriology in 1 Cor 8:6     148
The Difficulty with Crediting Paul for Creating 1 Cor 8:6     148
The More Suitable Context: How 1 Cor 8:6 fits with the Corinthians' Thought     151
Seeking a Solution to the Question: From Whence Comes 1 Cor 8:6?     156
Eschatological vs. Ontological Anthropology     159
Conclusion to "1 Corinthians 8:6"     161
Colossians 1:15-20     161
Structure and Origin of Colossians 1:15-20     163
Structure     163
Origin     169
Cosmological Agency in Col 1:15-20     172
The Son's Ontological Status in Col 1:15     172
Cosmogonic Functions of the Son in Col 1:16     175
The Son as Continually Sustaining the Cosmos     180
Summary of the Cosmology of the Colossian Hymn     182
Soteriological Agency in Col 1:15-20     182
The Son's New Ontological Status     183
The Purpose (Clause) of the Second Strophe     184
The Son's Reparation of the Cosmos     185
Summary of the Soteriology of the Colossian Hymn     190
Interrelationship of Cosmology and Soteriology in Col 1:15-20     191
Hebrews 1:1-4     193
Origin and Nature of Hebrews 1:1-4     193
Structure     195
Source(s)?     199
Cosmology in Heb 1:2c and 3ab: The Son in relation to God and the Cosmos     204
Heb 1:2c: "through whom he made the ages"      205
Heb 1:3ab: "he who is the effulgence of his glory and impression of his nature bears all things by his powerful word"     207
Excursus #4: [characters not reproducible] and [characters not reproducible] in Philo and in Hebrews     211
Soteriology     219
Heb 1:2b: "whom he appointed heir of all things"     219
Heb 1:3cd: "when he made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high"     220
Interrelationship of Cosmology and Soteriology     223
The Johannine Prologue     227
Origin and Nature of the John Prologue     227
The Prologue's Cosmology: John 1:1-5     232
Ontology: the Divine Status of the Logos (John 1:1)     233
Cosmogony: the Creative Agency of the Logos (John 1:3, 10b)     235
Anthropological Sustenance: the Logos as Locus of Life and Light (John 1:3c-5)     238
Excursus #5: Logos-centric Interpretation of Genesis 1 in Philo of Alexandria and the Prologue to John     242
Soteriology     250
Soteriology in Strophe 2     251
The Logos in the World (John 1:10)     252
The Logos Among its Own (John 1:11)     253
The Children of the Logos (John 1:12ab)      254
Soteriology in Strophe 3     255
From Cosmology to Radical Historicization     257
Excursus #6: The Extent of Historicization of Hellenistic Sophialogical Intermediaries     258
Evidence from Proverbs, Sirach, 1 Enoch, Matthew, Gospel of Thomas     258
The Advent of Sophia in Wisdom of Solomon     261
Can the Philonic Logos Come Unto His Own?     264
The Problem of the [characters not reproducible]     269
Interrelationship of Soteriology and Cosmology in the Johannine Prologue     272
Summary of Chapter Four     275
Salvation as the Undoing of Creation: The Roles of the Divine Intermediary in "Gnosticism"     276
Corpus Hermeticum 1: "Poimandres"     284
Introduction     284
The Content of Corpus Hermeticum 1     286
The Religious and Intellectual Provenance of Corpus Hermeticum 1     288
Theology, Cosmology and Anthropology in the Corpus Hermeticum 1     292
Who is the First Principle in Poimandres?     292
Cosmogony in CH 1 and the Committee of Intermediaries     295
The Will of God and Forethought     295
The [characters not reproducible] and the Creation of the Formal Universe     296
The [characters not reproducible] and the Creation of the Material Universe     298
[characters not reproducible] and Anthropogony     300
Salvation in Poimandres: The Two Ways     303
Identifying the Ways     303
Excursus #7: Structure and Prepositional Phrases in CH 1.21     305
The Presence of Mind and the Ascent of the Soul     306
Conclusion: Shades of [characters not reproducible]     308
Summary of Poimandres' Presentation of Intermediaries     308
[characters not reproducible] The Calling of Hermes     311
The Apocryphon of John     313
Introduction     313
Sethianism     314
The Apocryphon of John     317
The Content and Composition of Ap. John     318
Similar Themes, Dissimilar Results     321
Intermediate Reality and the Cosmology of Ap. John     325
The Unknowable Monad Knows Himself     325
From Transcendent Monad to Father of the All     328
The Ontology of Barbelo     329
The Barbelo and (Celestial) Cosmogony     332
The Self Generated and the Origin of the All     336
Intermediate Reality and the Soteriology of the Apocryphon of John     338
Recasting the Anthropology of Genesis     339
Soteriological Anthropogony     341
Barbelo as Anagogue     343
Summary of Chapter Five     351
Conclusion     352
Thesis Statement     352
First Move - The Source Tradition: Middle Platonic Intermediary Doctrine     352
The Second Move - Hellenistic Jewish Sapientialism: The Divine Intermediary and the Fulfillment of Cosmology     353
Third Move - Early Christianity: The Divine Intermediary and the Reparation of Creation     354
Fourth Move: Gnosticism - The Divine Intermediary and the Undoing of Creation     355
Synthesis     356
Bibliography     358
Primary Sources     358
Secondary Sources     360
Index of Modern Authors     372
Index of Ancient Sources     375

Editorial Reviews

"[...] an impressive and provokative study."
William Adler in: The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 72/2010

"This is a through study of an important issue across three bodies of literature, showing their common yet different appropriation of Middle Platonic philosophy."
Lutz Doering in: Journal for the Study of the NT 31.5/2009

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