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Studies in the Apologists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

Robert M. Grant
Robert M. Grant
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Extract

The theology of Tatian is difficult to classify. Should one regard its author as a philosopher, as Professor Wolfson does? or as a student of “the homilies of Philo”? or as a writer who made use, even indirectly, of the Parmenides of Plato? In order to answer this question we must inquire first what he knows of Greek philosophy and second what else he knows in regard to Graeco-Roman literary culture.

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Type
Research Article
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Harvard Theological Review , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , July 1958, pp. 123 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1958

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References

1 The Philosophy of the Church Fathers, I (Cambridge, 1956), 11–12Google Scholar.

2 Ibid., 12.

3 Ibid., 296–97.

4 Cf. H. von Arnim, Stoicorum veterum fragmenta, I, 109 and 159.

5 Cf. Festugière, A.-J., L'idéal religieux des grecs et l'évangile (ed. 2, Paris, 1932), 224–31Google Scholar; the doctrine is not Aristotle's, though often ascribed to him in the Graeco-Roman period. Tatian himself ascribes it to later Peripatetics.

6 Cf. H. Diels, “Laterculi Alexandrini,” Abhandlungen … Berlin, 1904 (Philos.- hist. Classe, 2); Hippolytus, Chron. 235–37 (pp. 90–93 Helm); Marrou, H.-I., Histoire de l'éducation dans l'antiquité (Paris, 1950), 232–34Google Scholar.

7 Tatian's mention of Hegesias (a mythographer according to A. Gellius, Att. noct. 9, 4, 3) illustrates the problems of editors and critics. The Modena and Venice manuscripts, followed by Schwartz, correctly read “Hegesias,” or rather “Hegesiou.” The Paris manuscript and its copies read “Hegesilaou,” Otto emended this to “Akousilaou.” Geffcken emended “Hegesiou” to “Hegesianakos” and on this ground proceeded to criticize Tatian's stupidity.

8 On him cf. W. Nestle in Pauly-Wissowa, RE XV, 1476–77. Tatian's remarks, compared with other fragments, suggest that he either had read the book or was acquainted with its contents from another source.

9 Compare the discussion of Augustine's erudition by Marrou, H.-I., Saint Augustin et la fin de la culture antique (Paris, 1938; repr. 1949), 128–35.Google Scholar

10 Schneider, R., Apollonii Dyscoli fragmenta (Leipzig, 1910), 78Google Scholar; cf. Sextus Empiricus, Pyrrh. 3, 142–46.

11 Cf. Texte und Untersuchungen 63 (Berlin, 1957), 297–98; also E. Peterson in Vigiliae Christianae 3 (1949), 158.

12 Fragments in the edition of Schwartz, pp. 49–50.

13 Cf. Origen, De orat. 24, 5; Clement, Ecl. proph. 38, 1. For the Iliad, Apollonius Dyscolus, De syntaxe 3, 66, p. 332, 7 Uhlig. The question goes back to Protagoras; cf. Gudeman in Pauly-Wissowa, RE VII, 1782. For biblical usage cf. the examples collected by Origen, loc. cit.

14 Sextus Empiricus, Adv. math. 1, 87–89.

15 Ibid., 1, 286–91.

16 Ibid., 2, 40–42.

17 Ibid., 1, 142–48.

18 Von Arnim, Stoicorum veterum fragmenta, II, 223; Sextus Empiricus, Adv. math. 8, 275.

19 Or. 5, p. 5, 21–27 Schwartz.

20 Sextus Empiricus, Adv. math, 1, 159–68.

21 De syntaxe 1, 7, p. 7 Uhlig.

22 Definitions in Liddell-Scott-Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, s. v.; also Uhlig, G., Apollonii Dyscoli De constructione libri quattuor (Leipzig, 1910), 529Google Scholar (index, s. v. merismos).

23 Liddell-Scott-Jones, op. cit., s. v.

24 Or. 5, p. 6, 7–12 Schwartz.

25 The expression seems to be derived from memories of Democritus' doctrine that “teaching brings men into proper rhythm” (Clement, Str. 4, 129, 4). Tatian knows something about Democritus; cf. Or. 17, p. 18, 12 Schwartz; but he thinks he wrote On sympathies and antipathies. Cf. J. H. Waszink, Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum, II, s. v. Bolos.

26 Zwei griechischen Apologeten (Leipzig, 1907), 270; cf. also Puech, A., Les apologistes grecs (Paris, 1912), 232–50Google Scholar; Cassamassa, A., Gli apologisti greci (Rome, 1944), 95–99Google Scholar; Pellegrino, M., Gli apologeti greci del ii secolo (Rome, 1947), 203–39Google Scholar; Alfonsi, L. in Vigiliae Christianae 2 (1948), 65–88Google Scholar (on traces of the early Aristotle).

27 In Photius, Bbl. 232; Migne, PG 103, 1099D.

28 Passages noted by Otto, J. C. T., Corpus apologetarum christianorum saeculi secundi III (Jena, 1879), 316.Google Scholar

29 Geffcken, J., Oracula Sibyllina (Leipzig, 1902), 4Google Scholar (on lines 85–91); cf. Mras, K. in Wiener Studien 28 (1906), 72–73Google Scholar; for a date between 474 and 501 (or 507/8), ibid., 80.

30 On such imitations cf. G. Quispel in Ned. theol. Tijdschrift 5 (1950–51), 43–46.

31 As Geffcken observed, op. cit., 269–70.

32 Cf. Diels, H., Doxographi Graeci (Berlin, 1879), 17 and 261.Google Scholar

33 Africanus in Eusebius, Praep. ev. 10, 10, 15–18; cf. Harnack, A., Chronologie der altchristlichen Literatur II (Leipzig, 1904), 151–58; 545–48.Google Scholar

34 Geffcken, J., Der Ausgang des griechisch-römischen Heidentums (Heidelberg, 1920), 59Google Scholar; Nock, A. D. in Revue des études anciennes 30 (1928), 283CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 Cf. Peterson, E., ΕΙΣ ϴΕΟΣ (Göttingen, 1926), 241–45Google Scholar; Nilsson, M. P., Geschichte der griechischen Religion II (Munich, 1950), 457–58Google Scholar; on Orphic forgeries, K. Ziegler in Pauly-Wissowa, RE XVIII 1, 1398–99.

36 Cf. Peterson, E., Theologische Traktate (Munich, 1950), 49–62Google Scholar, on the use of Iliad 2, 204.

37 Posidonius in Cicero, De natura deorum 1, 85. 123; Usener, H., Epicurea (Leipzig, 1887), 103Google Scholar; Festugière, A. J., Épicure et ses dieux (Paris, 1946), 91Google Scholar.

38 Frag. 30 Leemans; Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13, 4, 3.

39 Ioh. comm. 13, 25, p. 248, 27 Preuschen; cf. Contra Celsum 2, 6, p. 132, 24 Koetschau; 6, 23, p. 93, 21.

40 A late legend; cf. Procopius, Bell. 8, 6, 20; also Phillippson in RE VI, 1282.

41 A topic discussed by Strabo (Geog. 9, 3, 5, c. 419) and by Plutarch, De Pyth. orac; cf. Chadwick, H., Origen Contra Celsum (Cambridge, 1953), 440.Google Scholar

42 Cf. Scott, W. — Ferguson, A S., Hermetica IV (Oxford, 1936), 6–7Google Scholar; there is no good reason to emend to “Agathos daimon.”

43 For this Hermetic fragment cf. Nock, A. D. — Festugière, A. J., Hermès Trismégiste III (Paris, 1954), 2 and xiii–xiv.Google Scholar