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The High God and the Mediator*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

Martin P. Nilsson
Martin P. Nilsson
Affiliation:
University of Lund, Lund, Sweden
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Extract

God is the Creator of the Universe, the Ruler of the Universe and of the Fate of man. He enjoins his commandments upon man, which man must keep. He is the High God, elevated above man and not to be reached by man. In antiquity he had no cult and no sacrifices, nor were prayers directed to him. Man believes in this God and fears him. But man needs also a God who is his helper, who cares for him in his sorrows and his anxiety. Man believes in this God and trusts him. These two differentconceptions of God are differently emphasized in different religions. The great achievement of Christianity was to combine the two; this conditioned and furthered its spread and its victory.

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Type
Research Article
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Harvard Theological Review , Volume 56 , Issue 2 , April 1963, pp. 101 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1963

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References

1 I have touched upon this subject in some places of the second edition of the second volume of my Geschichte der griechischen Religion (here cited as GGR), especially in the chapter on monotheism, pp. 569 ff.

2 Fragm. 23 Diels; cf. fragm. 24–26.

3 Xenophon, Memorabilia, I, 4 and IV, 3, especially § 13.

4 Cicero, De natura deorum, I, 32.

5 De mundo, ascribed to Aristotle but an eclectic work written in the first century A.D. Cf. my GGR, II, 2nd ed., pp. 297 ff.

6 Orphicorum fragmenta, ed. Kern, 21 a; cf. 168, on which see below, p. 103.

7 Seneca, Naturales quaestiones, II, 45.

8 Orphicorum fragmenta, ed. Kern, No. 245, V. 16, ἀσθενέες δ'ίδέειν Δία τòν πάντων μεδέοντα, V.I., τòν διὰ or τòν ἀεὶ.

9 See my paper, Die religiöse Begründung des Herrscherkults in the Yearbook of the New Society of Letters at Lund, 1962, pp. 122 ff.

10 Maximus Tyrius, Diss. XI, 5, P. 132, Hobein. Much more could be adduced. See, e.g., the quotations from the Panegyrici in G. Boissier, La fin du paganisme, 2 vol., 5th book, ch. 2: iv (7 ed., pp. 222 ff.), and especially the letter of Maximus of Madaura to St. Augustine, Epist., 16.

11 Origenes, c. Celsum, v, 41, cf. i, 24.

12 Dio Chrysost., xxxi, II.

13 Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride, p. 377 f.

14 Varro, fragm. 15 (Agahd), in Augustine, Civ. Dei, iv, 11, p. 161 ff. “Omnes dii deaeque sit unus Jupiter, sive sint, ut quidam volunt, omnia ista partes eius sive virtutes eius, sicut eis videtur, quibus eum placet esse mundi animum, quae sententia velut magnorum multumque doctorum est … Unius animantis haec tota vita est, quae omnes continet deos, quasi suas virtutes vel membra vel partes.” St. Augustine does not quote Varro verbatim but is using Varro's ideas and terminology.

15 Varro, fragm. 15 c (Agahd), in Augustine, Civ. Dei, vii, 13, p. 290. “(Ad Jovem) ceteri referendi sunt … cum hie ipse sint omnes, sive quando partes eius vel potestates existimantur, sive cum vis animae, quam putant per cuncta diffusam, ex partibus molis huius, in quas visibilis mundus iste consurgit, et multiplied administratione naturae quasi plurium deorum nomina accepit.”

16 Cicero, De natura deorum, ii, 71.

17 Servius ad Georgica, i, 5. “Stoici dicunt non esse nisi unum deum et unam eandemque esse potestatem, quae pro ratione officiorum variis nominibus appellatur: unde eundem Solem, eundem Liberum, eundem Apollinem vocant; item (eandem) Lunam, eandem Dianam, eandem Cererem, eandem Junonem, eandem Proserpinam dicunt.”

18 Servius ad Aen., iv, 638. “… et sciendum Stoicos dicere unum esse deum, cui nomina variantur pro actibus et officiis.”

19 Macrobius, Saturnalia, i, 17 ff.

20 I use the translation of E. S. Forster with some modifications.

21 In Eusebius, Praeparatio evangelica, iv, 13.

22 Porphyrius, De abstinentia, ii, 34 ff.

23 For references see my GGR, ii, 2 ed., pp. 695 ff.

24 See e.g. my paper, Zwei Altäre aus Pergamon, Eranos, liv, 1946, pp. 167 ff., reprinted in my Opuscula selecta, ill, pp. 297 ff.

25 This was noted by Aristotle, Polit., p. 1252 b, cited in my GGR 1, 2 ed., p. 351, n. 2.

26 Eusebius, Laus Constantini, 16. 2 ff.

27 In my GGR, ii, 2 ed., pp. 573 ff.

28 IG, IX: 2, 1201. ἐὰν δέ τις ἀπονοηθεὶς τολμήση ὰνοίξε ἕξει κεχολωμένον βασιλέα θεòν μέγιστον παντοκράτορα κτίστην ὅλων καὶ θεοὺς πάντας καὶ θεοὺς ῆρωας καὶ αὐτὴν τὴν δέσποιναν βασιλίδα.

29 Papyri magicae graecae, xiii, 238 ff. (partly repeated xiii, 762 ff.) and xiii, 62 ff. (repeated xiii, 570 ff.). More in my paper, Die Religion in den griechischen Zauberpapyri, Bull, de la Société des lettres, Lund, 1947, No. 2, pp. 22 ff., reprinted in my Opuscula selecta, ill, pp. 152 ff.

30 Campbell Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets, chiefly Greco-Egyptian, pp. 123 ff.; my paper, The Anguipede of the magical Amulets, in this periodical, xliv, 1951, PP. 61 ff., reprinted in my Opuscula selecta, iii, pp. 228 ff.

31 Kantorowicz, E. H., Gods in Uniform, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 105, 1961, pp. 368 ff.Google Scholar, treats a number of such representations. His aim is to show that the imitatio deorum on the part of the emperors was supplemented by an imitatio imperatorum on the part of the gods. He also discusses Christ and Saints clad in military costume.

32 Papyri graecae magicae, vii, 759.

33 See my paper, Zur Deutung der Jupiter-gigantensäulen, Archiv für Religions-wissenschaft, xxiii, 1925, pp. 175 ffGoogle Scholar, reprinted in my Opuscula selecta, i, pp. 399 ff.

34 Emil Johanson-Thor, Från slätt och backafall, p. 122.

35 This point of view was adumbrated by Nock, Conversion, pp. 233 ff.

36 Lucianus, Alexander sive Pseudomantis, 22.

37 Cumont, Die Mysterien des Mithra, p. 116; cf. Nock, loc. cit.

38 For a full discussion see my GGR, ii, 2 ed., p. 577, n. 1.

39 I Timoth. 2: 5 f., εις γὰρ θεòς … Xριστòς 'Iησὺς, ò δοὺς ὲἀντòν ἀντἱλυτρον ὐπὲρ πάντων

40 These words are Nock's, Gnomon, xxxiii, 1961, p. 583Google Scholar.

41 Epistle to the Galatians, 3: 19, Τί οῦν ò νóμος; τῶν παραβάσεων χάριν προσετέθη, ἅχρις ἅν ἔλθη τò σπέρμα ῷ ἐπήγγελται, διαταγεὶς δι' ἀγγέλων, ἐν χειρὶ μεσίτον. ó δὲ μεσίτης ὲνòς οὐκ ἕστιν, ò δὲ θεòς εἰς εἰς ἐστιν .

42 Justinus Martyr, Διάλογος πρòς Τρύϕωνα 'Ιουδαῖον, 56, II, πειράσομαι πεῖσαι ὐμᾶς ὅτι οῦτος ὅ τε τῷ 'Αβραὰμ καὶ τῷ 'Ιακὼβ καὶ τῷ Μωὕσεῖ ῶϕθαι λεγóμενος καἰ γεγραμμένος θεòς ἕτερóς έστι τοῦ τὰ πάντα ποιήσαντος θεοῦ, ὰριθμῷ λέγω ὰλλὰ οὐ γνώμη. F. Loofs, Leitfaden zum Studium der Dogmengeschichte (see Index s.v. δεύτερος θεóς). I owe these references to Professor Frederick C. Grant. Origenes, c. Celsum, v. 39, κἄν δεύτερον οῦν λέγωμεν θεòν, ἴστωσαν ὅτι τòν δεύτερον θεòν οὐκ ἄλλο τι λέγομεν ῆ τὴν περιεκτικὴν πασῶν ἀρετῶν ἀπετὴν καὶ τòν περιεκτικòν παντòς οὐτινοσοῦν λóγου τῶν κατὰ ϕύσιν καὶ προηγονμένως γεγενμέων καὶ εἰς χρήσιμον τοῦ παντòς λóγον ὄντινα τῆ 'Ιησοῦ μάλιστα παρὰ πᾶσρν ψυχὴν ψυχῆ ῷκειῶσθαι καὶἠνῶσθαἰ ϕαμεν κτλ.

43 For this see P. Beskow, Rex Gloriae, The Kingship of Christ in the Early Church, Diss. Uppsala, 1962. For our purpose see the introductory chapter: The Kingship of Christ in the fourth century; the Mediator, pp. 165 ff. and elsewhere. Cf. also E. Peterson, Christus als Imperator, 1937, and Der Monotheismus als politisches Problem, 1935, both reprinted in his Theologische Traktate, 1951, pp. 149 ff. and pp. 45 ff. resp.

44 Figured in Kantorowicz, loc. cit., p. 386, fig. 45.

45 This hymn is a translation from a German hymn by B. Förtsch, printed in 1612, but very free and much more pregnant than the original. I owe this information to Dr. Bror Olsson.