Historica, Theologica, Gnostica, Biblica [Illustrated] 9068312588, 9789068312584

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Studia Patristica XVIII Volume One

Historica - Theologica - Gnostica- Biblica

Studia Patristica XVIII Volume One

H istorica-T heologica - Gnostica-Biblica Papers of the Ninth International Conference on Patristic Studies Oxford 1983

Ed iled by Elizabeth A. l, ivingstone

Cistercian Publications Kalamazoo, Mich igan

1985

@ Copyright. Cisu:rcian l•ublicatM)ft) 1936

Table of Contents ·1 ~ tdicors ufC~tcrcian publicatitm.-.: join ....·ich f.litabcch A. Wv•ngnonc. in c.~tpn:ssing t.hcir apprtdatJOn w the Berlin Academy for ;aJlo.,.·ing us to publish lilt'~ f)3f)t.U unclctr the title Studi4 Pattutt'co

J>rc{acc ...... . . ...... . .... , . ••••• , , , , • , , , • , , •••••••••. .. ••••••. ..... ix

Tub/• of ;Jbbreviations . .. ........ ...... ......... ...... . . . ... ..... . .... . xi Studia Patri!>Lica XVJll, in fou r \'Oium C$, i1 A\'ailablc: £rom the publisher

HISTO R ICA RoBERT J. DALY SJ:

Military Service and Early Christianity: A Methodological Approach . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . • . .

Cistcrd2n Publiutioru WMU Stttrci;.~u rt•hlkrttiou-. i" m~tlc p~i lJ i c: in J):trt

Ci· 3

b)' support (rom We! te:rn Michigl'n Univushy.

Rhetorical Critic iJm in Eusebius' Gospel Questions. ....•• $3

'Con..uaminc: Called by Divine Providence' ... ... .. ....... 47

ANVI\Ew L>NOx ·CONYNCHAM: juristic and Religious Aspects of che Basilica Conflict of AD 386 ..... ....... .... ....... ....... ..... . , ... 55 MARr.An..T

R.

MtLES:

'The Evidence of Our Eyes': Patristic Studie.;

and Popular Christianity in 1 he Fourth Centvry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • • 59 CHA.RJ...£S ROB£RT Pmu..tPS, Ill : Magic and Politics in t he Fourth Century: Parameters of Groupings .......••••..••........•.....•.•.•.••.••. 65

Horreur du sang cc non-violence dans l''tgtise des premiers siCdcs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

MICHEL S••AN:o;EUT:

OdOfd Patnstics Con!ucn« ( 1983) P~J)(!)S ol dlt'

Oxford Patristic. Cnnrtrt'l\«, l983.

R. W. Tuo,1sox: J erusalem and Annenia ......

(Studia p:!ttistica: 18) Cuuteut!$: I l j H i~toric3, gnootie'.-, lli blki~ (2} Critica. dassica. asc:ctica, liturKlcl (!I J The sei'iJn

131llLJCA

Roa&R'r M. GRANT:

Conilict in Christology at Antioch ...••.... ... ... •.. . . 111

M. McCt..tR£: Valentinus and Lhe Gnostiki Jiaire.sis: Jrenaeus, Haer. l .xi.J and the Evidence of Nag llammadi ...... ........ ... .... .. 24 7

J . N. 8JROSAJ.L: BER~ARDETI"E

La philosophie du Litll'e de Baruch de justin •. • .• 253

Cnosllcs and Manichaeans in Byzantine Palestine ,, 273

Introductory Rema1·ks on the Pauline Epistles in Georgian . ... 281

J. BROO'r.t:N:

Pacrisclc Tntcrprc::tations of Romans 1 :26 . ... . .. . . 28?

PA1 KICK T. R . CKA v: Leootius of jerusalem's Case for a 'Synthetic' Union in Christ ... . ..... .. ......... , ........ ... ........ ..... ... . 151

Rocu W . Cowt£Y: The 'Blood of Zechariah' (Mt 23:35) in Ethiopian Exegetical Tradition . . .... ............ ............ ...... .... . . ... 29S

G£1\MAIN HuooN OMl: Le concept d"tusumptio' dans l'«desiologie de Leon le Grand ................. .. . ...••.•.. .. . ............ .•.• 155

A~'NA

LEStJE S. B. MAcCouu:

J . T. Cu•n~d. tbe fre· quency of general prohibitions against kimng suggests that the early Christians were anything but non·violent. since one usuaJiy does not keep prohibiting something that isn't C\•en happening. Third. tbc apocryphal gospels, produe/ina Fourth. nrmy religion helped control the natural fear of death. and its ritual beha"·ior was both a great distraction and a mean.'i of dissipating guilt a1td anxiety. It was a system in which strategies. tactical and ritual considerations dovetaHcd so complc::tely that any attempt to separate thtm would be futile. Evco the parts of a soldier's uniform and cqo.ipmem had a sacred significance. There were the semi ·annual rcne"•fllsof the sacred oath. tbc sacramt!n · tum, and a regular calendar of ftoastsoc:curring about every te-n days. 11 These. as the ::t.cts of the martyrs witness, could be dangerous times for Christians. This wa$ the official colt which was uniform throughou11he empire. The ever· present unofficial c~lhs were kept outside the wall:; of the camp. " No doubt these combined with 1hc prostitutes. !limps. gamblers. and con·men who followed every lcgiOI) around pro· clueing che moral c a copha •ty which Tenullinn so abhorred. In all, it \\fas a system so comprehensive thal no Chrislian in t he arrn y could avoid dealing with it in o ne way or another. Those;· who objected became the m ilirary m anyrs. Yet many Christians stayed for the full length of servicc - 25 years. I low , we can only conjcc.;ture. They probably modeled their Christianity along t he lines of Roman po lytheism Mars is for victory, spring nymphs are for fres h water . ju piter Dolichcnus is for weapons lhnt don' t break in combat. •nd Christ is for when your weapon does break and you die. Not theologically sophisticated to be sure; but as with the case of the apocryphal g0$pels, it does point out the pitfalls of trying to tclltbc: whole story solely from the I>Ctspee. The Military /11artyri' There arc five accountS whose authenticity and pre·Constaminian dating is con· sidered solid: lvtaximilian the recruit in 295. Marcellus 1he centurion in 298, Dasiu.s in 303. Tipasius the veteran in 303. and Julius. 31'10cher veteran. also in 303. None of thr~e accou•·u s g ive :.sa reason for refusing to sc.:rve the fact that the)' will have to kill in battle. The reasons arc always iu ten·ns or a ronscicnce conflict with army religion. 'fiH· picture g iven in the other accounts of dubious authcntitiLy is the same. The irn· plication is that among Christian laym en. Lht noti()•'l of pacifism was unknown. All o f the martyr:,. hnd their d ifficulty with the army in peacetime. Thus. Carton 3 of t he

7. A mhrose and A ugustme We are no'" in a situation in which Christin nicy. no longer su bject to o fficial perse· emion. had also already moved from toleration co esta.blishmenL We will examine cwo typical cases. T he first takes \If) t he reaction$ o f Ambrose and Augustine tt) the

victory of [he Christian, Thcodosius I , over Lhc western usu rper, F.ugenius, who was a pag•n, at t he river Frigid us in September 394. Except for a relatively brier pc•·iod under Conscamius. the imperial pagan cui~ had been bot h tolerated and supported

6

7

RobenJ . Daly. Sl

Military Service and Early Christianit-y

by tho state. This ended with Gratian's refusal of the title of Pontifcx Maximus in 37!) and his di$tnanLiing se'>en years later of th< system of supports and exemptions on which th1ASTICON OF EUSEBIUS AND THE RISE OF CHRISTIAN PALESTINE Dennis E. G roh

. . since h was ahead)' three fu ll )'C~trs since: my ;,rrival in Jerusak·m. ::lnd l had seen all the places whic:h \\'('rt: tht: object of my pilgrimage, I felt that time had

come to telum iJl God's name- tO my ow1\

COU.Oll)'·

These words of pious self·dismissal come from a wealthr fourth·century lady whose name has recently b«n stabilited in che scholarly literature as Egeria. 1 Fourth·cencury theologians, however guardtd about or disapproving of 1he benefits of pilgrimage, were irrelevant to Egeria'$ thrc:c·year jou.mcy to the boly places and were unable to stop the deluge or pilgTims in Palestine that followed her depanurc in A.D. 384.' L-ike earlier pilgrims before her, she found piosarea (London, 1960), j>. 20ft. 5. T . 0. Sames. 'The F..dil iom of £usebJus· l:::cde>iasric.allibtory.' Cn::ek, Romtll'l, and Buami~r' Stt,dtes2 J (1980): 191 -201. Bamn. 'The Compo~ition o{Ewc."biu~· Onomnllkon, 'journal of ThC'olof(u·rrl Slr.t:/la Z6 (1975): 412 15 'nd Tlttr N~a Empire ofDH>df!lian uJ CORJlOJUmi!(Ca.mbridg:c:-. M~•• 1982), pp. 21$ 14. and CAmtttRIIR~ •~td EIIIJtbnu (Cambridg.~ M:w•• 1981) pp. 106 ll 6 Barl)d., ConJt4NUnetll•tl £uJChlu.J, pp. 104, 16! -6~. !66- 67. Cltnn F. Cl~lut'sobst-nl'atiom ha~ bqun to stun.· u. th~ (ull~r i mJ)I~:.riom or Bam«' fine .,.·ork: ' Rt'\'it""t or Robcn Cratn. £wrluul lit.) Ch~o~rcll HiJtorian :u1d Tim~thy 0. Barnes. C()n.sJarttirte and Eu.ubutl. 'H.~l~uJ(I.J StudirJ Rt!"t'lc!W 9 (April 1983), 119. 1 . M. Noth, 'Die topognapit~chen AnMaben im Onoma~tikon de11 Eu~· biu.s.' Zellschrift dc.s 0 t'lil3cli••" P(f/iiJtum• l'c-rtti11S 66 (1913): 32. cr. p. ' rhomsen. ' PaJfuti na IU Ch •Iem 0 1\0mttAticon des Eusebius: 7,/)f'. f/ ¥6 (1903), l·ll. 8 . K losu~rm ann, Eusrbms, 01~.s Onouwstikon, 1>· XVJ. Carl Umhau Wulf, 'Eutoebil)sofCaesarca ~w e i dlt' O noma~ticon.' Tile 8iblirol Arcliaeologlst 27 ( 1964): 78 9. lb,.d 10. Robc:n M . Cranr, Etdtrbu~ OJ Chuu;h RiJlorii.tn (Oxrord, 1980) pp. 4J-4%. 11. Thomsen, 'PaJh1ina na~h d("fn OrtOcn:.sticon': 100: 1\1 C 87. 10616 oand 106-IA. 12. Grant. E.webiw. pp. 14, 20. 13. £.g .. 6 .i>- 6(209): 1ilities and affec1ivc life? Th~ inclusion of images in fourth-century churches meant, for example, rhat a \'ariety of imcrpretarions of theological ideas and sacramental actions was not only po$Sib lc but proba ble. Is the Christ ·in·majestyofth e S . Prudenzinana apse, reigning against a realisticaUy recognizable background of fo urt h -cemu ry Jerusalem, imcndcd as a statcmcJH of Chr-isL's sirnultancous h umanit)' a nd divinity? Such an agenda for t he:: m osaic would be impossib le co doC'umc n t. nnd yet its visual effect , both in com en1 a nd in t he naturalistic:: setting or n. supern a tural scene cenainl>rcouJd have ca r ried t~f· fec tivcly this theological message. Moreover , a worshipper's understanding of t he .sarramenl i.s strongly infl ue nced h ) l he nrchit in the famous exchange ofSymmaehus and St. Ambrose on the Altar of Victory.'• An apt time for c:ither side to un.sheath a traditional polemical weapon but. instead, silence. Magic. then. is what a society calls it; modem scholars should heed the definitional system< of the period in question. Likewise. they should not, under the influence of modern conccptuali7alions, \'iew magic a.s a non-essential. an anomalous canker on the pure body of a religion. Societies all bave an itlhe rent dynamism and hence, con· flict, be it polidcal. as Brown has noted, theQlogical, or quite mundane , to modern eyes. /\n accusation or magic helps reduce the tension: it both .m akes sense of a noma· lous evcms but, also, provides a rallying point £or those making the charge.!!~ Magic, defined vario usly by various societies, js omnipresent. fom1ing af\ essential part or [he social and ideological fatu:ic. CenC' inly it does not always a rise as the creation of pervetSe miscrearlL'I who are dedicated to short ·drcuiting the ftesh air and rair play o f Established Relig io n.

proaches lO tllr $tudy of lldt~Um (Nc:...,· Y(Irk . 1966): Cliff()rd Gccru. 'Religion 01-S roche de tuc:r' et enLraine une souillurt (Lc~.• XXXV, 5). Cypricu, qui erie son degotir pour ·1e jeu des gladia· tcurs', o~ ' le sang sati>faitle plaisir de regards crucis (Ad Don. , VII). apporte l'ex· prMSion Ia plus frappame de l'hor-rcur du sa•lg ve~ dans son De bono patietllt'ae. Prtsentant 'trois pffieiellcmem: 'publice juber~IUI' uit:1t:t l)riuaLim' {Ep. , XCV. 30 - ~1). l2. Cf. QttQd idola dt'i mm sbu. V: 'facit num~rum inJ)Ufli l:l$ ctim in ~_un' (CSEL 311, 22, l0- 11). 13. Dans le De mor4, /Jf!n , l~ $oldaJ.ata identified Marianos in the events of 335 but kne\'1 nmhing of the messenger m Alexander and Arius. The identification ofMarianos is one of a number of occasions on whic.b the author gave a Jlame which did not stand in the text but whose identification wa..~ easy to deduce from the context of even~•-" The building and consecration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was the most imporcant of Conscamine's benefactions co che church in the East and it is not su rprising that h is agent in the celebration of335 was well known. The lette r to AJexander and Arius by comrast was a private one wich no effect on the course of the controversy. In 336 Eusebius was at Constantinople where h e delivered a panegyric on Constantine in the presence of the emperor. A year Ja tc r Constan tine died. and Euse bius began the Life a nd finished it before his own death in 339. I suggest th at h e obtained copies o f two impor·t a ot documents and information about a third from an ad.minis rrative source. probably t he notariu.s ~!adanos of whom he writes so favourably. Whe ther he was the same pe rson who had earlier provided h im with the documents in Book X of th e Ecclcsiasticall-listory canno t be said ; since there is no evideoce of the movement of admin istrative personnel between imper ial fJa'rtes a t this t ime, probabjJittes are against it. T he arguments presented here m ay seem speculative. but ic should be recalled t h at. for instance, the much discussed quesdon of t he access of Tadtus or Sueton_ius to o(fif tlu~ p1·