Folia Theologica 19. (2008)

Perendy László: Judging Philosophers - Theophilus of Antioch on Hellenic inconsistency

JUDGING PHILOSOPHERS

197

Unfortunately and surprisingly, the influence of Platonism on Theo- philus has drawn little attention in modern scholarship so far.14

Diogenes of Sinope

Ti yap xai àÀ.r|0èç eipfjxaaiv;

’'H xi àxpéÂ,r|Gav Eùpuii8r|v xai Zoipox/Véa xai xoùç XoiTtoùç xpaycpStoypacpouç

ai xpaycpSiai, [...] f| Aioyévr|v f] xuvixf) tpiAoo expia,

"What truth did they speak? Or what did their tragedies avail for Euripides and Sophocles and the other tragic poets? [...] or the Cynic philosophy for Diogenes?" (Ill 2)

Antisthenes, the teacher of Diogenes is not named by Theophilus. Antisthenes was born c. 445. "A devoted follower of Socrates, but also considered (e.g. by Diogenes Laertius) to be an important influence on the first famous Cynic, Diogenes of Sinope. He shared much of Socrates' ethical teaching, but with a rather hearty penchant for those states of self-sufficiency that are the result of effort and exertion. He is cited by Aristotle as having held a theory of language according to which there is no such thing as contradiction or definition."15

Diogenes (Aloyévr)ç) of Sinope was bom c. 404. "The founder of the Cynics, Diogenes lived in Athens and perhaps Corinth. He may have

14 J. H. Waszink in his article on the influence of Platonism mentions him only in connection with the so-called theory of loan: Einfluß des Platonismus im frühem Christentum, in C. Zintzen (ed.), Der Mittelplatonismus, Darmstadt, 1981, 413-448 [=Vigiliae Christianae 19 (1965) 129-162], 431. He is not mentioned by J. C. M. van Winden, either, in the paper titled Das Christentum und die Philosophie. Der Beginn des Dialogs zwischen dem Glauben und dem Verstand, in C. Zintzen (ed.), Der Mittelplatonismus..., 397-412. E. P. Meije- ring did not find a work of any significance about the topic, so he does not treat him in his Zehn fahre Forschung zum Thema Platonismus und Kirchenväter in Id., God Being History. Studies in Patristic Philosophy, Amsterdam- Oxford-New York, 1975, 303-320. He does write about the research on Justin, Tatian, and Athenagoras. Theophilus is not mentioned by Meijering in the following work, either: Wie platonisierten Christen? Zur Grenzziehung zwischen Platonismus, kirchlichen Credo und patristischer Theologie in Id. God Being History..., 15-28.

15 Blackburn, 20.