Folia Theologica 19. (2008)

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

JUDGING PHILOSOPHERS

211

"On the fourth day the luminaries came into existence. Since God has foreknowledge, he understood the nonsense of the foolish philosophers who were going to say that the things produced on earth come from the stars, so that they might set God aside [I Thess. 4:8]. In order therefore that the truth might be demonstrated, plants and seeds came into existence before the stars. For what comes into existence later cannot cause what is prior to it." (II15)

Theophilus may have been relying on a doxographical source, similar to that used by Hippolytus in his Refutation. Grant thinks that "Theophilus has substituted 'nature' for 'God' - perhaps following an anti-Epicurean source. For other information he seems to rely on the Monostichoi ('one-liners') ascribed to Menander. The idea that each person's conscience is God appears in the Monostichoi."37

Already Aristides reproaches the so-called philosophers about their mistake concerning the elements of this world.38

Writing about the creation theories of the second century apologists, N. J. Torchia compares their various ways of approach to the Greek ideas about the creation of the world. He points out that Theophilus "dispenses with references to matter altogether (except on critical grounds). His distance from Justin here is readily apparent: rather than attempting to reconcile Christian and Greek outlooks, he makes a conscious effort to separate himself from any features of the Platonic paradigm of creation. In keeping with his reliance upon 2 Maccabees (7.28), he focuses upon the all-encompassing power of God in His role as supreme Creator. The singularity of this power lies in the fact that God can make 'whatever he wishes out of the non-existent...'

Theophilus' language bears an unmistakable Hellenic imprint, utilizing the Eleatic antithesis between being and non-being. For him, God is not a Framer or even a begetter of matter, but a giver of being in its widest sense. However, while he relies upon Greek forms of thought, he does so only in the service of a uniquely Christian philosophizing. It is rooted in Scriptural teachings that raised challenging new questions for Greek philosophy. But, by the same token, Greek philosophy provided Christian thinkers with the arguments and concepts to interpret those teachings in a more precise, technical manner.

37 R. M. Grant, Greek Apologists of the Second Century, Philadelphia, 1988,152.

38 Aristides, Apologia 3,3.