Folia Theologica 19. (2008)

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

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PERENDY, László

Toúxcov Sè xauxa áraxprivapévcüv EÚpíaKExai ó 7tor|xfiç "Opripoç éxépa ímoGéoei eíaáycúv yéveciv où góvov KÓapou akXá Kai Gecov.1

"The opinions of philosophers are inconsistent with those of other writers. For while the former authors made these statements, we find that the poet Homer relies on a different assumption when he introduces the origin not only of the world but also of the gods." (Ad Autolycum II 5)2

Already Robert M. Grant made the observation that Theophilus - like Tatian, who also comes from Syria - claims that Greek philosophers contradict one another, and also the poets. Grant thinks that both of them used only doxographical sources and not the original versions when they were enumerating the mistakes and inconsistencies of the Hellenes. These sources of the opinions (Sói;oa) of philosophers were used in Greco-Roman schools of rhetoric.3

Pre-Platonic philosophers

Ti yàp Kai ôdr|0èç eípf|Kaotv;

’'H xi (bcpeArjcav EùputiSriv Kai EotpoKAéa Kai xoùç Xoinovc, xpaycpSioypâcponç ai xpaycpöíai, [...] rí HuGayópav xa aSuxa Kai 'HpaKÀ,éouç oxfjXai, [...] íi ’EpneSoKÍVéa xo StSáaKetv aGeoxtyua, rj ZcoKpáxr|v xo ópvúeiv xov KÚva Kai xov yrjva Kai xf)v nÁáxavov Kai xov KEpanvcoGévxa AokA,t|tuóv Kai xá öaipóvia a èiiEKaÀEÎ- xo; npôç xí 5È Kai ékcúv á7tÉ0vriGKEv, xíva Kai ónotov pioxov (0£xá Gávaxov ä7toA,aßEtv èXniÇœv;

"What truth did they speak? Or what did their tragedies avail for Euripides and Sophocles and the other tragic poets [.. .]? Or the shrines and the pillars of Heracles for Pythagoras? [...] or the teaching of atheism for Empedocles? or the oath by dog and goose and plane-tree for Socrates, not to mention his oath by the lightning-struck Asclepius and

1 The Greek text is taken from Miroslav Marcovich (ed.), Theophili Antiocheni Ad Autolycum (Patristische Texte und Studien, 44), Berlin-New York, 1995.

2 The English translation is from Robert M. Grant, Theophilus of Antioch: Ad Autolycum, Oxford, 1970.1 have kept his references to doxographies inserted in the text of his translation. The abbreviation "Diels, Dox". refers to Her- mannus Diels, Doxographi Graeci, Berlin, 1879.

3 R. M. Grant, Early Christianity and pre-Socratic Philosophy, in Id., After the New Testament, Philadelphia, 1967, 85-112, 91.