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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
For or against the Old Testament? Such was one of the main issues that divided developing orthodoxy in the primitive Church from its Gnostic and Marcionite rivals during the second century A.D. Was the Old Testament the work of an inferior god of the Jews to be read perhaps for the sake of the Decalogue and a few striking passages, and the remainder rejected, or did it unfold the gradual story of human salvation, and in the prophetic books, by foretelling the life and death of Christ, assure the Christian of his right to consider himself the Third (and chosen) Race of mankind? Behind this issue lay another equally important, namely the relationship between the Christians as the new Israel and the Old Israel represented by orthodox Judaism, whose role as the light to lighten the Gentiles it was challenging and would eventually take over. If the Old Testament did indeed contain the word of God, to whom did its promises refer, to the Christians or the Jews? Could the Christians claim with success that the prophecies in the Old Testament spoke of Christ and none other? The debate which was to span the second century was carried out in the tradition of the synagogue. At times the Church's essential message of hope and salvation threatened to founder amidst the demands of a new haggadah and halakhah evolved from the ceaseless challenge of Jewry.
page 129 note 1 A landmark in the study of Christian-Jewish relations in the Roman Empire was the appearance of Simon's, M.Verus Israel (Paris, 1948, 2nd ed. 1964).Google Scholar Since then, for the connexions between Jewish and Christian theology in the first two centuries see Daniélou, J., Théologie du judéo-christianisme (Paris, 1958)Google Scholar, Hanson, R. P. C., Allegory and Event (London, 1959)Google Scholar, and Prigent, P., Justin et l'Ancien Testament (Paris, 1964).Google Scholar
page 130 note 1 For the ramifications of Gnosticism, see collected studies published as ‘The Origins of Gnosticism’ in Studies in the History of Religions xii (Supplements, to Numen), Leiden, 1967, and for Judaism in the Tannaitic period, the successive studies of Neusner, J. on the History of the Jews in Babylon, (Princeton, 1965)Google Scholar and following. I have also been able to consult a draft English translation of Daniélou, J., Gospel Message and Hellenistic Culture, by the courtesy of Messrs Darton, Longman and Todd.Google Scholar
page 130 note 2 Origen, , Contra Celsum (ed. and tr. Chadwick, H.), iv.23.Google Scholar Compare Lucian of Samosata's use of the terms ‘prophet’, ‘synagogue-leader’ and ‘first lawgiver’ (the Christian equivalent of Moses), in his description of Syrian and Palestinian Christianity in The Death of Peregrinus, ch. 13–15.
page 130 note 3 Origen, op. cit., ii.2 and 4.
page 130 note 4 Origen, op. cit., iii.1.
page 131 note 1 Eusebius, , Hist. Eccl. iv. 15.26, 29 and 41.Google Scholar
page 131 note 2 The date is later than Apology written ca. 152 to which Justin refers in Dialogue, 120.6. That he had been involved in many similar debates is suggested by Trypho (Dial. 50.1).
page 131 note 3 Tertullian, Adv. Iudaeos, i.
page 131 note 4 Origen, , Contra Celsum, iv.52.Google Scholar
page 131 note 5 See Manson, T. W., ‘The Argument from Prophecy’, J.T.S. 46, 1945, pp. 129–36.Google Scholar
page 131 note 6 Contra Celsum, i.28 and ii.48. See also Justin, Dial. 69.7. Compare the opening scene in the Gnostic Apocryphon Ioannis where the Pharisee who encounters John on the steps of the Temple taunts John with believing in a ‘Nazarene’ and a ‘deceiver’ (ed. and tr. Grant, R. M., Gnosticism, an Anthology, (London, 1961), p. 69).Google Scholar
page 132 note 7 Dodd, C. H., According to the Scriptures (London, 1952), p. 57Google Scholar lists fifteen Old Testament texts which in his view give us ground ‘for believing that New Testament writers were working upon a tradition in which certain passages of the Old Testament were treated as “testimonies” to the Gospel facts’.
page 132 note 1 Luke 11.49–51. Compare 4.24 and 13.30 both in connexion with prophecy and rejection. Also, Matt. 23.25, and see Lindars, B., New Testament Apologetic (London, 1961), p. 20.Google Scholar
page 133 note 2 But see Clark, K. W., ‘Worship in the Jerusalem Temple after A.D. 70’, N.T.S. 6 (1960), p. 269ffGoogle Scholar, for the claim that a holy place remained after 70 where propitiation might still be made for divine blessing, and that Heb. 10.11 indicates continued Christian interest.
page 133 note 1 See Ignatius of Antioch's denunciation of people who evidently wanted to adhere both to Judaism and to Christianity, Philadelphians, 6.
page 133 note 2 Justin, Dial. 16.4, 17.1, 47.4 and 110.5.
page 133 note 3 Probably nearer 135 than 70. See Barnard's, L. W. studies on Barnabas in his Studies in the Apostolic Fathers and their Background (Oxford, 1966), especially pp. 46ffGoogle Scholar, Hanson, R. P. C., Allegory and Events, p. 95Google Scholar, and Daniélou, J., Théologie du judéo-christianisme, pp. 43ff.Google Scholar
page 133 note 4 For instance, the Commentaries on the Book of Nahum and the Book of Habakkuk (ed. and tr. Gaster, Th., The Scriptures of the Dead Sea Sect (London, 1957), pp. 231ff).Google Scholar
page 134 note 1 See Barnard, op. cit., p. 49; compare Daniélou, J., Théologie, pp. 43–4.Google Scholar
page 134 note 2 ‘All who practise righteousness are under the domination of the Prince of Light and walk in the ways of light: whereas all who practise perversity are under the domination of the Angel of Darkness and walk in the ways of darkness’ (Manual of Discipline, iii.23–6, tr. Gaster, op. cit., p. 53).
page 134 note 3 The Book of the Secrets of Enoch (ed. Morfill and Charles), 30.15.
page 134 note 4 On the Jewish-Christian character of 1 Clement, see Daniélou, op. cit., pp. 53–4.
page 135 note 1 Harris, J. K. Rendel, Testimonies, vol. I, p. 2, Cambridge, 1916–1920.Google Scholar Compare B. Lindars, New Testament Apologetic, ch. i, and Hanson, R. P. C., Allegory and Event, pp. 73–6.Google Scholar
page 135 note 2 Discussed in detail by Beyschlag, K., Clemens Romanus und der Frühkatholizismus, Tübingen, 1966, ch. II.Google Scholar
page 135 note 3 1 Clement, 16.
page 136 note 1 Adv. Haereses 1.3.6.
page 136 note 2 See Story, Cullen I. K., The Nature of Truth in ‘The Gospel of Truth’ and in the Writings of Justin Martyr (Leiden, 1970), p. 220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 136 note 3 See Puech, H. C., ‘The Jung Codex and other Gnostic documents’, in The Jung Codex, ed. Cross, F. L. (London, 1955), p. 32.Google Scholar
page 136 note 4 The Treatise on the Three Natures, cited from Cross, op. cit., p. 59.
page 136 note 5 Adv. Haer. 1.12. Also, especially Preface, para 2, where Irenaeus refers to Ptolemy as a disciple of Valentinus whose views were particularly widespread at this time.
page 137 note 1 Cited from Grant's, R. M.Gnosticism, an Anthology (London, 1961), pp. 184–190.Google Scholar
page 137 note 2 See Grant, R. M., ‘The Decalogue in Early Christianity’, H.T.R. xl (1947), pp. 1–17, at p. 13.Google Scholar
page 137 note 3 See the summary of Marcion's theology in my ‘Marcion’, Expository Times, Vol. LXXX, Aug. 1969, pp. 328–32Google Scholar, and for details Blackman, E. C., Marcion and his Influence (London, 1948).Google Scholar
page 138 note 1 Basilides, Exegetica, xxiii, cited by Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, iv.12.82.2.
page 139 note 1 Apol. 46.
page 140 note 1 I Apol. 23: compare Dial. 7.1.
page 140 note 2 For the influence of this encounter on Justin's thought see Story, op. cit., pp. 66–7.
page 140 note 3 I Apol. 31: compare ibid., 23 and Dial. 7.1.
page 140 note 4 I Apol. 31: compare ibid., 53. Jews and Samaritans ‘did not recognise the Christ when he came’. Also Dial. 113.1.
page 140 note 6 I Apol. 47.
page 141 note 1 Dial. 1.3. (ed. and tr. Lukyn Williams, S.P.C.K., London, 1930).
page 141 note 2 Ibid., 8.4.
page 141 note 3 Ibid., 36.1; compare 32.1.
page 141 note 4 Ibid., 48.1.
page 141 note 5 Ibid., 47.1. Trypho's objections to Christianity are summarised by L. W. Barnard, Justin Martyr (Cambridge, 1967), pp. 41–3. Here Trypho had evidently come into contact with Gnostics.
page 142 note 1 Indicated by Barnard, op. cit., pp. 49–50.
page 142 note 2 Dial. 28.8. Compare Barnabas, 9.5.
page 142 note 3 Ibid., 29.2. See Lukyn Williams' note Dialogue, p. 57, n. 6.
page 142 note 4 Op. cit., 119.5.
page 142 note 5 Ibid., 40 and 41.1.
page 143 note 1 Ibid., 56.
page 143 note 2 Ibid., 56.10.
page 143 note 3 Ibid., 49.7.
page 143 note 4 Dial. 49.6–7.
page 143 note 5 Dial. 61.1.
page 143 note 6 Hanson, , Allegory and Event, p. 105.Google Scholar
page 143 note 7 Dial. 37.1–4.
page 143 note 8 For this use of the term ‘symbol’ (symbolon) see also Dial. 138.3, ‘all the symbols from the time of the Flood’.
page 143 note 9 Dial. 90.4.
page 143 note 10 Ibid., 91.1–4 and 105.2. See R. P. C. Hanson, Allegory and Event, p. 106, on these examples. Also Hanson's essay in The Bible and the Early Church (ed. P. R. Ackroyd and C. F. Evans, Cambridge, 1970) vol. I, p. 415.
page 144 note 1 Dial. 94.1.
page 144 note 2 Dial. 138.1.
page 144 note 3 I Apol. 48. (‘They cast lots for my clothing, and pierced my feet and my hands. I lay down and slept and rose up again for the Lord supported me.’) See J. Danié’lou, Théologie, pp. 109–10.
page 144 note 4 Ibid.. For another instance of conflation consisting of Matt. 4.10 and 16.23 referring to Christ's Temptation, see Dial. 103.6.
page 144 note 5 Dial. 72.4. See Daniélou, op. cit., p. 116.
page 145 note 1 cf. Hanson, , Allegory and Event, pp. 104–5.Google Scholar
page 145 note 2 Dial. 113.1. Ignorance as a punishment, Ibid., 55.3.
page 145 note 3 Dial. 142.
page 145 note 4 Ed. Bonner, Campbell, Studies and Documents, xii (London and Philadelphia, 1940), ch. 59, p. 127.Google Scholar For a similar catena of Israel's Righteous, compare 4 Macc. 18.11ff. and Heb 11.
page 145 note 5 Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. iv.26, 12–1.4.
page 146 note 1 See Lampe, G. W. H. and Woollcombe, K. J., Essays in Typology (S.C.M. Press, 1957). p. 71.Google Scholar
page 146 note 2 Cited from Chadwick's, H. reconstruction, ‘A Latin epitome of Melitos’ Homily on the Pascha', J.T.S. N.S. xi (1960), pp. 76–82, at p. 80.Google Scholar
page 146 note 3 Justin, Dial., 103.7–8, citing Luke 22.44 as contained ‘in the Memoirs’, in support of the prophecy contained in Ps. 22.14, ‘I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.’ Compare Ibid., 100.3–4.
page 147 note 1 One notable reference, however, is Athenagoras' reference of Prov. 8.22 to the pre-existent Christ (Supplicatio 10.3), thus adding another link in the chain that was to make this text one of the most famous in the Trinitarian debates in the fourth century.
page 147 note 2 , Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, vi 16.133–48. (Ed. Stählin, /Früchitel, , Berlin, 1960.)Google Scholar
page 147 note 3 See for instance, Origen, Comment. in Levit. 10.1 (G.C.S. 6, p. 434), and Comment, in loann. 10.18 (G.C.S. 4, p. 189).
page 147 note 4 Eusebius, , Hist. Eccl. iv.26. 12–14.Google Scholar
page 147 note 5 In Theophilus, for instance, the sebomenoi (God-fearers) are ‘they who have the Old Testament’ (ii.30) ‘they who are also called Christians’ (iii.4) and ‘Jews’ (iii.9). He also defends the Jews as well as the Christians against the charge of misanthropy (iii.10.14). For the Jews in Antioch see Kraeling, C. H., J.B.L. (1932), pp. 130–60.Google Scholar
page 148 note 1 R. M. Grant, ‘Theophilus of Antioch to Autolycus’, H.T.R. (1947), pp. 227–257, especially pp. 234–8, and also Ibid., xliii, pp. 188–96.
page 148 note 2 See K. Beyschlag, op. cit., pp. 49–50.
page 148 note 3 See Hanson, , Allegory and Event, p. 111.Google Scholar
page 149 note 1 Adv. Haeres. iv. 38. See also Grant, R. M., ‘The Decalogue in Early Christianity’, H.T.R. (1947), pp. 14–15.Google Scholar
page 149 note 2 Demonstratio, 95–6.
page 149 note 3 Ibid., 98.