De opificio mundi (John Philoponus)

Last updated

The De opificio mundi (On the Creation of the World) of John Philoponus was a 6th-century commentary on the Genesis creation narrative (or a Hexaemeron). The text is dated sometime between 546 and 560 AD. [1] [2] John, an advocate for Neoplatonism and a follower of the astronomy of Ptolemy, was interested in converging the six-day creation story with the philosophical theory of Aristotle and Plato [3] from a Miaphysite point of view. He also wanted to integrate philosophical approaches with the more stringently literalistic interpretations of Basil of Caesarea. [4]

Contents

John came to influence later works such as the Hexaemeron of Jacob of Edessa. [5]

Content

In the preface of the work, John explains how he came about to writing his Opificio. The work was dedicated to Sergius of Tella, then bishop, who would go on to become the Patriarch of Antioch. [6] He also dedicated it to one of his pupils named Athanasius, the nephew of the empress Theodora. [7] John says that others, especially Sergius, had been pressing him to write an account to refute the pagans in their criticisms of the Book of Genesis, and so defend the Mosaic account of creation, and to refute their belief in the eternity of the world. He sided with the exegetical school known as the School of Alexandria which had also been coming under intellectual pressure from some critics at that time. The name John chose for his work was the same name as the earlier De opificio mundi written by the Jewish philosopher and also advocate of the Alexandrian school of exegesis, Philo of Alexandria. Philo had criticized those searching for scientific information in the scriptures as 'sophists of literalism'. Likewise, the primary fellow Christian that John sought to challenge was also one such literalist, Cosmas Indicopleustes especially as pronounced in his famous work known as the Christian Topography (composed c. 550). Beginning his commentary, John argued that the purpose of Genesis was not to impart a scientific cosmogony but instead to correct the superstitious Egyptians that worshiped the sun, moon, and stars. John sought to explore conceptual scenarios through the use of thought experiments (hypotheses). One of the main modes of thought he sought to criticize in this manner was astrology and the idea that the luminaries were divine beings who moved of their own volition and through their movements influenced worldly affairs. [8] Contrary to this idea, John proposed to explain the movement of the luminaries through an original impetus imparted onto them by God during the creation period and repudiated the notion that the luminaries were divine beings or had any form of astrological influence on the world. [9] For his work on the impetus concept, he is often credited with being the first individual to present a unified theory of dynamics. [10]

The second book of the Opificio is an explanation of Genesis 1:2–5 and the first day of creation. [11] The third book is about Genesis 1:6–8, concerning the firmament and the second day of creation. Here, he advocates for the sphericity of the Earth to refute the position of Cosmas. Like Basil of Caesarea's Hexaemeron, John's work explained that the spherical Earth was contained in a spherical heaven. This he says goes against the uneducated Dyophysite "scriptural fundamentalists" (flat Earthers) like Cosmas who were uneducated in the scriptures and appear in folly before the pagans. [12]

Like Augustine, John favored the view that creation was instantaneous and not that it occurred over six literal days. According to John, the creation days do not correspond to normal chronological days, since the agents for the measurement of time were only created on the fourth day (the sun, moon, and stars), and yet days, mornings, and evenings were the terms used as chronological delimiters for the creation acts before that. John sought for a more symbolic meaning of the "six" days, and considered many ways in which that might be so: it might have been that the number six was chosen because it corresponds to a combination of the single dimensions of a line or that it a sixfold hierarchy of entities emerging from formless matter. These were meanings that were not historical but reflective of metaphysical truthes. [13]

John also argued on the basis of Genesis 2:7 that human souls are distinguished from animal souls. [14]

Editions and translations

See also

Related Research Articles

Ammonius Hermiae was a Greek philosopher from Alexandria in the eastern Roman empire during Late Antiquity. A Neoplatonist, he was the son of the philosophers Hermias and Aedesia, the brother of Heliodorus of Alexandria and the grandson of Syrianus. Ammonius was a pupil of Proclus in Roman Athens, and taught at Alexandria for most of his life, having obtained a public chair in the 470s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philo</span> Hellenistic Jewish philosopher (c. 20 BCE – c. 50 CE)

Philo of Alexandria, also called Philō Judæus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt.

Tritheism is a polytheistic nontrinitarian Christian conception of God in which the unity of the Trinity and, by extension, monotheism are denied. It asserts that, rather than being single God of three eternally consubstantial Persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three ontologically separate Gods. It represents more of a "possible deviation" than any actual school of thought positing three separate deities. It was usually "little more than a hostile label" applied to those who emphasized the individuality of each hypostasis or divine person—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—over the unity of the Trinity as a whole. The accusation was especially popular between the 3rd and 7th centuries AD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacob of Serugh</span> Syrian writer and bishop (c. 451–521)

Jacob of Serugh, also called Jacob of Sarug or Mar Jacob, was one of the foremost Syriac poet-theologians, perhaps only second in stature to Ephrem the Syrian and equal to Narsai. He lived most of his life as an ecclesiastical official in Suruç, located in modern-day Turkey. He would finally become a bishop near the end of his life in 519. He belonged to a Miaphysite or Non-Chalcedonian Christianity, although he was fairly moderate compared to a number of his contemporaries.

Jacob of Edessa was Bishop of Edessa and prominent Syriac Christian writer in Classical Syriac language, also known as one of earliest Syriac grammarians. In various works, he treated theological, liturgical, canonical, philosophical and historical subjects, and contributed significantly to scholarly and literary development of Syriac Christianity. He is considered to be one of the most important scholars of the Christian-Aramean tradition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosmas Indicopleustes</span> 6th-century Greek traveller and merchant

Cosmas Indicopleustes was a merchant and later hermit from Alexandria in Egypt. He was a 6th-century traveller who made several voyages to India during the reign of emperor Justinian. His work Christian Topography contained some of the earliest and most famous world maps. Cosmas was a pupil of the East Syriac Patriarch Aba I and was himself a follower of the Church of the East.

The Agnoetae or Themistians were a Monophysite Christian sect of Late Antiquity that maintained that the nature of Jesus Christ was like other men's in all respects, including limited knowledge despite being divine.

John Philoponus, also known as John the Grammarian or John of Alexandria, was a Coptic Monophysite philologist, Aristotelian commentator and Christian theologian from Alexandria, Byzantine Egypt, who authored a number of philosophical treatises and theological works. John Philoponus broke from the Aristotelian–Neoplatonic tradition, questioning methodology and eventually leading to empiricism in the natural sciences. He was one of the first to propose a "theory of impetus" similar to the modern concept of inertia over Aristotelian dynamics. He is also the historical founder of what is now called the Kalam cosmological argument.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hexaemeron</span> Genre of theological writing

The term Hexaemeron, literally "six days," is used in one of two senses. In one sense, it refers to the Genesis creation narrative spanning Genesis 1:1–2:3: corresponding to the creation of the light ; the sky ; the earth, seas, and vegetation ; the sun and moon ; animals of the air and sea ; and land animals and humans. God then rests from his work on the seventh day of creation, the Sabbath.

<i>Christian Topography</i> Geography work by Cosmas Indicopleustes (c. 550)

The Christian Topography is a 6th-century work, one of the earliest essays in scientific geography written by a Christian author. It originally consisted of five books written by Cosmas Indicopleustes and expanded to ten and eventually to twelve books at around 550 AD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anastasius Sinaita</span> Abbot and theologian (died after 700)

Anastasius Sinaita, also called Anastasius of Sinai or Anastasius the Sinaite, was a Greek writer, priest and abbot of Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai.

Temporal finitism is the doctrine that time is finite in the past. The philosophy of Aristotle, expressed in such works as his Physics, held that although space was finite, with only void existing beyond the outermost sphere of the heavens, time was infinite. This caused problems for mediaeval Islamic, Jewish, and Christian philosophers who, primarily creationist, were unable to reconcile the Aristotelian conception of the eternal with the Genesis creation narrative.

Sir Richard Rustom Kharsedji Sorabji, is a British historian of ancient Western philosophy, and Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at King's College London. He has written his 'Intellectual Autobiography' in his Festschrift: R. Salles ed., Metaphysics, Soul and Ethics in Ancient Thought, 1–36. He is the nephew of Cornelia Sorabji, the first woman to practice law in Britain and India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dynamics of the celestial spheres</span> Classical theories concerning movement of spheres

Ancient, medieval and Renaissance astronomers and philosophers developed many different theories about the dynamics of the celestial spheres. They explained the motions of the various nested spheres in terms of the materials of which they were made, external movers such as celestial intelligences, and internal movers such as motive souls or impressed forces. Most of these models were qualitative, although a few of them incorporated quantitative analyses that related speed, motive force and resistance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eternity of the world</span> Philosophical question

The eternity of the world is the question of whether the world has a beginning in time or has existed for eternity. It was a concern for ancient philosophers as well as theologians and philosophers of the 13th century, and is also of interest to modern philosophers and scientists. The problem became a focus of a dispute in the 13th century, when some of the works of Aristotle, who believed in the eternity of the world, were rediscovered in the Latin West. This view conflicted with the view of the Catholic Church that the world had a beginning in time. The Aristotelian view was prohibited in the Condemnations of 1210–1277.

Flavius Dioscorus lived during the 6th century AD in the village of Aphrodito, Egypt, and therefore is called by modern scholars Dioscorus of Aphrodito. Although he was an Egyptian, he composed poetry in Greek, the lingua franca of the Eastern Mediterranean since the Hellenistic period. The manuscripts, which contain his corrections and revisions, were discovered on papyrus in 1905, and are now held in museums and libraries around the world. Dioscorus was also occupied in legal work, and legal documents and drafts involving him, his family, Aphroditans, and others were discovered along with his poetry. As an administrator of the village of Aphrodito, he composed petitions on behalf of its citizens, which are unique for their poetic and religious qualities. Dioscorus was a Christian and lived in a religiously active environment. The collection of Greek and Coptic papyri associated with Dioscorus and Aphrodito is one of the most important finds in the history of papyrology and has shed considerable light on the law and society of Byzantine Egypt. The papyri are also considered significant because of their mention of Coptic workers and artists dispatched to the Levant and Arabia to work on early Umayyad architectural projects.

The De opificio mundi is a treatise on the Genesis creation narrative by Philo of Alexandria, a first-century Jewish philosopher. It is the first surviving example of a genre of literature known as the Hexaemeral literature, although it was not the first to have ever been written, and Philo in many cases relied on earlier works in the Alexandrian school of biblical exegesis, such as the commentary of Aristobulus of Alexandria. This work also appears, with one exception, as the first text in all collected editions and translations of Philo's works since the edition by Turnebus in 1552. In addition, among Philo's works, the Opificio was second only to his Legum allegoriae in its popularity. Reasons for this included its wholesale dedication to the topic of the creation of the world, its offering of the first monotheistic reading of the Timaeus by Plato, the way it elaborates an image of the divine architect, and its Logos theology.

The Hexaemeron of Basil of Caesarea is a fourth-century Greek commentary on the Genesis creation narrative. It is the first known work in this genre by a Christian, although it was preceded by Jewish writings like the De opificio mundi of Philo of Alexandria in the 1st century AD and another, earlier lost work by Aristobulus of Alexandria in the 2nd century BC.

The Hexaemeron of Jacob of Edessa is Jacob's commentary on the six days of creation of the Genesis creation narrative. Jacob worked on it in the first few years of the eighth century, as it was his final work. Unable to complete it within his own lifetime, the work was finished by his friend George, Bishop of the Arabs. It is an example of a work in the genre of Hexaemeral literature, but should not be confused with a similar earlier work, namely the Hexaemeron by Jacob of Serugh.

The Hexaemeron of Jacob of Serugh is a 6th-century text composed in the genre of Hexaemeral literature. As such, it offers a commentary on the Genesis creation narrative, and it is the first writing of this type to appear in the Syriac language. There was some precedent in the Commentary on Genesis by Ephrem the Syrian, but this was not a Hexaemeron. Likewise, there is no evident influence of a potential Syriac translation of the Hexaemeron of Basil of Caesarea on Jacob's work. Jacob dedicated a separate homily for each day of the creation week.

References

Citations

  1. ↑ Schamp 2000.
  2. ↑ Sorabji 2010, p. 79.
  3. ↑ Mueller-Jourdan 2021.
  4. ↑ Brown 2019, p. 56.
  5. ↑ Wilks 2008.
  6. ↑ MacCoull 2011, p. 211–213.
  7. ↑ MacCoull 2011, p. 218–220.
  8. ↑ Wagner & Biggs 2016.
  9. ↑ Walker 2006, p. 193–194.
  10. ↑ Wildberg, Christian (2021), "John Philoponus", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2021 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2024-04-12
  11. ↑ MacCoull 2011, p. 213–214.
  12. ↑ MacCoull 2011, p. 214–218.
  13. ↑ Brown 2019, p. 56–57.
  14. ↑ Lang 2001, p. 145.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.