Dialogue of Jason and Papiscus

Last updated

The Dialogue of Jason and Papiscus is a lost early Christian text in Greek describing the dialogue of a converted Jew, Jason, and an Alexandrian Jew, Papiscus. The text is first mentioned, critically, in the True Account of the anti-Christian writer Celsus (c. 178 AD), and therefore would have been contemporary with the surviving, and much more famous, Dialogue between the convert from paganism Justin Martyr and Trypho the Jew.

Contents

Sources

The main source is Origen in his Against Celsus where he criticises Celsus' selective use of the text. [1]

he has chosen one that is worthless, which although it could be of some help to the simple-minded multitude in respect of their faith, certainly could not impress the more intelligent, saying: "I know a work of this sort a Controversy between one Papiscus and Jason..." ... Nevertheless, I could wish that everyone who hears Celsus' clever rhetoric asserting that the book entitled 'A Controversy between Jason and Papiscus about Christ' deserves not laughter but hatred, were to take the little book into his hands and have the patience and endurance to give attention to its contents. .... In it a Christian is described as disputing with a Jew from the Jewish scriptures and as showing that the prophecies about the Messiah fit Jesus; and the reply with which the other man opposes the argument is at least neither vulgar nor unsuitable to the character of a Jew. (Contra Celsum 4:52) [2]

Origen's lukewarm defence of the text, his mention of the vigorous reply of Papiscus, and the Dialogue's use by Celsus, may explain the subsequent non-survival of the text. The loss of the document removes a potentially significant record of a 2nd-century Jewish Christian's arguments before later theological developments in the Christian church.

Jerome mentions the Dialogue twice. In Commentary on Galatians, in connection with he who is hanged on a tree is accursed of God (Commentary on Galatians, 2.3.13) and the Dialogue mis-citing Genesis 1:1 as "In the Son," (instead of "In the Beginning"), "God created the heaven and the earth." (Questions in Genesis, 2.507).

The third source is a letter (mistakenly included in the works of Cyprian) to a certain "Bishop Vigilius" (not Vigilius of Thapsus (de) ) describing a translation from Greek to Latin by an otherwise unknown Celsus, (given the sobriquet Celsus Africanus by scholars), which also describes the Dialogue, including the information that Jason himself was a convert from Judaism, and the ending - that Papiscus is convinced and asks for baptism. [4] [5]

A recent discovery in St. Catherine's monastery at Mount Sinai provides more text quoted from the Dialogue. [6]

Dating and authorship

Lahey (2007) dates the Dialogue to c. 140 and considers a date of c. 160 unlikely since the Dialogue is believed to be a source or model for the Dialogue with Trypho, which is itself dated c. 160. [7]

Maximus the Confessor (7th century, or possibly 6th century if mainly the work of John of Scythopolis as suggested by Hans Urs von Balthasar [8] ), notes that Clement of Alexandria, in the (now lost) sixth book of his Hypotyposes ascribes the Dialogue to Luke the Evangelist, though Maximus himself ascribes the authorship to Ariston of Pella, in Latin Aristo Pellaeus, an author whom Eusebius mentions in connection with emperor Hadrian and Simon bar Kokhba. [9] No further trace of an attribution to Luke or Ariston is extant. Since the Dialogue was known to Celsus, Origen, Jerome and the later Latin translator "Celsus Africanus," none of whom names an author, the testimony of Maximus is now disregarded. [10]

Scholarship

F. C. Conybeare proposed the hypothesis (1898 [11] ) that two later traditions, the Dialogue of Athanasius and Zacchaeus (Greek, 4th century) and the Dialogue of Timothy and Aquila (Greek, 6th century), were based on an earlier text, and identified that text as the Dialogue of Jason and Papiscus. [12] His thesis was not widely accepted. [13]

Related Research Articles

New Testament Second division of the Christian biblical canon

The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity. The New Testament's background, the first division of the Christian Bible, is called the Old Testament, which is based primarily upon the Hebrew Bible; together they are regarded as sacred scripture by Christians.

Origen Christian scholar, ascetic, and theologian (c. 184 – c. 253)

Origen of Alexandria, also known as Origen Adamantius, was an early Christian scholar, ascetic, and theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Alexandria. He was a prolific writer who wrote roughly 2,000 treatises in multiple branches of theology, including textual criticism, biblical exegesis and hermeneutics, homiletics, and spirituality. He was one of the most influential and controversial figures in early Christian theology, apologetics, and asceticism. He has been described as "the greatest genius the early church ever produced".

Septuagint Greek translation of Hebrew scriptures

The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint, is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond those contained in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible as canonically used in the tradition of mainstream Rabbinical Judaism. The additional books were composed in Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic, but in most cases, only the Greek version has survived to the present. It is the oldest and most important complete translation of the Hebrew Bible made by the Jews. Some targums translating or paraphrasing the Bible into Aramaic were also made around the same time.

Maximus the Confessor Christian monk, theologian, scholar and saint (c. 580 - 662)

Maximus the Confessor, also known as Maximus the Theologian and Maximus of Constantinople, was a Christian monk, theologian, and scholar.

Clementine literature is the name given to the religious romance which purports to contain a record made by one Clement of discourses involving the Apostle Peter, together with an account of the circumstances under which Clement came to be Peter's travelling companion, and of other details of Clement's family history. The author is sometimes called Pseudo-Clement.

Symmachus translated the Old Testament into Greek. His translation was included by Origen in his Hexapla and Tetrapla, which compared various versions of the Old Testament side by side with the Septuagint. Some fragments of Symmachus's version that survive, in what remains of the Hexapla, inspire scholars to remark on the purity and idiomatic elegance of Symmachus' Greek. He was admired by Jerome, who used his work in composing the Vulgate.

Celsus 2nd-century Greek philosopher

Celsus was a 2nd-century Greek philosopher and opponent of early Christianity. His literary work, The True Word, survives exclusively in quotations from it in Contra Celsum, a refutation written in 248 by Origen of Alexandria. The True Word is the earliest known comprehensive criticism of Christianity. It was written between about 175 and 177, shortly after the death of Justin Martyr, and was probably a response to his work.

<i>Hexapla</i> Ancient critical edition of the Hebrew Bible in six versions with four of those being into Greek

Hexapla is the term for a critical edition of the Hebrew Bible in six versions, four of them translated into Greek, preserved only in fragments. It was an immense and complex word-for-word comparison of the original Hebrew Scriptures with the Greek Septuagint translation and with other Greek translations. The term especially and generally applies to the edition of the Old Testament compiled by the theologian and scholar Origen, sometime before 240.

Numenius of Apamea was a Greek philosopher, who lived in Apamea in Syria and Rome, and flourished during the latter half of the 2nd century AD. He was a Neopythagorean and forerunner of the Neoplatonists.

Ariston of Pella, was an apologist and chronicler, who is known only from a mention by Eusebius that "as Aristo relates" in connection with accounts of emperor Hadrian and Simon bar Kokhba. Aristo is Eusebius's source for Hadrian's permanent banishment of Jews from Jerusalem (4.6.3), renamed to Aelia Capitolina.

"the whole nation from that time was strictly forbidden to set foot on the region about Jerusalem, by the formal decree and enactment of Adrian, who commanded that they should not even from a distance look on their native soil!" So writes Aristo of Pella." Eusebius

Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera Roman soldier of the Cohors I Sagittariorum (c. 22 BC - AD 40)

Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera was a Roman-Phoenician soldier born in Sidon, whose tombstone was found in Bingerbrück, Germany, in 1859. A historical connection from this soldier to Jesus has long been hypothesized by numerous scholars, based on the claim of the ancient Greek philosopher Celsus, who, according to Christian writer Origen in his "Against Celsus", was the author of a work entitled The True Word.

Theodotion Translator of the Bible from Hebrew to Greek

Theodotion was a Hellenistic Jewish scholar, perhaps working in Ephesus, who in c. 150 CE translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek. Whether he was revising the Septuagint, or was working from Hebrew manuscripts that represented a parallel tradition that has not survived, is debated. In the 2nd century Theodotion's text was quoted in The Shepherd of Hermas and in Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho. His finished version, which filled some lacunae in the Septuagint version of the Book of Jeremiah and Book of Job, formed one column in Origen of Alexandria's Hexapla, c. 240 CE. The Hexapla, now only extant in fragments, presented six Hebrew and Greek texts side-by-side: two Greek versions, by Aquila and Symmachus, and Theodotion's version following it, apparently reflecting a contemporary understanding of their historical sequence.

<i>Contra Celsum</i> Third-century Christian apologetics work by Origen of Alexandria

Against Celsus, preserved entirely in Greek, is a major apologetics work by the Church Father Origen of Alexandria, written in around 248 AD, countering the writings of Celsus, a pagan philosopher and controversialist who had written a scathing attack on Christianity in his treatise The TrueWord. Among a variety of other charges, Celsus had denounced many Christian doctrines as irrational and criticized Christians themselves as uneducated, deluded, unpatriotic, close-minded towards reason, and too accepting of sinners. He had accused Jesus of performing his miracles using black magic rather than actual divine powers and of plagiarizing his teachings from Plato. Celsus had warned that Christianity itself was drawing people away from traditional religion and claimed that its growth would lead to a collapse of traditional, conservative values.

Alexamenos graffito Roman graffito

The Alexamenos graffito is a piece of Roman graffito scratched in plaster on the wall of a room near the Palatine Hill in Rome, Italy, which has now been removed and is in the Palatine Museum. It may be meant to depict Jesus; if so, it competes with an engraved gem as the earliest known pictorial representation of the Crucifixion of Jesus. It is hard to date, but has been estimated to have been made at around the year 200. The image seems to show a young man worshipping a crucified, donkey-headed figure. The Greek inscription approximately translates to "Alexamenos worships [his] god," indicating that the graffito was apparently meant to mock a Christian named Alexamenos.

Church Fathers Group of ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers

The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical period in which they worked became known as the Patristic Era and spans approximately from the late 1st to mid-8th centuries, flourishing in particular during the 4th and 5th centuries, when Christianity was in the process of establishing itself as the state church of the Roman Empire.

Jewish polemics and apologetics in the Middle Ages were texts written to protect and dissuade Jewish communities from conversion to Christianity, or more rarely to Islam. The terms polemics and apologetics may be distinguished but may also be considered somewhat subjective. A smaller number of proselytizing text also exists intended to convert Christians, or more rarely Muslims, to Judaism. However, the vast majority of Jewish polemical literature was written in response to Christian polemical writings and with a permanent reference to Christian arguments.

The Dialogue of Athanasius and Zacchaeus is a 4th-century Greek Christian text giving a dialogue, akin to that of Dialogue with Trypho, between Athanasius, a Christian, and Zacchaeus, a Jew. Patrick Andrist and other scholars consider the work, however much it may have a base in real encounters, is primarily a missionary catechism.

The Dialogue of Timothy and Aquila is a Greek Christian text giving a dialogue, akin to that of Dialogue with Trypho, between Timothy, a Christian, and Aquila, a Jew. The text was earlier thought to date to 200 CE, however recent studies assign a later date, as late as the 6th century.

The Dialogue of Simon and Theophilus is a 5th-century Latin Christian text giving a dialogue, akin to that of Dialogue with Trypho, between Simon, a Jew, and Theophilus, a Christian. The Altercatio is the oldest surviving Jewish-Christian dialogue preserved in Latin. It has been attributed to, and may even be by, Cyprian. The work draws on earlier Greek and Latin traditions.

References

  1. ↑ Charles Thomas Cruttwell, A Literary History of Early Christianity: The apostolic fathers 1893 "Celsus, who read it, dismisses it with the contemptuous remark "that it is worthy not so much of laughter as of pity and indignation." 3 Origen does not offer a very warm defence of the writer, but he deprecates Celsus' criticism..."
  2. ↑ Translation: Contra Celsum Henry Chadwick 1965 2nd ed. 1980 ISBN   0-521-29576-9
  3. ↑ Translation: Sir James Donaldson Ante-Nicene Christian Library - The Works of Lactantius (Vol.2) with the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 1871 Page 139
  4. ↑ Arthur Lukyn Williams, Adversus Judaeos. A Bird's-Eye View of Christian Apologiae until the Renaissance, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1935 p428 "so called to distinguish him from his earlier namesake, translated the Dialogue into Latin, and tells us that Jason was a Hebrew Christian and Papiscus an Alexandrian Jew, and that Papiscus was won over by Jason and was baptised."
  5. ↑ John Allen Giles The writings of the early Christians of the second century 1857 Page 211 "That noble, memorable and glorious result of the discussion between Jason, a Hebrew Christian, and Papiscus, an Alexandrian Jew, comes into my mind; how the obstinate hardness of the Jewish heart was softened by Hebrew admonition and gentle chiding; and the teaching of Jason, on the giving of the Holy Ghost, was victorious in the heart of Papiscus. Papiscus, thereby brought to a knowledge of the truth, and fashioned to the fear of the Lord through the mercy of the Lord Himself, both believed in Jesus Christ the Son of God, and entreated Jason that he might receive the sign."
  6. ↑ François Bovon and John M. Duffy, "A New Greek Fragment of Ariston of Pella's Dialogue of Jason and Papiscus, Harvard Theological Review 105.4 October 2012, pp 457-465.
  7. ↑ Lawrence Lahey. Evidence for Jewish Believers in Christian-Jewish Dialogues through the Sixth Century. in Jewish Believers in Jesus: The Early Centuries (9780801047688): eds. Oskar Skarsaune and Reidar Hvalvik 2007 pp. 585-591.
  8. ↑ Hans Urs von Balthasar Das Scholienwerk des Johannes von Scythopolis, in Scholastik 15 (1940): 16-38, revised in Kosmische Liturgie 1961, translated 2003. Per Brian E. Daley Cambridge Companion to Hans Urs von Balthasar p206.
  9. ↑ Maximus, Scholia on The Mystical Theology, ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, Chapter 1 "I have found this expression Seven heavens also in the Dispute between Papiscus and Jason, written by Aristo of Pella, which Clement of Alexandria, in the sixth book of the Outlines,3 says was composed by Saint Luke."
  10. ↑ Fergus Millar, Emil Schürer, Geza Vermes, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ 1973 p38 "Since the Dialogue was known to Celsus, Origen, Jerome and the Latin translator as being anonymous (for none of them names the author), it is very questionable whether the testimony of Maximus Confessor describing Ariston as the author deserves any credit"
  11. ↑ F. C. Conybeare The Dialogues of Athanasius and Zacchaeus and of Timothy and Aquila, Oxford. 1898. 45. Ibid.. p. xxxiv.
  12. ↑ Sébastien Morlet La "démonstration évangélique" d'Eusèbe de Césarée 2009 "Dans le même temps, FC Conybeare se fit lui aussi le défenseur de l'hypothèse «Jason et Papiscus ». En 1898, il suggéra que le Dialogue de Timothée et Aquila et le Dialogue d'Athanase et Zacchée étaient deux recensions différentes d'un "
  13. ↑ William Varner, Ancient Jewish-Christian dialogues: Athanasius and Zacchaeus, Simon and Theophilus, Timothy and Aquila: introductions, texts, and translations E. Mellen Press, 2004 "This work provides the texts and translations of three ancient Jewish-Christian dialogues: The Dialogue of Athanasius and Zacchaeus (Greek, 4th c.); The Dialogue of Simon and Theophilus (Latin, 5th c.); and The Dialogue of Timothy and Aquila (Greek, 6th c.). This is the first published translation of each of these texts. An introduction discusses the context of these dialogues in the "Contra Judaeos" literature of the early church and also explores the question of whether or not they"
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.