Attic Moses
Dependency Theme in Some Early Christian Writers

By Daniel Ridings
1995
Almqvist & Wiksell
ISBN: 9173462756
270 pages
$88.00 paper


Christianity began in Roman Palestine but was soon forced to take positionon how it would deal with Greek culture and learning. There is a great difference between the Christian community reflected in the Didache and the Christian community to which a write like Clement of Alexandria addressed himself. With time, Christianity is said to have created a synthesis or rapproachment between the Greek culture around it and its own doctrines.

One of the methods by which such a synthesis could be accomplished has been explained to be what it is, in this book, called the dependency theme. The Christians discerned similarities between Greek philosophy and Christian doctrine. They explained that these similarities were due to historical circumstances. It was not disputed that the Jews were an ancient people and that they had spent some time in Egypt. The historical explanation of the dependency theme was that the Greeks had come into contact with the Bible or with prophets and learned from such sources. In that way similarities could be explained and the best of Greek philosophy could find a place Christian theology. The thesis documents this theme in three Christian writers: Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius of Caesarea and Theodoret of Cyrrhus. The thesis documents where they make such a claim, where Greek texts they thought were dependent on the Bible and, when possible, the biblical passages they had in mind. It also attempts to clarify their reasons for using the theme in their works. The last chapter deals briefly with the dependency theme in other writers than these three.

Ancient History; Religion
Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia

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