Beyond Conflicts Cultural and Religious Cohabitations in Alexandria and Egypt between the 1st and the 6th Century CE

Description

Cover Acknowledgements Table of Contents Abbreviations Introduction Luca Arcari: Cultural and Religious Cohabitations in Alexandria and Egypt between the 1st and the 6th Cent. CE 1. Methodological issues 1.1. Constructing collective “identities” 2. Religious and cultural cohabitations in Egypt and Alexandria(1st–6th cent. CE) 2.1. A regional approach in light of the integration between different sources 2.1.1. “Pervasive” cultural centres 2.1.2. Local reinventions of tradition 2.2. The limits of the “traditional” taxonomies 3. Structure and contents of the book Bibliography Part One: Use, (Re-)Invention And (Re-)Definitionof Discursive Practices Tobias Nicklas: Jewish, Christian, Greek? The Apocalypse of Peter as a Witness of Early 2nd-Cent. Christianity in Alexandria 1. The Apocalypse of Peter – Jewish, Christian, or other? 2. Results regarding the text’s alleged place and context of origin 3. Conclusion Bibliography Philippe Matthey: The Once and Future King of Egypt: Egyptian “Messianism” and the Construction of the Alexander Romance 1. The Egyptian origins of the Alexander Romance 2. “Apocalyptic” literature in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt 3. Apocalyptic elements in the Alexander Romance 4. Development of the Graeco-Egyptian “apocalypticism” 5. Historical theodicy in Egypt 6. Production of “apocalyptic” literature in ancient Egypt. A conclusion Bibliography Antonio Sena: Demonology between Celsus and Origen: A Theoretical Model of Religious Cohabitation? 1. Origen’s education and Celsus’ background 2. Demonology as an integration proposal 3. A model of cultic integration Bibliography Daniele Tripaldi: “Basilides” and “the Egyptian Wisdom:” Some Remarks on a Peculiar Heresiological Notice (Ps.-Hipp. Haer. 7.20–27) 1. Contesting authority: the meaning of a literary frame 2. Basilides or not Basilides? 3. Back to which Egypt? 4. A “non existing” source? 5. A teacher’s legacy 6. Towards a conclusion Bibliography Thomas J. Kraus: Demosthenes and (Late) Ancient Miniature Books from Egypt: Reflections on a Category, Physical Features, Purpose and Use 1. Introduction 2. The papyrus letter, ancient rhetors, and τὸ βιβλίον (l. 6) 3. Ancient rhetors and miniature books – spot onfamous Demosthenes 3.1. Miniature books with Demosthenes put to the test 3.2. Summary of and conclusions drawn from 3.1. 4. Miniature codices as representatives of Graeco-Roman bookculture in Egypt? Bibliography Paola Buzi: Remains of Gnomic Anthologies and Pagan Wisdom Literature in the Coptic Tradition 1. Premise 2. Classical works in the Coptic language 3. The Menandri sententiae 4. The Sexti sententiae 5. The Dicta philosophorum Bibliography Part Two: Ideological Debates as Images of Culturaland Religious Cohabitations Bernard Pouderon: “Jewish,” “Christian” and “Gnostic” Groups in Alexandria during the 2nd Cent.: Between Approval and Expulsion 1. Introduction 2. The various groups 2.1. Being “Jewish” in Alexandria after 115 CE 2.2. Being “Christian” in Alexandria during the 2nd cent. CE 2.3. Being “Gnostic” in Alexandria during the 2nd cent. 3. The relationships between the groups 3.1. “Jews” and “Christians” 3.2. “Christians” and “Gnostics” 3.3. “Educated” Christians and pagans 4. Conclusions Bibliography Adele Monaci Castagno: Messengers from Heaven: Divine Men and God’s Men in the Alexandrian Platonism (2nd–4th Cent.) 1. Origen 2. Man or God? Discussions about Apollonius of Tyana betweenthe 3rd and 4th cent. 3. Pythagoras and Iamblichus 4. Conclusion Bibliography Mark J. Edwards: Late Antique Alexandria and the “Orient” 1. Preliminaries 2. Comparability: Neoplatonism and India 3. Continuity: Ammonius the “Saka”? 4. Explanatory power: Egyptian Gnosticism Bibliography Ewa Wipszycka: How Insurmountable was the Chasm between Monophysites and Chalcedonians? 1. Historiographical sources 2. Hagiographical texts and sanctuarial contexts 3. The Synodikon of the West Syrian Church (1204) 4. At the same table? Monastic environments anddoctrinal controversies 5. Homilies and panegyrics 6. Conclusions Bibliography Philippe Blaudeau: Vel si non tibi communicamus, tamen amamus te. Remarques sur la description par Liberatus de Carthage des rapports entre Miaphysites et Chalcédoniens à Alexandrie (milieu Ve–milieu VIe s.) Bibliographie Part Three: Cults and Practices as Spaces for Encountersand Interactions Sofía Torallas Tovar: Love and Hate? Again on Dionysos in the Eyes of the Alexandrian Jews Bibliography Francesco Massa: Devotees of Serapis and Christ? A Literary Representation of Religious Cohabitations in the 4th Cent 1. Endgame? The destruction of the Serapeum 2. Why Serapis and the Christians? 3. Qui Serapim colunt Christiani sunt… 4. Serapis and Christ: new gods 5. And if Serapis was none other than Joseph? 6. Shared spaces, stolen spaces 7. Return to the destruction of the Serapeum, and conclusion Bibliography Mariangela Monaca: Between Cyril and Isis: Some Remarks on the Iatromantic Cults in 5th-Cent. Alexandria Bibliography Part Four: “Open” and “Closed” Groups Marie-Françoise Baslez: Open-air Festivals and Cultural Cohabitation in Late Hellenistic Alexandria 1. The political stake of royal festivities 2. The rejoicing festival: a mean of social interplaybetween Jews and Greeks 2.1. The Festival described in the book of Judith and the great procession ofAlexandria 3. Open-air festivals: a widespread custom 4. Criteria and requirements for truly open festivals Bibliography Livia Capponi: The Common Roots of Egyptians and Jews: Life and Meaning of an Ancient Stereotype 1. The Jewish-Egyptian association:a stereotype imposed by the conquerors? 2. A first argument for division: Philo and the riots of 38–41 3. The radicalisation of the conflict: Flavian policies towards Jews and Egyptians 4. Josephus’s interlocutor in Contra Apionem 5. Conclusion. Strategies of integrationand strategies of resistance Bibliography Hugo Lundhaug The Nag Hammadi Codices in the Complex World of 4th- and 5th-Cent. Egypt 1. The Nag Hammadi Codices and monasticism 2. Enemies of the “Great Church”? 3. The Apocalypse of Peter 4. Codex VII 5. A complex world 6. Conclusion Bibliography Part Five: The Construction of Authorityin Philosophical and Religious Schools Carmine Pisano: Moses “Prophet” of God in the Works of Philo, or How to Use Otherness to Construct Selfness 1. Philo and the “biography” of Moses 2. The “prophet” Moses between Judaism and Platonism 3. Platonism as an exegetical instrument 4. Prophecy and divination, or exegesis and self-definition Bibliography Giulia Sfameni Gasparro: Alexandria in the Mirror of Origen’s didaskaleion: Between the Great Church, Heretics and Philosophers 1. Catechesis and philosophy:the two aims of Origen’s didaskaleion 2. Debates, coexistences, conflicts:classificatory categories and historical complexity 3. The Contra Celsum: ideological controversy and socio-political context Bibliography Marco Rizzi: Cultural and Religious Exchanges in Alexandria: The Transformation of Philosopy and Exegesis in the 3rd Cent. in the Mirror of Origen 1. A historiographical issue 2. Origen’s twofold biography 3. Origen, Ammonius and the new shapeof philosophical teaching Bibliography Index of Ancient Sources 1. Ancient writers and works 2. Hebrew Bible 3. Legal and official corpora 4. Manuscripts, papyri, ostraka, epigraphic materials 5. New Testament 6. Septuagint, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (“Jewish” and“Christian” texts), Nag Hammadi texts Index of Modern Authors Index of Main Topics List of Contributors