Paul’s Anthropology in Context: The Image of God, Assimilation to God, and Tripartite Man in Ancient Judaism, Ancient Philosophy and Early Christianity

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George H. van Kooten offers a radical contextualization of Paul's view of man within the Graeco-Roman discourse of his day. On the one hand, important anthropological terminology such as image of God and spirit derives from the Jewish creation accounts of Genesis 1-2. On the other hand, this terminology appears to be compatible with reflections of Graeco-Roman philosophers on man as the image of God and on man's mind, and is supplemented with Platonic concepts such as the inner man. For this reason, the author traces the development of Paul's anthropology against the background of both ancient Judaism and ancient philosophy. Although he takes his starting point from Jewish texts, and is not out of tune with particular Jewish thoughts about the close relation between man and God, Paul, like Philo of Alexandria, seems to owe a lot to contemporary philosophical anthropology. Paul's view, for instance, that man needs to be transformed into the image of God lacks Jewish antecedents, but reflects the pagan philosophical notion of man's assimilation to God. George H. van Kooten emphasizes that it is no longer possible to deny the relevance of a Greek context for Paul's view of man, and argues that Paul should be understood in the wake of the 1st cent. BC introduction of a comprehensive Platonic doctrine of man's assimilation to God through virtue. Paul's anthropology, which calls for inner transformation and is universally applicable, criticizes the superficial values of the sophistic movement in Corinth and the anthropomorphic images of the gods, and offers a strategy to overcome the ethnic tensions which divide the Christian community in Rome. Dedication Table of Contents Introduction Acknowledgements 1 The ‘Image of God’ in Ancient Judaism Introduction: The ‘image of God’ in the Jewish scriptures 1.1 The interpretation of God’s image (Gen 1.26–27) in ancient Judaism 1.2 The ‘image of God’ in Philo 1.3 Image, form and trans-formation: A semantic taxonomy of Paul’s ‘morphic’ language 2 The ‘Image of God’ and ‘Being Made Like God’ in Graeco-Roman Paganism Introduction 2.1 The ‘image of God’ in Graeco-Roman paganism 2.2 The ‘image of God’ and ‘being made like God’: The traditions of homoiōsis theōi in Greek philosophy from Plato to Plotinus 2.3 Philo and man’s similarity and assimilation to God 2.4 Paul, the image of God and likeness to Christ 3 Philo’s Anti-Sophistic Interpretation of the Narratives of Moses’ Pentateuch Introduction: Balaam as the sophist par excellence 3.1 Balaam in Philo’s thought 3.2 Philo’s anti-sophistic programme 3.3 Philo’s application to the philosophical discussion of his day 3.4 Epilogue: The function of Moses’ Pentateuchal narratives in Philo 4 Paul versus the Sophists: Outward Performance and Rhetorical Competition within the Christian Community at Corinth Introduction 4.1 Competition in the Christian communities in Corinth 4.2 The technique of improvising speeches 4.3 Invention of themes, physiognomy and self-praise 4.4 The sophists’ daily life in the cities 4.5 Philosophy versus sophism 4.6 Concluding remarks: Paul ‘at the cross-roads of Greece’ 5 The Two Types of Man in Philo and Paul: The Anthropological Trichotomy of Spirit, Soul and Body Introduction 5.1 Philo on the two types of man 5.2 Paul on the two types of man 6 Paul’s Anti-Sophistic Interpretation of the Narrative of Moses’ Shining Face (Exod 34) in 2 Cor 3: Moses’ Strength, Well-being and (Transitory) Glory, according to Philo, Josephus, Paul, and the Corinthian Sophists Introduction: Why does Paul draw on Exod 34 in 2 Cor 3? 6.1 Moses in pagan-Jewish relations 6.2 The anti-sophistic setting of 2 Cor 3 6.3 Philo and Josephus on Moses the legislator 6.4 The language of power, glory and theios anēr among the sophists 6.5 Concluding observations: Paul’s definitive answer to the Corinthian sophists 7 The Renewal of the ‘Discredited Mind’ Through Metamorphosis: Paul’s Universalist Anthropology in Romans Introduction 7.1 Pagan and Jewish monotheism according to Varro, Plutarch, and Paul: The aniconic, monotheistic beginnings of Rome’s pagan cult – Romans 1.19–25 in a Roman context 7.2 Assimilation to Christ and the geography of good and evil in man: Romans 6–8 7.3 The metamorphosis of man’s mind and the restitution of true religion: Romans 12 – the climax of Paul’s anthropology Bibliography Index of Passages from Ancient Authors Index of Modern Authors Index of Subjects and Selected Ancient Names