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John Philoponus and the Fifth EcumenicaI Council: A Study and Translation of the Letter to Justinian

UWE MICHAEL LANG / LONDON

Introduction John Philoponus (c. 490-575), also known asJohn the Grammarian, was a prolific commentator on and member of the Neoplatonic school of Ammonius Hermeiou in . Philoponus was probably brought up a Christian - despite the attempts of modern scholars to distin• guish between pagan and Christian periods in his life 1• Among historians of ancient thought, Philoponus is acknowledged as an outstanding phi• losopher who launched an overall attack on the dominant Aristotelian sci• entific world-view of his day. In 529, the year that saw the closing of the Academy in Athens, Philoponus published his important treatise On the Eternity 0/ the World against . This work aimed at a refutation of Proclus' arguments that the world did not have a beginning in time. Philoponus saw in them an assauIt on the Christian faith and feit obliged to counter them; he pursued the same objective in his On the Eternity 0/ the World against Aristotle, written only a few years later. It would seem that Philoponus pursued his "dual interest" in philosophy and throughout his intellectual career2 • Still, there is a transition of some kind

1 See A. GUDEMAN - W. KROll, Ioannes (No. 21, Ioannes Philoponus), in: PRE 9 (1916) 1764-95; this view was refuted by E. EVRARD, Les convictions religieuses de Jean Philopon et la date de son Commentaire aux "Meteorologiques", in: BAB.L sero 5 34 (1953) 299-357. K. VERRYCKEN, The development of Philoponus' thought and its chronology, in: R. SORAB]I (ed.), Aristotle Transformed: The Ancient Commentators and their Influence, London 1990,233-274, has presented a modified version of this thesis. For criticism of Ver• rycken, see C. SCHOLTEN, Antike Naturphilosophie und christliche Kosmologie in der Schrift "De opificio mundi" des Johannes Philoponos, Berlin-New York 1996 (= PTS 45), 118-43. See now also E. J. WATTS, Cityand School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria, Berkeley 2006 (= The Transformation of the Classical Heritage 41), 237 -5 6. 2 C. WILDBERG, Prolegomena to the Study of Philoponus' contra Aristotelem, in: R. So• RAB]! (ed.), Philoponus and the Rejection of Aristotelian , London 1987, 197-209, at 209; see also his comprehensive study, John Philoponus' Criticism of Aristotle's Theory of Aether, Berlin-New York 1988 (= Peripatoi 16). On Philoponus' theological writings, see the chapter written by TH. HAINTHALER in: A. GRILLMEIER, Jesus der Christus im Glauben

IAHC 37 (2005)1 412 Uwe Michael Lang

in his literary activity from philosophical to theological writings. It was only on the eve of the Fifth Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 553 that Philoponus turned to specifically doctrinal subjects, first to Christol• ogy and later to questions concerning the and the resurrection of the dead. Philoponus, who must have been a prominent figure in the Miaphysite community of Alexandria, was asked by his co-religionists to give a de• fence of their doctrine in the heated controversy over the Council of Chal• cedon. As already indicated in the tide of his major work on (Diaitetes or Arbiter), he adopted the posture of an impartial judge of the claims put forward by the rival factions. At the same time, Philoponus presented Miaphysite Christology, in the moderate form developed by , as the only consistent exposition of what is implied in the mystery of the Incarnation. To the eminent philosopher from Alexan• dria, the Christology of Chalcedon was simply unintelligible, and his aim was to bring order into the mess of the contemporary controversies by subduing the terms of the debate to a rigorous examination. Leaving aside , "last of the Romans, first of the scholastics"3, it was quite un• heard of that a noted representative of a pagan philosophical school would dedicate his acumen to controversies over Christian doctrine. The Arbiter and a few shorter treatises on Christology by Philoponus, originally written in Greek, are extant as a whole only in an ancient Syriac version, which was edited under the title Opuscula monophysitica Ioannis

der Kirche, Band 11/4: Die Kirche von Alexandrien mit Nubien und Äthiopien nach 451, un• ter Mitarbeit von TH. HAINTHALER, Freiburg i. Br. 1990, 109-49, H. CHADWICK, • ponus the Christian Theologian, in: SORABJI, Rejection 41-56, and now U. M. LANG, John Philoponus and the Controversies over Chalcedon in the Sixth Century: A Study and Trans• lation of theArbiter, Leuven 2001 (= SSL 47). 3 This is the title of the chapter on Boethius in M. GRABMANN, Die Geschichte der scho• lastischen Methode, 2 vol., Freiburg i. Br. 1909-11, vol. 1148-77, echoing the judgment of the humanist Laurentius Valla. On Boethius' theological treatises, see E. K. RAND, Founders of the Middle Ages, Cambridge, Mass. 1928, 135-80, A. GRILLMEIER, Vor• bereitung des Mittelalters. Studie über das Verhältnis von Chalkedonismus und Neu-Chalke• donismus in der lateinischen Theologie von Boethius bis zu Gregor dem Großen, in: A. GRILLMEIER - H. BACHT (ed.), Das Konzil von Chalkedon. Geschichte und Gegenwart. Band 11. Entscheidung um Chalkedon, Würzburg 1953, 791-839, M. LUTZ-BACHMANN, Das Ver• hältnis von Philosophie und Theologie in den "Opuscula Sacra" des A.M.S. Boethius. Eine Studie zur Entwicklung der nachchalcedonischen Theologie, doctoral thesis Münster 1983, 61-114, and B. E. DALEY, Boethius' Theological Tracts and Early Byzantine Scholasticism, in: MS 46 (1984) 158-91.