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Paganism and Idolatry in Near Eastern Christianity Durham E-Theses 'The Gods of the Nations are Idols' (Ps. 96:5): Paganism and Idolatry in Near Eastern Christianity NICHOLS, SEBASTIAN,TOBY How to cite: NICHOLS, SEBASTIAN,TOBY (2014) 'The Gods of the Nations are Idols' (Ps. 96:5): Paganism and Idolatry in Near Eastern Christianity, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/10616/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Sebastian Toby Nichols ‘The Gods of the Nations are Idols’ (Ps. 96:5): Paganism and Idolatry in Near Eastern Christianity This thesis will explore the presentation in Christian literature of gentile religious life in the Roman Near East in the first few centuries AD. It will do so by performing a close study of three sources – the Syriac Oration of Meliton the Philosopher, the Syriac translation of the Apology of Aristides, and the Greek Address to the Greeks of Tatian. It will compare their presentation of a number of areas of gentile religious life – focussing particularly on iconolatry, sacrifice, and morality – and attempt to build a coherent picture of Christian attitudes to these areas. It will then compare these attitudes with a variety of non-Christian evidence: the majority of this will be literary sources, and in particular Lucian of Samosata, but will also include epigraphic evidence from the region. Other Latin and Greek sources will be compared when applicable, but the focus will remain on religious life in the Roman Near East. In the process, this dissertation will not only determine whether it is possible to talk about a single Christian ‘attitude’ towards gentile religious life in the area, but also develop a more detailed picture of the perception of that religious life by its gentile participants. This dissertation will also help to improve our understanding of the relationship between Christians and their gentile neighbours in the Roman Near East. In particular, it will explore the role that Christian literature played in the development of hostility towards the cult in this period. It will conclude by exploring the reasons for this hostility, and placing Christian literary attitudes in their proper context, by demonstrating that Christian literature, and the attitudes that it promotes, could have had a significant impact on their interaction with gentiles, and that this impact has largely been overlooked in scholarship on the development of Christianity. 1 ‘The Gods of the Nations are Idols’ (Ps. 96:5): Paganism and Idolatry in Near Eastern Christianity Sebastian Toby Nichols This thesis is submitted for the degree of PhD in the department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University in 2013. 2 Table of Contents List of Transliterations 6 List of Illustrations 7 List of Abbreviations 7 Acknowledgements 8 Chapter One: Introduction 1.1 Introduction 10 1.2 The Roman Near East 10 1.2.1 Religious life in the Near East 12 1.3 Analysis of source material 17 1.3.1 Apologetic and polemic 17 1.4 The nature of the Christian texts 18 1.4.1 The Syriac translation of Aristides’ Apology 20 1.4.2 The Syriac Oration of Meliton the Philosopher 25 1.4.3 Tatian’s Address to the Greeks 29 1.4.4 Other Christian sources 34 1.5 Non-Christian sources 35 1.5.1 Lucian of Samosata 35 1.5.2 Philo of Byblos’ Phoenician History 37 1.5.3 Other sources 38 1.6 Other types of evidence 40 1.7 Key definitions 42 1.7.1 Christian 42 1.7.2 Pagans and Gentiles 42 1.7.3 Religion 44 1.7.4 Gods, demons and monotheism 45 1.8 Scripts, texts and translations 48 1.9 Concluding remarks 49 Chapter Two: “Do not make for yourselves gods of cast metals” (Deut. 19:4): Near Eastern Christianity and image-worship 2.1 Introduction 50 2.2 Defining an idol 51 2.3 Near Eastern Christian attitudes to image-worship 57 2.3.1 Meliton 57 2.3.2 The Syriac translator of Aristides 63 2.3.2.1 Aristides, Xenophanes and iconoclasm 68 2.3.3 Tatian 70 2.4 Non-Christian sources 76 2.4.1 Lucian 76 3 2.4.2 Philo of Byblos 80 2.4.3 The Julius Terentius fresco 82 2.5 Both ‘being’ and ‘representing’: having one’s cake and eating it 85 2.6 Aniconism 88 2.6.1 Defining a baetyl 89 2.6.2 Jewish and Christian attitudes 91 2.6.3 Meliton 93 2.6.3.1 Meliton, Lucian and the 93 2.6.4 The Syriac translator of Aristides 94 2.6.5 Tatian 96 2.7 Concluding remarks 96 Chapter Three: ‘An idol has no real existence, and there is no God but one’ (1 Cor 8:4): Near Eastern Christianity and the powerlessness of idols 3.1 Introduction 98 3.2 Near Eastern Christian attitudes to the powerlessness of the divine 99 3.2.1 Meliton 99 3.2.1.1 The self-locomotion and independence of images 103 3.2.2 Tatian 106 3.2.2.1 Excursus: The ira deum 108 3.2.3 The Syriac translator of Aristides 113 3.2.3.1 Excursus: The tripartite theology: religion and myth 114 3.3 The blessings of the gods: and salvation 119 3.3.1 Excursus: in cult practice 120 3.3.2 Excursus: Votive offerings 123 3.3.3 ʽl ḥyy (‘for the life of’) in Near Eastern inscriptions 125 3.3.4 Excursus: in mystery cults 135 3.3.4.1 Eleusis 136 3.3.4.2 Isis 140 3.3.4.3 Dionysus 143 3.3.4.4 Mithras 144 3.3.5 Salvation and deliverance in Aristides 145 3.4 Near Eastern Christian attitudes to the dependence of the divine 147 3.4.1 The Syriac translator of Aristides 148 3.4.2 Meliton 150 3.4.3 Tatian 151 3.4.4 Other Christian texts 152 3.5 Non-Christian sources 153 3.5.1 Lucian 154 3.5.2 Other sources 155 3.6 Feeding the gods 156 3.7 Near Eastern Christian attitudes to the vulnerability of the divine 160 3.7.1 Meliton 161 3.7.1.1 Excursus: The destruction of images 162 3.7.2 The Syriac translator of Aristides 163 3.7.2.1 The death of Adonis-Tammuz 165 3.7.3 Tatian 167 4 3.8 Non-Christian sources 169 3.8.1 The Homeric poems 169 3.8.2 Lucian and the tomb of Zeus 170 3.8.3 Philo of Byblos 172 3.9 Olympic or Chthonic? 173 3.10 Concluding remarks 174 Chapter Four: ‘The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh’ (Gal. 5:17): Near Eastern Christianity, ethics and moral religion. 4.1 Introduction 176 4.2 Near Eastern Christian attitudes to the morality of the divine 178 4.2.1 The Syriac translator of Aristides 178 4.2.2 Tatian 183 4.2.3 Meliton 185 4.3 Non-Christian attitudes to the morality of the divine 186 4.3.1 Philo of Byblos 187 4.3.2 Lucian 188 4.4 Excursus: The tripartite theology: philosophy, myth and the dangers of poetry 190 4.5 Near Eastern Christian attitudes to the morality of man 195 4.5.1 The Syriac translator of Aristides 195 4.5.2 Tatian 199 4.5.3 Meliton 202 4.6 Non-Christian attitudes to the morality of man 205 4.6.1 Lucian 206 4.6.2 Apuleius 209 4.6.3 Philo of Byblos 210 4.7 Immorality or impiety? 210 4.7.1 Confession inscriptions 211 4.7.2 Lucian 219 4.8 Excursus: The tripartite theology: religion, philosophy and ethics 220 4.9 Near Eastern Christianity and Stoicism 225 4.9.1 Meliton 227 4.9.2 The Syriac translator of Aristides 230 4.9.3 Tatian 231 4.10 Concluding remarks 234 Chapter Five: ‘Bless those who persecute you’ (Rom. 12:14): Christian persecution and the motivation of hostility 5.1 Introduction 236 5.2 Theories of opposition 237 5.2.1 The flagitia (or ‘immorality’) theory 240 5.2.2 The contumacia (or ‘obstinacy’) theory 244 5.2.3 The coniuratio (or ‘political’) theory 248 5.2.4 The civitas (or ‘citizenship’) theory 252 5 5.2.5 The superstitio (or ‘ungodliness’) theory 254 5.2.5.1 Defining superstitio 256 5.3 The evolution of hostility 260 5.3.1 Chimerical, xenophobic and realistic hatred 261 5.4 The βλ φ (or ‘slander’) theory 264 5.5 Concluding remarks 270 Appendix A: Translation of the Syriac Oration of Meliton 271 Appendix B: Translation of the Syriac Apology of Aristides 276 Bibliography 287 List of Transliterations The following table demonstrates the standard transliterations for Hebrew and Syriac lettering used in this thesis.
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