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Christological Name Theology in Three Second Century Communities Michael D Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations (2009 -) Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Projects Christological Name Theology in three Second Century communities Michael D. Harris Marquette University Recommended Citation Harris, Michael D., "Christological Name Theology in three Second Century communities" (2013). Dissertations (2009 -). Paper 270. http://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/270 CHRISTOLOGICAL NAME THEOLOGY IN THREE SECOND CENTURY COMMUNITIES by Michael D. Harris, B.A., M.A. A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Milwaukee, Wisconsin May 2013 ABSTRACT CHRISTOLOGICAL NAME THEOLOGY IN THREE SECOND CENTURY COMMUNITIES Michael D. Harris, B.A., M.A. Marquette University, 2013 This dissertation seeks to consider the possible backgrounds for second century Christian name theology, the distinct regional applications of “Name” theology to Christology, and also to compare Rome, Syria, and Alexandria to one another and reveal how that application was different in each of the three regions. In order to understand the backgrounds for this theological idea, the first three chapters investigate the variety of theological uses of the word “name” in the Hebrew Bible, in other Jewish literature, and in the New Testament. The three communities are represented by 1 Clement and Shepherd of Hermas from Rome, Ascension of Isaiah and Odes of Solomon from Antiochian Syria, and Gospel of Truth and Excerpta ex Theodoto at Alexandria. All the second century Christian texts considered in this study make use of earlier Jewish ideas about the name of God or special names given by God. All of them adapt that theological term to their own immediate concerns; however, this study discovers some common traits among all of them. The name is given soteriological importance in each text. That salvation is determined in some way by possession of the name by the believer. Finally, in different ways each text places importance on the way the name interacts with creation. These common points serve as a basis for comparison of all the material undertaken in this study. i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Michael D. Harris, B.A., M.A. As I submit this dissertation, I am glad to have the opportunity to offer thanks to some of the people who have helped and supported me during its composition. First, I thank the Marquette Theology Department for the support it has given me in the form of a Dissertation Fellowship, as well as the opportunity to work for several years as a Teaching Assistant. These appointments put me in a position to develop as a teacher and as a researcher, and the confidence of the department has continued to be a great encouragement to me. I would like to thank my board, Dr. Michel René Barnes, Dr. Deirdre Dempsey, Bishop Alexander (Golitzin), and Dr. Andrei Orlov. I appreciate their willingness to read my work, and their comments have improved it at many points. Dr. Dempsey especially has tolerated frequent questions about Semitic languages that have come, as often as not, whenever I happened to see her in the library. Both Bishop Alexander and Dr. Orlov have encouraged my work in classes and in the Jewish Roots of Christian Mysticism Seminar. As my director and teacher, Dr. Barnes has sharpened my thinking, and hopefully my expression of that thinking. He has provided an example of scholarship and pedagogy that I hold as a model for my own. I have learned from him at every stage of my work at Marquette, as his student in the graduate classroom, as his T.A. in the undergraduate classroom, and finally as I have written, and rewritten this dissertation. Along the way, I have also learned something about the importance of good food and good film for theological method, or at least for maintaining a degree of sanity while doing theology. ii His comments and suggestions helped at numerous points to move my research along. At other points, it was his prodding that drew out the conclusions I had come to but was not yet able to articulate. I am grateful for his mentoring and for his friendship. My fellow students at Marquette have also provided stimulating conversation, and intellectual challenges. The group with whom I took courses has continued as conversation partners, sounding boards, and friends. In particular, I want to mention and thank Anthony Briggman, Bob Foster, Dan Lloyd, and Mike Novak for their part in making doctoral studies enjoyable as well as profitable. Without the support of family, this dissertation would never have come to completion. My parents, Dale and Elisabeth Harris, have expressed faith and confidence in me from before the beginning of my education. Their encouragement continued as I waded through graduate school, and I thank them for the encouragement and the advice they have offered. If stereotypes are to be trusted, many people cannot count on the support of their in-laws, but I have been unusually blessed in this regard. Barry and Joan Liffiton have gone out of their way to support, to ease the path, and even to cajole when needed. Perhaps the most enthusiastic support has come from my children. Both Renée and Ezekiel were born while we have lived in Milwaukee, and have always known Papa to have class papers or a dissertation to attend to. I am glad to be able to share with them the excitement that it is now finished. My greatest thanks go to my wife, Donna. She encouraged me to go to graduate school in the first place and begin the journey that has led here. She has enthusiastically embraced a life that is somewhat different from what we expected when we were first iii married. Her support, her encouragement, and her love have a lot to do with my arrival at this point, and I look forward to the next chapter of our lives together. Thank you Donna. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1 1. THE SHEM THEOLOGIES OF THE HEBREW BIBLE 14 2. NAME THEOLOGIES IN JUDAISM 51 3. THE ὄνομα THEOLOGIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 93 4. NAME THEOLOGY IN ROME: FIRST CLEMENT 124 5. NAME THEOLOGY IN ROME: THE SHEPHERD OF HERMAS 163 6. NAME THEOLOGY IN SECOND CENTURY SYRIA: THE ASCENSION OF ISAIAH AND THE ODES OF SOLOMON 199 7. NAME THEOLOGY AT ALEXANDRIA IN THE SECOND CENTURY: THE GOSPEL OF TRUTH AND EXCERPTA EX THEODOTO 240 CONCLUSIONS 275 BIBLIOGRAPHY 286 1 Introduction By way of introducing the prayer that concludes his epistle to the Corinthians, Clement writes We will ask, with earnest prayer and supplication, that the Creator of the universe may keep intact the specified number of his elect throughout the whole world, through his beloved servant Jesus Christ, through whom he called us from darkness to light, from ignorance to the knowledge of the glory of his Name. To hope upon your Name, the primal source of all creation …1 This brief quotation touches upon the richness that is present in the Name Theologies of the second century. The Name is associated with the preservation of the church, it can be known, and that knowledge is the opposite of darkness and ignorance, and so represents salvation. In the last line, almost in passing, the Name is credited with having a role in the creation. During a seminar on early pneumatology Michel Barnes made the observation that Name Theology had been an important way of discussing Christology during the second century, but that by the middle of the third it had dropped almost out of the discussion. The disappearance of a significant set of theological vocabulary intrigued me, and this dissertation represents an attempt to understand the purposes to which the vocabulary of Name Theology was put during what passes for its heyday. I should begin by clarifying my terminology, since there can be confusion about what I mean by Name Theology. I am interested in those passages that refer to the Name 1 1 Clem. 59.2-3. 2 of God as a Name, not in the various names given to God. This study is concerned with Hebrew uses of šēm,2 Greek references to God’s ὄνομα, and their equivalents in Ethiopic, Syriac, or Coptic. I am not directly interested in Hebrew passages that use the tetragrammaton, or Greek passages that represent that Name by the euphemism κύριος. I am interested in uses of the tetragrammaton or κύριος only insofar as they occasionally help to inform my reading of šēm or ὄνομα in the same passage. I am particularly interested in those instances in the Christian literature where that Name is applied to the Son of God. Uncovering how the Name was used in the second century, however, requires an understanding of how that term had been used in the Jewish and Christian literature that came earlier, and so a significant portion of this study addresses those prior examples from the Hebrew Bible, other Jewish literature, and the New Testament. Unlike the tetragrammaton itself, references to the Name of God as a Name—and the later phenomenon of relating that Name to Jesus Christ—has received little concentrated attention in earlier scholarship. Within the Hebrew Bible, only the Deuteronomic Shem theology has received extensive treatment.3 There has been no similar investigation of a Shem Theology outside that corpus, or in Jewish literature outside the Hebrew Bible. In that literature, the Name is used for a range of theological purposes besides what is claimed for the Deuteronomic Shem Theology. Much of that content is taken up by 2 I will use shem to refer to the Hebrew Bible’s theological concept of God’s name.
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