WORD AND MEANING IN ANCIENT ALEXANDRIA During the late Hellenistic and early Imperial periods (B.C. 50 – A.D. 300), important developments may be traced in the philosophy of language and its relationship to mind. This book examines theories of language in the work of theologians and philosophers linked to Ancient Alexandria. The growth of Judaism and Christianity in cultural centers of the Roman Empire, above all Alexandria, provides valuable testimony to the philosophical vitality of this period. The study of Later Greek philosophy should be more closely integrated with the Church Fathers, particularly in the theologically sensitive issue of the nature of language. Robertson traces some related attempts to reconcile immaterial, intelligible reality and the intelligibility of language, explain the structure of language, and clarify the nature of meaning. These shared problems are handled with greater philosophical sophistication by Plotinus, although the comparison with Philo, Clement, and Origen illustrates significant similarities as well as differences between Neoplatonism and early Jewish and Christian philosophy. This book is dedicated to Josie Robertson Word and Meaning in Ancient Alexandria Theories of Language from Philo to Plotinus DAVID ROBERTSON © David Robertson 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. David Robertson has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Gower House Suite 420 Croft Road 101 Cherry Street Aldershot Burlington, VT 05401-4405 Hampshire GU11 3HR USA England Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Robertson, David, 1967– Word and meaning in ancient Alexandria : theories of language from Philo to Plotinus 1. Plotinus 2. Origen 3. Philo, of Alexandria 4. Language and languages – Philosophy 5. Alexandrian school I. Title 401 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Robertson, David, 1967– Word and meaning in ancient Alexandria : theories of language from Philo to Plotinus / David Robertson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7546-0696-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Language and languages–Religious aspects–Christianity. 2. Language and languages– Philosophy. 3. Christian literature, Early. I. Title. BR115.L25R58 2007 401–dc22 2007028310 ISBN 978 0 7546 0696 3 Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd. Bodmin, Cornwall. Contents Preface vii Acknowledgements ix List of Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 1 Philo 9 2 Clement 29 3 Origen 45 4 Plotinus 63 Conclusion 97 Bibliography 99 Index Locorum 109 Index of Names and Subjects 112 This page intentionally left blank Preface This book took shape like a great many human lives. It was conceived at leisure, birthed in uncertainty, matured in confused alternations of pleasure and pain, and completed in difficult circumstances. I can point to a chance meeting in April 2000 with Sarah Lloyd from Ashgate, at the British Society for the History of Philosophy Conference ‘Athens and Jerusalem’, University of Keele. The shape of this project emerged from my five years of research in London, although I left England with ambitions to write something far more centered in ancient linguistics than the book in your hands. It is meant to provide the sort of contribution in Later Hellenistic and Early Imperial philosophy that I would have liked to read at the dissertation stage. I owe uncountable debts to Mary Margaret McCabe, Verity Harte, Raphael Woolf, Josef Lössl, Paul Helm, Bob Sharples, David Sedley, Martin Stone, and John Lee, among many others, who all provided indispensable assistance during and after my stay in London. At Felician College, David Rice and Gerry O’Sullivan were enthusiastically supportive of this project. As noted above, the Ashgate managers, editors, and administrators deserve the greatest credit for their patience over several years, particularly Sarah Lloyd, Anne Keirby, Paul Coulam, Rachel Lynch and Emily Ruskell. And I offer warmest thanks to Richard Sorabji, my doctoral thesis supervisor at King’s College London, who spotted me working in a thicket of books one fateful day in the Institute of Classical Studies, cozily nestled in its old Gordon Square lodgings. It was a divine appointment. Richard Sorabji enlisted me in a series of research project tasks connected with the massive Ancient Commentators Project, including serving for several years as postgraduate assistant in preparation of the Sourcebook in the Philosophy of the Ancient Commentators 200–600 AD (3 vols, London, 2004). After my repatriation in America, Prof. Sorabji generously met with me in New York and Austin. Without his advice, encouragement, references, hospitality, anecdotes, and moral exhortation, this sort of research would be simply inconceivable. Any shortcomings noted by the attentive reader may be charged solely to my willful refusal to listen to his counsel. Finally, I express my gratitude to my parents, who were unwittingly granted a perpetual work in progress for an eldest son, and my wife and two daughters, who will greet the publication of this monograph with a sense of wonder vastly incommensurate to its merits. Now I must say a word about the title. I mean to pay my respects to Quine’s viii Word and Meaning in Ancient Alexandria tough and witty classic of analytic philosophy, Word and Object.1 It was the first truly important work of contemporary philosophy I read, devoured (and re-devoured) in countless railway platforms, subway trains, and chilly bus stops in North London. Well, it was contemporary—to compare great things with small, I am comforted by the possibility that a deeply flawed book could sustain its interest. Finally, I would like to comment on my system of references to ancient texts. I have adopted the most common scholarly conventions for the references to ancient texts whenever possible, usually including the name of the editor or editors in the reference. At times, as in the case of passages from Clement and Origen, I have also included information following the name of the editor or editors, which presents the pages and lines of the cited Greek or Latin text. Thus for Clement and Origen, the page numbers are presented towards the end of the reference, followed by the line numbers. (In cases of multiple pages in the reference, I adopt a format of page number, line number–page number, line number.) I trust that the reader will interpret this scholarly notation with no difficulty. 1 W.V.O. Quine, Word and Object (Cambridge, MA, 1960). Acknowledgements I acknowledge the permission of University of Pennsylvania Press, for allowing me to reproduce the copyrighted material from my published article, ‘Mind and Language in Philo’, Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 67, iss. 3 (July 2006) in the body of Chapter 1. Credit for translations pressed into service from published sources is noted upon the first appearance of the source in each chapter. Otherwise, the translated texts are my own. In no instance have I used previously published translations from my own hand, with the exception of the Philo texts. This page intentionally left blank List of Abbreviations Ancient Texts Abr. De Abrahamo Abst. De abstinentia Agr. De agricultura An. Post. Posterior Analytics An. Proc. Tim. De animae procreatione in Timaeo Cat. Categoriae Cels. Contra Celsum Col. Colossians Congr. De congressu eruditionis gratia 1 Cor. 1 Corinthians D.L. Diogenes Laertius Decal. De decalogo Det. Quod deterius potiori insidiari soleat Did. Didaskalikos Diss. Dissertationes Div. De divinatione Enn. Enneads Ep. Epistula Fr. Fragmenta Fug. De fuga et inventione Gen. Genesis Gig. De gigantibus Gramm. Grammatica Her. Quis rerum divinarum heres sit xii List of Abbreviations Immut. Quod deus sit immutabilis In Joh. In Johannem Int. De interpretatione Jn. John Leg. All. Legum allegoriae Lk. Luke Marc. Aur. Marcus Aurelius Math. Adversus mathematicos Migr. De migratione Abrahami Mos. De vita Moysis Mt. Matthew Mut. De mutatione nominum Nat. Hom. De natura hominis Opif. De opificio mundi Paed. Paedagogus Phd. Phaedo Phaedr. Phaedrus Phil. Philebus Philoc. Philocalia Plac. De placitis reliquiae Plac. Hipp. Plat. De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis Plant. De plantatione Post. De posteritate Caini Princ. De principiis Prov. De providentia Ps. Psalm Quaest. Ex. Quaestiones et solutiones in Exodum Quaest. Gen. Quaestiones et solutiones in Genesim Rep. Republic Word and Meaning in Ancient Alexandria xiii Sacr. De sacrificiis Abelis et Caini Sch. in Dionys. Thr. Scholia in Dionysium Thracem Sext. Emp. Sextus Empiricus Somn. De somniis Somn. Scip. In somnium Scipionis Soph. Sophist Spec. Leg. De specialibus legibus Strom. Stromata Theaet. Theaetetus Tim. Timaeus Tusc. Tusculan Disputations Vit. Plot. Vita Plotini Reference Works, Standard Works, Collections, and Series ANRW Aufsteig und Niedergang der römischen Welt EK Posidonius. Fragments and Commentary, L. Edelstein and I.G. Kidd (eds) (3 vols, Cambridge, 1989). FDS Die Fragmente zur Dialektik der Stoiker, K. Hülser (ed.) (Stuttgart, 1987–8) GCS Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte LP Lexicon Plotinianum, J.H. Sleeman and G. Pollet (eds) (Leuven, 1980). LS The Hellenistic