Porphyry says that Origen used the Jewish Scriptures to prove, through figurative interpretation, that Christians were somehow superior to the Judeans.EH6 19:2 ... Porphyry, who lived in Sicily in our own times and wrote books against us, ... mentions those who have interpreted them [that is, Jewish Scriptures]; ... 3 ... But hear his own words:
4 "Some persons, desiring to find a solution of the baseness of the Jewish Scriptures rather than abandon them, have had recourse to explanations inconsistent and incongruous with the words written, which explanations, instead of supplying a defense of the foreigners, contain rather approval and praise of themselves.
For they boast that the plain words of Moses are enigmas, and regard them as oracles full of hidden mysteries; and having bewildered the mental judgment by folly, they make their explanations."
Farther on he says:
9 These things are said by Porphyry in the third book of his work against the Christians. ...5 As an example of this absurdity take a man whom I met when I was young, and who was then greatly celebrated and still is, on account of the writings which he has left. I refer to Origen, who is highly honored by the teachers of these doctrines.
6 For this man, having been a hearer of Ammonius, who had attained the greatest proficiency in philosophy of any in our day, derived much benefit from his teacher in the knowledge of the sciences; but as to the correct choice of life, he pursued a course opposite to his.
7 For Ammonius, being a Christian, and brought up by Christian parents, when he gave himself to study and to philosophy, straightway conformed to the life required by the [philosophic] laws.
But Origen, having been educated as a Greek in Greek literature, went over to the barbarian recklessness.
And carrying over the learning which he had obtained, he hawked it about, in his life conducting himself as a Christian and contrary to the [philosophic] laws, but in his opinions of material things and of the Deity being like a Greek, and mingling Grecian teachings with foreign fables.
8 For he was continually studying Plato, and he busied himself with the writings of Numenius and Cronius, Apollophanes, Longinus, Moderatus, and Nicomachus, and those famous among the Pythagoreans. And he used the books of Chaeremon the Stoic, and of Cornutus.
Becoming acquainted through them with the figurative interpretation of the Grecian mysteries, he applied it to the Jewish Scriptures."
Porphyry does not seem to think that is acceptable. In his POV, the Jewish Scriptures are base, and should be abandoned by those who come from environments where they are prevalent. Apparently, he had not much respect for Jewish Scriptures as the basis for a philosophically based life.
I do not know if P., who was a Neo-Platonist, was acquainted with Philo, who tried very hard to interpret Genesis in a manner that was derived from Middle-Platonism.
DCH
arnoldo wrote:I like this zinger.GakuseiDon wrote: . . The second highlighted quote isn't relevant to your question, but it's the previously mentioned 'zinger' that I like. (Also repeated in longer form in Ch 34).Porphyry described Origen as one who “drove headlong toward barbarian recklessness,” adopted a “Christian way of life, contrary to the law,” and in his allegorical interpretation of the Bible, fruitlessly “Introduced Greek ideas into foreign myths.” Both Origen and his critic portray the distinction between Christianity and philosophy in ethnic terms. Gregory, too, seems to distinguish between philosophy, which is Greek, and “foreign” Christianity. The emphasis, intriguingly, is not on content, but on origins.
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php? ... 0674030480