Parallels Between Clement of Alexandria and the Followers of Mark in Irenaeus

[Secret Alias]

It has been noted here and there that Clement copies verbatim (or conversely Irenaeus may be citing Clement verbatim) a mystic passage found in Irenaeus's description of the followers of Mark. By the context of Against Heresies it would appear that 'Mark' was later than Valentinus. Nevertheless this is less clear from Tertullian's version of the material in Against the Valentinians. I will take for granted the parallels between Stromata 6 and Irenaeus's account of the mystic opinions of the followers of Mark and move on to some other parallels starting with the opening reference in the Exhortation:

How, let me ask, have you believed vain fables and supposed animals to be charmed by music while Truth's shining face alone (Ἀληθείας δὲ ὑμῖν τὸ πρόσωπον τὸ φαιδρὸν μόνον), as would seem appears to you disguised (ἐπίπλαστον = plastered over), and is looked on with incredulous eyes?

And so Cithaeron, and Helicon, and the mountains of the Odrysi, and the initiatory rites (τελεστήρια) of the Thracians, mysteries of deceit (τῆς πλάνης τὰ μυστήρια), are hallowed and celebrated in hymns. For me, I am pained at such calamities as form the subjects of tragedy, though but myths (εἰ καὶ μῦθός εἰσι); but by you the records of miseries are turned into dramatic compositions.

But the dramas and the raving poets, now quite intoxicated, let us crown with ivy; and distracted outright as they are, in Bacchic fashion, with the satyrs, and the frenzied rabble, and the rest of the demon crew, let us confine to Cithaeron and Helicon, now antiquated.

But let us bring from above out of heaven, Truth, with Wisdom in all its brightness, and the sacred prophetic choir, down to the holy mount of God (κατάγωμεν δὲ ἄνωθεν ἐξ οὐρανῶν ἀλήθειαν ἅμα φανοτάτῃ φρονήσει εἰς ὄρος ἅγιον θεοῦ καὶ χορὸν τὸν ἅγιον τὸν προφητικόν); and let Truth, darting her light to the most distant points, cast her rays all around on those that are involved in darkness, and deliver men from delusion (Ἣ δὲ ὡς ὅτι μάλιστα τηλαυγὲς ἀποστίλβουσα φῶς καταυγαζέτω πάντῃ τοὺς ἐν σκότει κυλινδουμένους καὶ τῆς πλάνης τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἀπαλλαττέτω), stretching out her very strong right hand, which is wisdom, for their salvation (τὴν ὑπερτάτην ὀρέγουσα δεξιάν, τὴν σύνεσιν, εἰς σωτηρίαν). And raising their eyes, and looking above, let them abandon Helicon and Cithaeron, and take up their abode in Sion. "For out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem, --the celestial Word, the true athlete crowned in the theatre of the whole universe. What my Eunomos sings is not the measure of Terpander, nor that of Capito, nor the Phrygian, nor Lydian, nor Dorian, but the immortal measure of the new harmony which bears God's name--the new, the Levitical song.

And in Irenaeus Book 1 Mark exclaims:

I wish to show thee Truth herself; for I have brought her down from the dwellings above, that thou mayest see her without a veil, and understand her beauty--that thou mayest also hear her speaking, and admire her wisdom.

This would be a very persuasive argument to me that Against Heresies was written after the Exhortation along with the verbatim parallels between the Stromata 6 and the same section. As such, the date of Against Heresies is clearly wrong. Just as the Stromata was written after the reign of Commodus, Against Heresies is better dated to the beginning of the third century. It's just Eusebius who misleads scholars. There is no internal evidence to suggest an earlier date.

[Secret Alias]

Again:

You have, then, God's promise; you have His love: become partaker of His grace (τῆς χάριτος μεταλάμβανε). And do not suppose the song of salvation to be new, as a vessel or a house is new. For "before the morning star it was;" 'and "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Error seems old, but truth seems a new thing.[Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen 1]

For I want, I want to impart to you this grace (Ἐθέλω γάρ, ἐθέλω καὶ ταύτης ὑμῖν μεταδοῦναι τῆς χάριτος), bestowing on you the perfect boon of immortality ; and I confer on you both the Word and the knowledge of God, My complete self. This am I, this God wills, this is symphony, this the harmony of the Father, this is the Son, this is Christ, this the Word of God, the arm of the Lord, the power of the universe, the will of the Father; of which things there were images of old, but not all adequate. I desire to restore you according to the original model, that you may become also like Me. I anoint you with the ungent of faith, by which you throw off corruption, and show you the naked form of righteousness by which you ascend to God. [Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen 12]

But there is another among these heretics, Mark by name … addressing [his adherents] in such seductive words as these: "I am eager to impart to you my grace … (μεταδοῦναί σοι θέλω τῆς ἐμῆς χάριτος)” [Irenaeus Against Heresies 13.1 – 2]

[Secret Alias]

Stromata 6:16 - Thus the Lord, who ascended the mountain, the fourth becomes the sixth, and is illuminated all round with spiritual light, by laying bare the power proceeding from Him, as far as those selected to see were able to behold it

AH 6:42 - And he says, as the result of this computation and that proportion, that in the similitude of an image He appeared who after the six days Himself ascended the mountain a fourth person, and became the sixth. And (he asserts) that He (likewise) descended and was detained by the Hebdomad, and thus became an illustious Ogdoad.

and:

Stromata 6:16 - For six is reckoned in the order of numbers, but the succession of the letters acknowledges the character which is not written. In this case, in the numbers themselves, each unit is preserved in its order up to seven and eight. But in the number of the characters, Zeta becomes six and Eta seven. And the character having somehow slipped into writing, should we follow it out thus, the seven became six, and the eight seven.

AH 6:42 - And in regard of another number they express themselves in this manner: that the letter Eta along with the remarkable one constitutes all ogdoad, as it is situated in the eighth place from Alpha. Then, again, computing the number of these elements without the remarkable (letter), and adding them together up to Eta, they exhibit the number thirty. For any one beginning from the Alpha to the Eta will, after subtracting the remarkable (letter i.e. episemon) ... they subtract twelve, and reckon it at eleven. And in like manner, (they subtract) ten and make it nine.

and:

Stromata 6:16 - Wherefore also man is said to have been made on the sixth day, who became faithful to Him who is the sign (tp epishmw[5]), so as straightway to receive the rest of the Lord's inheritance. Some such thing also is indicated by the sixth hour in the scheme of salvation, in which man was perfected. Further, of the eight, the intermediates are seven; and of the seven, the intervals are shown to be six.

AH 6:42 - And for this reason (he maintains) that Moses says that man was created on the sixth day. And (he asserts) that the dispensation of suffering (took place) on the sixth day, which is the preparation; (and so it was) that on this (day) appeared the last man for the regeneration of the first man. And that the beginning and end of this dispensation is the sixth hour, at which He was nailed to the (accursed) tree.

and:

Stromata 6 - For that is another ground, in which seven glorifies eight, and "the heavens declare to the heavens the glory of God."

AH 6:42 - As, then, he says, the seven powers glorify the Logos, so also does the sorrowing soul in babes (magnify Him). And on account of this, he says, David likewise has declared, "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise." And again, "The heavens declare the glory of God."

and:

Stromata 6:16 - The sensible types of these, then, are the sounds we pronounce. Thus the Lord Himself is called "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end,"[7] " by whom all things were made, and without whom not even one thing was made."[8]

AH 6:42 - Thus the ineffable name in Christ consists, they allege, of thirty letters. And they assert that for this reason He utters the words, "I am Alpha and Omega,"

that Jesus only preached for one "year of favor":

Stromata 6:16 Now there are some who say that ... twelve points out the preaching [of the Gospel]; because the Lord preached in His thirtieth year; and the apostles were twelve.

Stromata 6:16 by which is produced "the great year," as a kind of period of recompense of what has been promised.

Irenaeus Book 2:21 If, again, they maintain that the twelve apostles were a type only of that group of twelve Aeons

ibid - I have shown that the number thirty fails them in every respect .. there are not, therefore, thirty Aeons, nor did the Saviour come to be baptized when He was thirty years old, for this reason, that He might show forth the thirty silent Aeons of their system ... Moreover, they affirm that He suffered in the twelfth month, so that He continued to preach for one year after His baptism; and they endeavour to establish this point out of the prophet (for it is written, "To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of retribution" ), being truly blind,

also the New Advent "There are two extreme views as to the length of the ministry of Jesus: St. Irenaeus (Contra Haer., II, xxii, 3-6) appears to suggest a period of fifteen years; the prophetic phrases, "the year of recompenses", "the year of my redemption" (Isaiah 34:8; 63:4), appear to have induced Clement of Alexandria, Julius Africanus, Philastrius, Hilarion, and two or three other patristic writers to allow only one year for the public life. "

[Secret Alias]

From The Mysteries of the Alphabet ascribed to Saint Sabbas (yes he for whom the Mar Saba monastery is named:

This is the first part of Dr. Anthony Alcock’s translation of an intriguing text, the Mysteries of the Greek Alphabet. This text is preserved in a single Copto-Arabic paper manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Here is a photograph of the manuscript (sorry for the low quality). The text has survived also in Greek (see the edition in C. Bandt, Der Traktat “Vom Mysterium der Buchstaben”: Kritischer Text mit Einführung, Übersetzung und Anmerkungen (Texte und Untersuchungen, 162; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2007).

And then a little about the text itself:

Among the many scholars to have studied Huntington 393 was E. Amélineau, who pointed out that the name of the writer was not atase but apa seba. The question then presented itself: was this Sabas, who founded several monasteries in Palestine in the 5th cent. Hebbelynck believes that the Coptic is a translation from someone whose first language might have been Hebrew or Syriac, but he does not say why. On p. 12 of the text the writer refers to himself as xecnos ‘gentile’. Part Four of the text mentions the Arabic alphabet, which would make a 5th-6th cent. composition date more or less impossible. However, this part may be a later addition to an earlier composition.

https://suciualin.files.wordpress.com/2 ... habet1.pdf

We read at the very beginning the author tell us that he received the revelation of the 'alpha and omega' one particular day:

I saw myself one evening as if I were standing on Mount Sinai, the place where the law of God came into being and the revelation of the nature of the world to Moses from God. In fear I saw the power of a ruler to which many people were singing, from whom emanates the light to become wise, as he alone knows. I heard the revelation of the letters and their nature and was taught by him and I also wrote them. The one who believes therefore what you say is wise. The one who is unbelieving will receive the portion of unbelievers and he will be judged with them on the true judgement day.

While Irenaeus's account of Mark does not specify a Sinai revelation, Moses is clearly very important to Mark who clearly had a very similar revelation. We are told that "he has induced [his followers] to join themselves to him, as to one who is possessed of the greatest knowledge and perfection, and who has received the highest power from the invisible and ineffable regions above."

In the Irenaean account Mark - a 'teacher' of the highest order - watches as a being named 'Truth' descends from heaven and reveals to him the secrets of the letters. In this present account Sabas speaks instead about:

The teacher, who does not need teaching teaches us about that mystery hidden since eternity, the letters of the alphabet, saying as follows. These letters are called 'elements', not because they are composed of elements as the vain pagan philosophers think (God forbid !), but, because of their form, the elements of the creation of the world are in them when they are written.

It is important to note that Mark too stresses the letters of the alphabet contain 'elements' (= stoicheia). As Birger Pearson notes in his work on Gnosticism that:

Marcus presents his teaching as a revelation from the Tetrad in the Pleroma. What is interesting about Marcus's system is that he interprets a Valentinian myth with the use of numerology and alphabet mysticism. The Valentinian aeons are represented as elements or letters of the alphabet. (The Greek word stoicheion can mean “element” or a “letter” of the alphabet.) The primal Father “willed to make utterable that of him which was ineffable and to give form to that which was invisible,” and “opened his mouth and sent forth a word which was similar to himself." "He uttered the first word of his name, which was 'beginning' (Arche),” a word made up of four letters (Greek αρχή).[p. 169]

As we continue through Sabas's work we hear also that:

And in this alphabet, the things which are thought to be of slight importance, resided the mystery hidden from the beginning of the world. The number (= episemon) of the form which is in it teaches us the descent to earth of God the Logos from heaven, and the time when he migrated to us, and the establishment of the Church by him. And that is not all. But there is also his suffering on the Cross to save us. And through him we have become justified and received santification. And not only those upon the earth have received his grace, but also those in hell have enjoyed the presence of Christ. He went and evangelized those in captivity in that place. He rose from the dead and went up to heaven. He sent the Paraclete to us. The Gospel he preached in the whole world, and this will endure until the end.

This treasure, that is each of the letters, teaches us that Christ is a duality, that is, man and god at the same time, which means 'he is he'. And that he is a sign appearing as the 'episêmon'.And that he is life and the life-giver. He is the Lord. He is also the Ecclesiast of truth who has assembled together the holy Church of the faithful and he is immortal. He is eternal. He is the support and help. He is the beacon and the truth. He is the sanctification and the custodian of all. He is also the beginning and the end. He is the true lawgiver and all that is beautiful and all that is good. he teaches us about the word of the Trinity by means of a strange argument using remarkable letters

The very same ideas about Jesus as the episemon appear throughout Irenaeus's published comments on the sect associated with Mark.

In Against Heresies Book One we see Irenaeus's reference the concept of Jesus as the episemon, his suffering on the cross is related to the same letter/number and much more. We read that Mark

asserts that the fruit of this arrangement and analogy has been manifested in the likeness of an image, namely, Him who, after six days, ascended into the mountain along with three others, and then became one of six (the sixth), in which character He descended and was contained in the Hebdomad, since He was the illustrious Ogdoad, and contained in Himself the entire number of the elements, which the descent of the dove (who is Alpha and Omega) made clearly manifest, when He came to be baptized; for the number of the dove is eight hundred and one. And for this reason did Moses declare that man was formed on the sixth day; and then, again, according to arrangement, it was on the sixth day, which is the preparation, that the last man appeared, for the regeneration of the first, Of this arrangement, both the beginning and the end were formed at that sixth hour, at which He was nailed to the tree. For that perfect being Nous, knowing that the number six had the power both of formation and regeneration, declared to the children of light, that regeneration which has been wrought out by Him who appeared as the Episemon in regard to that number. [1.14.6]

[Secret Alias]

The sense I get from Clement in Exhortation is that:

1. Just as Moses received the Law with its letters inscribed by the finger of God
2. the catechumen are inscribed with the letters of God.

The 'Truth' here is a way of disassociating 'the Law' as the particular thing given to Israel. By calling it 'Truth' it allows for the mysticism of 'inscribing' letters on believers to emerge.

[Secret Alias]

Torah is equated with truth (emet) every day in Jewish synagogues - תורת אמת. The word Emet is the Alpha and the Omega of the Hebrew alphabet (beginning - middle - end) אמת. When Clement speaks about 'Truth' coming down from heaven to Sinai he is clearly borrowing from ancient Jewish mysticism. He is referencing the torah as אמת.

The letters of the word truth (emet) rest on two legs [aleph - , mem - , tav - ], while the letters of the word falsehood (sheker) have only one leg [shin - , kof - , resh - ]. Truthful actions stand firm; actions based on falsehood do not. The letters of emet are far apart [the first, middle, and last in the alphabet], whereas the letters of sheker are bunched together. Truth is hard to attain, but falsehood is readily at hand. [III Yalkut Shimoni, Genesis, 3]

Joseph Gikatilla my favorite exegete has the exact same system as Mark only directly applied to the Torah. In his Gennaet Egoz the intimates of the Torah , or better , of such a linguistic concept , have a higher status than the prophets ; they will see the divine face to face , as they stand at the middle point ( a clear reference to creation , the secret of the inner palace ) . To stand at this point is to be incorporated in the textual embodiment of the name , the Torah , i.e. the imagined body constituted by the letters of the divine name , which contains all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet . https://books.google.com/books?id=aACAr ... 22&f=false

The point is that if we just read Irenaeus's garbled and skewed reference and not Clement's original work we miss the original connection with Torah here. It just becomes a reference to 'mystical mumbo jumbo' allegedly used by a charlatan. But clearly 'Mark' is making some reference to or development of the ancient Jewish mystical idea of the giving of the Torah on Sinai.

[Ben C. Smith]

It's just Eusebius who misleads scholars. There is no internal evidence to suggest an earlier date.

Why do I get the impression that Eusebius is almost always referred to with something of a sneer on this forum, no matter what the context?

There is no mystery as to why Eusebius dated Against Heresies when he did, and the reason seems far from deceptive. He simply noticed that the list of bishops in book 3 ends with Eleutherus; he says so explicitly in book 5 of History of the Church.

[Secret Alias]

I am not Mountainman. I just conclude the following:

1. that the information about Mark (Marcus) is derived from Clement.
2. that the Stromata Book 1 is dated to 192 CE
3. that the Philosophumena mentions a bishop and adherents of Mark who complained about inaccuracies in Irenaeus's report and the author - while acknowledging the sanctity and authority of Irenaeus - gives in to their demands in his editing of the followers of Mark section i.e. he admits they don't promote a second baptism.

For me, of course, it is the mystery religion of Mark which is at the core of Irenaeus's complaint. If you look at the Exhortation it's focused on pagan vs Christian mysteries. The business about Truth coming down from heaven as lady Wisdom is distorted by Irenaeus into something almost unrecognizable.

But to your second point, the episcopal list of Hegesippus, yes there is merit in that observation. But didn't Eusebius have Hegesippus? The way Irenaeus cites the information - yes - it argues for an earlier date for the material. We are talking about Book Three. So it starts with the mention of 4 gospels and then Polycarp vs the heretics and then the various books of the NT canon until the explicit discussion of the fourfoldness of the gospel.

Here's my one tangential observation. When Rhodo writes to Callistos (assuming Callistiwn is a diminutive) Eusebius identifies him as a follower of Tatian. Let's assume Callistos's dates are 190-something to 230-something CE (even though he was brought back from the mines around 190). Could Irenaeus's fourfold gospel have been established c. 180 CE when Rhodo is undoubtedly a user of Tatian's Diatessaron gospel? It's not conclusive of course. But it seems odd to have a Diatessaron user make the case against a Marcionite figure from Alexandria. Similarly there is the issue of the Philosophumena not knowing Irenaeus's argument from Book 1 and 3 that Marcion falsified Luke. He makes it seem as if the Marcionite gospel is a form of Mark (at least implicitly).

I can't help but get the feeling that our form of Against Heresies once again might have been dated to the third century but that alternative forms of the Against Heresies tradition likely dated back to Justin. So maybe our Against Heresies is a later form of the original text.

[Secret Alias]

Is this enough to argue that Irenaeus lived under Commodus? Would Eusebius have drawn his information solely from this?

Since, however, it would be very tedious, in such a volume as this, to reckon up the successions of all the Churches, we do put to confusion all those who, in whatever manner, whether by an evil self-pleasing, by vainglory, or by blindness and perverse opinion, assemble in unauthorized meetings; [we do this, I say,] by indicating that tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles,

Peter and Paul

as also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its pre- eminent authority,(3) that is, the faithful everywhere, inasmuch as the apostolical tradition has been preserved continuously by those [faithful men] who exist everywhere.

The blessed apostles, then, having founded and built up the Church, committed into the hands of

Linus

the office of the episcopate. Of this Linus, Paul makes mention in the Epistles to Timothy.

To him succeeded Anacletus; and after him

in the third place from the apostles,

Clement

was allotted the bishopric. This man, as he had seen the blessed apostles, and had been conversant with them, might be said to have the preaching of the apostles still echoing [in his ears], and their traditions before his eyes. Nor was he alone [in this], for there were many still remaining who had received instructions from the apostles. In the time of this Clement, no small dissension having occurred among the brethren at Corinth, the Church in Rome despatched a most powerful letter to the Corinthians, exhorting them to peace, renewing their faith, and declaring the tradition which it had lately received from the apostles, proclaiming the one God, omnipotent, the Maker of heaven and earth, the Creator of man, who brought on the deluge, and called Abraham, who led the people from the land of Egypt, spake with Moses, set forth the law, sent the prophets, and who has prepared fire for the devil and his angels. From this document, whosoever chooses to do so, may learn that He, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, was preached by the Churches, and may also understand the apostolical tradition of the Church, since this Epistle is of older date than these men who are now propagating falsehood, and who conjure into existence another god beyond the Creator and the Maker of all existing things.

To this Clement there succeeded Evaristus. Alexander followed Evaristus; then, sixth from the apostles, Sixtus was appointed; after him, Telephorus, who was gloriously martyred; then Hyginus; after him, Pius; then after him, Anicetus. Soter having succeeded Anicetus, Eleutherius does now, in the twelfth place from the apostles, hold the inheritance of the episcopate.

In this order, and by this succession, the ecclesiastical tradition from the apostles, and the preaching of the truth, have come down to us. And this is most abundant proof that there is one and the same vivifying faith, which has been preserved in the Church from the apostles until now, and handed down in truth.

But Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the Church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth, for he tarried [on earth] a very long time, and, when a very old man, gloriously and most nobly suffering martyrdom,(1) departed this life, having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and which the Church has handed down, and which alone are true. To these things all the Asiatic Churches testify, as do also those men who have succeeded Polycarp down to the present time,--a man who was of much greater weight, and a more stedfast witness of truth, than Valentinus, and Marcion, and the rest of the heretics. He it was who, coming to Rome in the time of Anicetus caused many to turn away from the aforesaid heretics to the Church of God, proclaiming that he had received this one and sole truth from the apostles,--that, namely, which is handed down by the Church.(2) There are also those who heard from him that John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, exclaiming, "Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within." And Polycarp himself replied to Marcion, who met him on one occasion, and said, "Dost thou know me?" "I do know thee, the first-born of Satan." Such was the horror which the apostles and their disciples had against holding even verbal communication with any corrupters of the truth; as Paul also says, "A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject; knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself."(3) There is also a very powerful(4) Epistle of Polycarp written to the Philippians, from which those who choose to do so, and are anxious about their salvation, can learn the character of his faith, and the preaching of the truth. Then, again, the Church in Ephesus, founded by Paul, and having John remaining among them permanently until the times of Trajan, is a true witness of the tradition of the apostles.

[Ben C. Smith]

Is this enough to argue that Irenaeus lived under Commodus? Would Eusebius have drawn his information solely from this?

In book 5 he dates the letter from Irenaeus to Eleutherus to the episcopate of Eleutherus because, well, it seems obvious. Then, a bit later in book 5, he writes, "In the third book of his work Against Heresies he has inserted a list of the bishops of Rome, bringing it down as far as Eleutherus (whose times we are now considering), under whom he composed his work." And then he quotes that passage we are familiar with.

This is how Eusebius dates lots of the stuff he quotes: he finds a clear (enough) clue from the work itself.

We are talking about Book Three.

Book 3 is also what is very partially represented by papyrus Oxyrhynchus 405, which Grenfell and Hunt dated to "not later than the first half of the third century," and it "might be as old as the later part of the second."

Stepping out of book 3, however, what date would you assign to Against the Valentinians by Tertullian?