Apion's "Encomium of Adultery": A Jewish Satire of Greek Paideia in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies
Homilies 4-6 of the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies contain a little studied exchange between Clement and Apion, an Alexandrian grammarian notorious for his assaults on Judaism. In his debates with Apion, Clement defends his conversion to Judaism and attacks the vanity of Greek culture and education. The...
| Published in: | Hebrew Union College annual / Jewish Institute of Religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
College
1993
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| In: |
Hebrew Union College annual / Jewish Institute of Religion
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| IxTheo Classification: | KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity |
| Further subjects: | B
Satire
B Clementine writings |
| Summary: | Homilies 4-6 of the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies contain a little studied exchange between Clement and Apion, an Alexandrian grammarian notorious for his assaults on Judaism. In his debates with Apion, Clement defends his conversion to Judaism and attacks the vanity of Greek culture and education. The same section also includes a caricature of Greek rhetoric in the form of an "encomium of adultery" that Apion is said to have written on Clement's behalf when the latter was a boy growing up in Rome. The success of the satire depends on readers' familiarity with a popular Hellenistic Syrian romance about the young prince Antiochus' infatuation with his father's wife. After an analysis of the several variants of the romance in the Hellenistic schools of rhetoric, the paper examines the adaptation of the story in the Homilies. The study suggests that in its original context Apion's encomium was part of a longer Jewish missionary tract composed in Alexandria of the second century C.E. |
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| ISSN: | 0360-9049 |
| Contains: | In: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Hebrew Union College annual / Jewish Institute of Religion
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