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...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Adler, William 1951- (Author)
Format: Print Article
Language:English
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Published: College 1993
In: Hebrew Union College annual / Jewish Institute of Religion
Year: 1993, Volume: 64, Pages: 15-49
IxTheo Classification:KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity
Further subjects:B Satire
B Clementine writings
Description
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.
ISSN:0360-9049
Contains:In: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Hebrew Union College annual / Jewish Institute of Religion