RT Article
T1 Origen the Sophist: Anti-Sophistic Polemic in Porphyry's "Contra Christianos"
JF Vigiliae Christianae
VO 73
IS 2
SP 159
OP 173
A1 Becker, Matthias 1982-
LA English
YR 2019
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1685443281
AB  Making use of Beatrice Wyss' "pattern of the disparagement of sophists" for heuristic purposes, this paper argues that the depictions of Christian exegetes and scholars in a fragment of Porphyry's lost work Contra Christianos (fr. 39 Harnack/fr. 6F. Becker) contain literary elements of ad hominem attacks which were used in Greek anti-sophistic polemic. Porphyry's allusive language allows for the conclusion that he aimed specifically at casting Origen in the role of a sophist. This hitherto unnoticed component of Porphyry's polemic against the Christians sheds light on how Platonists in the third century viewed Christian intellectuals through a Platonic lens in order to secure their identity against a stereotypical opponent which had ultimately been created by Plato himself. Thus, in Porphyry's view, Christians are, as it were, new foes with old familiar faces.
K1 Contra Christianos
K1 Origen
K1 Porphyry
K1 anti-sophistic polemic
DO 10.1163/15700720-12341395