An Argument Between Jerusalem And Athens

From 2 AD to 3 AD, Alexandria, as an important economic and cultural center of the Roman Empire, has experienced a convergence of nations and civilizations. Hebrew tradition, as the representative of Orient "Revelation" culture, and Greek tradition that represented the "rational" culture are contradictory by their nature. Revelation is a divine top-down flow from God, while "rational" represents a human truth-searching way from bottom to top. Therefore, the early Christian father Tertullian announced: "What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?" However, the collision of those two cultures is bound to face the problem of integration. The early Christianity that bodied in such a fusion inevitably have to answer the questions----How to deal with the culture of Aliens, especially the Greek civilization? How to promote this integration? The Allegorical Exegesis developed from ancient Greece has become an effective way to promote such integration.In this lengthy process of integration, Jewish Philo and Greek Origen were especially eye-catching. Both of them lived in Alexandria, the great melting pot of nations. Philo attempted to establish a universal Judaism and to incorporate Greek philosophy into Hebrew religion; while Origen tried to make Hebrew faith initiatively entering Greek philosophy. The former is a way from philosophy to faith, while the later is a way from faith to philosophy. Finally, Origen attributed the Hebrew tradition and the Greek civilization to the Christian faith. Origen tried to promote such integration for the Christian faith. He established a complex system of thought, including theology, philosophy, hermeneutics, etc. Among those thoughts, the Allegorical Exegesis has crucial importance. Origen applied Allegorical Exegesis to expound the Scriptures of the Holy Bible, taking in the Greek philosophy and thoughts in understanding the verses; meanwhile he managed to curb the Greek elements which were harmful to Hebrew traditions by refuting the Gnosticism's elaboration on the Scriptures. Allegory used in this way was well reflected in Commentary on the Gospel of John. This dissertation, based on Commentary on the Gospel of John, demonstrates how Origen promoted the fusion of the Hebrew and Greek civilizations by analyzing Allegory in five chapters excluding the Introduction. Chapter One focuses on Origen the Man and Commentary on the Gospel of John. This part presents three weighty points through a study on the big events in Origen's life:First, Hebrew traditions and Greek traditions were equally in the core, no one is dispensable and what Origen needed to do was to combine them reasonably; Second, the condemnation from Christian Church exerted great impact on him, which not only changed his role of the spiritual leader of the Christian Church, but also his outlook on theology and writing style; Third, in his times, the Rome authorities did not impose constant persecution on Christianity, which allowed a long period of peaceful time for Christianity, providing favorable external environment for the development of Christianity and Origen's theology. All the above-menti6ned respects were presented in Commentary on the Gospel of John.Chapter Two deals with Philo's Allegory and the tasks he completed. Allegory had its origin in Stoic School in ancient Greece, and Philo and Origen were monumental figures in its development. Philo in IAD utilized Allegory for the essential purpose of establishing a universal Judaism with the dialogue style of Greek philosophy, which was actually a try at fusing the two civilizations. In his attempt, Philo developed a set of Allegorical Exegesis methodology which was taken over and carried forward by Origen. Origen inherited and carried forward Origen's theory of Allegorical Exegesis. However, the path for Origen to use the Allegorical Exegesis was just the opposite with Philo's. Origen used it to respond to the difficulties of Christianity encountered by Greek philosophy, so order to initiatively take Christian faith into the Greek culture. The God interpreted by Origen through Allegorical Exegesis is no longer a pure sense of "Plato's God", nor a pure sense of "the God of Abraham," but" the God of Trinity"-We can say that after Origen, the fusion of the two traditions became an existence in nature, and from then on, philosophy and theology must response to this integration.Chapter Three is the key chapter of the dissertation. In this chapter, we will see that Origen's preference for Allegory is a "have-to" choice and his Allegory originated in four aspects. The chapter also deals with the question-----How Origen applied Allegory and construct issues from the first ten volumes of Commentary on the Gospel of John? Based on this part, Origen's stratification of the Scriptures of the Holy Bible and the theoretical foundation of this stratification, as well as the basic principles and techniques he followed in Allegory, was studied. The Chapter also touches upon Origen's transformation of traditional Greek outlook on wisdom by bringing in the Hebrew outlook on wisdom. Furthermore, in this part, Origen defined the core nature of thoughts as the efforts for belief. And when interpreting the Scriptures by substitution principle, Origen would respond the Hellenism in "outlook on time", "definition of life" and "truth issues". As for the fundamental techniques of Origen's Allegory, this chapter reduces them to "text criticism", "adhering to the literal meanings of the Scriptures", "way of dialog", "transitional approach" and "exclusive approach".Chapter Four studies Origen's refutation on the Gnosticism that presented in Commentary on the Gospel of John. And the refutation here concentrated on Gnosticism's theology and Allegory. In theology, the refutation mainly involved in "extreme dualism", "soul salvation", "inseparability between the Son and God", "soul reincarnation", etc.; while in Allegory, Origen argued its demerits were randomness and endless expansivity.Chapter Five studies the achievements and shortages of Origen's Allegory. In this chapter, I would like to introduce and to demonstrate Martin Luther's criticism on Origen's Allegory, which shows the shortages of Origen's theory authoritatively. Then, I would like to prove Origen's achievements from two aspects. First, the population of Christians in Roman Empire changed radically after Origen's systems came into being. Second, Allegory had turned into an important way of interpreting the Scriptures after Origen. Third, God in The Gospel of John has gained a mixed character of Hebrew and Greece through Allegory.