Christians Encouraged to Read 'Pagan' Works

by peacefulpete 21 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  peacefulpete

  Clement of Alexandria

  The Stromata, or Miscellanies

  Book VI

  Chapt 5

  And further, that the same God that furnished both the Covenants was the giver of Greek philosophy to the Greeks, by which the Almighty is glorified among the Greeks, he shows. And it is clear from this. Accordingly, then, from the Hellenic training, and also from that of the law are gathered into the one race of the saved people those who accept faith: not that the three peoples are separated by time, so that one might suppose three natures, but trained in different Covenants of the one Lord, by the word of the one Lord. For that, as God wished to save the Jews by giving to them prophets, so also by raising up prophets of their own in their own tongue, as they were able to receive God's beneficence, He distinguished the most excellent of the Greeks from the common herd, in addition to "Peter's Preaching," the Apostle Paul will show, saying:
  "Take also the Hellenic books, read the Sibyl, how it is shown that God is one, and how the future is indicated. And taking Hystaspes, read, and you will find much more luminously and distinctly the Son of God described, and how many kings shall draw up their forces against Christ, hating Him and those that bear His name, and His faithful ones, and His patience, and His coming."

  There is a ton of stuff in passages like this one that merit investigating. My primary point of this thread was to illustrate that the Greek culture and learning was held in such esteem that leading Christians assumed their God had in fact been responsible for much of the Greek understanding. God had revealed himself to the Greeks just as he had to the Jews. It was all the same God. Of course they now regarded this ancient wisdom as outdated, in light of their present understanding.

  The 'Sibyl' here refers to the Sibylline Oracles. A topic that could fill volumes, in short they were ostensibly the prophetic ecstatic utterances of a pagan prophetess but are actually largely Jewish and Christain forgeries. The Oracles of Hystaspes were ostensibly Zoroastrian apocalyptic/ prophetic works, that have also been modified/interpolated by Jewish and Christian hands.

  Peter's Preaching that was cited as endorsing the pagan works was another now lost book that was ostensibly by the Apostle Peter. Similarly, the Paul quotation is from another now lost work ostensibly by the Apostle Paul.
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  Magnum

  Interesting! Just want to say that I enjoy and save your posts like this and they whet my appetite to know more. Trying to find a way to slow down in work some. If I can, I'd love to spend time exploring topics like the ones you post.

  The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know. One of my all-time favorite quotes is "An educated man is one who is aware of what he does not know." I guess, then, I'm getting to be really educated; posts like this help me realize how little I know.
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  NotFormer

  St Basil wrote a letter about the value of reading Classical Greek literature.
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  PioneerSchmioneer

  Not only were they encouraged to read pagan works, the Christians give Scriptural reasons why they encouraged such study--especially philosophy (which they would eventually use to develop the Trinity dogma)--based on Jewish Tradition that is very ancient.

  According to Exodus 3:22, the Hebrew text explains that God wanted the Israelites to strip the Egyptians of their gold and silver as they left the land. This meant to take their jewelry and temple decor which consisted of religious idol emblems. From these the Jews crafted what would become the sacred parts of the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant itself.

  Based on this understanding, the Church Fathers understood that it was necessary to "stip the world" of its "gold and silver," namely its wisdom and philosophy in order to find ways to better equip itself to both worship God and preach the Gospel. This it did, not merely to formulate various doctrines but to create various fields and schools of higher learning.

  The idea is not central to Christianity as it comes from the Jewish sages and was later developed after the fall of the Second Temple in the Talmud by Judaism which, as many know, has an even greater love for higher education than Christians seem to have. It is older than the Temple itself, so to speak.
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  peacefulpete

  Indeed, Sibyl and Hystaspes foretold that all corruptible things are to be destroyed by fire. And the so-called Stoic philosophers teach that even God is to be transformed into fire, and they claim that after this evolution the world is to be made over again. We, on the contrary, believe that God, the Maker of all things, is superior to changeable things. If, therefore, we agree on some points with your honored poets and philosophers, and on other points offer a more complete and supernatural teaching, and if we alone produce proof of our statements, why are we unjustly hated beyond all others? When we say that God created and arranged all things in this world, we seem to repeat the teaching of Plato; when we announce a final conflagration, we utter the doctrine of the Stoics; and when we assert that the souls of the wicked, living after death, will be sensibly punished, and that the souls of the good, freed from punishment, will live happily, we believe the same things as your poets and philosophers.
  Justin Martyr, Apology 20 (CUA Fathers of the Church translation)

  
  

  In practical terms Christianity was a Greek revision of Judaism. As it developed it's own identity and momentum it sought to definitively differentiate itself from either rootstock, as Justin does in Apology excerpted above.

  I posted the opening comments from Clement as a rather progressive thought. The same God.
  
  
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  careful

  Not that I'm defending it, of course, but you realize the org would say that since the authors cited above were all from the time after "Christianity became apostate," good Witnesses should not view them as real Christians.

  "Read only the organization's publications, brother! Leave the other stuff to the F&DS."
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  PioneerSchmioneer

  The 27 books of the Christian New Testament canon were not finalized until 367 CE.

  Clement and Justin Martyr lived about 200 years before then.

  The books of Revelation and 2 Peter were unheard of in their time, while the Apocalypse of Peter and the Shepherd of Hermas were read almost universally before then.

  The idea of a Biblical canon was unknown in the time of Justin. It was a new invention of a contemporary heretic of his, Marcion of Sinope, a bishop that was excommunicated for his suggesting that the church should limit itself to doctrine based on a closed canon of texts and that the texts could produce salvific knowledge.

  Due to the rise of the Marcionist threat, the church had to counter with its own canon. But prior to this, Christianity was based on the teachings from a "college" that passed down tradition learned from the Apostles. At one time the college was made up of Clement and Justin, who are known as the Church Fathers.

  This is why Western schools of higher learning are called a "college" as opposed to a "yeshiva." Colleges are higher schools of learning once set up by Christians where you learned from the Elders or Fathers as opposed to yeshivas which are academies where Jews learn from rabbis.

  This is why Jehovah's Witnesses are against sending their children to schools of higher learning. The foundation of such institutions are religious in nature, even though today one tends to associate then with the secular.

  Oxford, Nortre Dame, Stanford, Yale--all these and more are all founded as religious universities. The Apostolic College, as it is known, passed its Tradition to the Church Fathers like Clement and Justin Martyr. Only later did they add a closed canon of Scriptures to Apostolic Tradition, but only by the authority already present in bishops passed down from and by the Fathers.
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  Phizzy

  You almost sound, P.S, as though you view the "Church Fathers" as some sort of Authoritative arbiters of what is Canonical Scripture and Doctrine that carry weight ?

  Or am I reading too much in to your words ?
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  PioneerSchmioneer

  You are reading too much into what I write.

  I am not a Christian. But I taught religion for some years after leaving the Watchtower.

  As I would tell my students before I retired, an instructor isn't hired to subscribe to the facts they teach, merely to get the facts across--even if nobody likes how they feel.
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  peacefulpete

  P.S. your experience is a very valuable asset for us. To illustrate what you said the opening comment quotes 2 sources the Preaching of Peter and some unknown work supposedly of Paul. The more radical of scholars question just about everything we think we know regarding the theology of the Paul and Peter. Some even question, on pretty good grounds, whether there ever were12 Apostles or whether their function explains their literary creation. Apostolic succession.