1. Metempsychosis as a Philosophical Issue in Clement's Period
clement of alexandria on trial
error, which has been examined in Chapter 2. Photios' intention seemed to be that the first view originates in the second one, and the erroneous metaphysics provides anthropology with an excuse to tolerate and promote an error or heresy. There is no doubt that from the orthodox, post-Nicene view neither opinion is acceptable. The investigation into the claim that the Clement believed in reincarnation will be carried out in two stages.
1. Metempsychosis as a Philosophical Issue in Clement's Period Before examining the available material from Clement's oeuvre that may contain parallel views to the one in the Hypotyposeis, it is important to mention, at least in a general, way the prevalence of the idea of reincarnation in Clement's milieu. This brief account includes some
Neopythagoreans, Middle Platonists, Gnostics, the Chaldean Oracles and the Hermetica.3 Among the Neopythagoreans contemporary with Clement, we should mention Numenius of Apamea who, according to Dillon, believed not only in reincarnation as an essential part of the Neopythagorean creed, but also in the possibility that the human soul could be reincarnated in an animal body.4 It was the same Numenius, whose famous statement on Plato as "Moses Atticizing" (τί γάρ ἐστι context which was close to Clement of Alexandria, the theory of 'transmigration' was accepted as a convenient explanation of the origin and destiny of the human soul as well as its dominant role over the body or material element, including the noble (if not divine) status of the soul. On the origin and first appearance of this theory in Greek culture and religion, see W. Burkert, Greek Religion (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985),
298–301. Later, in its philosophical form, reincarnation finds an important place in Plato's doctrine and Platonic, Middle Platonic and Neoplatonic traditions. For example, in Timaeus 91d–92c, Plato stated that birds, animals and fish are reincarnated humans who variously misused their human lives (cf. Phaedo, 81d–e); see also Diogenes Laertius, V. Ph. 8.4 who reports on Euphorbos' case; and Empedocles' confession in DK 31B117 that he was " boy and a girl, a bush and a bird and a fish" (cited in B. Inwood, The Poem of Empedocles: A Text and Translation with an Introduction
[Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992], 111). Porphyry refers to reincarnation in a number of works, including Vita. Pyth. 19; and, according to Augustine (Civ.
10.30), Clement of Alexandria, as a great admirer of Pythagoreanism and Plato's philosophy, was well acquainted with their views on transmigration.
3 For Clement's knowledge of the Hermetica, see Strom. 6.35.1–4; and the commentary in G. Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan
Mind (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 58–9.
4 Numenius, Frg. 49 (see Dillon, The Middle Platonists, 377).
the transmigration of souls
Πλάτων ἢ Μωυσῆς ἀττικίζων) was quoted by Clement.5 To Clement, Numenius was one of the faithful heirs of Pythagoras and he certainly knew of Numenius' teaching about the transmigration of souls.
The same belief was shared by the Middle Platonists6 and the first disciples of Plotinus, who discussed whether or not the human soul, while reincarnated, might enter into an animal body.7 Although this controversial belief was received rather ambivalently by the Neoplatonists, the reincarnation of the soul in a human body was commonly accepted and supported by their metaphysics, anthropology and theology of salvation. It is important to stress that this debate was not a characteristic of just one, isolated philosophical school in, for instance, Alexandria or Rome. It was a vital issue, which found its echo in many philosophical and religious traditions,8 including Christianity.
As we are reminded by Watts, before and during Clement's time in Alexandria, the city was an established intellectual centre presenting a very vibrant, inclusive collection of schools and traditions of all faiths, with "a common set of interests".9 In this kind of lively, competitive and multi-faceted academic milieu, doctrines, such as reincarnation, must have drawn attention and invited various interpretations. It is thus not unexpected that the theory of reincarnation appeared also in 5 Clement, Strom. 1.150.4; see F.W. Mullach (ed.), Fragmenta Philosophorum
Graecorum (Paris, 1860–81), 3:166, frg. 9; see also M.J. Edwards, "Atticizing Moses?
Numenius, the Fathers and the Jews", Vigiliae christianae 44 (1990): 64–75.
6 e.g. Alcinous, Didascal. 178.
7 Closer to Clement's time, reincarnation into an animal body was accepted by Plotinus, Enn. 3.4.2.16–24; but rejected by Porphyry and Iamblichus (in Nemesius of Emesa, Nat. hom. 2.18). For further details on their different opinions, see R. Sorabji,
The Philosophy of the Commentators 200–600 A.D.: A Sourcebook, vol. 1: Psychology
(London: Duckworth, 2004), 213; G. Clark (trans.), Porphyry: On Abstinence from Killing Animals (London: Duckworth, 2000), 125–6 n. 29. For Plotinus' concept of reincarnation, see L.P. Gerson, Plotinus, Arguments of the Philosophers' (London:
Routledge, 1994), 209–10. On Porphyry's discussion of reincarnation, see A. Smith,
"Did Porphyry Reject the Transmigration of Souls into Animals?", Rheinisches Museum 127 (1984): 277–84; M. Edwards, Culture and Philosophy in the Age of Plotinus, Classical Literature and Society (London: Duckworth, 2006), 83–6, 118.
8 I distinguish between 'philosophical' and 'religious' traditions in relation to the second-century schools, although I am well aware that at this period philosophical and religious interests were interwoven. Both philosophy and religion, in their various forms, schools and contexts search for convincing answers to the crucial existential questions of human being, salvation and final destiny.
9 See E.J. Watts, City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria, Transformation of the Classical Heritage 41 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006),
151–2, see also 168.
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the Hermetica linked with Alexandria,10 among various schools of Christian Gnosticism11 (e.g., Basilides,12 the author or school which produced Zostrianos13 and the Valentinian document Treatise of the Resurrection14) as well as in a number of passages from the Chaldean
Oracles.15 From those documents it is possible to see that the theme of transmigration linked two crucial theories: the origin, often divine, of the human soul and its pre-existence; and the end of the soul, its eschatology. Within this theological framework, between the genesis and the eschaton, the notion of transmigration serves an important philosophical, rhetorical and pedagogical purpose. It is not surprising that Christian scholars, and not only those connected with Alexandria, such as Clement and Origin, had to deal with this challenging hypothesis which was quickly assimilated by some Christian-Gnostic schools.
It is natural that among their disciples and converts there were a num10 On the Alexandrian context of the Hermetica, see Fowden, The Egyptian
Hermes, 161: "For any investigation of the milieu of Hermetism, within or without Egypt, Alexandria is the natural point of departure, not just because it was there that Hellenism and Egyptianism most easily attained that fusion of which Hermetica are products, but also because so much of what we know about the Hermetic aspects of this fusion is to be found in literary sources associated with this city". On reincarnation, see CH. 2.17; 10.7–8, 19–22.
11 For example, Epiphanius of Salamis mentions various Christian Gnostics who believed in reincarnation, see Pan. 1.40.7.1–2; see also Pan. 1.26.10.8.
12 See Origen's accusation in Comm. Rom. 5.1. However the charge has been challenged by scholars who point to Origen's dependence on Clement's critique of Basilides, see, e.g., Strom. 4.81.1–4.83.2. For the discussion of Basilides' view, see
B.A. Pearson, "Basilides the Gnostic", in A Companion to Second-Century Christian
'Heretics', 18–21, 26–27.
13 See Zost. 45.1–46.13. As to the Christian provenance of this document, see J.H. Sieber, "Introduction to Zostrianos", in The Coptic Gnostic Library, 4:12–28;
M.A. Williams, "Sethianism", in A Companion to Second-Century Christian 'Heretics',
44.
14 Treat. Res. 49.34. On the Valentinian provenance of Treatise on the Resurrection, and more specifically the Oriental School of Valentinianism, see M.L. Peel, in "Introduction to The Treatise on the Resurrection", in The Coptic Gnostic Library,
1:133–7, 144 –6.
15 Cf. Orac. Chald. Frgs. 122; 123, 138. Majercik notes: "According to the fragments, the soul of the theurgists are said to derive from the angelic order, from which point they incarnate with the purpose of aiding mankind … But this descent is not simply an automatic one, but a wilful choosing to reincarnate, as the theurgist has the option of remaining 'forever' in the intelligible realm … Unpurified souls, however, would spend a period of time in Hades, undergoing some form of retribution and/or purification until they were ready to return to Earth (fr. 162)" (R. Majercik, The Chaldean Oracles: Text, Translation and Commentary, Studies in Greek and Roman Religion 5 [Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1989], 21–2).
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ber who had believed in reincarnation as a theory of salvation.16
Recently Edwards's study re-examined the charge against Origen that he, just a generation after Clement of Alexandria, still supposedly believed in the transmigration of souls.17 As can be seen in the light of Edwards's analysis, Origen's exegetical methodology, which explored various speculative theories, and his theology provided his political and ecclesiastical adversaries with weapons that were based more on the ambiguity of the narrative than on its doctrinal, conclusive finale.
It must be pointed out that Photios charged Origen with the same heresy, stating that Origen taught "absurd things" (παραλογώτατα) about reincarnation, and also he believed that the stars had souls.18
Here Photios referred to Origin's first book De principiis (possibly 1.8.4) and the same allegation appears in Jerome's Epistola ad Avitum
(124.5) as well as in the emperor Justinian's Epistle to Mena (9). In another Epistle (96), Jerome states that Origen assimilated some elements of Stoic doctrine and that he taught the endless repetition of death experienced by a human being, which assumes the cyclic character of the world. However the existing, Latin translation of the treatise by Rufinus of Aquileia does not contain any controversial statements on reincarnation, and the evidence from the rest of Origen's work do not confirm that accusation.19 As we know, Rufinus'
16 The polemic against transmigration from one body to another one is found in, for example, the works of contemporary theologians such as Irenaeus, Adv. Haer.
2.33.1–5; Justin, Dial. 4; Tertullian, Anima 28–33; Ad Nat. 1.19.4; and even in Eusebius, PE 13.16.
17 Edwards, Origen Against Plato, 97–101.
18 Photios, Cod. 8: λέγει δὲ καὶ ἄλλα παραλογώτατα καὶ δυσσεβείας πλήρη μετεμψυχώσεις τε γὰρ ληρῳδεῖ, καὶ ἐμψύους τοὺς ἀστέρας, καὶ ἕτερα τούτοις παραπλήσια. "He utters also other absurd and blasphemous things, such as a belief in metempsychosis, in the souls of the stars and more similar things." For more on Origen's view, see A. Scott, Origen and the Life of the Stars (Oxford: Oxford Clarendon, 1991), 113–49.
19 See also K. Hoheisel, "Das fühe Christentum und die Seelenwanderung", Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 27/28 (1984/1985): 24–46. The theory of reincarnation and Origen's anthropology and theology were discussed recently by P. Tzamalikos,
Origen: Philosophy of History and Eschatology, 48–53. Tzamalikos' analysis provides convincing evidence that Origen rejected the theory of transmigration on many occasions. The direct critique of this theory can be found in Comm. Matt. 10.20, 13. In Comm. Matt. 10.20, Origen calls this theory "the false doctrine of transmigration"
(τῆς μετενσωματώσεως ψευδοδοξίαν). By close examination of Origen's eschatology and the idea of punishment Tzamalikos emphases Origen's teaching that retribution for sin will not take the form of transmigration (e.g. Comm. Matt. 13.1) (Tzamalikos,
Origen: Philosophy of History and Eschatology, 52). Tzamalikos concludes: "the doctrine of transmigration is rejected on two accounts. First, the duration of the world is