1. Heraclitus of Ephesus and his Influence on Clement's Theory
many worlds before the creation of adam
conflagration (ἐκπύρωσις), and he found a special place in Clement's oeuvre. I shall treat Heraclitus as one of the possible sources of philosophical inspiration. Secondly, I will briefly note the Jewish and Jewish-Christian literature that promoted the model of eschatological devastation and regeneration, which may have inspired Clement of Alexandria. Thirdly, I shall turn to Clement's oeuvre in search of the evidence that he assimilated some elements of these doctrines.
1. Heraclitus of Ephesus and his Influence on Clement's Theory Clement of Alexandria was very well aware of the theory of the cyclic or periodical destruction and restoration of the world in which fire (τὸ πῦρ, ἡ ἐκπύρωσις) played a central role. This knowledge was a part of his impressive philosophical erudition which he demonstrated on many occasions. He knew that this theory was accepted, but not invented, by the Stoics as we find reference to conflagration in Book 5 of the Stromateis (5.9.4-5).11 This section shows that, in Clement's view, the Stoics only replicated Heraclitus' idea, thus Heraclitus himself was taught about the eschatological fire by 'the Barbarian philosophy', which for Clement is a synonym for the Hebrew teachers or Scriptures: "And as he was taught by the Barbarian philosophy, he knew about purification by fire of those who lived an evil life."12 In Clement's account, first Heraclitus and then the Stoics adapted to their doctrines the idea of purifying fire from the original, Hebrew source.
Still, as the Christian scholar confessed in the same passage, 'the fire'
(πῦρ) must be understood metaphorically as purification (κάθαρσις), while 'another world' or 'another phase of the world' meant "the final resurrection from the dead" (τοῦτ᾽ ἐκεῖνο τὴν ἀνάστασιν περιέποντες) as taught by Christians. This characteristic compilation of various
11 Discussion of the Stoic adaptation of Heraclitus' concept of cosmic cycles is beyond the scope of the present chapter, for a summary, see A.A. Long, Stoic Studies,
Hellenistic Culture and Society 36 (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1996), 40–44.
12 Clement, Strom. 5.9.4: οἶδεν γὰρ καὶ οὗτος ἐκ τῆς βαρβάρου φιλοσοφίας μαθὼν τὴν διὰ πυρὸς κάθαρσιν τῶν κακῶν βεβιωκότων (see ibid. 5.104.1–5.105.1).
Alain Le Boulluec sees in Clement's assimilation of Heraclitus' theory of purification, destruction and regeneration an effort to show that the Greek sage together with his later Stoic commentators expressed, although indirectly, the Christian doctrine of the eschatological resurrection. To Clement the Christian belief contains the philosophical intuition of a return to the purified original human body (see Boulluec, Stromata
V, 61–2).