Epiphanius of Cyprus: A Cultural Biography of Late Antiquity

350 Pages·2016·1.75 MB·English

by  Andrew S. Jacobs

Epiphanius of Cyprus
A Cultural Biography of Late Antiquity
Andrew S. Jacobs
university of california press
Epiphanius of Cyprus
christianity in late antiquity
the official book series of the north
american patristics society
Editor
Christopher A. Beeley, Yale University
Associate Editors
Elizabeth A. Clark, Duke University
Robin Darling Young, The Catholic University of America
International Advisory Board
Lewis Ayres, Durham University • John Behr, St Vladimir’s
Orthodox Theological Seminary, New York • Brouria Bitton-
Ashkelony, Hebrew University of Jerusalem • Marie-Odile
Boulnois, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris • Kimberly D.
Bowes, University of Pennsylvania and the American Academy
in Rome • Virginia Burrus, Syracuse University • Stephen Davis,
Yale University • Elizabeth DePalma Digeser, University of
California Santa Barbara • Mark Edwards, University of
Oxford • Susanna Elm, University of California Berkeley •
Thomas Graumann, Cambridge University • Sidney H. Griffi th,
Catholic University of America • David G. Hunter, University of
Kentucky • Andrew S. Jacobs, Scripps College • Robin M. Jensen,
University of Notre Dame • AnneMarie Luijendijk, Princeton
University • Christoph Markschies, Humboldt-Universität zu
Berlin • Andrew B. McGowan, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale
• Claudia Rapp, Universität Wien • Samuel Rubenson, Lunds
Universitet • Rita Lizzi Testa, Università degli Studi di Perugia
1. Incorruptible Bodies: Christology, Society, and Authority in Late Antiquity,
by Yonatan Moss
2. Epiphanius of Cyprus: A Cultural Biography of Late Antiquity, by
Andrew S. Jacobs
3. Melania: Early Christianity through the Life of One Family, by Catherine
M. Chin and Caroline T. Schroeder
Epiphanius of Cyprus
A Cultural Biography of Late Antiquity
Andrew S. Jacobs
university of california press
University of California Press, one of the most
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University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2016 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Jacobs, Andrew S., 1973- author.
Title: Epiphanius of Cyprus : a cultural biography of late
antiquity / Andrew S. Jacobs.
Description: Oakland, California : University of
California Press, [2016] | “2016 | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2015048170 (print) | lccn 2015050963
(ebook) | isbn 9780520291126 (cloth : alk. paper) |
isbn 9780520964983 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Epiphanius, Saint, Bishop of Constantia
in Cyprus, approximately 310–403. | Orthodox Eastern
Church—Bishops—Biography. | Christian saints—
Cyprus—Biography. | Church history—Primitive and
early church, ca. 30–600.
Classifi cation: lcc bx395.e65 j33 2016 (print) | lcc
bx395.e65 (ebook) | ddc 270.2092—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015048170
Manufactured in the United States of America
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In keeping with a commitment to support
environmentally responsible and sustainable printing
practices, UC Press has printed this book on Natures
Natural, a fi ber that contains 30% post-consumer waste
and meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso
z39.48-1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper).
To Elizabeth A. Clark, emeritissima—mentor,
inspiration, and friend
This page intentionally left blank
contents
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations xiii
Introduction: Epiphanius, Now and Then
1
1. Celebrity
31
2. Conversion
65
3. Discipline
97
4. Scripture
132
5. Salvation
176
6. After Lives
221
Conclusion
263
Bibliography 279
Index 309
acknowledgments
This book caught me by surprise. I had expected, after fi nishing my
book on the circumcision of Christ, to begin a project on conversion,
specifi cally a study of narratives about Jewish conversion to Christian-
ity and the role they played in ancient Christianity and in modern
scholarship. I began by looking at three early Christian ex-Jews:
Romanos, Ambrosiaster, and Epiphanius. The long, but mostly forgot-
ten, history of Epiphanius’s ex-Jewishness struck me as particularly
indicative of the twists and turns the study of ancient Christianity has
taken in the modern and postmodern era.
This book is not that book on early Christian ex-Jews, although
pieces of that initial foray have found their way into chapter 6, and I
hope soon to return to that book on conversion. Instead I found myself
drawn to explore Epiphanius in his fourth-century context. Epiphanius
of Cyprus had fi gured signifi cantly in my fi rst two books, but I
had never stepped back to consider him on his own merits. I had fi rst
encountered Epiphanius as one of the “bad guys” of the Origenist
controversy, and then turned to him as a somewhat odd but surpris-
ingly useful resource for thinking about Christian attitudes toward
Jews and Judaism. But for the fi rst time now I asked, “Why do modern
scholars have such disdain for Epiphanius when he was so infl uential in
ix