The Sentences of Sextus and the Origins of Christian Ascetiscism

261 Pages·2013·1.93 MB·English

by  Daniele Pevarello

Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum
Studies and Texts in Antiquity and Christianity
Herausgeber/Editors
Christoph Markschies(Berlin)
Martin Wallraff(Basel)
Christian Wildberg(Princeton)
Beirat/Advisory Board
Peter Brown(Princeton) · Susanna Elm(Berkeley)
Johannes Hahn(Münster) · Emanuela Prinzivalli(Rom)
Jörg Rüpke(Erfurt)
78

Daniele Pevarello
The Sentences of Sextus
and the Origins
of Christian Ascetiscism
Mohr Siebeck
Daniele Pevarello: born 1974; studied Theology (New Testament) at the Waldensian Facul-
ty of Theology (Rome) and at the Kirchliche Hochschule Bethel (Bielefeld); 2012 PhD in
Jewish and Early Christian Studies at the Faculty of Divinity of the University of Cambridge;
since 2009 Affiliated Lecturer and Tutor in New Testament Greek at the University of Cam-
bridge.
e-ISBN PDF 978-3-16-152686-2
ISBN 978-3-16-152579-7
ISSN 1436-3003 (Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum)
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliogra-
phie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2013 by Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, Germany. www.mohr.de
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by
copyright law) without the publisher’s written permission. This applies particularly to reproduc-
tions, translations, microfilms and storage and processing in electronic systems.
The book was printed by Laupp & Göbel in Nehren on non-aging paper and bound by Buch-
binderei Nädele in Nehren.
Printed in Germany.
A Giulio Caligara e Marco di Pasquale, amici e filosofi

Preface
This book is the revised version of my doctoral dissertation submitted to
the Faculty of Divinity of the University of Cambridge in Lent Term 2012.
I would like to thank my examiners Prof Loveday Alexander and Dr James
Carleton Paget for valuable advice and encouragement. I am greatly in-
debted to the editors of the series Prof Christoph Markschies, Prof Chris-
tian Wildberg and above all Prof Martin Wallraff, who first suggested
Studien und Texte für Antike und Christentum as a suitable series for my
research. At Mohr Siebeck, I fully benefited from the professional assis-
tance of Dr Hennig Ziebritzki, Katharina Stichling and Dominika Zgolik. I
am grateful to Dr James Aitken and Dr Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe for reading
the manuscript in its entirety providing irreplaceable suggestions for the
improvement of its content and style. At the Faculty of Divinity in Cam-
bridge, I have greatly appreciated the academic guidance and steady en-
couragement of Prof Judith Lieu, the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity.
I am also indebted to Dr Simon Gathercole for his help with the Coptic
translation of Sextus. My friend Diane Hakala made available to me all her
computational and technical expertise, and an astonishing amount of pa-
tience; the very fact that the book found its way out of my computer is en-
tirely her merit.
Above all I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Prof William
Horbury, my supervisor. In him I have found not only insightful guidance
and extraordinary erudition, but also a role model of modesty and kind-
ness. I can only wish that my future research and teaching will show the
same irenic attitude and deep respect for students and colleagues that he
has taught me with his example. Prof Horbury and his wife Katherine
opened their home and offered their help in times of need with a genuine
concern for my wellbeing, which surpasses by far the commitment that is
expected from a PhD supervisor and his family.
I was able to pursue doctoral studies thanks to a four-year Lewis and
Gibson Scholarship at Westminster College, Cambridge, granted by the
United Reformed Church. I shall be forever indebted to the generosity and
future vision of Mrs Agnes Smith Lewis (died 1926) and Mrs Margaret
Dunlop Gibson (died 1920) and to the Board of the Electors of the Schol-
arship. While at Westminster, I have enjoyed the hospitality and the com-
VIII Preface
pany of the principal, Rev Dr Susan Durber, and of all the staff and stu-
dents. In particular, I would like to express my thanks for the wisdom and
uncondi-tional support of Rev John Proctor and Rev Dr Janet Tollington.
At Clare Hall, my University college, I have been supported by the gener-
osity of the Tutors’ Fund and above all by the kindness, the dedication and
the humanity of Dr Bobbie Wells, former Senior Tutor of the college. The
Bethune-Baker Fund of the Faculty of Divinity was instrumental in allow-
ing me to attend the Annual Meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature
in the United States.
I am also thankful to the members of the English Committee of the
Waldensian Church Missions for a generous grant I received at the begin-
ning of my doctoral studies. In particular, I am immensely grateful to the
people whose insight and imagination made my coming to Cambridge pos-
sible, Erica Scroppo and her husband Richard Newbury, and Prof David
Thompson and his wife Margaret,.
Over the years, the members of the “Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and
Early Christianity” Section of the Society of Biblical Literature have pro-
vided an important space for scholarly discussion and friendship. I have
received invaluable suggestions from Prof Pamela Gordon, Prof John Fitz-
gerald, Prof David Konstan, the late Prof Abraham Malherbe, Prof Johan
Thom and Prof Walter Wilson. Unfortunately Walter Wilson’s 2012 com-
mentary on the Sentences of Sextus appeared too late to be considered in
this book.
Finally, I would like to thank all those who contributed to this book and
much more by making rainy days sunnier and long writing days shorter,
Anthony Bailey, Debora Bonnes, and her parents Rev Arrigo Bonnes and
Lidia, Dr Diego Bubbio, Cristina Cipriani, Dr Mila Ginsbursky, Dr Naomi
Hilton, Dr Tala Jarjour, Tony McGeorge, Lucia Mlynarcikova-Faltinova,
Dr Jonathan Moo, and his wife Stacey, Daniela Rapisarda, and Rev Dr
Lance Stone. I am grateful to my parents Gugliemo and Bruna for their
support and encouragement. I thank the venerable Cambridge 1405ers for
keeping up the spirits. The book is dedicated to Giulio Caligara and Marco
di Pasquale, my comrades and brothers in the study of philosophy.

Cambridge 2013 Daniele Pevarello
Table of Contents
Preface .................................................................................................... VII
Introduction: The golden cup of Babylon ......................................... 1
Chapter 1: The Sentences of Sextus: Reception
and Interpretation ................................................................................ 9
A. Introduction ............................................................................................ 9
B. The Testimony of Origen ...................................................................... 10
I. Sextus in Contra Celsum .................................................................... 10
II. The Sentences among radical ascetics .............................................. 13
C. Controversies over the Sentences in Latin Christianity ........................ 17
I. Rufinus’ Latin Sextus: a manual of asceticism .................................. 17
II. Jerome: the Sentences and moral perfectionism ............................... 19
III. The Sentences and the Pelagian understanding of sin ..................... 23
D. The Later Ascetic Tradition up to the Modern Era .............................. 26
I. Evagrius of Pontus and the Armenian Sextus ..................................... 26
II. The Sentences in Egypt and Syria .................................................... 29
III. Sextus in the monastic tradition of the West ................................... 33
IV. From the monastic scriptorium to the printing press ....................... 35
E. Sextus in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries ...................... 37
I. The first critical studies ..................................................................... 37
II. Sextus in nineteenth-century German scholarship ............................ 41
III. The beginning of the twentieth century ........................................... 43
F. The Sentences of Sextus in the Modern Scholarly Debate .................... 45