Chapter
Chapter 1: The ‘Image of God’ in Ancient Judaism
Introduction: The ‘image of God’ in the Jewish scriptures
1.1 The interpretation of God’s image (Gen 1.26–27) in ancient Judaism
(a) The Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach
(c) Pseudo-Philo, Biblical Antiquities
1.1.2 Contextualized interpretations
(b) The Fourth Book of Ezra
(c) Echoes of 4 Ezra in the Apocalypse of Sedrach and the Vision of Ezra
1.1.3 The Dead Sea Scrolls
(a) 4Q504: Adam, fashioned in the likeness of God’s glory
(b) ‘All the glory of Adam’
(c) 4Q417: Humanity’s formation according to the patterns of the angels
1.1.4 Anti-idolatrous application: the image of God and other images
(a) The Sibylline Oracles, book III/II: An implicit antithesis in the Jewish material
(b) The Sibylline Oracles, book VIII: An explicit antithesis in the Christian material
(c) The Life of Adam and Eve
1.1.5 A particular ethical understanding of the ‘image of God’: 2 Enoch
1.1.6 A spiritual/intellectual understanding of the ‘image of God’
(c) The Wisdom of Solomon
(e) The Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers
1.1.7 A bodily understanding of the ‘image of God’
(a) Life of Adam and Eve and 2 Enoch
(b) Sibylline Oracles, books I and VIII
(c) The Testament of Naphtali
(d) The Testament of Isaac
1.1.8 Concluding observations
(a) Antithesis between the image of God and other images
(b) A spiritual, intellectual understanding of God’s image – a divine anthropology?
(c) A physical understanding of God’s image
1.2 The ‘image of God’ in Philo
1.2.1 ‘Let us make humankind …’: The creation of the different parts of man
1.2.2 ‘Created in, or after the image of God’
1.2.3 The cosmos as a copy of the divine image
1.2.4 ‘Created according to the likeness of God’: The non-bodily likeness between God and man
1.2.5 ‘Image’ and ‘Spirit’: The intersection and overlap of the first and second account of man’s creation in Gen 1–2
(b) The defining characteristics of the second type
(c) The overlapping area between both creation accounts
(d) The hierarchical relation between the two creation accounts
1.3 Image, form and trans-formation: A semantic taxonomy of Paul’s ‘morphic’ language
1.3.1 The terminology of image
1.3.2 The terminology of forms
(a) A survey of morphic language in Paul
(b) Morphic language in Philo
(ii) The forms of the soul
(iii) The forms of the cosmos
(iv) The specific language of metamorphosis
(c) The images and their forms
1.3.3 Concluding observations
(a) ‘Being in the form of God’
(c) The extent and coherence of Paul’s morphic language
Chapter 2: The ‘Image of God’ and ‘Being Made Like God’ in Graeco-Roman Paganism
2.1 The ‘image of God’ in Graeco-Roman paganism
2.1.1 The ‘image of God’ in cosmology: The cosmos as the image of God
2.1.2 The ‘image of God’ in Hellenistic kingship ideology: The king as the image of God
2.1.3 The ‘image of God’ in anthropology: The wise and the virtuous, and man in general, as the image of God
(a) The wise and the virtuous
(c) A physical, sophistic interpretation of man as the image of God
2.1.4 The ‘image of God’ as a reference to statues and pictures of the gods, literal and metaphorical
2.1.5 Cross-fertilization between pagan and Jewish anthropology of the image of God?
2.2 The ‘image of God’ and ‘being made like God’: The traditions of homoiōsis theōi in Greek philosophy from Plato to Plotinus
2.2.4 Post-Aristotelian views
(b) Alexander of Aphrodisias
2.2.5 Eudorus and the introduction of homoiōsis theōi as the goal of Platonic ethics
2.2.8 Platonizing influence on Stoics
2.2.11 The Sententiae Pythagoreorum – the Pythagorean path
2.2.12 Diogenes Laertius – the general path
2.2.13 Plotinus – the Platonic path
2.2.14 The fourth, Christian path in the time leading up to the Council of Nicaea
(a) Assimilation as the explicit goal of ethics in Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria and Hippolytus of Rome
(b) Assimilation to God according to other ante-Nicene Christians
(c) Justin Martyr (continued): ‘Those who lived like Christ shall become akin to God’
(d) Clement of Alexandria (continued): ‘Created according to the image and likeness’
2.3 Philo and man’s similarity and assimilation to God
2.3.1 ‘Nothing is similar to God’
2.3.2 ‘Nothing earth-born is more like God than man’
2.3.3 Philo’s acquaintance with Plato’s Theaetetus
2.3.4 Assimilation to God
(a) Assimilation as the goal of ethics
(c) Assimilation, the multitude and God’s solitude
(d) Assimilation and the active and contemplative life
(e) Assimilation to God only possible through the second God
(f) Assimilation to the cosmos and to God
(g) Assimilation and the ideal ruler
2.3.5 Specific applications of the doctrine of assimilation
2.4 Paul, the image of God and likeness to Christ
2.4.1 The ‘image of God’ in Paul
2.4.2 Homoiōma between Christians and Christ
(a) The homoiōma of Christians with Christ through baptism: Acquiring the ethos of a god
(b) The decline and restoration of true religion
(c) The homoiōma between Christ and man
2.4.3 ‘Image’ and ‘homoiōsis’: intertwined notions
(a) The twin notions of image and assimilation
Chapter 3: Philo’s Anti-Sophistic Interpretation of the Narratives of Moses’ Pentateuch
Introduction: Balaam as the sophist par excellence
3.1 Balaam in Philo’s thought
3.2 Philo’s anti-sophistic programme
3.2.1 Characteristics of the sophists
3.2.2 The ‘history’ of the sophists and Israel
(a) The creation and the life of the first men
(i) Creation’s anti-sophistic order
(ii) The Serpent versus Eve
(b) The period of the patriarchs and matriarchs
(i) Abraham versus the Chaldeans
(ii) Hagar and Ishmael versus Sarah and Isaac
(iii) Rebecca’s non-sophistic attitude
(c) Israel in Egypt: Joseph and Moses versus ‘the sophists of Egypt’
(i) Joseph versus the sophists of Egypt
(ii) Moses versus the sophists of Egypt
(d) Israel in the wilderness: Moses and the Israelites versus the Amorites and Balaam
(i) Israel versus the Amorites
3.3 Philo’s application to the philosophical discussion of his day
3.4 Epilogue: The function of Moses’ Pentateuchal narratives in Philo
Chapter 4: Paul versus the Sophists: Outward Performance and Rhetorical Competition within the Christian Community at Corinth
4.1 Competition in the Christian communities in Corinth
4.1.2 Sophistic factionalism
4.1.3 Loyalty of disciples
4.2 The technique of improvising speeches
4.3 Invention of themes, physiognomy and self-praise
4.4 The sophists’ daily life in the cities
4.5 Philosophy versus sophism
4.6 Concluding remarks: Paul ‘at the cross-roads of Greece’
Chapter 5: The Two Types of Man in Philo and Paul: The Anthropological Trichotomy of Spirit, Soul and Body
5.1 Philo on the two types of man
5.1.1 The relation between the heavenly and earthly man at creation
(a) Double creation – Gen 1 & 2
(b) The heavenly man – Gen 1.26–27
(c) The earthly man – Gen 2.7
(d) A third anthropological key text: Lev 17.11 – The soul and the blood
5.1.2 The degeneration and fall of man
5.1.3 Restoration of the human mind and spirit
5.2 Paul on the two types of man
5.2.2 Paul’s differentiation between various types of man
(a) Those who ‘say there is no resurrection of the dead’
(b) The sophists/psychikoi versus the pneumatikoi
(c) The excessive pneumatikoi
Chapter 6: Paul’s Anti-Sophistic Interpretation of the Narrative of Moses’ Shining Face (Exod 34) in 2 Cor 3: Moses’ Strength, Well-being and (Transitory) Glory, according to Philo, Josephus, Paul, and the Corinthian Sophists
Introduction: Why does Paul draw on Exod 34 in 2 Cor 3?
6.1 Moses in pagan-Jewish relations
6.2 The anti-sophistic setting of 2 Cor 3
6.2.1 Reference to written letters of recommendation and a slow development towards an implicit antithesis between ‘letter’ and ‘spirit’ (2 Cor 3.1–3)
6.2.2 The antithesis between ‘letter’ and ‘spirit’ becomes explicit (2 Cor 3.4–6)
6.2.3 Moses’ ‘gramma’: glorious, but only transient glory (2 Cor 3.7–11)
6.2.4 The superiority of the Lord’s permanent, inward glory (2 Cor 3.12–18)
6.3 Philo and Josephus on Moses the legislator
6.3.1 Philo – Moses’ strength and well-being
6.3.2 Josephus – Moses’ glory, honour and rivals
6.4 The language of power, glory and theios anēr among the sophists
6.4.2 Glory and physical appearance
6.4.3 Superhuman identity
6.5 Concluding observations: Paul’s definitive answer to the Corinthian sophists
Chapter 7: The Renewal of the ‘Discredited Mind’ Through Metamorphosis: Paul’s Universalist Anthropology in Romans
7.1 Pagan and Jewish monotheism according to Varro, Plutarch, and Paul: The aniconic, monotheistic beginnings of Rome’s pagan cult – Romans 1.19–25 in a Roman context
(a) Varro on pure Roman religious beginnings
7.1.3 Plutarch on pure Roman religious beginnings with Numa
7.2 Assimilation to Christ and the geography of good and evil in man: Romans 6–8
7.2.1 Assimilation to Christ in Romans 6
7.2.2 The inner man – the history of a concept
(b) A physiological or medical meaning
(c) A metaphorical meaning
(d) A philosophical meaning
(e) A Philonic interpretation
7.2.3 The mind and the inner man in Romans 7
Introduction: The inner man and his vices
(a) Plotinus on the inner man, virtues and sin
(b) Paul on the inner man and sin
7.2.4 The detailed geography of good and evil in man
7.3 The metamorphosis of man’s mind and the restitution of true religion: Romans 12 – the climax of Paul’s anthropology
Index of Passages from Ancient Authors
References to collections of texts (Stern, SVF, et al.)
Index of Subjects and Selected Ancient Names
Paul's Anthropology in Context
：The Image of God, Assimilation to God, and Tripartite Man in Ancient Judaism, Ancient Philosophy and Early Christianity
Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.