The Neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry of Tyre (ca.232-305 A.D.) wrote Against the Christians, a fifteen-volume treatise targeting Christianity. Porphyry's attack was considered so scandalous that it was twice condemned to flames by Roman emperors. It is thus only in the works of Christian apologists that Against the Christians is extant, i.e. in a fragmentary state. The topic of this study is the twelfth book of Porphyry's treatise, the best known and probably the most challenging to Christians. Indeed, it deals with the Book of Daniel, which underlies a great part of Christianity's foundations as it allegedly foretells both Parousiai. It will first be demonstrated that the writing of the treatise can be dated to the 290s, which indicates it was not an immediate threat to Christians facing the Great Persecution (303-311). Then recent methodological approaches are presented in order to get a better insight of the content of Against the Christians. It is established that Porphyry wrote a detailed exegesis of Daniel with the intention of criticizing the Christian literal interpretation of the Scriptures by adapting history to prophecy. Finally it is suggested that Porphyry wrote his treatise in response to a Christian allegorical exegetical tradition of Daniel.

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Ce travail porte sur les fragments du Discours véritable de Celse, du Contre les chrétiens de Porphyre, du Discours ami de la vérité adressé aux chrétiens d’Hiéroclès et du Contre les Galiléens de Julien. Son but est d’étudier la façon dont ces traités antichrétiens se rattachent à la tradition littéraire de l’Antiquité. Dans une première partie, nous discutons des problèmes liés à l’étude de ces œuvres. Dans une deuxième partie, nous étudions l’emploi polémique des références littéraires chez les polémistes. Une troisième partie est consacrée aux attaques ad hominem contre les personnages bibliques et contre les chrétiens. Enfin, une quatrième partie étudie la forme littéraire de ces œuvres : le choix du titre et du public, mais aussi la structure et le genre littéraire. / This work deals with the fragments of Celsus’ True Discourse, Porphyry’s Against the Christians, Hierocles’ Truthful Discourse to the Christians and Julian’s Against the Galileans. Its purpose is to study the way these anti-Christian treatises use the literary tradition of Antiquity. In the first part, we discuss some problems related to the study of these works. In a second part, we study the polemical use of literary references in these texts. A third part is devoted to ad hominem attacks against biblical characters and against Christians. Finally, a fourth part studies the literary form of these works : the choice of the title and the audience, but also their structure and their literary genre.