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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.83124 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Magny, Ariane |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of History.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002211374, proquestno: AAIMR12742, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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