Evagrius of Pontus on Exodus and the Virtues

In On Prayer 1-4, Evagrius of Pontus reads the incense described in Exodus 30:34-37 as an allegorical type of the four cardinal virtues. This essay explains the logic of Evagrius's interpretation, situating his argument in a longstanding philosophical debate about the interrelationship of the...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. VerfasserIn: White, Devin L. 1986- (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
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Veröffentlicht: Brill [2019]
In: Vigiliae Christianae
Jahr: 2019, Band: 73, Heft: 5, Seiten: 516-530
IxTheo Notationen:HB Altes Testament
KAB Kirchengeschichte 30-500; Frühchristentum
NCA Ethik
VA Philosophie
weitere Schlagwörter:B mixture theory
B Virtue
B Exodus 30:34-37
B Hexapla
B Evagrius of Pontus
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Zusammenfassung:In On Prayer 1-4, Evagrius of Pontus reads the incense described in Exodus 30:34-37 as an allegorical type of the four cardinal virtues. This essay explains the logic of Evagrius's interpretation, situating his argument in a longstanding philosophical debate about the interrelationship of the virtues. By reading the incense as virtue, Evagrius joins both Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa in interpreting Exodus as a source for virtue theory, as well as several ancient philosophers who explained the virtues and their interrelation by comparing them to physical substances combined in a mixture. Central to Evagrius's argument is the compound ancient philosophers called a "juxtaposition" (σύνθεσις), the use of which term shows Evagrius's knowledge of a well-attested hexaplaric variant in Exod 30:35. In sum, authorized by his text of Exodus, Evagrius suggests the virtues relate to each other in the same fashion that the ingredients of a σύνθεσις relate to each other.
ISSN:1570-0720
Enthält:Enthalten in: Vigiliae Christianae
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15700720-12341416