The unknown god ( dr. Greek Ἄγνωστος Θεός ) is the theory of Eduard Norden , first published in 1913, which suggests, based on the speech of the Apostle Paul to the Areopagus in Acts [1] , which in addition to the twelve main gods and countless smaller deities the ancient Greeks worshiped a deity that they called "Agnostos Theos" (from Greek - "unknown god"). Norden characterized him as “not Greek” [2] . In Athens there was a temple specially dedicated to this god, and, according to the later dialogue “Friend of the Fatherland”, very often the Athenians swore “in the name of the Unknown God” ( dr. Greek Νὴ τὸν Ἄγνωστον Ne ton Agnoston ) [3] . Pseudo-Apollodorus, Philostratus [4] and Pausanias [5] also wrote about the Unknown God.
Content
Apostle Paul in Athens
According to the book of Acts contained in the New Testament , when the apostle Paul visited Athens, he saw an altar with an inscription dedicated to this god (possibly one of those set up on the advice of Epimenides to cleanse the city [6] ), and when he was invited to speak to the Athenian areopagus he said [1] :
For, passing and examining your shrines, I also found an altar, on which is written "the unknown God." Something of which you, not knowing, honor, I am preaching to you. God, who created the world and everything in it, He, being the Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in man-made temples and does not require the ministry of human hands
Since the Jewish God could not be publicly named and had no image even in his temple, it is quite possible that the Athenian listeners of Paul considered his god “The Unknown God” in the full sense of the word [7] . In addition, they could understand the introduction of a new god by analogy with Aeschylus ' Eumenes ; ironically, just as the Eumenes were not new goddesses at all, but the Erinians in a new form, just as the Christian God would be for them in this case not a new god, but one that the Greeks already worshiped as the Unknown God [8] . Paul's audience could also recognize the quotes from verse 28 as belonging to Epimenides and Arat, respectively.
Jerome Stridonsky later wrote that in fact the inscription on the altar read “To the gods of Asia, Europe and Africa, to the unknown and alien gods,” and Paul changed it in his speech [9] .
Archaeological finds
An altar dedicated to the Unknown God was discovered in 1820 on the Palatine ( Rome ). It contains the following inscription [10] :
SEI DEO SEI DEIVAE SAC G · SEXTIVS · C · F · CALVINVSPR DE SENATI SENTENTIA RESTITVIT
It is translated as "Either God or the holy goddess, Guy Sextius Calvin, the son of Guy, praetor, restored by order of the Senate." Similar inscriptions can be found on several ancient monuments. Perhaps their goal was to hide the true nature of the deity who kept Rome if the enemy captured this city. This phrase was also often used in evacuation - an appeal to a god who kept some place (for example, “Whether you are a god or a goddess who rules Carthage, grant us ...”). The historian Edward Courtney claimed that it was “intended to cover all the foundations as an acknowledgment of the limited human knowledge of divine powers” [11] .
This altar is considered restored after the model of an earlier archaic altar. Either he wore a similar inscription, or was dedicated to a famous deity, but the inscription on it was erased over time, and his memory was forgotten. In the XIX century, he was mistaken for the famous altar of Aiya Lokutsiya [12] . It is currently on display at the Palatine Museum [13] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Acts 17:23
- ↑ van der Horst, Pieter Willem. Hellenism, Judaism, Christianity: essays on their interaction . - Peeters Publishers, 1998 .-- Vol. The Altar of the 'Unknown God' in Athens (Acts 17:23) and the Cults of 'Unknown Gods' in the Graeco-Roman World. - P. 187–220. - ISBN 9789042905788 .
- ↑ Pseudo-Lucian. Friend of the Fatherland, IX, 14.
- ↑ Philostratus. The Life of Apollonius of Tyana , VI, 3.
- ↑ Pausanias. Description of Hellas, I, 1, 4.
- ↑ Diogenes of Laertes . On the life, teachings and sayings of famous philosophers. I, 10.
- ↑ Guy. G Strournsa. A nameless God: Judaeo-Christian and Gnostic 'theologies of the Name' // The image of the Judaeo-Christians in ancient Jewish and Christian literature . - Mohr Siebeck, 2003 .-- P. 235. - ISBN 3-16-148094-5 .
- ↑ Kauppi, Lynn Allan. Acts 17.16-34 and Aeschylus' Eumenides // Foreign but familiar gods: Greco-Romans read religion in Acts . - Continuum International Publishing Group , 2006. - P. 83–93. - ISBN 0-567-08097-8 .
- ↑ de Andia, Isabelle . Unio Mystica. Unity with God according to Dionysius the Areopagite. S. 163.
- ↑ Sandys, Sir John Edwin. Latin epigraphy: an introduction to the study of Latin inscriptions. - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press , 1919 .-- P. 89.
- ↑ De Numinibus , essay by Mauk Haemers
- ↑ Rodolfo Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome , 1892.
- ↑ Lanciani, Rodolfo. Pagan and Christian Rome . - Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1892.
Literature
- Alvar, Jaime, 1988: “Materiaux pour l'etude de la formule sive deus, sive dea” Numen 32.2, 236-273.