By Guy Stroumsa
Readers will mull the provocative feedback and assertions contained during this accomplished time table. Stroumsa, quite often talking, mounts a powerful exposition of his easy thesis. the current reviewer could agree that esotericism--in the feel of a restrictive, inner most oral exposition of written scriptures that's passed down from instructor to student--does play a demonstrable position within the earliest layers of Christian literature: the very idea of an "apostolic succession," and the latter's social value within the formation of early Christian groups, will be another way meaningless. Such teachings most likely undergird the creation of the numerous surviving apocryphal gospels, acts, and apocalypses. as soon as scribalized, they in flip increase and toughen the authority of the gang owning them, whereas concurrently encouraging the expansion of latest oral traditions for self-elucidation. yet I disagree with Stroumsa relating to a posited ossification of interpretive traditions in "gnostic myth." The exegetical traditions are definitely there, remythologized, yet they in flip now develop into the point of interest of expository recognition by way of next generations of tradents. One desire in basic terms element to the growing to be facts for the continued energy of gnostic mythemes in the biblically dependent religions lengthy after the intended death of so-called classical gnosticism; such sturdiness would appear to require the life of a dwelling (esoteric) interpretive culture.
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Extra info for Hidden Wisdom: Esoteric Traditions and the Roots of Christian Mysticism (Numen Book Series, 70)
Sample text
Myth as enigma: cultural hermeneutics 23 The dialectical relationship between the revealed and the hidden, which according to this conception is a main characteristic of myth, is also refered to by Sallustios, Julian’s Neoplatonic mentor. 41 Yet the novelty of this metaphor should not be ignored. If myth has grown to take cosmic dimensions, the cosmos itself, object of the philosopher’s investigations, has become identified with a myth, or rather, an enigma, to be deciphered through the help of the clues given by its revealed parts.
The deeper meaning of truth (be it religious or philosophical) is reserved for the elite, since its inevitable misapprehension by simple folks entails serious danger. This danger is double: both for the unprepared hearer of truth and for he who profers it. 20 Elsewhere Plutarch writes: Now this ancient and secret wisdom, far from having been only a Hellenic phenomenon, crossed the boundaries between Greeks and Barbarians. ”22 One should note that although ainigma is much used in this context, other words, such as huponoia or allegoria, carry a very close or even identical meaning.
This aptitude for poetry, rare nowadays, was then shared by most people, who expressed themselves through lyre and song, using myths and proverbs (muthois kai paroimiais), and besides composed hymns, prayers, and paeans in honour of the gods in verse and music . . 10 At some point, however, “life took on a change along with the change in men’s fortunes and their natures; usage banished the superfluous (to peritton)”. In a surprisingly modern fashion, Plutarch insists that the transformation was originally of a cultural nature, reflecting a change in ways of life and economic behavior.