V. Rev.

Maximos Constas
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
Fall Semester 2018
Thursdays 2:10-4:30

PT 6260: Patristic Exegesis in the Alexandrian Tradition

Syllabus and Bibliography

Thurs. 30 August
Introduction, Distribution of the Syllabus
Guy Stroumsa, The End of Sacrifice: Religious Transformations in Late Antiquity (Chicago:
Chicago University Press, 2009) || id., The Scriptural Universe of Ancient Christianity
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016) || F.E. Peters, The Voice, The Word, The
Books: The Sacred Scriptures of the Jews, Christians and Muslims (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2007) || William Harris, Ancient Literacy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1989) || David Dawson, Christian Figural Reading and the Fashioning of Identity
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002) || Hans-Ulrich Weidemann, ed., Asceticism and
Exegesis in Early Christianity: The Reception of New Testament Texts in Ancient Ascetic
Discourses (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013) || Matthew Levering, Participatory
Biblical Exegesis: A Theology of Biblical Interpretation (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre
Dame Press, 2008) || Hans Boersma, Scripture as Real Presence: Sacramental Exegesis in the
Early Church (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017).

Thurs. 6 Sept.
I. Philo of Alexandria
[1] Peter Borgen, “Philo of Alexandria,” in Jewish Writings of the Second Temple
Period: Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Qumran Sectarian Writings, Philo,
Josephus, ed. Michael E. Stone (Assen/Philadelphia: Van Gorcum/Fortress Press,
1984), 233-82; [2] Philo, On the Contemplative Life 28-29, 78 (LCL 9:129, 161);
[3] Philo, Allegorical Interpretation of Genesis II (LCL 1:224-93).
Maren R. Niehoff, Philo of Alexandria: An Intellectual Biography (New Haven and London: Yale
University Press, 2018) || Adam Kamesar, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Philo (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2009) || David Runia, On the Creation of the Cosmos according to
Moses (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 2001) || C.M. Carmichael, The Story of Creation: Its Origin and
Interpretation in Philo and the Fourth Gospel (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996) || Gregory
Sterling, “When the Beginning is the End: The Place of Genesis in the Commentaries of Philo,”
in The Book of Genesis: Composition, Reception, and Interpretation, ed. Craig Evans, et al.
(Leiden: Brill, 2012), 427-46 || Annewies van den Hoek, “Endowed with Reason or Glued to the
Senses: Philo’s Thoughts on Adam and Eve,” in The Creation of Man and Woman:
Interpretations of the Biblical Narratives in Jewish and Christian Traditions, ed. G.P.
Luttikhuizen (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 63-75.

Thurs. 13 Sept.
II. Porphyry, On the Cave of the Nymphs
[1] Porphyry, On the Cave of the Nymphs, trans. Robert Lamberton (Barrytown,
New York: Station Hill Press, 1983); [2] Peter T. Struck, “Allegory and Ascent in
Neoplatonism,” in The Cambridge Companion to Allegory, ed. Rita Copeland
and Peter T. Struck (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 57-70; [3]
John Dillon, “Image, Symbol, and Analogy: Three Basic Concepts of
Neoplatonic Allegorical Exegesis,” in The Significance of Neoplatonism, ed. R.
Baine Harris (Norfolk: International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, 1976), 247-
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62; and [4] Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from
Socrates to Foucault, trans. Michael Chase (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995).
Peter Adamson, “Neoplatonism: The Last Ten Years,” The International Journal of the Platonic
Tradition 9 (2015): 205-220 || Aaron P. Johnson, Religion and Identity in Porphyry of Tyre: The
Limits of Hellenism in Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013) || Michael
Bland Simmons, Universal Salvation in Late Antiquity: Porphyry of Tyre and the Pagan-
Christian Debate (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015) || Robert Lamberton, Homer the
Theologian: Neoplatonist Allegorical Reading and the Growth of the Epic Tradition (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1986) || Peter Struck, Birth of the Symbol: Ancient Readers and the
Limits of their Texts (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004) || Luc Brisson, How
Philosophers Saved Myths: Allegorical Interpretation and Classical Mythology, trans. Catherine
Tihanyi (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003) || Luc Brisson, “Allegory as Used by Later
Neoplatonic Philosophers,” in Religion and Philosophy in the Platonic and Neoplatonic
Traditions: From Antiquity to the Medieval Period, ed. Kevin Corrigan, et al. (Sankt Augustin:
Academia, 2012), 121-30 || Henri De Lubac, “Hellenistic Allegory and Christian Allegory,” in id.,
Theological Fragments, trans. R.H. Balinski (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1989), 165-96 || Robert M.
Berchman, “In the Shadow or Origen: Porphyry and the Patristic Origins of New Testament
Criticism,” Origeniana Sexta: Origen and the Bible (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1995) ||
Anthony Meredith, “Allegory in Porphyry and Gregory of Nyssa,” SP 16.2 (1985): 423-27 || Jean
Pépin, “The Platonic and Christian Ulysses,” in Neoplatonism and Christian Thought, ed.
Dominic J. O’Meara (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1982), 3-18 || Philip Sellew,
“Achilles or Christ? Porphyry and Didymus in Debate Over Allegorical Interpretation,” HTR 82
(1989): 79-100 || Nicholas [Maximos] Constas, “The Last Temptation of Satan: Divine Deception
in Greek Patristic Interpretations of the Passion Narrative,” HTR 97 (2004): 139-63, esp. 151-52.

Thurs. 20 Sept.
III. Origen of Alexandria
[1] Origen, On First Principles IV.1-3 (SC 268:256-399); trans. G.W.
Butterworth, Origen, On First Principles (Gloucester: Peter Smith, 1973), 256-
312; [2] Origen, Prologue to the Commentary on the Song of Songs (SC 375:80-
173; GCS 8:61-88), trans. R.P. Lawson, Ancient Christian Writers 26 (New
York: Newman Press, 1956), 21-57; [3] Jean Laporte, “Philonic Models of
Eucharistia in the Eucharist of Origen,” Laval théologique et philosophique 42
(1986): 71-91; [4] Daniel Boyarin, “Origen as Theorist of Allegory: Alexandrian
Contexts,” in The Cambridge Companion to Allegory, ed. Rita Copeland and
Peter Struck (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 39-54; and [5]
Peter Martens, “Origen Against History? Reconsidering the Critique of
Allegory,” Modern Theology 28 (2012): 635-56.
For the recently discovered homilies on the Psalms, see Lorenzo Perrone, et al. eds., Origenes
Werke, Dreizehnter Band. Die neuen Psalmenhomilien. Eine kritische Edition des Codex
Monacensis Graecus 314, GCS NF 19 (= Origenes Werke XIII) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015) =
critical edition of 29 homilies on the Psalms by Origen || Lorenzo Perrone, “Doctrinal Traditions
and Cultural Heritage in the Newly Discovered Homilies of Origen on the Psalms,” Phasis 18
(2015): 191-212; || M.-J. Rondeau, “Le commentaire sur les Psalmes d’Évagre le Pontique,” OCP
27 (1960): 307-48; || see also John McGuckin, “Origen’s use of the Psalms in the treatise On First
Principles,” in Meditations of the Heart: The Psalms in Early Christian Thought and Practice.
Essays in Honour of Andrew Louth, ed. A. Andreopoulos, et al. (Turnhout: Brepols, 2011), 97-
118.

Thurs. 27 Sept.
IV. Gregory of Nyssa
[Mid-Term Writing Project]
[1] Gregory of Nyssa, On the Life of Moses (SC 1bis; GNO 7), trans. Abraham J.
Malherbe and Everett Ferguson (New York: Paulist Press, 1978); and [2]
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Gregory of Nyssa, Prologue to the Commentary on the Song of Songs (GNO 6:3-
13), trans. Richard A. Norris, Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on the Song of Songs
(Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012), 2-13; and [3] Morweena Ludlow,
“Theology and Allegory: Origen and Gregory of Nyssa,” International Journal of
Systematic Theology 4 (2002): 45-66.
On the Life of Moses, see Ann Conway-Jones, Gregory of Nyssa’s Tabernacle Imagery in its
Jewish and Christian Contexts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014) || Ronald Heine,
Perfection in the Virtuous Life. A Study of the Relationship between Edification and Polemical
Theology in Gregory of Nyssa’s De Vita Moysis (Cambridge, MA: The Philadelphia Patristic
Foundation, 1975) || Colin W. Macleod, “The Preface to Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Moses,” JTS
33 (1982): 183-91 || Albert Geljon, Philonic Exegesis in Gregory of Nyssa’s De Vita Moysis
(Providence, RI: Brown Judaic Studies, 2002) || Everett Ferguson, “God’s Infinity and Man’s
Mutability: Perpetual Progress According to Gregory of Nyssa,” GOTR 18 (1973): 59-78 || Robert
Brightman, “Apophatic Theology and Divine Infinity in Gregory of Nyssa,” GOTR 18 (1973): 97-
114 || P. O’Connell, “The Double Journey in Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses,” GOTR 28
(1983): 301-24 || G. Watson, “Gregory of Nyssa’s Use of Philosophy in the Life of Moses,” ITQ
53 (1987): 100-12 || Paul Blowers, “Maximus the Confessor, Gregory of Nyssa, and the Concept
of ‘Perpetual Progress,” VC 46 (1992): 151-71.

On the Commentary on the Song of Songs, see J.B. Cahill, “The Date and Setting of Nyssa’s
Commentary on the Song of Songs,” JTS 32 (1981): 447-60 || Ronald Heine, “Gregory of Nyssa’s
Apology for Allegory,” VC 38 (1984): 360-70 || Anthony Meredith, “Allegory in Porphyry and
Gregory of Nyssa,” SP 16.2 (1985): 423-27 || Verna Harrison, “A Gender Reversal in Gregory of
Nyssa’s First Homily on the Song of Songs,” SP 27 (1993): 34-38 || Martin Laird, “The Fountain
of His Lips: Desire and Divine Union in Gregory of Nyssa’s Homilies on the Song of Songs”
Spiritus 7 (2007): 40-57 || Richard Lawson, “Gregory of Nyssa’s Homilies on the Song of Songs:
Is the Erotic Left Behind?,” Sewanee Theological Review 54 (2010): 29-40 || Mark Scott, “Shades
of Grace: Origen and Gregory of Nyssa’s Soteriological Exegesis of the ‘Black and Beautiful’
Bride in Song of Songs 1:5,” HTR 99 (2006): 65-83 || Hans Boersma, “Saving Bodies: Anagogical
Transposition in St. Gregory of Nyssa’s Commentary on the Song of Songs,” Ex Auditu 26
(2010): 168-200 || Nathan Crawford, “Bridging the Gap: Understanding Knowledge of God in
Gregory of Nyssa’s Commentary on the Song of Songs,” Asbury Theological Journal 65 (2010):
55-67.

Thurs. 4 Oct.
V. Dionysios the Areopagite
[1] Dionysios the Areopagite, On the Celestial Hierarchy 1-2 (PTS 2:7-17), trans.
Colm Luibheid, Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works (New York: Paulist
Press, 1987), 145-53; [2] Dionysios the Areopagite, On the Divine Names 1 (PTS
1:107-21), trans. Luibheid, 49-58; [3] Dionysios the Areopagite, Letter 9 (PTS
2:193-207), trans. Luibheid, 280-88; and [4] Paul Rorem, “The Anagogical
Movement,” in id., Biblical and Liturgical Symbols within the Pseudo-Dionysian
Synthesis (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1984), 99-116.
Hans Urs von Balthasar, “Denys,” in id., The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics, vol. 2
(San Francisco: Ignatius, 1984), 144-210 || René Roques, L’Univers Dionysien: Structure
hiérarchique du monde selon le pseudo-Denys (Paris: Aubier, 1954), 210-25 (= “L’Écriture”) ||
Piero Scazzoso, “I rapporti dello pseudo-Dionigi con la Sacra Scrittura e con S. Paolo,” Aevum 42
(1968): 1-28 || Ernesto Sergio Mainoldi, Dietro Dionigi L’Areopagita: La genesi e gli scopi del
Corpus Dionysiacum (Rome: Città Nuova Editrice, 2018), 394-409 || Paul Rorem, “The Biblical
Allusions and Overlooked Quotations in the Pseudo-Dionysian Corpus,” SP 23 (1989): 61-65 ||
Alexander Golitzin, Mystagogy: A Monastic Reading of Dionysius Areopagita (Collegeville:
Liturgical Press, 2013) = a revision of id., Et Introibo ad Altare Dei. The Mystagogy of Dionysius
Areopagita with Special Reference to its Predecessors in the Eastern Christian Tradition
(Thessaloniki: Patriarchal Institute, 1994) || Christian Schäfer, Philosophy of Dionysius the
Areopagite: An Introduction to the Structure and Content of the Treatise On the Divine Names
(Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2006) || Charles Stang, Apophasis and Pseudonymity in Dionysius the
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Areopagite (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) || Maximos Constas, “The Reception of Paul
and Pauline Theology in the Byzantine Period,” in The New Testament in Byzantium, ed. Derek
Krueger and Robert Nelson (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2016), 147-76, esp. 153-56 (=
“Dionysios the Areopagite”) || Maximos Constas, “Dionysios the Areopagite and the New
Testament,” in The Oxford Handbook to Dionysius the Areopagite (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, forthcoming).

Thurs. 11 Oct.
VI. Athanasios, Letter to Marcellinus
[1] Athanasios of Alexandria, Letter to Marcellinus (PG 27:12-45), trans. Robert
C. Gregg, Athanasius: The Life of Antony and the Letter to Marcellinus (New
York: Paulist Press), 101-29; [2] Paul Kolbet, “Athanasius, the Psalms, and the
Reformation of the Self,” Harvard Theological Reivew 99 (2006): 85-102.
Brian Daley and Paul Kolbet, eds., The Harp of Prophecy: Early Christian Interpretations of the
Psalms (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2015) || Georgi Parpulov, “Psalters
and Personal Piety in Byzantium,” in The Old Testament in Byzantium, ed. Paul Magdalino and
Robert Nelson (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2010), 77-105 || Everett Ferguson,
“Athanasius’ Epistola ad Marcellinum in interpretationem Pslamorum,” SP 16 (1985) || James D.
Ernest, “Athanasius of Alexandria: The Scope of Scripture in Polemical and Pastoral Context,”
VC 47 (1993): 341-62 || T. Böhm, “Athanasius, An Marcellinus. Der Psalter als Mitte des Lebens
der Kirche,” Bible und Liturgie 77 (2004): 155-60 || Peter J. Leithart, Athanasius, Foundations of
Theological Exegesis and Christian Spirituality (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2011) ||
John Custer, “The Psaltery, the Harp and the Fathers: A Biblical Image and its Interpreters,”
Downside Review 114 (1996): 19-31 || Derek Krueger, Liturgical Subjects: Christian Ritual,
Biblical Narrative, and the Formation of the Self in Byzantium (Philadelphia: University of
Philadelphia Press, 2014), 17-23.

Thurs. 18 Oct.
VII. Word in the Desert:
The Exegesis of the Desert Fathers
[1] Jeremy Driscoll, “Exegetical Procedures in the Desert Monk Poemen,” in
Mysterium Christi: Symbolgegenwart und theologische Bedeutung. Festschrift
für Basil Studer, ed. M. Löhrer and E. Salman, Studia Anselmiana 116 (Rome:
Pontificio Ateneo S. Anselmo, 1995), 155-78; [2] Maximos Constas, “’I Wish I
Could Always Weep Like That’: Abba Poemen and Mary at the Cross: On the
Origins of Byzantine Devotion to the Mother of God” in Lament as Performance
in Byzantium, ed. N. Tsironis (London and New York: Routledge, forthcoming);
[3] Paul C. Dilley, Monasteries and the Care of Souls in Late Antique
Christianity: Cognition and Discipline (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2017), 110-47 (= “Scriptural Exercises and the Monastic Soundscape: Writing on
the Heart”); [4] Douglas Burton-Christie, Word in the Desert: Scripture and the
Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1993), 15-23, 107-29, 134-72.
Mark Sheridan, From the Nile to the Rhone and Beyond: Studies on Early Monastic Literature
and Scriptural Interpretation (Rome: Pontifico Ateneo Sant’ Anselmo, 2012) || Hans-Ulrich
Weidemann, ed., Asceticism and Exegesis in Early Christianity: The Reception of New Testament
Texts in Ancient Ascetic Discourses (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013) || Douglas
Burton-Christie, “Scripture, Self-Knowledge and Contemplation in Cassian’s Conferences,”
Studia Patristica 25 (1993): 339-45.
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Thurs. 25 Oct.
VIII. Evagrius of Pontus
[1] Evagrius of Pontus, Scholia on Proverbs (selections) (SC 340); [2] Evagrius
of Pontus, Scholia on Ecclesiastes (selections) (SC 397); [3] Evagrius of Pontus,
The Great Letter, trans. Augustine Casiday, Evagrius Ponticus (London and New
York: Routledge, 2006), 64-77; [4] Benjamin Ekman, “Natural Contemplation in
Evagrius Ponticus’ Scholia on Proverbs,” Studia Patristica 95 (2017): 431-39;
[5] Julia Konstantinovsky, “Evagrius Ponticus: Natural Contemplation versus
Knowledge of the Divine Essence: A Cappadocian Solution?” Vestnik 1 (2007):
123-37
Luke Dysinger, “An Exegetical Way of Seeing: Contemplation and Spiritual Guidance in
Evagrius Ponticus,” SP 54 (2012): 1-19 || Columba Stewart, “Evagrius and Monastic Pedagogy,”
in Abba: The Tradition of Orthodoxy in the West. Festschrift for Bishop Kallistos Ware
(Crestwood, NY: SVSP, 2003), 241-57 || David Brakke, “Reading the New Testament and
Transforming the Self in Evagrius of Pontus,” in Asceticism and Exegesis in Early Christianity:
The Reception of New Testament Texts in Ancient Ascetic Discourses, ed. Hans-Ulrich
Weidemann (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013), 284-299 || M.-J. Rondeau, “Le
commentaire sur les Psalmes d’Évagre le Pontique,” OCP 27 (1960): 307-48

Thurs. 1-29 Nov.

IX. Maximus the Confessor
[1] Maximus the Confessor, Ambiguum 10.17-41, 76-79 (DOML 1:191-213, 267-
71); [2] Maximus the Confessor, Ambiguum 21 (DOML 1:421-47); [3] Maximus
the Confessor, Ambiguum 33 (DOML 2:63-65); [4] Maximus the Confessor,
Ambiguum 37 (DOML 2:73-89); [5] Maximus the Confessor, Responses to the
Questions of Thalassios, Introduction, and Questions 3, 27, 28, 32, 40, 43, 44, 49,
65, trans. Maximos Constas, Maximos the Confessor, On Difficulties in Sacred
Scripture: The Responses to the Questions of Thalassios, Fathers of the Church
136 (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2018).
Maximos’s exegetical works written prior to the Responses to Thalassios include the Exposition
on Psalm 59 (CCSG 23:3-22) || Questions and Doubts (CCSG 10:3-170) || On the Lord’s Prayer
(CCSG 23:27-73) || Questions to Theopemptus, ed. B. Roosen and Peter Van Deun, “A Critical
Edition of the Quaestiones ad Theopemptum of Maximus the Confessor,” Journal of Eastern
Christian Studies 55.1-2 (2003): 65-79 || and the Ambigua to John 47-62; 66-67 (DOML 2:207-
69; 283-303).
On Maximos’s exegesis in the Responses to Thalassios, see Paul Blowers, Exegesis and Spiritual
Pedagogy in Maximus the Confessor: An Investigation of the Quaestiones ad Thalassium (Notre
Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1991) || id., “Realized Eschatology in Maximos the
Confessor, Ad Thalassium 22,” SP 32 (1997): 258-63 || Carl Laga, “Maximi Confessoris ad
Thalassium Quaestio 64,” in After Chalcedon: Studies in Theology and Church History Offered to
Professor Albert Van Roey for His Seventieth Birthday, ed. Carl Laga, et al. (Leuven: Peeters,
1985), 203-15 || Polycarp Sherwood, “Exposition and Use of Scripture in St. Maximos as
Manifest in the Quaestiones ad Thalassium,” OCP 24 (1958): 202-207 || and my introduction to
On Difficulties in Sacred Scripture, 3-60.
See also Paul Blowers, “Exegesis of Scripture,” in The Oxford Handbook of Maximus the
Confessor, ed. Pauline Allen (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 253-73 || Assad Kattan,
Verleiblichung und Synergie. Grundzüge der Bibelhermeneutik bei Maximus Confessor (Leiden
and Boston: Brill, 2002) || id., “The Christological Dimension of Maximus the Confessor’s
Biblical Hermeneutics,” Studia Patristica 42 (2006): 169-174 || George Berthold, “Maximus the
Confessor: Theologian of the Word,” in Handbook of Patristic Exegesis, ed. Charles
Kannengiesser (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2004), 942-65 || Paul Blowers, “The Analogy of
Scripture and Cosmos in Maximos the Confessor,” SP 27 (1993): 145-49 || id., “The Anagogical
Imagination: Maximos the Confessor and the Legacy of Origenian Hermeneutics,” in Origeniana
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Sexta (Leuven: Peeters, 1995), 639-54 || id., “The World in the Mirror of Holy Scripture:
Maximos the Confessor’s Short Hermeneutical Treatise in Ambiguum ad Joannem 37,” in id., ed.,
In Dominico Eloquio–In Lordly Eloquence: Essays on Patristic Exegesis in Honor of Robert
Louis Wilken (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 408-26 || id., “Entering ‘This Sublime and Blessed
Amphitheatre’: Contemplation of Nature and the Interpretation of the Bible in the Patristic
Period,” in Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions, ed. J.M. van der Meer and S.
Mandelbrote, vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 147-76; 154-56; 164-66 || id., “Eastern Orthodox
Biblical Interpretation,” in A History of Biblical Interpretation, vol. 2: The Medieval through the
Reformation Periods, ed. Alan J. Hauser and Duane F. Watson (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009),
172-200 || id., “The Interpretive Dance: Concealment, Disclosure, and Deferral of Meaning in
Maximus the Confessor’s Hermeneutical Theology,” in Knowing the Purpose of Creation
through the Resurrection, ed. Maxim Vasilejvic (Alhambra: Sebatian Press, 2013), 253-59 || and
R. Bornert, “Explication de la liturgie et interpétation de l’Écriture chez Maxime le Confesseur,”
SP 10 (1970): 323-37.

Tues. 11 December
Final Paper Due

* *
*

Some Additional Bibliography

Alexandria
C. Wilfred Griggs, Early Egyptian Christianity from its Origins to 451 CE
(Leiden: Brill, 2000) || Christopher Haas, Alexandria in Late Antiquity:
Topography and Social Conflict (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1997) || Edward J.
Watts, City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2006) || Edward J. Watts, Riot in Alexandria:
Tradition and Group Dynamics in Late Antique Pagan and Christian
Communities (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010) || Glen W.
Bowersock, “Late Antique Alexandria,” in Alexandria and Alexandrianism.
Papers Delivered at a Symposium Organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum and
The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities (Malibu: The J. Paul
Getty Museum, 1996), 263-272 || G. Majcherek, “Academic Life of Late Antique
Alexandria: A View from the Field,” in What Happened to the Ancient Library of
Alexandria? Ed. M. El-Abbadi, et al. (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 191-206 || Birger
Perason, Gnosticism, Judaism, and Egyptian Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress
Press, 1990) || Colin H. Roberts, Manuscript, Society, and Belief in Early
Christian Egypt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985) || Victor Tcherikover,
“The Decline of the Jewish Diaspora in Egypt in the Roman Period,” Journal of
Jewish Studies 14 (1963): 1-32 || Blossom Stefaniw, “Reading Revelation:
Allegorical Exegesis in Late Antique Alexandria,” Revue d’histoire des religions
224 (2007): 231-51 || David Dawson, Allegorical Readers and Cultural Revision
in Ancient Alexandria (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992) ||
Montgomery Shroyer, “Alexandrian Jewish Literalists,” Journal of Biblical
Literature 55 (1936): 261-84 || Annewies van den Hoek, “The ‘Catechetical’
School of Early Christian Alexandria and its Philonic Heritage,” HTR 90 (1997):
59-87 || Gregory Sterling, “The School of Sacred Laws: The Social Setting of
Philo’s Treatises,” VC 53 (1999): 148-64 || Gregory Sterling, “Philo’s School:
The Social Setting of Ancient Commentaries,” in Sophisten im Hellenismus und
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Kaiserzeit, ed. B. Wyss, et al. (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017) || Annewies van
den Hoek, “Origen and the Intellectual Heritage of Alexandria: Continuity of
Disjunction?” Origeniana Quarta, ed. R.J. Daly (Leuven: Peeters, 1992), 40-50 ||
Richard Layton, Didymus the Blind and His Circle in Late-Antique Alexandria
(Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2004) || Justin Rogers, “Didymus and
the Alexandrian School Heritage,” in id., Didymus the Blind and the Alexandrian
Christian Reception of Philo, Studia Philonica Monographs (Atlanta: Society of
Biblical Literature Press, 2017), 10-24 || J. Guillet, “Les exégèses d’Alexandrie et
d'Antioche: conflit ou malentendu?” RSR 34 (1947): 257-302.

Philo
The earlier works by Erwin Ramsdall Goodenough, By Light, Light: The Mystic
Gospel of Hellenistic Judaism (New Haven: Yale Universitry Press, 1935); and
Harry Austryn Wolfson, Philo: Foundations of Religious Philosophy in Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam, 2 vols. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Universtity Press,
1947), are still worth reading || David T. Runia, Philo of Alexandria: An
Annotated Bibliography 1987-1996 (Leiden: Brill, 2000) || David T. Runia, Philo
of Alexandria: An Annotated Bibliography 1997-2006 (Leiden and Boston: Brill,
2012) || Marguerite Harl, La Bible d’Alexandrie. La Genèse: traduction du texte
grec de la Septante, introduction et notes (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1986) || Harl’s
work has been expanded by Monique Alexandre, Le commencement du livre
Genèse I-V: la version grecque de la Septante et sa reception (Paris: Beauchesne,
1988) || Thomas Tobin, The Creation of Man: Philo and the History of
Interpretation (Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America,
1983) || Roberto Radice, Platonismo e creazionismo in Filone di Alessandria
(Milan: Vita e pensiero, 1989) || Roberto Radice, Allegoria e paradigm etici in
Filone di Alessandria (Milan: Vita e pensiero, 2000) || S. Inowlocki, “Eusebius of
Caesarea’s Interpretatio Christiana of Philo’s De vita contemplative,” HTR 97
(2004): 305-28 || On Philo’s arithmology, see H. Moehring, “Arithmology as an
Exegetical Tool in the Writings of Philo of Alexandria,” in The Exegetical School
of Moses: Studies in Philo and Hellenistic Religion in Memory of Horst R.
Moehring, ed. J.P. Kenney (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995), 141-76 || and A.
Yarbro Collins, “Numerical Symbolism in Jewish and Early Christian
Apocalyptic Literature,” in Hellenistisches Judentum in römischer Zeit: Philon
und Josephus, ed. W. Haase (Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, 1984), 1222-87
|| See also Yehoshua Amir, “Authority and Interpretation of Scripture in the
Writings of Philo,” in Mikra: Text, Translation, Reading and Interpretation of the
Hebrew Bible in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, ed. Martin Jan Mulder
and Harry Sysling (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2004), 421-53 ||
Annewies van den Hoek, “The Catechetical School of Early Christian Alexandria
and its Philonic Heritage,” HTR 90 (1997): 59-87 || Maren Niehoff, Jewish
Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2011) || Catherine Hezser, “The Torah versus Homer: Jewish
and Greco-Roman Education in Late Roman Palestine,” in Ancient Education
and Early Christianity, ed. M.R. Hague and A.W. Pitts (London: Bloomsbury,
2016), 5-24 || Monique Alexandre, “La culture grecque, servante de la foi, de
Philon d’Alexandrie aux Pères grecs,” in Les chrétiens et l’Hellénisme: Identités
religieuses, ed. Arnaud Perrot (Paris: Ecole Normale Supérieure, 2012) || Birger
Pearson, “Friedläner Revisted: Alexandrian Judaism and Gnostic Origins,” Studia
Philonica 2 (1973): 23-39 || id., “Philo and the Gnostics on Man and Salvation,”
 8

Center for Hermeneutical Stuides in Hellenistic and Modern Culture 29 (1977) ||

Richard Berchman, From Philo to Origen: Middle Platonism in Transition
(Chico, CA: Scholar’s Press, 1984) || Justin Rogers, Didymus the Blind and the
Alexandrian Christian Reception of Philo, Studia Philonica Monographs
(Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature Press, 2017).

Porphyry
Jean Daniélou, “Homer in the Fathers of the Church,” in id., Gospel Message and
Hellenistic Culture, trans. JA. Baker (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1973), 75-105 ||
Robert Browning, “Homer in Byzantium,” Viator 6 (1975): 15-33 || Robert
Browning, “The Byzantines and Homer,” in Homer’s Ancient Readers: The
Hermeneutics of Greek Epics Earliest Exegetes, ed. Robert Lamberton and John
Keaney (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992), 134-48 || A. Kazhdan,
“Homer,” in The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1991), 943-44 || Hugo Rahner, Griechische Mythen in christlicher Deutung
(Basel: Herder, 1984) || Dennis MacDonald, “Homer in the Early Church,” in id.,
Christianizing Homer: The Odyssey, Plato, and the Acts of Andrew (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1994), 17-34 || id., The Homeric Epics and the Gospel
of Mark (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000); || id., Does the New
Testament Imitate Homer? (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003) || Arthur J.
Droge, Homer or Moses? Early Christian Interpretations of the History of
Culture (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1989) || Margalit Finkelberg and Guy
Stroumsa, eds., Homer, the Bible, and Beyond: Literary and Religious Canons in
the Ancient World (Leiden: Brill, 2003) || John Tzetzes, Allegories of the Iliad,
trans. Adam J. Goldwyn and Dimitra Kokkini, DOML 37 (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 2015) || G. Morgan, “Homer in Byzantium: John
Tzetzes,” in Approaches to Homer, ed. C. Rubino, et al. (Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1983), 165-88 || Annewies van den Hoek, “Odysseus Wanders into
Late Antiquity,” in Poikiloi Karpoi: Récoltes diverses: Exégèses païennes, juives
et chrétiennes. Études réunies en homage à Gilles Dorival, ed. Mireille Loubet
and Didier Pralon (Aix-en-Provence: Presses Universitaires de Provence, 2015),
337-63.

Origen
Annewies van den Hoek, “Philo and Origen: A Descriptive Catalogue of their
Relationship,” Studia Philonica 12 (2000): 44-121 || Blossom Stefaniw, Mind,
Text, and Commentary: Noetic Exegesis in Origen of Alexandria, Didymus the
Blind, and Evagrius Ponticus (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2010) || David
Satran, In the Image of Origen: Eros, Virtue, and Constraint in the Early
Christian Academy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2018) [a study of
Gregory the Wonderworker, Thanksgiving Address to Origen] || Robert Wilken,
“Alexandria: A School for Training in Virtue,” in Schools of Thought in the
Christian Tradition, ed. P. Henry (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), 15-30 ||
Anthony Grafton and Megan Williams, Christianity and the Transformation of
the Book: Origen, Eusebius, and the Library of Caesarea (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 2006) || Winrich Löhr, “Christianity as Philosophy:
Problems and Perspectives of an Ancient Intellectual Project,” VC 64 (2010):
160-88 || G.R. Boys-Stones, Post-Hellenistic Philosophy: A Study of its
Development from the Stoics to Origen (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)
|| David Dawson, Allegorical Readers and Cultural Revision in Ancient
 9

Alexandria (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992) ||

Gerald Bostock, “Origen and the Pythagorenaism of Alexandria,” in Origeniana
Octava: Origen and the Alexandrian Traditon, ed. L. Perrone (Leuven: Leuven
University Press, 2003), 465-78 || Catherine M. Chin, “Who is the Ascetic
Exegete? Angels, Enchantments, and Transformative Food in Origen’s Homilies
on Joshua,” in Asceticism and Exegesis in Early Christianity: The Reception of
New Testament Texts in Ancient Ascetic Discourses, ed. Hans-Ulrich Weidemann
(Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013), 203-18 || Andrew S. Jacobs,
“Sordid Bodies: Christ’s Circumcision and Sacrifice in Origen’s Fourteenth
Homily on Luke,” in Asceticism and Exegesis in Early Christianity: The
Reception of New Testament Texts in Ancient Ascetic Discourses, ed. Hans-
Ulrich Weidemann (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013), 219-34 || Justin
Rogers, “Origen in the Likeness of Philo: Eusebius of Caesarea’s Portrait of the
Model Scholar,” Studies in Jewish-Christian Relations 12 (2017): 1-13.

Gregory of Nyssa
Lucas Francisco Mateo-Seco and Giulio Maspero, eds., The Brill Dictionary of
Gregory of Nyssa (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010) || Ronald Heine, “Exegesis
and Theology in Gregory of Nyssa’s Fifth Homily on Ecclesiastes,” Gregory of
Nyssa, Homilies on Ecclesiastes: An English Version with Supporting Studies, ed.
Stuart G. Hall (Berlin, 1933), 197-222 || See also Johan Leemans, “Biblical
Interpretation in Basil of Caesarea’s Asketikon,” in Asceticism and Exegesis in
Early Christianity: The Reception of New Testament Texts in Ancient Ascetic
Discourses, ed. Hans-Ulrich Weidemann (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht,
2013), 246-67 || Brian Metz, “Ascetic Readings of the Agricultural Parables in
Matt 13:1-48 in the Cappadocians,” in Asceticism and Exegesis in Early
Christianity: The Reception of New Testament Texts in Ancient Ascetic
Discourses, ed. Hans-Ulrich Weidemann (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht,
2013), 268-83.