The book explores ancient interpretations and usages of the famous Delphic maxim “know yourself”. The primary emphasis is on Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman sources from the first four centuries CE. The individual contributions examine both direct quotations of the maxim as well as more distant echoes. Most of the sources included in the book have never previously been studied in any detail with a view to their use and interpretation of the Delphic maxim. Thus, the book contributes significantly to the origin and different interpretations of the maxim in antiquity as well as to its reception history in ancient philosophical and theological discourses. The chapters of the book are linked to each other by numerous cross-references which makes it possible to compare the different views of the maxim with each other. It also helps readers to notice relationships and trajectories within the material. The explorations of the relevant sources are also set in the context of ongoing debates about the shape and nature of ancient conceptions of self and self-knowledge. The book thus demonstrates the wide variety of philosophical and theological approaches in that the injunction to know oneself could be viewed and how these interpretations provide windows into ancient discourses about self and self-knowledge.
Author(s): Ole Jakob Filtvedt; Jens Schröter
Series: Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 260
Publisher: De Gruyter
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 643
City: Berlin/Boston
✓[12] 260 Know Yourself Echoes of the Delphic Maxim in Ancient Judaism, Christianity, and Philosophy (31-12-2023)
10.1515_9783111083858
Foreword
Contents
Part 1: Introductory Chapters
The Delphic Maxim Interpreted: Aims, Scope, and Significance of the Present Study
Ancient Self-Knowledge: Exploring Some of the Scholarly Debates
Interpretations and Echoes of the Delphic Maxim in Pre-Christian Greek Philosophy
“Know Your Text”: the Integrity and Interpretation of Alcibiades m. 133c8–17
Part 2: Main Chapters
Philo of Alexandria and the Transitory and Apophatic Dimensions of Knowing Oneself
Seneca: Knowledge of Self and Nature
Plutarch: Know God and Know Yourself
Know Your Exceptionality. The Delphic Maxim Know Yourself in Epictetus
Between Self-Knowledge and Self-Enjoyment: ΓΝѠθΙ ϹAYTON in the Skeleton Mosaic from beneath the Monastery of San Gregorio
Self-Knowledge as Alienation and Unification in the Hermetica
Self-Knowledge and the Hidden Kingdom: The Delphic Maxim in the Manuscripts of Gos. Thom. 3
What does it Mean to be Human? The Delphic Maxim in Irenaeus
Know Yourself in Clement of Alexandria: Self-Knowledge, God-Knowledge and the Transformation of Self
When Mortals Become Sinners: Tertullian Grappling with the Delphic Maxim
A Maxim of Greek Philosophy Found in Scripture: “Know Yourself” in Origen and Reflections in Gregory of Nyssa
Jesus Knowing Himself: Origen and the Gospel of John
Plotinus on the Delphic Maxim: Knowing and Being One’s True Self
Knowing Yourself as an Essential Part of Origen’s Teaching According to Gregory Thaumaturgus
Forged in the Community of Divine Love: Augustine’s Quest through the Maxim of Self-Knowledge for Finite Wholeness within the Infinite God
Author Index
Index of biblical and classical sources
