Abstract
The existence of common points between Alexander of Aphrodise and Bardaisan the Syrian has been pointed out on various occasions. However, this question has not been explored in depth. The article proposes to analyse the cosmological ideas of Alexander and Bardaisan. Because both authors are known for their anti-determinist and anti-astrological polemics, it is preferable to place this comparison in the context of the astrological interpretation of Aristotle’s natural philosophy. The article discusses the Aristotelianism of Bardaisan, who may be the first representative of the reception of this doctrine in Syriac.
Bibliographie
Abramowski, R. 1931. “Untersuchungen zu Diodor von Tarsus.” Zeitschrift für die neutestamentlische Wissenschaft 30: 234–61. https://doi.org/10.1515/zntw.1931.30.3.234.Search in Google Scholar
Adler, A., ed. 1931. Suidae Lexicon, Vol. II. Stuttgart: Teubner.Search in Google Scholar
Amand, D. 1945. Fatalisme et liberté dans l’Antiquité grecque. Louvain: Bibliothèque de l’Université.Search in Google Scholar
Arnzen, R., ed. 2010. Averroes. On Aristotle’s Metaphysics: An Annotated Translation of the So-Called Epitome. Berlin & New York: De Gruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Beaulieu, P.-A., and F. Rochberg. 1996. “The Horoscope of Anu-Bēlšunu.” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 48: 89–94. https://doi.org/10.2307/1359772.Search in Google Scholar
Beck, E. 1978. “Bardaisan und seine Schule bei Ephrem.” Le Muséon 91: 271–333.Search in Google Scholar
Bianchi, N., and C. Schiano, eds. 2016. Fozio. Biblioteca. Pisa: Edizioni della Normale.Search in Google Scholar
Bodnár, I. M. 2014. “Alexander’s Unmoved Mover.” In Nature et Sagesse. Les rapports entre physique et métaphysique dans la tradition aristotélicienne, edited by C. Cerami, 387–416. Louvain: Peeters.Search in Google Scholar
Boeri, M. D. 2002. Pseudo Justino. Refutatión de ciertas doctrinas aristotélicas. Pampelonne: Edisiones Universidad de Navarra.Search in Google Scholar
Boll, F. 1894. Studien über Claudius Ptolemäus. Leipzig: Teubner.Search in Google Scholar
Bouché-Leclercq, A. 1899. L’astrologie grecque. Paris: Leroux.Search in Google Scholar
Bowen, A. C., and F. Rochberg, eds. 2021. Hellenistic Astronomy. The Science in Its Contexts. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004400566Search in Google Scholar
Brock, S. 1999. From Ephrem to Romanos: Interactions between Syriac and Greek in Late Antiquity (Variorum Series). Aldershot: Ashgate.Search in Google Scholar
Camplani, A. 1998. “Rivisitando Bardesane. Note sulle fonti siriache del bardesanismo e sulla sua collocazione storico-religiosa.” Cristianesimo nella storia 19: 519–96.Search in Google Scholar
Camplani, A. 2003–2004. “Bardesane et les bardesanites.” Annuaire de l’École Pratique des Hautes Études. Section des Sciences Religieuses 112: 29–50. https://doi.org/10.3406/ephe.2003.12167.Search in Google Scholar
Camplani, A. 2015. “Bardaisan’s Psychology. Known and Unknown Testimonies and Current Scholarly Perspectives.” In Syriac Encounters. Papers from the Sixth North American Syriac Symposium, Duke University, 26–29 June 2011, edited by M. Doerfler, and E. Fiano, 259–76. Louvain: Peeters.Search in Google Scholar
Camplani, A. 2019. “Les discours de la philosophie dans les milieux chrétiens syriaques (IIe–IVe s.) : formes de l’argumentation et fondements intellectuels.” In La philosophie en syriaque, edited by E. Fiori, and H. Hugonnard-Roche, 11–63. Paris: Geuthner.Search in Google Scholar
Costaz, L. 2002 [1963]. Dictionnaire Syriaque-Français, Syriaque-Anglais. Beyrouth: El-Machreq.Search in Google Scholar
Crégheur, E. 2004. Libre arbitre et fatalisme astral. Un commentaire du vocabulaire astrologique du Livre des lois des pays attribué à l’« école » de Bardesane. Dissertation de master, Université Laval.Search in Google Scholar
Cureton, W. 1855. Spicilegium syriacum: Containing Remains of Bardesan, Meliton, Ambrose and Mara bar Serapion. London: Francis and John Rivington.Search in Google Scholar
Dalimier, C., and P. Pellegrin. 2004. Aristote. Traité du ciel. Paris: Flammarion.Search in Google Scholar
Denzey Lewis, N. 2013. Cosmology and Fate in Gnosticism and Graeco-Roman Antiquity. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004245761Search in Google Scholar
Denzey Lewis, N. 2021. “Hellenistic Astronomy in Early Christianities.” In Hellenistic Astronomy. The Science in Its Contexts, edited by A. C. Bowen, and F. Rochberg, 551–71. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004400566_045Search in Google Scholar
Dihle, A. 1987. “Philosophische Lehre von Schicksal und Freiheit.” Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 30: 14–28.Search in Google Scholar
Dihle, A. 1989. “Astrology in the Doctrine of Bardesanes.” Studia Patristica 20: 160–8.Search in Google Scholar
Drijvers, H. J. W. 1965. The Book of the Laws of Countries: Dialogue on Fate of Bardaisan of Edessa. Assen: Van Gorcum.Search in Google Scholar
Drijvers, H. J. W. 1966. Bardaisan of Edessa. Assen: Van Gorcum.10.1163/9789004354791Search in Google Scholar
Ermoni, V. 1901. “Diodore de Tarse et son rôle doctrinal.” Le Muséon, n.s. 2: 422–44.Search in Google Scholar
Fazzo, S. 1988. “Alessandro d’Afrodisia e Tolomeo: Aristotelismo e astrologia fra il II et il III secolo d.C.” Rivista di Storia della Filosofia 4: 627–43.Search in Google Scholar
Fiori, E. 2010. “L’épitomé syriaque du Traité sur les causes du tout d’Alexandre d’Aphrodise attribué à Serge de Rešʿaynā.” Le Muséon 123 (1–2): 127–58. https://doi.org/10.2143/mus.123.1.2052768.Search in Google Scholar
Fiori, E., and H. Hugonnard-Roche. 2019. La philosophie en syriaque. Paris: Geuthner.Search in Google Scholar
Freudenthal, G. 2002. “The Medieval Astrologisation of Aristotle’s Biology: Averroes on the Role of the Celestial Bodies in the Generation of Animate Beings.” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 12: 111–37. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0957423902002059.Search in Google Scholar
Freudenthal, G. 2009. “The Astrologisation of the Aristotelian Cosmos: Celestial Influences on the Sublunar World in Aristotle, Alexander of Aphrodisias and Averroes.” In New Perspectives on Aristotle’s De caelo, edited by A. C. Bowen, and C. Wildberg, 239–81. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/ej.9789004173767.i-326.72Search in Google Scholar
Funk, F. X. 1902. “Le Ps.-Justin et Diodore de Tarse.” Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique 3: 947–71.Search in Google Scholar
Genequand, C. 2017. Alexandre d’Aphrodise. Les principes du Tout selon la doctrine d’Aristote. Paris: Vrin.Search in Google Scholar
Gieseler Greenbaum, D. 2021. “The Hellenistic Horoscope.” In Hellenistic Astronomy. The Science in Its Contexts, edited by A. C. Bowen, and F. Rochberg, 443–71. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004400566_039Search in Google Scholar
Gleede, B., ed. 2020. Ps-Justinus Martyr. Philosophische Erotapokriseis und christologische Kapitel. Quaestiones gentilium ad Christianos. Quaestiones contra gentiles de relatis. Capita contra theopaschitas. Berlin: De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110716009Search in Google Scholar
Goulet, R., and M. Aouad. 1989. “Alexandros d’Aphrodisias.” In Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques, Vol. I, edited by R. Goulet, 125–39. Paris: CNRS Éditions.Search in Google Scholar
Guignard, C. 2015. “Notules sur le texte du Cod. 223 de la Bibliothèque de Photius (Diodore de Tarse, Contre le destin).” Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 158: 110–1.Search in Google Scholar
Hansen, G. C. 1967. “Compte-rendu de l’édition française de la Bibliothèque.” Gnomon 39: 689–94.Search in Google Scholar
Harnack, A. von. 1901. Diodor von Tarsus. Vier pseudojustinische Schriften als Eigentum Diodors nachgewiesen (Texten und Untersuchungen 21/4, Neue Folge 6). Leipzig: Hinrichs.Search in Google Scholar
Hegedus, T. M. J. 2007. Early Christianity and Ancient Astrology. New York: Peter Lang.10.3726/978-1-4539-0618-7Search in Google Scholar
Henry, R. 1965. Photius. Bibliothèque. Codices 223–229. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Search in Google Scholar
Honigmann, E. 1929. Die sieben Klimata und die ΠΟΛΕΙΣ ΕΠΙΣΗΜΟΙ. Eine Untersuchung zur Geschichte und Astrologie im Altertum und Mittelalter. Heidelberg: Winter.Search in Google Scholar
Hugonnard-Roche, H. 2004. La logique d’Aristote du grec au syriaque : études sur la transmission des textes de l’Organon et leur interprétation philosophique. Paris: Vrin.Search in Google Scholar
Hugonnard-Roche, H. 2007. “Le corpus philosophique syriaque aux VIe–VIIe siècles.” In The Libraries of the Neoplatonists, edited by C. D’Ancona, 279–91. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/ej.9789004156418.i-536.19Search in Google Scholar
Jaeger, W. 1960. “Studia in Photium.” Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 103: 168–71.Search in Google Scholar
Junod, E. 1976. Origène. Philocalie 21–27. Sur le libre arbitre (Sources chrétiennes 226). Paris: Le Cerf.Search in Google Scholar
Jurasz, I. 2019. “Bardesane, un philosophe syriaque.” In La philosophie en syriaque, edited by E. Fiori, and H. Hugonnard-Roche, 65–127. Paris: Geuthner.Search in Google Scholar
Jurasz, I. 2021a. “Les « éléments » (esṭuksē / ītyē) dans le système cosmogonique de Bardesane.” Philosophie antique 21: 147–75. https://doi.org/10.4000/philosant.5274.Search in Google Scholar
Jurasz, I. 2021b. “Destiny, Nature and Freedom according to Bardaisan and Alexandre of Afrodisias: An Unknown Aspect of the Controversy against Determinism.” In Women’s Perspectives in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, edited by I. Chouinard, Z. McConaughey, R. Noël, and A. M. Ramos, 133–59. Berlin: Springer.10.1007/978-3-030-73190-8_9Search in Google Scholar
King, D. 2010a. “Alexander of Aphrodisias’ On the Principles of the Universe in a Syriac Adaptation.” Le Muséon 123: 159–91. https://doi.org/10.2143/mus.123.1.2052769.Search in Google Scholar
King, D. 2010b. The Earliest Syriac Translations of Aristotle’s Categories. Text, Translation and Commentary. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/ej.9789004186606.i-330Search in Google Scholar
King, D. 2011. “Origenism in Sixth Century Syria: The Case of a Syriac Manuscript of Pagan Philosophy.” In Origenes und sein Erbe in Orient und Okzident, edited by A. Fürst, 179–212. Münster: Aschendorff.Search in Google Scholar
Krannich, T., and P. Stein. 2004. “Das Buch der Gesetze der Länder des Bardesanes von Edessa.” Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum 8: 203–29. https://doi.org/10.1515/zach.8.2.203.Search in Google Scholar
Levi della Vida, G. 1921. Bardesane. Il dialogo delle leggi dei paesi. Roma: Libreria di cultura.Search in Google Scholar
Long, A. A. 1970. “Stoic Determinism and Alexander of Aphrodisias De fato (I–XIV).” Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 52: 247–68. https://doi.org/10.1515/agph.1970.52.3.247.Search in Google Scholar
Lund, J. 2007. The Book of the Laws of the Countries. A Dialogue on Free Will Versus Fate. A Key-Word-In-Context Concordance. Piscataway: Gorgias Press.10.31826/9781463211608Search in Google Scholar
Martín, J. P. 1989. “El Pseudo Justino en la historia del aristotelismo.” Patristica et Medievalia 10: 3–19.Search in Google Scholar
Martín, J. P. 2000. “Las Quaestiones de Pseudo Justino: un lector cristiano de Aristóteles en tiempos de Proclo.” Tópicos 18: 115–41.10.21555/top.v18i1.358Search in Google Scholar
Merx, A. 1863. Bardesanes von Edessa nebst einer Untersuchung über das Verhältnis der clementinischen Recognitionen zu dem Buche der Gesetze der Länder. Halle: Pfeffer.Search in Google Scholar
Miller, D. R. 1994. “Sargis of Res’ayna: On What Celestial Bodies Know.” In VI Symposium syriacum, edited by R. Lavenant, 221–33. Roma: Pontificio Istituto Orientale.Search in Google Scholar
Natali, C. 2009. Alessandro d’Afrodisia (Tito Aurelio Alessandro). Il destino: Trattato sul destino e su ciò che dipende da noi. Dedicato agli imperatori (seconda edizione rivista). Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag.Search in Google Scholar
Nau, F. 1899. Bardesane l’astrologue. Le livre des lois des pays. Paris: Ernest Leroux.Search in Google Scholar
Nau, F. 1907. “Bardesanes. Liber legum regionum.” In Patrologia syriaca, Vol. II, edited by R. Graffin, 490–658. Paris: Firmin-Didot.Search in Google Scholar
Nau, F. 1931. Bardesane. Le livre des lois des pays. Publié avec un avertissement et une analyse. Paris: Geuthner.Search in Google Scholar
Nöldeke, T. 1910. “Zum Buch der Gesetze der Länder.” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 64: 555–60.Search in Google Scholar
Otto, C. 1849 [1846]. S. Iustini philosophi et martyris opera quae ferentur omnia. III/1: Opera Iustini subditicia. Jena: F. Mauke.Search in Google Scholar
Pellegrin, P. 2009. “The Argument for the Sphericity of the Universe in Aristotle’s De caelo: Astronomy and Physics.” In New perspectives on Aristotle’s De caelo, edited by A. C. Bowen, and C. Wildberg, 163–85. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/ej.9789004173767.i-326.50Search in Google Scholar
Poirier, P.-H. 2006. “Deux doxographies sur le destin et le gouvernement du monde: Le Livre des lois des pays et Eugnoste (NH III 3 et V 1).” In Coptica, Gnostica, Manichaica. Mélanges offerts à Wolf-Peter Funk, edited by L. Painchaud, and P.-H. Poirier, 760–86. Louvain: Peeters.Search in Google Scholar
Poirier, P.-H., and E. Crégheur. 2020. Le livre des lois des pays. Un traité syriaque sur le destin de l’“école” de Bardesane. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Search in Google Scholar
Possekel, U. 2004. “Bardaisan of Edessa on the Resurrection: Early Syriac Eschatology in its Religious-Historical Context.” Oriens Christianus 88: 1–28.Search in Google Scholar
Possekel, U. 2012. “Bardaisan and Origen on Fate and the Power of the Stars.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 20: 515–41. https://doi.org/10.1353/earl.2012.0032.Search in Google Scholar
Pouderon, B. 2009. Pseudo-Justin. Ouvrages apologétiques (SC 528). Paris: Le Cerf.Search in Google Scholar
Ramelli, I. 2009a. Bardesane di Edessa. Contro il fato (detto anche Liber legum regionum). Roma & Bologna: Edizioni San Clemente & Edizioni Studio Domenicano.Search in Google Scholar
Ramelli, I. 2009b. Bardaisan of Edessa: A Reassessment of the Evidence and a New Interpretation. Piscataway: Gorgias Press.10.31826/9781463216658Search in Google Scholar
Rashed, M. 2002. “La préservation (sôtêria), objet des Parva naturalia et ruse de la nature.” Revue de Philosophie Ancienne 20: 35–59.Search in Google Scholar
Rashed, M. 2007. Essentialisme. Alexandre d’Aphrodise entre logique, physique et cosmologie. Berlin & New York: De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110901306Search in Google Scholar
Rashed, M. 2011. Alexandre d’Aphrodise. Commentaire perdu à la Physique d’Aristote (Livres IV–VIII). Les scholies byzantines. Berlin: De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110216462Search in Google Scholar
Renchan, R. 1961. “Photius Bibl. p. 209 a 33 sq.” Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 104: 189–90.Search in Google Scholar
Rescigno, A. 2008. Alessandro di Afrodisia. Commentario al De Caelo di Aristotele. Frammenti del secondo, terzo e quarto libro. Amsterdam: Hakkert.Search in Google Scholar
Rochberg, F. 2004. The Haveanly Writing: Divination, Horoscopy and Astronomy in Mesopotamian Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511617409Search in Google Scholar
Rochberg, F. 2021. “Hellenistic Babylonian Astral Divination and Nativities.” In Hellenistic Astronomy. The Science in Its Contexts, edited by A. C. Bowen, and F. Rochberg, 472–89. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004400566_040Search in Google Scholar
Sachs, A. 1952. “Babylonian Horoscopes.” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 6: 49–75. https://doi.org/10.2307/1359035.Search in Google Scholar
Schäublin, C. 1980. “Zu Diodors von Tarsos Schrift gegen die Astrologie (Phot. Bibl. cod. 223).” Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 123: 51–67.Search in Google Scholar
Schulthess, F. 1910. “Zum Buch der Gesetze der Länder: Spicleg. Syr. ed. Cureton S.1 ff.” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 64: 91–4.Search in Google Scholar
Scott, A. 1991. Origen and the Life of the Stars: A History of an Idea. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Sharples, R. W. 2002. “Alexander of Aphrodisias and the End of Aristotelian Theology.” In Metaphysik und Religion. Zur Signatur des späntantiken Denkens, edited by Th. Kobusch, and M. Erler, 1–21. München & Leipzig: K. G. Saur.10.1515/9783110975529.1Search in Google Scholar
Sharples, R. W. 2016 [1990]. “The School of Alexander?” In Aristotle Transformed. The Ancient Commentators and Their Influence, edited by R. Sorabji, 89–118. London: Bloomsbury.Search in Google Scholar
Simonetti, M. 2006. “Diodoro di Tarso.” In Nuovo dizionario patristico e di antichità cristiane, edited by A. Di Bernardino, 1426–7. Genova: Marietti.Search in Google Scholar
Sokoloff, M. 2009. A Syriac Lexicon. A Translation from the Latin: Correction, Expantion, and Update of C. Brockelmann’s Lexicon Syriacum. Pitascataway: Gorgias Press [Halle 1928].Search in Google Scholar
Teixidor, J. 2003. Aristote en syriaque. Paul le Perse, logicien. Paris: CNRS Éditions.10.4000/books.editionscnrs.8695Search in Google Scholar
Thillet, P. 1984. Alexandre d’Aphrodise. Traité du destin. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Search in Google Scholar
Thillet, P. 2003. Alexandre d’Aphrodise. Traité de la providence. Lagrasse: Verdier.Search in Google Scholar
Thillet, P. 2008. Aristote. Météorologiques. Paris: Gallimard.Search in Google Scholar
Toth, P. 2014. “New Questions on Old Answers: Towards a Critical Edition of the Answers to the Orthodox of Pseudo-Justin.” The Journal of Theological Studies 65: 550–99. https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flu110.Search in Google Scholar
Wright, W. 1872. Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum. Acquired Since the Year 1838, Vol. III. London: British Library.Search in Google Scholar
© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Un commento di età imperiale al libro secondo dell’Etica Nicomachea. Traduzione con introduzione e note
- On Plato’s Precosmos (Ti. 52d2–53c3)
- Per una spiegazione causale delle differenze tra gli animali: Aristotele, Historia animalium I 1
- Alexander of Aphrodisias and the Active Intellect as Final Cause
- L’interprétation astrologique de la philosophie naturelle d’Aristote selon Alexandre d’Aphrodise et Bardesane le Syrien
- L’articulation des chapitres 19 et 20 du traité VI, 2 [43] de Plotin. La priorité du genre sur ses espèces
- Notes
- Une citation littérale de Mélissos dans le Sophiste de Platon
- Notes on Prior Analytics II 22.68a16–21
- Reviews
- Vera Calchi: The Theology of the Epinomis
- Vincenzo Damiani: La Kompendienliteratur nella scuola di Epicuro. Forme, funzioni, contesto
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Un commento di età imperiale al libro secondo dell’Etica Nicomachea. Traduzione con introduzione e note
- On Plato’s Precosmos (Ti. 52d2–53c3)
- Per una spiegazione causale delle differenze tra gli animali: Aristotele, Historia animalium I 1
- Alexander of Aphrodisias and the Active Intellect as Final Cause
- L’interprétation astrologique de la philosophie naturelle d’Aristote selon Alexandre d’Aphrodise et Bardesane le Syrien
- L’articulation des chapitres 19 et 20 du traité VI, 2 [43] de Plotin. La priorité du genre sur ses espèces
- Notes
- Une citation littérale de Mélissos dans le Sophiste de Platon
- Notes on Prior Analytics II 22.68a16–21
- Reviews
- Vera Calchi: The Theology of the Epinomis
- Vincenzo Damiani: La Kompendienliteratur nella scuola di Epicuro. Forme, funzioni, contesto