Philo and Numenius in the Neoplatonist-Christian struggle for true philosophy in the third century

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of interschool interaction between Platonists and Christians in the third century on the example of the figure of Amelius Gentilianus. Amelius' openness to the tradition external to Platonism finds precedent in the second century with Numenius, who was familiar with Christian scripture and included biblical quotations and information from the Apocrypha in his writings. Numenius himself was familiar with the Jewish tradition, also thanks to the texts of Philo of Alexandria, whose convergences the author analyses specifically in the text of the article. Philo of Alexandria, in turn, influenced the Christian tradition, not only through his allegorical method, but also through his teaching of Logos (Justin), which Numenius and Justin the Philosopher have in common. The figure of the Christian Ammonius, a pupil of Numenius, is a key figure in third-century philosophy: his pupils Origen, Longinus and Plotinus developed the doctrine of Logos. The lineage of the Philo-Numenian tradition proved productive of both Christian and Platonic philosophical schools, which not only created a common philosophical foundation, but also defined each school's claim to philosophical renewal.