Apollonaris Matthew text

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Philip Arend
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Joined: October 14th, 2018, 1:15 am

Apollonaris Matthew text

Post by Philip Arend »

I'm puzzled by a use of πνευμα without the article. The context is a chapter 11 fragment of Apollonaris's Matthew commentary in the pericope on the greatness of John in relation to the Kingdom of heaven. I'm having some trouble understanding his syntax. Concerning verse 12 he writes:

βίᾳ δὲ τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν παραγίνεσθαί φησιν οἷς παραγίνεται, διότι βίας δεῖ πρὸς τὸ κρατῆσαι φύσεως σωματικῆς καὶ πνεύματι συγκραθῆναι, κόσμῳ μὲν ἀποθανόντας, ζῶντας δὲ τῷ θεῷ, ὅπερ οὔπω νόμος ἔχει καὶ προφῆται.

My provisional understanding:

But by force the kingdom of heaven comes he said, to those to whom it comes. For this reason force is needed to control the body’s nature and combine with spirit, having died to the world and living to God; because the law and prophets do not at all have (furnish?) this.

Without the article, would this refer to the Holy Spirit?

(Brill notes "not at all" as a possible sense of οὔπω. "not yet" doesn't seem to fit Matthew's context.
Stephen Carlson
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Re: Apollonaris Matthew text

Post by Stephen Carlson »

The reference to body in the context suggests that the spirit is a human spirit. Of course, if we had evidence that πνεύματι συγκραθῆναι in reference to the Holy Spirit was a conventional part of (Apollonaris's) theology, then that would also be a possibility but there's nothing in the fragment to suggest it.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
Philip Arend
Posts: 61
Joined: October 14th, 2018, 1:15 am

Re: Apollonaris Matthew text

Post by Philip Arend »

Thanks, Stephen. It does seem that he was referring to the human spirit. Looking around at summations of Apollonaris's work, he appears to have been orthodox in general, apart from his theory of Jesus not having a human spirit.
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