The Two Apollinarises and the Ban on Greek Learning

The imperial law that forbade Christians to study Greek literature made the two Apollinarises, of whom we spoke earlier, far more distinguished than before. Both were skilled in literature, the father as a grammarian and the son as a teacher of rhetoric, and they made themselves useful to the Christians at this crisis. The father, as a grammarian, composed a grammar in keeping with the Christian faith. He also put the books of Moses into heroic verse, and paraphrased all the historical books of the Old Testament, putting them partly into dactylic meter and partly into the form of dramatic tragedy. He deliberately used every kind of verse, so that no form of expression peculiar to the Greek language would be unknown or unheard of among Christians. The younger Apollinaris, who was well trained in eloquence, set out the Gospels and the teachings of the apostles in the form of dialogues, as Plato had done among the Greeks. By showing themselves useful to the Christian cause in this way, they defeated the emperor’s cunning by their own labors. [a]

But divine Providence was more powerful than either their labors or the emperor’s craft. For not long afterwards, in the way we will explain later, the law became entirely void, and the works of these men are now of no more importance than if they had never been written. But perhaps someone will object strongly and say: “On what grounds do you claim that both these things came about by the providence of God? That the emperor’s sudden death was a great advantage to Christianity is plain enough. But surely the setting aside of the Christian writings of the two Apollinarises, and the Christians’ going back to fill their minds with the philosophy of the pagans, does Christianity no good at all. For pagan philosophy teaches polytheism, and it does harm to the spread of true religion.” I will meet this objection with the considerations that occur to me at present.

Greek literature was certainly never recognized by Christ or his apostles as divinely inspired. On the other hand, it was never entirely rejected as harmful either. And I believe they acted this way with good reason. For there were many philosophers among the Greeks who were not far from the knowledge of God. In fact, trained as they were in logic, they strongly opposed the Epicureans and other quarrelsome sophists who denied divine Providence, and they exposed their ignorance. For these reasons they have become useful to all who love true piety. Nevertheless, they themselves did not know the Head of true religion, since they were ignorant of the mystery of Christ, which “had been hidden from generations and ages.” The apostle declares that this was so in his letter to the Romans: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. For what can be known about God is plain in them, since God has shown it to them. For his invisible things, his eternal power and Godhead, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through the things that are made, so that they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God.” From these words it is clear that they had the knowledge of the truth, which God had made plain to them, but that they were guilty on this account: although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God. So by not forbidding the study of the learned works of the Greeks, Christ and his apostles left it to the judgment of those who wished to take it up. This is our first argument in defense of the position we have taken.

Another argument may be put this way. The divinely inspired Scriptures certainly teach doctrines that are admirable in themselves and heavenly in character. They also do a great deal to produce piety and integrity of life in those who are guided by their teaching, pointing out a way of faith that is highly approved by God. But they do not teach us the art of reasoning, by which we may be able to resist successfully those who oppose the truth. Besides, opponents are most easily defeated when we can use their own weapons against them. But the writings of the Apollinarises did not supply Christians with this power. Julian had this in mind when he passed a law forbidding Christians to be educated in Greek literature. For he knew very well that the myths it contains would expose the whole pagan system, of which he had made himself the champion, to ridicule and contempt. Even Socrates, the most celebrated of their philosophers, despised these absurdities, and he was condemned for it, as though he had tried to violate the sanctity of their gods.

Moreover, both Christ and his apostle command us “to become discerning money-changers,” so that we may “test all things and hold fast what is good,” and they warn us also to “take care that no one makes a prey of us through philosophy and empty deceit.” But we cannot do this unless we take possession of our opponents’ weapons. In acquiring them we must take care not to adopt their opinions, but to test them, rejecting the evil and keeping all that is good and true; for the good, wherever it is found, belongs to the truth. If anyone thinks that in saying this we twist the Scriptures from their proper meaning, let him remember that the apostle not only does not forbid our being taught Greek learning, but seems by no means to have neglected it himself, since he knows many of the sayings of the Greeks. Where did he get the saying, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons,” if not from reading The Oracles of Epimenides, the Cretan Initiator? Or how would he have known the line, “For we are also his offspring,” if he had not been acquainted with The Phenomena of Aratus the astronomer? Again, the sentence, “Bad company corrupts good morals,” is proof enough that he was familiar with the tragedies of Euripides.

But what need is there to say more on this point? It is well known that in ancient times the teachers of the church, without hindrance, were accustomed to train themselves in the learning of the Greeks until they had reached an advanced age. They did this to improve their eloquence, to strengthen and polish their minds, and at the same time to equip themselves to refute the errors of the pagans. Let these remarks be enough on the subject raised by the two Apollinarises.