Can We Speak of an “Interaction” Between Ancient Christian Thought and Classical Greek Literature? Two Case Studies (The Trinity and Gen. 1:26)

This paper tries to analyse what “interaction” with classical Greek literature may mean in the case of ancient Christian texts. Two case studies show the existence of a “hermeneutical circle” between the reception of Greek texts among Christians and Christian ideas. The Christians were influenced by the Greek texts they commented on, but, on the other hand, their reception of such texts was determined by their Christian intellectual presuppositions. The first case (the emergence of the “Trinity” among the “apologists”) illustrates a cross-reading of Matthew 28:19 and Ps.-Plato’s Letter 2. The second case shows how the term ὁμοίωσις, in Genesis 1:26, was read in the light of Theaetetus 176a-b, and vice versa.