Pseudo-Orpheus is the name given to a

poetic Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

text that presents the legendary Greek figure

Orpheus In Greek mythology, Orpheus (; , classical pronunciation: ) was a Thracians, Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet. He was also a renowned Ancient Greek poetry, poet and, according to legend, travelled with Jason and the Argonauts in se ...

giving a poetic speech to his son, Musaeus, identified as the biblical

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

, passing on to him hidden wisdom he learned in Egypt. It presents a

monotheistic Monotheism is the belief that one God is the only, or at least the dominant deity.F. L. Cross, Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. A ...

view of

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

, whom, according to the poem, no one has seen, except for

Abraham Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...

, who was able to see God due to his skill at

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...

. Pseudo-Orpheus appears in multiple recensions (versions created over time). Although the poem is preserved only in quotations by various

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

writers, most scholars believe that the text is originally "of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

authorship." Over time, a number of Christian and Jewish authors reworked Greek traditions about Orpheus and used them to support their monotheistic views and to assert the religious supremacy of Moses and monotheism over Greek polytheistic views. The rhetorical device of using legendary non-monotheistic figures to endorse Judaism is likewise found in the

Sibylline Oracles The ''Sibylline Oracles'' (; sometimes called the pseudo-Sibylline Oracles) are a collection of oracular utterances written in Greek hexameters ascribed to the Sibyls, prophetesses who uttered divine revelations in a frenzied state. Fourteen b ...

Preserved versions

The following are the primary forms of Pseudo-Orpheus that have survived to the present. The exact dating of the various recensions is disputed. The first extant writer who quotes the work is

Clement of Alexandria Titus Flavius Clemens, also known as Clement of Alexandria (; – ), was a Christian theology, Christian theologian and philosopher who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Among his pupils were Origen and Alexander of Jerusalem. A ...

, who lived around 150 to 215 AD. Clement provides "numerous short quotations" from Pseudo-Orpheus, with one (abbreviated C₂) matching the edition of Eusebius, and the rest (collectively known as C₁) mostly–but not exclusively–in agreement with the version of the poem known as J (see below). The recension which appears in

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...

(abbreviated E) seems to have been produced in the 2nd or 1st century BC.On the recension in general, On the name "E", Eusebius claims to have taken the poem from the writings of

Aristobulus of Alexandria Aristobulus of Alexandria () also called Aristobulus the Peripatetic () and once believed to be Aristobulus of Paneas, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher of the Peripatetic school, though he also used Platonic and Pythagorean concepts. Like ...

, a

Hellenistic Jewish Hellenistic Judaism was a form of Judaism in classical antiquity that combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Hellenistic culture and religion. Until the early Muslim conquests of the eastern Mediterranean, the main centers of Hellen ...

philosopher who lived in the 2nd century BC. This version is known as the Mosaic recension because of its focus on

. This version is variously counted at either forty-one or forty-six lines of

hexameter Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek as well as in Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of s ...

verse. A shorter recension appears in the works of an author referred to as Pseudo-Justin (approximately or at some unknown point before 300 AD) who is so called because his original name is not known, although he was for a time confused with the 2nd-century writer

Justin Martyr Justin, known posthumously as Justin Martyr (; ), also known as Justin the Philosopher, was an early Christian apologist and Philosophy, philosopher. Most of his works are lost, but two apologies and a dialogue did survive. The ''First Apolog ...

. This version contains 21 lines and is referred to as J. Another recension, known as T, or the "Theosophical" recension, contains all the lines found in the other versions of the poem, and mostly agrees with E. This version is found in the Tübingen Theosophy or Theosophy of Tübingen, "an epitome of a late-fifth century collection of oracles".

External links

The recension in Eusebius (E) can be found i
Book XIII
of Eusebius' ''Praeparatio Evangelica'' (''Preparation for the Gospel''), as translated in 1903 by E. H. Gifford. Within the HTML file, Pseudo-Orpheus is found in chapter 12, and consists of the first indented section of the chapter, from the words "I speak to those who lawfully may hear" to the words "store this doctrine in thine heart." The recension in Pseudo-Justin (J) can be foun

of Pseudo-Justin's ''De Monarchia'' in the poetic section which begins with the words, "I'll speak to those who lawfully may hear" and ends with the words, "The depths, too, of the blue and hoary sea." The translation is by G. Reith, as found in volume I of ''The Anti-Nicene Fathers,'' edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson in 1885.

References

{{Authority control Christianity and Hellenistic religion Hellenistic Judaism Orpheus Ancient Greek poems 2nd-century BC poems 1st-century BC poems