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The Ancient Library of Alexandria

Posted By Biblical Archaeology Society Staff On May 1, 2013 @ 1:50 pm In Biblical Archaeology Places |9 Comments

J. Harold Ellenss article The Ancient Library of Alexandria[1] originally appeared inBible Review, along with thesidebars Greco-Roman Philosophers, Whither Aristotles Library? The Perils of the Alexandria Library: Two Ancient

Book-Burnings, How to Measure the Earth and Alexandria Library Redux.BAS Library Members:Read thearticle as it appeared in Bible Review[1].

In March of 415 C.E., on a sunny day in the holy season of Lent, Cyril of Alexandria, the most powerful Christiantheologian in the world, murdered Hypatia, the most famous Greco-Roman philosopher of the time. Hypatia wasslaughtered like an animal in the church of Caesarion, formerly a sanctuary of emperor worship.1[2]Cyril may not have

been among the gang that pulled Hypatia from her chariot, tearing off her clothes and slashing her with shards ofbroken tiles, but her murder was surely done under his authority and with his approval.

Cyril (c. 375444) was the archbishop of Alexandria, the dominant cultural and religious center of the Mediterraneanworld of the fifth century C.E.2[3]He replaced his uncle Theophilus in that lofty office in 412 and became both famous

and infamous for his leadership in support of what would become known as Orthodox Christianity after the EcumenicalCouncil of Chalcedon (451), when basic Christian doctrine was solidly established for all time.

Cyrils fame arose mainly from his assaults on other church leaders, and his methods were often brutal and dishonest.

He hated Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, for example, because Nestorius thought Christs divine and humanaspects were distinct from one another, whereas Cyril emphasized their unity. At the Council of Ephesus in 431, Cyril

arranged for a vote condemning Nestorius to take place before Nestoriuss supportersthe bishops from the easternchurcheshad time to arrive. Nor was Cyr il above abusing his opponents by staging marches and inciting riots. It was

such a mob, led by one of Cyrils followers, Peter the Reader, that butchered the last great Neoplatonic philosopher,

Hypatia.

Cyril is honored today in Christendom as a saint. But at the time of his death, many of his fellow bishops expressed

great relief at his departure. Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus, wrote that Cyrils death made those who survived him

joyful, but it grieved most probably the dead; and there is cause to fear lest, finding him too troublesome, they shouldsend him back to us.3[4]

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One reason Cyril had Hypatia murdered, according to the English historian Edward Gibbon, was that Cyril thoughtHypatia had the political ear of Alexandrias chief magistrate, who vigorously opposed Cyrils ambition to expel from thecity those who held different religious views from his own.4[6]Cyril was also jealous of Hypatia because scholars from

all over the world crowded into her lectures in Alexandria, Athens and elsewhere. Socrates (380450), a churchhistorian from Constantinople, says of Hypatia:

[She] was so learned that she surpassed all contemporary philosophers. She carried on the Platonic tradition derivedfrom Plotinus, and instructed those who desired to learn inphilosophic discipline. Wherefore all those wishing to work

at philosophy streamed in from all parts of the world, collecting around her on account of her learned and courageouscharacter. She maintained a dignified intercourse with the chief people of the city. She was not ashamed to spend t ime

in the society of men, for all esteemed her highly, and admired her for her purity.5[7]

Hypatias father, Theon, was a leading professor of philosophy and science in Alexandria. He had prepared a recensionof EuclidsElements, which remained the only known Greek text of the great mathematicians work until an earlierversion was discovered in the Vatican Library in this century.6[8]Theon also predicted eclipses of the sun and moonthat occurred in 364.

Hypatia, who was born about 355, collaborated with her father from early in her life, editing his works and preparing

them for publication. According to one authority, she was by nature more refined and talented than her

father.7[9]The extant texts of PtolemysAlmagestand Handy Tableswere probably prepared for publication by

her.8

[10]
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Such scientific and philosophical enterprises were not new or surprising in Hypatias Alexandria, which already boasted

a 700-year-old, international reputation for sophisticated scholarship. Founded in 331 B.C.E.9[11]by command ofAlexander the Great, the city contained almost from its beginnings an institution that would remain of immense

importance to the world for the next 2,300 years. Originally called the Mouseion, or Shrine of the Muses, this research

center and library grew into an institution that may be conceived of as a library in the modern sensean organization

with a staff headed by a librarian that acquires and arranges bibliographic material for the use of qualified

readers.10[12]

The Athenian Agora was a great center of ancient learning. Read about recent agora excavations in the Bible History

Daily featureStoa Poikile Excavations in the Athenian Agora[13].

Indeed, the Alexandria Library was much more. It stimulated an intensive editorial program that spawned thedevelopment of critical editions, textual exegesis and such basic research tools as dictionaries, concordances and

encyclopedias.11[14]The library in fact developed into a huge research institution comparable to a modern university

containing a center for the collection of books, a museum for the preservation of scientific artifacts, residences andworkrooms for scholars, lecture halls and a refectory. In building this magnificent institution, one modern writer has

noted, the Alexandrian scholars started from scratch; their gift to civilization is that we never had to start fromscratch again.12[15]

In 323 B.C.E., as summer was breaking upon the northern coast of Egypt, Alexander the Great died in Mesopotamia.

Within little more than a year, Aristotle died in Chalcis and Demosthenes in Calaurie. To this day, these three giganticfigures, more than any others, save Jesus and Plato perhaps, remain essential to the ideal of civilized life throughout

the world. The reason these and other figures remain alive for us today is the ancient library and university of

Alexandria.13[16]

When Alexander died, his empire was divided among his three senior commanders. Seleucis I Nicator became king ofthe empires eastern reaches, founding the Seleucid empire (31264 B.C.E.) with its capital at Babylon.14[17]Antigonus

I Monopthalmus (the One-Eyed) took possession of Macedonia, Greece and large parts of Asia Minor, where heestablished the Antigonid dynasty, which lasted until 169 B.C.E.15[18]A third commander, Ptolemy, assumed the

position of satrap, or governor, of Egypt. Ptolemy made Alexandria his capital, brought A lexanders body to the city fora royal entombment and quickly embarked upon a program of urban development.16[19]

Ptolemys grandest building project was the Alexandria Library, which he founded in 306 B.C.E. Almost immediately thelibrary epitomized the best scholarship of the ancient world, containing the intellectual riches of Mesopotamia, Persia,Greece, Rome and Egypt. Until it was closed in 642 C.E.when the Arabs conquered Egypt and carried off the librarystreasureit was the major vehicle by which the learning of the past was kept alive.17[20]Not only did the library

preserve the ancient sciences, but it proved to be a vital philosophical and spiritual force behind the surprising newworlds of Judaism, Neoplatonism and Christianity.

The history of the library and its university center falls into five stages. The first, from its founding in 306 B.C.E. to

about 150 B.C.E., was the period of Ar istotelian science, during which the scientific method was the dominant feature ofscholarly investigation. The second, from 150 B.C.E. to 30 B.C.E., was marked by a decided shift away from Aristotelian

empiricism to a Platonic preoccupation with metaphysics and religion. This period coincided with the consolidation ofRoman influence in the Mediterranean basin. The third was the age of Philo Judaeuss influence, from 30 B.C.E. to 150C.E. The fourth was the era of the Catechetical School, 150 to 350 C.E., and the fifth was the period of the philosophicalmovement known as the Alexandrian School, 350 to 642 C.E. Together, these five stages cover a thousand years. No

other institution of this kind has proved to be so long-lived or so intellectually dominant of its world and subsequent

history as Alexandrias library.

Sometime between 307 and 296 B.C.E., Ptolemy I brought from Athens a noted scholar named Demetrios of Phaleron(345283 B.C.E.) to undertake his vast library project.

Demetrios set about this task with vigor, providing the course the library was to follow for a millennium. His genius lay

in his conception of the library as something more than a receptacle for books; it was also to be a university where new

knowledge would be produced. The librarys initial design called for ten halls for housing the books. These halls wereconnected to other university buildings by marble colonnades. Scholars were extended royal appointments with

stipends to live and work in this university community. At the same time, task forces commissioned to acquire bookswere scouring the Mediterranean. Books were even confiscated from ships moored in Alexandrias harbor, copied and

then restored to their owners. The scriptorium where the copies were made also served as a bookstore, creating alucrative enterprise with an international clientele.

In 283 B.C.E. Demetrios was succeeded as chief librarian by Zenodotus of Ephesus (325260 B.C.E.), who held the

office for 25 years. This brilliant scholar was a Greek grammarian, literary critic, poet and editor. He continuedDemetrioss work on Homer, making a detailed comparative study of the extant texts, deleting doubtful passages,

transposing others and making emendations. He also produced the first critical editions of the Iliadandthe Odysseyand set each of them up in the 24 books in which we have them today.

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and why are they important. Find out what they tell us about the Bible, Christianity and Judaism when you download

our FREEDead Sea Scrolls[21]eBook.

It was probably Zenodotus who established as part of the library the public lending section known as the Serapeionsonamed because it was a sanctuary for the god Serapis as well as a public library. He appointed two assistant librarians:

Alexander of Aetolia (born c. 315 B.C.E.), to specialize in the Greek tragic and satiric plays and poetry; and Lycophronof Chalcis (born c. 325 B.C.E.), to concentrate on the comic poets. Both of these men became famous in their own rightas writers and scholars.

One of the things we would most like to have today from the Alexandria library is its catalogue, called the Pinakes, the

great work of Callimachus of Cyrene (c. 305235 B.C.E.), who served under four chief librarians but never rose to thatposition himself. The full title of the Pinakesis Tablets of the Outstanding Works in the Whole of Greek

Civilization.18[22]Pinakesmeans tablets and probably referred originally to the tablets or plaques attached to thestacks, cabinets and rooms of the library, identifying the librarys wide variety of books from numerous cultures, mostof them translated into Greek.a[23]

Although only fragments of the Pinakeshave survived, we know quite a lot about it. Most dependable sources agree onthe organizational method utilized in the catalogue, which amply demonstrates the sophisticated character of the

ancient library. The Pinakesconsisted of 120 scrolls, in which all the works in the library were organized by discipline,

with a substantial bibliographical description for each work.19[24]The encyclopedia of knowledge as it has beenconceptualized since ancient times is derived from Callimachuss design. As a leading scholar has noted, The Western

tradition of author as main entry may be said to have originated with CallimachussPinakes.20

[25]

The Pinakesidentified each volume by its title, then recorded the name and birthplace of the author, the name of theauthors father and teachers, the place and nature of the authors education, any nickname or pseudonym applied to

the author, a short biography (including a list of the authors works and a comment on their authenticity), the first lineof the work specified, a brief digest of the volume, the source from which the book was acquired (such as the city

where it was bought or the ship or traveler from which it was confiscated), the name of the former owner, the name ofthe scholar who edited or corrected the text, whether the book contained a single work or numerous distinct works, andthe total number of lines in each work.21[26]

The Pinakeswas the first great library catalogue of western civilization, just as The Bible of Gutenberg was the first

great printed book. [I]t earns for its author the title of Father of Bibliography. Thus, as in all intellectual efforts, the

Greeks fixed the canons of cataloguing, which have been incorporated, more or less, in our Library of Congress,

European, and other systems. However, the Pinakeswas more than a catalogue. It was the work of the foremost manof letters of his age. He could not treat even a purely scientific subject as the Pinakeswithout imparting to his workthe rich stores of his scholarship, and thus the first world catalogue of knowledge became also the first literary andcritical history of Hellenic literature, and also earned for its author the title of Father of Literary History.22[27]

By the end of Callimachuss life, the library is purported to have contained 532,800 carefully catalogued books, 42,800of which were in the lending library at the Serapeion. Two and a half centuries later, in the time of Jesus, it held onemillion volumes.23[28]

It was officials with the conquering Arab army who last saw the library in its operational state. Undoubtedly much of it

was carried off to their royal libraries. It is likely that the character and structure of CallimachussPinakeswas used as

a model for a brilliant Arabic counterpart from the tenth century known as theAl-Fihrist, or Index, by Ibn-Al-Nadim,which we have in virtually its complete and original form. Surviving fragments of the Pinakesconfirm the likelihood of

this.24[29]

For its first two centuries, the library at Alexandria continued to be a center for nearly every kind of research in thenatural sciences as well as in philosophy and the humanities, employing the scientific method developed by Aristotle,

which, thanks to Francis Bacon (15611626), forms the foundation of modern science.25[30]

Eratosthenes of Cyrene (275195 B.C.E.), a student of Callimachus who rose to become chief librarian, is a classicexample of the Alexandrian scholar of the period. He was an accomplished mathematician, geographer, astronomer,

grammarian, chronographer, philologist, philosopher, historian and poet. He founded the sciences of astronomy,physical geography, geodetics and chronology. He was known as the most learned person of the Ptolemaicage26[31]and was acclaimed by his contemporaries as second only to Plato as a literary thinker and philosopher.

Eratosthenes dated the Trojan War to about 1184 B.C.E., a date generally accepted in ancient times and respected by

many modern scholars. He worked out a calendar that included a leap year, and he calculated the tilt of the earthsaxis. One of his most memorable accomplishments was the invention of an accurate method for measuring the

circumference of the earth (see the sidebar to this article).

During his tenure as chief librarian, Eratosthenes brought to Alexandria the official Athenian copies of the three greatAttic tragedians: Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. This involved a bit of scurrilous horse-trading: Ptolemy III

approved an arrangement for borrowing these precious manuscripts from Athens, pledging the modern equivalent of $4million as surety.27[32]With the documents in hand, Ptolemy III then forfeited his deposit, cavalierly retaining the

original manuscripts for the Alexandria Library, and instructed the staff to make good copies on fine quality papyrus,

which were then sent back to Athens. The Athenians with both the money and the copies, one scholar has observed,also appear to have been satisfied with the deal.28[33]
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Aristophanes of Byzantium (c. 257180 B.C.E.) followed Eratosthenes as chief librarian and served for about 15 years.

He was a man with a photographic memory and could cite at length the literary sources in the library.29[34]He hadread them all. It is said that while judging poetry competitions he regularly detected plagiarized lines, and on a number

of occasions, when challenged by the king to justify his criticism, cited the sources and recited the original passages. Asa philologist, grammarian and author, Aristophanes produced poetry, dramas and critical editions of the works of his

famous namesake, Aristophanes (c. 450c. 388 B.C.E.), the Greek poet and dramatist.

Near the end of his life, Aristophanes was imprisoned by Ptolemy V Epiphanes for entertaining an offer to move to the

great library of Pergamum. Such repression did not create an ideal climate in which scholarship might flourish. After hisimprisonment, the library languished under an interim director, Apollonius Eidograph. But in 175 B.C.E. a new chief

librarian was appointed, Aristarchus of Samothrace (217130 B.C.E.), who returned the institution to its grand traditionof high scholarship and scientific sophistication.

Aristarchus was chief librarian for 30 years, from 175 to 145 B.C.E. He is still considered one of the greatest literaryscholars because his recension of the works of Homer continues to be the standard text ( textus receptus) upon whichall modern versions are based. Besides his two critical editions of Homer, he produced similarly erudite editions of

Hesiod, Pindar, Archilochus, Alcaeus and Anacreon. He wrote commentaries on the works of all these classical poets aswell as on the dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles and Aristophanes, and on the historian Herodotus.

Aristarchus had been the teacher of Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II, and though the latter gained a reputation for being a

monster, the two apparently remained friends. When a civil war and political insurgency against the king arose in 131B.C.E., Aristarchus accompanied him in his banishment to Cyprus. There Aristarchus died before Ptolemy VIII returnedin triumph in 130 B.C.E. to continue his oppressive reign for another 14 years. With his reign, the history of wise and

humane Ptolemies and illustrious librarians ended. Thereafter, valuable scholarship continued in Alexandria, such as the

work of Philo Judaeus (30 B.C.E.50 C.E.), the Catechetical School of Clement and Origen (150350 C.E.) and theNeoplatonic School (350642 C.E.), but after 130 B.C.E. both kings and scholars were lesser lights. Revolutions,insurrections and persecutions wracked the kingdom as dynastic political intrigue plagued the country, the city and the

scholarly community. By the end of Aristarchuss tenure, such dissatisfaction existed among the scholars regarding thecharacter of the king and the conditions of the scholarly community that Ptolemy VIII imposed a military controller

upon the operations of the library.

Considering the extensive accumulation of scientific data collected by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and theiradvanced methods of empirical research, it is surprising that they did not achieve some key breakthrough in chemistry

or physics that would have precipitated an industrial revolution. The Greeks and Romans both understood, for example,

the power of steam produced by heated water. The Romans harnessed steam for powering toys. There is someindication that they employed it for powering siege guns. What held them back from utilizing it in steam-driven

machinery, which would have enabled that giant leap from mere muscle to mechanical power? They had refinedsciences of optics, geometry and physics. What prevented them from imagining and creating a microscope? Theyunderstood atomic theory in some coarse way. What prevented them from identifying the components of water ashydrogen and oxygen and thus moving on to the intricacies of chemistry? They seem to have marched right up to the

intellectual and scientific threshold for mechanization and then fallen back into a 1,500-year darkness. Their sciences

needed to be rediscovered and reinvented in the Renaissance of the 12th to 14th centuries before the next step forwardcould be made. Why?

The likely answer lies in the area of two cultural circumstances: (1) the shift in Alexandrian Library scholarship from

Aristotelian empiricism to Platonic metaphysical speculation in about 100 B.C.E., and (2) the barbarian subduction ofRome in the fifth and sixth centuries C.E.

Increasingly during this period of decline, the wealth and intellectual capital of Alexandria was dissipated in trying to

maintain workable relations with the rising power of Rome. As the tribute to Rome increased, and the materialinvestment in the library and its scholarship suffered, the superior intellectual importance, prowess and productivity

that had been standard under the early Ptolemies proved impossible to maintain: The dons were drawn into thepolitical vortex, and those not so inclined were silent. The zest to produce the things of culture was permanentlyinterrupted.30[35]

One consequence of these disturbing times was an intense turn toward religion. Hellenistic Jews were experimentingwith various kinds of theologies.31[36]In Greco-Roman culture, mystery religions were popular, despite the prominence

of the emperor cult. The roots of Christianity, Gnosticism and rabbinic Judaism were already insinuating themselves into

the rich soil of this uneasy world. In Alexandria, the scholarly community abandoned its intense, fruitful focus uponempirical science after the mode of Aristotle and lost itself in the scholarly inquiry into the religion and philosophy ofPlatonism.

Although the decline of the golden age of the ancient library and university center is sad to contemplate, the sea

change nevertheless ushered in the newly productive era of the Hellenistic Judaism of Philo Judaeus (30 B.C.E.50

C.E.); the Hellenistic Neoplatonism of Plotinus (205270 C.E.), Porphyry (c. 234305 C.E.), Olympius (c. 350391 C.E.)

and Hypatia (355415 C.E.); and the Hellenistic Christianity of Pantaenus (c. 100160 C.E.), Clement (c. 150215C.E.), Origen (c. 185254 C.E.), Tertullian (c. 155225 C.E.), Athanasius (c. 293373 C.E.) and Cyril of Alexandria (c.

375444 C.E.). So the scholarly culture of the ancient library became the seedbed of the great philosophies of Judaismand Christianity and thus has continued to influence Western culture for two millennia, showing little sign of abating as

we move into the third.

Philo Judaeus was surely one of the most prominent scholars in Alexandria at the turn of the millennium. His lifeoverlaps that of Jesus of Nazareth and is the scholarly bridge between the pre-Christian era of Greek antiquity and the

begin ning of Christian history in Alexandria. With the appearance of Philo, Jewish scholarship became a prominentforce there. Philo was a member of a distinguished Jewish family in the influential Alexandrian Jewish community. His
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brother, Alexander the Alabarch, led that community. Philo lived much of his life in contemplation, authoring a large

array of books.

The Jewish community included half of the city of Alexandria in Philos time and a large part of the general population ofEgypt. Philo and his contemporaries considered themselves to be faithful Jews. Hellenized Judaism was generally

welcomed by the Jews of Egypt and provided both an interpretation of Judaism for the Greeks and an interpretation ofHellenism for Jewish society, stretching the whole upon the frame of historic Jewish traditions.

Philo sought to demonstrate that Judaism could be accepted by the Greeks for its universal wisdom and superior insight

into ultimate truth. The subjects Philo treated and the organization he used reflect the pattern set for scholarship at the

library by CallimachussPinakes. Philo systematically addressed the full range of topics that had formed the categories

of that great catalogue. His writings include investigations of theology, philosophy, literary criticism, textual analysis,rhetoric, history, law, medicine and cosmology. However, Philo was not simply interested in objective scientific

exploration. His greatest motive was to demonstrate that all that is valuable and virtuous in Greek thought and idealswas also epitomized by the biblical patriarchs and heroes of faith of Jewish religious tradition. Philo treated the Greeknotion of Logos, for example, as the universal expression of Hebrew Wisdom (Khokhmain Hebrew; Sophiain Greek),

Gods self-expression in the material world.

Philo lived at a time when confidence in a world governed by cause and effect had given over to questions about thepurpose of life and history. His questions concerned the nature of God; Gods function in the universe as creator,

manager and redeemer; and the meaning and destiny of humankind. The primary question for Platonic-minded scholarsand laypersons alike was how a transcendent, ineffable God of pure spirit could be linked to a material universe.Moreover, it seemed evident that the material world was shot through with pain and evil. How could a perfect God

create a flawed world?

In both the Jewish and Greek traditions that Philo inherited, this problem was solved by a model of the world in whichGod was separated from the created universe by a series of intermediaries. These were thought of as divine forces,

agencies or persons. The main intermediary was the Logos. The Greek Stoic philosophers had made much of theconcept of Logos from the time of early Platonism onward. Philo saw Greek tradition as simply another expression ofthe references to Wisdom in Job 28, Proverbs 19, The Wisdom of Ben Sirach, Baruch and other literature in theHebrew tradition. Philo understood the Logos to be responsible for creating the material universe, supervising it

providentially and redeeming it. For Philo, Logos was Gods rationality, both in Gods own mind and in the rational

structure of creation. Sophia was the understanding that God has and that humans acquire when they discover GodsLogos in all things. Philo, on occasion, allegorically refers to Logos/Sophia as an angel and, rarely, as a secondGod.

In his exposition of Genesis 17 (describing Gods covenant with Abraham), he characterizes God as a trinity ofagencies.32[37]

This article was originally published in Bible Review. Every article ever published in Biblical Archaeology Review, BibleReviewandArchaeology Odysseyis available in theBAS Library. Click here to visit the Library.[38]

Not a BAS Library member yet?Sign up today[39].

Between 150 and 180 C.E. a Stoic philosopher named Pantaenus was converted to Christianity and became the

headmaster, if not the founder, of a Christian institution known as the Catechetical School of Alexandria. This schoolreflected the long-standing intellectual tradition of the Alexandrian Library and may well have been a part of thatscholarly enterprise.33[40]

Pantaenus served as head of the Catechetical School long enough to bring it out of obscurity and then, handing over itsleadership to Clement, became a missionary. In India Pantaenus discovered a community of Jewish Christians, disciples

of the apostle Thomas, whose faith and life were built around their use of a Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew.

Pantaenus never returned to Alexandria.34[41]

Clement (c. 150215 C.E.) was a student of Pantaenus, and Origen (c. 185254) was very probably a student ofClement. The theological connection between them, as well as their dependence upon Philos work of 150 years earlier,

urges this conclusion. Clement and Origen seem to have taken over Philos model of Gods relationship to the createdworld, particularly the function of the Logos in creation, providence and salvation.

These two towering figures of early Christian theological development were headmasters of the Catechetical School of

Alexandria, which flourished under them and quickly became famous throughout the Christian world. Eusebius (c. 260348), a church historian, refers to it as a school of sacred learning establishedfrom ancient times, which has

continued down to our own times, and which we have understood was held by men able in eloquence, and the study of

divine things.35[42]

Its relationship to Philo and his classical Greek predecessors has been described as follows:

The first representatives of early church exegesis were not the bishops but rather the teachers (didaskaloi) of thecatechetical schools, modeled after the Hellenistic philosophers schools in which interpretive and philological principleshad been developed according to the traditions of the founders of the respective schools. The allegorical interpretation
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of Greek classical philosophical and poetical texts, which was prevalent at the Library and Museum (the school) of

Alexandria, for example, directly influenced the exegetical method of the Christian Catechetical school there. Basing hisprinciples on the methods of Philo of Alexandria and Clement of Alexandria, his teacher, and others, Origencreated thefoundation for the type of Christian exegesis (i.e., the typological-allegorical method) that lasted from the patristicperiod and the Middle Ages up to the time of Luther in the 16th century. Origen based his exegesis upon

comprehensive textual-critical work that was common to current Hellenistic practices such as collecting Hebrew textsand Greek parallel translations of the Old Testament. His main concern, however, was that of ascertaining the spiritual

meaning of the Scriptures, the transhistorical divine truth that is hidden in the records of the history of salvation in the

Scriptures. He thus developed a system containing four types of interpretation: literal, moral, typological, andallegorical.36[43]

Clements theological and philosophical emphasis differed little from that of Philo, except that the orientation of his

notion of the Logos/Sophia doctrine was Christian rather than Jewish. Clements aim in his teaching and ministry was toconvert to Christianity members of the educated Greek community in Alexandria, the sort of people who would

previously have been attracted to Philos type of Hellenistic Judaism. Just as Philo had presented Judaism as the

highest form of wisdom and the means by which humankind would come to see God, so Clement urged thatChristianity was the end to which all current philosophy had been movingthe new melody superior to that of

Orpheus.37[44]

Origen advanced Clements ideas and directly identified the Logos with the person of Jesus of Nazareth, thuspersonifying the Logos. Such personification of the Logos was not uncommon in the world of Philo, Clement and Origen.

Indeed, it was a relatively common practice in both Jewish and Greek tradition to conceive of divine powers or agentsas identified at various times with specific extraordinary persons. As the divine agency was personified in a human

person, the divine was humanized and the human deified.

It was this significant North African theological perspective in the theology of Clement and Origen that dominatedChristian thought from the Council of Nicea in 325 C.E. to the Council of Chalcedon in 451 C.E. At these counci ls the

doctrines of the deity of Christ and the trinitarian nature of God were worked out. Thus, there is a straight line between

the Alexandria Library, Philo Judaeuss Hellenistic Judaism and the Christian doctrines of the deity of Christ and thenature of the trinity. This connection is, of course, very complex, and other forces also affected this development, suchas the great variety of polytheistic theologies (which propose that there exist intermediary beings between God andcreation) present in the Judaisms of 200 B.C.E. to 200 C.E. and that Philo wished to counteract in order to refine and

protect Jewish monotheism. However, it is the influence of Philos theological and philosophical model (mediatedthrough Clement and Origen to the bishops who met at the great councils), combined with the very speculative

allegorical interpretation of scripture under the influence of Neoplatonism (typical of the outlook in Alexandria), thatexplains the theological move of the councils from a Jesus who was filled with the Logos to a Christ who was the being

of God.

As this Judeo-Christian development unfolded, the seeds of the Alexandrian school were sown at the ancient library andits university. Plotinus (205270 C.E.) established the movement with his articulation of a new kind of Platonism. Many

similarities can be seen between this Neoplatonism and Judaism and Christianity in the second and third centuries C.E.

Neoplatonism stood for an intense personal spirituality, estimable ethical principles and a theology rooted in theHellenistic philosophy that so significantly shaped Philo.

Plotinus and his disciple Porphyry (c. 234305 C.E.) looked for the ultimate religious experience as an ecstatic vision of

God, adhered to standards of personal purity that made the most ardent Christian envious and proclaimed that God isrevealed in the material world in a trinity of manifestations. This singularly attractive alternative to Christianity was

championed in the fourth and fifth centuries in Alexandria by the notable Neoplatonist saints, Olympius and Hypatiabringing us back to where we started.

Although Hypatia was brutally murdered by Cyril for advocating a philosophy he thought was antithetical to orthodoxChristianity, her brand of Neoplatonism became increasingly attractive to Christian philosophers. By the sixth century, itwas taken over by them. Though the Alexandrian school was formally eclipsed when the Arabs destroyed the libraryand much of the cityin 642, its spirit survives to this day in its influence over Christianity.

That is the story of the Alexandria Library, too. After destroying the library, the Arabs preserved a large percentage ofthe ancient volumesas evidenced by the fact that they possessed, in Greek and Arabic translations, many of the

works of the ancient poets, playwrights, scientists and philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Euclid and Eratosthenes.

When the European Crusaders encountered the Arabic world in the 11th and 12th centuries, those venerable worksbecame known again in Europe, giving rise to the Renaissance. Islamic philosophers and scientistssuch as Averres, aSpanish Arab (11261198 C.E.), and Avicenna, a Persian (9801037 C.E.)gave the ancient books and their wisdom

back to the Western world and taught Christian Europe to know again and prize its roots in ancient Greece.

So the ancient library of Alexandria rose like a phoenix from her own ashes. She has been wounded, perhaps, but has

never really died.
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[45]J. Harold Ellensis a retired scholar who researched at the University of Michigan and an served as

occasional lecturer at the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity at the Claremont Graduate School, in California. He isthe author of hundreds of articles and numerous books, including The Ancient Library of Alexandria and Early ChristianTheological Development (Claremont Graduate School, 1993).

J. Harold Ellenss articleThe Ancient Library of Alexandria[1] originally appeared inBible Review, along with thesidebars Greco-Roman Philosophers, Whither Aristotles Library? The Perils of the Alexandria Library: Two Ancient

Book-Burnings, How to Measure the Earth and Alexandria Library Redux.BAS Library Members:Read thearticle as it appeared in Bible Review[1].

Not a BAS Library member yet?Sign up today[39].

1 Notes

a.[46]The best-known book collected from a non-Greek culture and translated into Greek at the library was the Hebrew

Bible, known in its Greek form as the Septuagint (LXX). It seems to have reached the state of a largely completed andofficial Greek text between 150 and 50 B.C.E. Philo Judaeus (30 B.C.E.50 C.E.) obviously knew and worked with a

Greek version of the Hebrew Bible.

1.[47]Maria Dzielska, Hypatia of Alexandria, trans. F. Lyra (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1995), p. 93. Cf. J.Harold Ellens, The Ancient Library of Alexandria and Early Christian Theological Development, Occasional Papers 27,

Institute for Antiquity and Christianity (Claremont: Claremont Graduate School, 1993), pp. 4451.

2.[48]Saint Cyril of Alexandria, inEncyclopaedia Britannica, Micropaedia, 15th ed., vol. 3, cols. 329330.

3.[49]Theodoret, quoted in The Works of Charles Kingsley, 2 vols. (New York: Co-operative Publishing Society, 1899).

4.[50]Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. J.B. Bury, 3 vols., with notes by Gibbon,

introduction and index by Bury and a letter to the reader from P. Guedalla (New York: Heritage, 1946).

5.[51]Socrates Scholasticus, Historia Ecclesiastica7.15, in A.C. Zenos, ed., vol. 2 of The Nicene and Post-NiceneFathers, 2d ser., ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1957), p. 160. See also Edward A.

Parsons, The Alexandrian Library, Glory of the Hellenic World: Its Rise, Antiquities, and Destructions(London: Cleaver-Hume, 1952), p. 356.

6.[52]Theon of Alexandria, inEncyclopaedia Britannica, Micropaedia, 15th ed., vol. 9, col. 938; Euclid,

in Encyclopaedia Britannica, Macropaedia, 15th ed., vol. 6, col. 1020; Ellens,Alexandria, p. 44; and Dzielska, Hypatia of

Alexandria, pp. 6869.

7.[53]Dzielska, Hypatia of Alexandria, p. 70, quoting Damascius without citing what source.

8.[54]Dzielska, Hypatia of Alexandria, pp. 7073.

9.[55]Steven Blake Shubert, The Oriental Origins of the Alexandrian Library,Libri43:2 (1993), p. 143.

10.[56]Shubert, Oriental Origins, pp. 142143.

11.[57]Shubert, Oriental Origins, p. 143.

12.[58]Shubert, Oriental Origins, p. 143.

13.[59]Ellens,Alexandria, pp. 12.

14.[60]Encyclopaedia Britannica, Macropaedia, 15th ed., vol. 16, cols. 501503.
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17.[63]For a detailed discussion of the date of the destruction of the library, see Ellens,Alexandria, pp. 612, 5051;and the superbly objective and thorough treatment of the process of the librarys demise by Mostafa El-Abbadi, Life andFate of the Ancient Library of Alexandria(Paris: UNESCO/UNDP, 1990), pp. 145179. See also Gibbon, Decline and Fall,

vol. 1, pp. 5758, and vol. 2, chap. 28 (on the destruction of the library); and Parsons,Alexandrian Library, pp. 411412.

18.[64]Shubert, Oriental Origins, p. 144, in which reference is made to the tenth-century C.E. Byzantine Greek

volume called the Suidas Lexicon. This lexicon cites the full name of thePinakesand describes its size as 120 scrolls. Cf.Ellens,Alexandria, p. 3; and F. J. Witty, The Pinakes of Callimachus,Library Quarterly28 (1958), p. 133.

19.[65]Suidas Lexicon; Tzetzes, as cited in El-Abbadi, Life and Fate, p. 101. See also Shubert, Oriental Origins, p.144; and Witty, Pinakes of Callimachus.

20.[66]Shubert, Oriental Origins, p. 144. It is interesting in this regard that Anne Holmes (The Alexandrian

Library,Libri30 [December 1980], p. 21) suggests that the Pinakesmay have been a list of authors and books that

Callimachus wanted to acquire for the library rather than a catalogue of existing library holdings. This is unlikely

because of the detailed bibliographical and critical material incorporated in each entry, including the indication that thebook was purchased from some other library source or confiscated from some traveler. Lionel Casson (Triumphs from

the Ancient Worlds First Think Tank,Smithsonian10 [June 1985], p. 164) urges that the Pinakeswas conceivably only

an encyclopedia of Greek literary history. In such a case, one wonders why it was called the Pinakes, connecting it withthe tiles designating the categories of storage compartments and their contents.

21.[67]El-Abbadi, Life and Fate, p. 100; and Parsons,Alexandrian Library, p. 211. See also J.E. Sandys,A History of

Classical Scholarship(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press, 19061908), p. 34 n. 3.

22.[68]Parsons,Alexandrian Library, pp. 217218.

23.[69]Parsons,Alexandrian Library, pp. 110, 204205. See also El-Abbadi, Life and Fate, pp. 95, 100; and Tzetzes, a

12th-century scholar whose Prolegomena to Aristophanes, also known as Scholium Plautinum, may be found in R.Pfeiffer, History of Classical Scholarship(Oxford: Clarendon, 1968), p. 101.

24.[70]El-Abbadi, Life and Fate, p. 102.

25.[71]

Kathleen Marguerite Lea, Francis Bacon, inEncyclopaedia Britannica, Macropaedia, 15th ed., vol. 2, cols. 561566. See also Catherine Drinker Bowen, Francis Bacon, The Temper of a Man(Boston: Little, Brown, 1963).

26.[72]Gilbert Murray,A History of Ancient Greek Literature(New York: Scribner, 1897), p. 387.

27.[73]Casson, Triumphs. The ancient sources describe the sum as 15 talents, which would probablyexceed $4million today.

28.[74]Shubert, Oriental Origins, pp. 145, 166 n. 8, cites GalensComm. II in Hippocraits Epidem. libri III239240,

which I have not been able to consult. See also J. Platthy, Sources on the Earliest Greek Libraries(Amsterdam:Hakkert, 1968), pp. 118119; Holmes, Alexandrian Library, p. 290; and P.M. Fraser,Ptolemaic Alexandria(Oxford:Oxford Univ. Press, 1972), p. 325.

29.[75]Vitruvius, De Architectura7.68. See also Parsons,Alexandrian Library, p. 150; and El-Abbadi, Life and Fate,

pp. 105, 111. Vitruvius lived during the same period as Julius Caesar, Philo Judaeus and Jesus Christ. He was a famous

Roman architect, engineer and city planner. The work cited here is a handbook for Roman architects. His style forarchitecture and city planning was largely Greek, as he lived at the beginning of the phase of creative Romanarchitectural style, and his work heavily influenced Renaissance art, architecture and engineering. Pliny the Elderborrowed heavily from Vitruvius in the preparation of his Natural History. As was typical in the ancient world, Pliny does

not cite his sources and credit Vitruvius. De Architecturacontains ten books on building materials, Greek designs intemple construction, private buildings, floors and stucco decoration, hydraulics, clocks, measurement skills, astronomy,

and civil and military engines. He was classically Hellenistic in his perspective.

30.[76]Parsons,Alexandrian Library, p. 152; see also p. 229, where Parsons, citing a letter from Thomas E. Page toJames Loeb, declares that But for the patronage of the Ptolemies and the labor of devoted students in the Museum,Homermight have wholly perished, and we might know nothing of AeschylusWe still owe Alexandria a great debt.Murray (Literature, p. 388) remarks, Zenodotus, Callimachus [sic], Eratosthenes, Aristophanes of Byzantium, and

Aristarchus were the first five librarians; what institution has ever had such a row of giants at its head?

31.[77]In this regard see, for example, Alan Segal, Two Powers in Heaven, Early Rabbinic Reports about Christianity

and Gnosticism(Leiden: Brill, 1977); Maurice Casey, From Jewish Prophet to Gentile God, The Origins and Development

of New Testament Christology(Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1991); Jarl Fossum, The Name of God and the Angelof the Lord, Samaritan and Jewish Concepts of Intermediation and the Origin of Gnosticism(Tbingen: Mohr, 1985);

Gabrielle Boccaccini, Middle Judaism, Jewish Thought, 300 B.C.E.-200 C.E. (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991).
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32.[78]Philo Judaeus, The Works of Philo, trans. C.D. Yonge (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1993). See also Harry A.

Wolfson, Philo, 2 vols. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1947).

33.[79]Some scholars question whether there really was a formal catechetical school as early as the second century,rather than just independent teachers; see Roelof van den Broek, The Christian School of Alexandria in the Second

and Third Centuries, inCentres of Learning: Learning and Location in Pre-Modern Europe and the Near East, ed. J.W.Drijvers and A.A. MacDonald (Leiden: Brill, 1995). The preponderance of evidence, however, strongly indicates thatthere was one; see W.H.C. Frend, The Rise of Christianity(Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), p. 286; Eusebius

Ecclesiastical History(Grand Rapids: Baker, 1955), pp. 190191, 217255; Schaff and Wace, eds., The Nicene andPost-Nicene Fathers, 2nd ser., vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952), pp. 224226, 249281; and G. Bardy, Aux

origines de lecole dAlexandrie,Reserches de Science Religieuse27 (1937), pp. 6590.

34.[80]Frend, Rise of Christianity, p. 286.

35.[81]Eusebius Ecclesiastical History, p. 190. See also Annewies van den Hoek, How Alexandrian Was Clement ofAlexandria? Reflections on Clement and His Alexandrian Background,HeyJ31(1990), pp. 179194.

36.[82]Ernst Wilhelm Bentz, Christianity, inEncyclopaedia Britannica, Macropaedia, vol. 4, col. 498.

37.[83]Frend, Rise of Christianity, p. 286.

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[5] Ancient Israel in Egypt and the Exodus: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/free-ebooks/ancient-israel-in-egypt-and-the-exodus/












ancient-library-of-alexandria/#note10[13] Stoa Poikile Excavations in the Athenian Agora: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/stoa-poikile-excavations-in-the-athenian-agora/












[21] Dead Sea Scrolls: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/free-ebooks/the-dead-sea-scrolls-discovery-and-meaning/
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