Supplements

to
Vigiliae Christianae
Texts and Studies of
Early Christian Life and Language
Editors

J. den Boeft B.D. Ehrman J. van Oort

D.T. Runia C. Scholten J.C.M. van Winden

VOLUME 95

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Angelomorphic Pneumatology
Clement of Alexandria and Other Early
Christian Witnesses

By

Bogdan Gabriel Bucur

LEIDEN BOSTON
2009

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CONTENTS
Preface .................................................................................................
Acknowledgments ..............................................................................
Abbreviations .....................................................................................
Introduction ........................................................................................

ix
xiii
xvii
xxi

PART ONE

ANGELOMORPHIC PNEUMATOLOGY IN
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA
Chapter One:
The Other Clement and Angelomorphic Pneumatology ........
1. Prolegomena: The Place of the Hypotyposeis in the
Clementine Corpus .................................................................
ProtreptikosPaidagogosDidaskalos .................................
EthicsPhysicsEpoptics .......................................................
Physics to Epoptics: Maasse Beresht to Maasse
Merkavah ...............................................................................
The Hypotyposeis and Later Orthodoxy ..............................
Conclusions ..............................................................................
2. Clement on Divine Unity and the Cosmic Multiplicity ...
Unity and Multiplicity in the Logos ....................................
Unity and Multiplicity in the Spirit .....................................
3. Clements Celestial Hierarchy ............................................
The Principles of the Hierarchy ............................................
The Function of the Hierarchy .............................................
Clement on the Interior Ascent ............................................
4. Clements Theory of Prophetic Inspiration ........................
5. Clements Understanding of Spirit of Christ and
Paraclete ................................................................................
Spirit of Christ ......................................................................
Paraclete ................................................................................
6. Angelic or Angelomorphic Pneumatology? ........................
Excursus: Matt 18:10 and Clements Protoctists ................

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3
6
11
18
21
25
27
28
28
30
32
36
41
42
52
54
54
56
59
61

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contents

Chapter Two:
The Larger Framework for Clements Angelomorphic
Pneumatology ................................................................................
1. Binitarian Monotheism in Clement of Alexandria ...........
2. Spirit Christology in Clement of Alexandria ......................
3. A Final Look at Clements Speculations on Unity and
Diversity ....................................................................................
Conclusions ..............................................................................

73
73
75
79
80

PART TWO

ANGELOMORPHIC PNEUMATOLOGY IN
CLEMENTS PREDECESSORS
Introduction ........................................................................................
Chapter Three:
Angelomorphic Pneumatology in the Book of Revelation .........
Introduction ........................................................................................
1. The Seven Spirits in Revelation and Clements
Protoctists ..................................................................................
Who are the Seven Spirits? ................................................
2. Binitarianism and Spirit Christology in Revelation ..........
3. The Phenomenon of Prophecy in Revelation .....................
Conclusions ..............................................................................
Chapter Four:
Angelomorphic Pneumatology in the Shepherd of Hermas .......
Introduction ...................................................................................
1. as an Angelic Being ..................................................
2. as the Son of God .....................................................
3. in the Fifth Similitude .............................................
Excursus: Flesh in the Fifth Similitude ............................
4. Further Clarifications on the Shepherds Angelomorphic
Pneumatology ..........................................................................
Conclusions ..............................................................................

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87
89
89
91
98
100
104
110
113
113
115
120
126
134
136
137

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contents
Chapter Five:
The Son of God and the Angelomorphic Holy Spirit in Justin
Martyr ..............................................................................................
Introduction ........................................................................................
1. Difficulties with Justin Martyrs Use of .................
2. Justin Martyr on the Powers of the Spirit .......................
Conclusions ..............................................................................

vii

139
139
141
148
155

PART THREE

A WITNESS FROM THE EAST:

APHRAHAT THE PERSIAN SAGE
Chapter Six:
Angelomorphic Pneumatology in Aphrahat .................................
Introduction ........................................................................................
1. Aphrahats Views: Many Aberrations and Very Crass
Statements ...............................................................................
2. The Seven Operations of the Spirit are Six .........................
3. The Spirit is not always found with those that
receive it . . . .............................................................................
4. An Older Exegetical Tradition ..............................................
Cramer versus Kretschmar ....................................................
5. The Larger Theological Framework for Aphrahats
Angelomorphic Pneumatology .............................................
Difficulties of Aphrahats Pneumatology ............................
The Holy Spirit and the Move from Unity to
Multiplicity ...........................................................................
Excursus: Wisdom and Power as Pneumatological
Terms ....................................................................................
6. The Fragmentary Gift of the Spirit and Angelomorphic
Pneumatology ..........................................................................
Conclusions ..............................................................................
General Conclusions .........................................................................
The Other Clement ......................................................................
Angelomorphic Pneumatology and the History of Christian
Thought .......................................................................................
Brief Theological Assessment ......................................................

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159
159
161
163
165
169
169
174
175
180
181
185
186
189
189
190
191

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viii

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contents

Bibliography ........................................................................................
Primary Sources .............................................................................
Secondary Sources .........................................................................

195
195
198

Index ....................................................................................................

217

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PREFACE
This monograph is the fruit of a long period of accumulations and
research, which started as early as my first semester of graduate courses
at Marquette University, in the Fall of 2000. It is now a study that starts
with Clement of Alexandria and deals extensively with his theological
thought. Yet Clement was chronologically the last stop on my very
meandering via inventionis.
In 2000, when I came from Romania to the United States to study
at Marquette University with Fr. Alexander Golitzin, I was determined
to focus my research on Irenaeus of Lyon. I gave up the project very
soon after my arrival, discouraged because all the issues I had had in
mind had already been raised and solved in the scholarship of the past
five or six decades, which had not been available to me in Bucharest.
I moved to earlier writings, especially the Shepherd of Hermas. I discovered with delight that the questions I brought to this text were still
valid, because, as one scholar wrote a few years ago, there are many
puzzles in this puzzling little book. One of the persistent puzzles of
the Shepherd, whose theological views appear so strange to modern
scholarship, is that it fared so well in the early Church. Both Irenaeus
and Clement, for instance, treat it with the utmost respect; Clement
especially is most enthusiastic about the Shepherd. My own solution to
the christological and pneumatological puzzles in the Shepherd came
after reading John Levisons work on angelic Spirit in early Judaism
and Philippe Hennes literary analysis of the Similitudes. After arriving
at an understanding of the Shepherd that answered the most important
questions I had, it became important to document the existence of
similar views in other early Christian writings.
The next stage consisted of classroom discussion and research for
course papers on early Christian writers who have a strong, all-pervasive
Logos-theologywriters such as Justin Martyr, Eusebius of Cesarea,
and Ps.-Dionysius. The question was to make sense of the fact that
the all-encompassing Logos-theology of these authors leaves almost no
room for a theology of the Holy Spirit, and to make sense of instances
when spirit is used as a christological termsuch as in second-century interpretations of Luke 1:35, where the overshadowing Spirit is, in
fact, the Logos. To compound the problem, these authors also assume,

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preface

like most people in Late Antiquity, a hierarchically ordered universe,

in which the presence of the divinity is conveyed by Logos through
successive levels of angelic beings. This, again, makes it rather difficult
to construct a robust pneumatology.
Gradually, I came to the conclusion that for much of early Christian literature the functional taxis was Father-Son and holy angels. I
later learned that Georg Kretschmar had argued this extensively in the
nineteen fifties. I started toying with the idea that this insight should
be combined with the above-mentioned overlapping and occasional
identification of Logos and Spirit. This led me naturally to ask how
early Christians viewed the relationship between angels and the Holy
Spirit.
It is with this set of questions and these working hypotheses in mind
that I started reading Clement of Alexandria. Considered from this perspective, which had by now become obsessive, Clement started to look
more and more interesting. I did consider the danger of eisegesis: was
this really Clement, or was I increasingly reading into the Clementine
texts my own views on the Shepherd, Justin, and Ps.-Dionysius? As I
was finishing a paper on the topic of Spirit and Logos and angels in
Clement, I stumbled upon a reference, buried in the footnotes of an
article on Justin, about a booklet written in 1967 by a German scholar,
Christian Oeyen, which was entitled An Angel Pneumatology in Clement of Alexandria. This booklet, it turned out, could not be obtained
through any library channels. Only one copy existed in public circulation, at the University of Bern, where the author had taught for a while.
Later I learned that it was a reprint, with some expansions, of an article
published in a rather obscure journal. Christian Oeyen had studied in
Rome with Antonio Orbe, the renowned specialist on Irenaeus and on
Gnostic literature; but his work, although very positively reviewed by
Jean Danilou, found almost no echo in mainstream patristic scholarship. Oeyen eventually moved to the study of nineteenth-century Old
Catholic ecclesiology and ecumenical involvement.
The encounter with Oeyens scholarship on Clement and Justin Martyr
was the decisive moment. Oeyen provided insights into deserted areas of
researchClement of Alexandrias pneumatology and his lesser-known
works, Eclogae propheticae, Adumbrationes, and Excerpta ex Theodoto.
I was glad to find that all the seemingly odd and marginal elements
that I had been investigating in the Stromateis were stated here in a
much more direct and open manner than in the Stromateis. Oeyen also
mentioned, without expanding on this point, however, that Clements

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xi

use of Matt 18:10 (the angels of the little ones) as a pneumatological

proof-text, also occurs in Aphrahat. This triggered my interest in the
history of reception of Matt 18:10 and sent me to Aphrahat.
As the title indicates, this monograph is about Clement only inasmuch
as I use certain writings of his as an entry-point into a larger early
Christian tradition. My interest is to study a number of early Christian
texts exemplifiying what I call angelomorphic pneumatology, and to
prove that this tradition was fairly vigorous and widespread in early
Christianity. I see my study as a complement to Charles Gieschens
work on angelomorphic Christology and to John Levisons work on
the angelic spirit in early Judaism.

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INTRODUCTION
Much of the material in the present monograph has appeared relatively
recently in various articles.1 Writing a book on the basis of those articles
has not only allowed me to make all the corrections, additions, and
other modifications that I deemed necessary, but has also given me
the opportunity to propose a fuller, integrated account of the early
Christian tradition of angelomorphic pneumatology.
This study brings together scholarly research in three apparently
distinct areas. The first is what has been styled angelomorphic pneumatology, that is, the use of angelic imagery in early Christian discourse
about the Holy Spirit. The second is the pneumatology of Clement
of Alexandria, a topic generally acknowledged as ripe for research.
The third is Clements Eclogae propheticae, Excerpta ex Theodoto, and
Adumbrationeswritings that have until now been allowed only a minor
role in the reconstruction of this authors theological thought. As will
become clear in the course of my exposition, these areas of study are
only apparently separate.
In the conclusion of his article entitled The Angelic Spirit in Early
Judaism, John R. Levison invited the scholarly community to use his
work as a suitable foundation for discussion of the angelic spirit in
early Christianity.2 A few years later, in his study of angelomorphic
1
Hierarchy, Prophecy, and the Angelomorphic Spirit: A Contribution to the Study
of the Book of Revelations Wirkungsgeschichte, JBL 127 (2008): 183204; The Son of
God and the Angelomorphic Holy Spirit: A Rereading of the Shepherds Christology,
ZNW 98 (2007): 12143; Observations on the Ascetic Doctrine of the Shepherd of
Hermas, StudMon 48 (2006): 723; The Angelic Spirit in Early Christianity: Justin,
the Martyr and Philosopher, JR 88 (2008): 190208; The Other Clement: Cosmic
Hierarchy and Interiorized Apocalypticism, VC 60 (2006): 25168; Revisiting Christian
Oeyen: The Other Clement on Father, Son, and the Angelomorphic Spirit, VC 61
(2007): 381413; Matt. 18:10 in Early Christology and Pneumatology: A Contribution
to the Study of Matthean Wirkungsgeschichte, NovT 49 (2007): 20931; Early Christian
Angelomorphic Pneumatology: Aphrahat the Persian Sage, Hugoye: Journal of Syriac
Studies 11 (2008); The Place of the Hypotyposeis in the Clementine Corpus: An Apology
for the Other Clement of Alexandria, JECS (forthcoming).
2
Discussions of the spirit of God in Early Judaism and Christianity . . . ought to
consider . . . interpretations of the spirit as an angelic presence . . . The texts included
in the present analysis serve . . . to provide a suitable foundation for discussion of the
angelic spirit in the Fourth Gospel, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Ascension of
Isaiah (Levison, The Angelic Spirit in Early Judaism, SBLSP 34 [1995]: 492). See also
idem, The Spirit in First Century Judaism (AGJU 29; Leiden: Brill, 1997).

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introduction

christology, Charles A. Gieschen highlighted the need for similar work

in the field of early pneumatology.3 His own book, as well as Mehrdad
Fatehis study of Pauline pneumatology, included dense but necessarily
brief surveys of early Jewish and Christian examples of angelomorphic
pneumatology.4
I shall take up the challenge in this monograph, and pursue the occurrence of angelomorphic pneumatology in early Christian literature. As
an entry-point into the tradition of angelomorphic pneumatology I have
chosen, for reasons that I shall explain presently, Clement of Alexandrias Excerpta ex Theodoto, Eclogae propheticae, and Adumbrationes.
This is the centerpiece of my study, and as such, deserves mention in
its subtitle.
Clement of Alexandria provides an ideal entry-point into earlier
Christian traditions. This author has left behind a body of writings vaster
and more varied than that of any Christian writer before Origen. The
Clementine corpus preserves, despite Clements self-assumed mission
of presenting a bold and intelligent account of the faith, an invaluable
collection of older traditions (whether orthodox, heretical, Jewish,
Greek, or barbarian). Most importantly, however, this author claims
to furnish a written record of certain oral traditions inherited from
earlier authoritative, even charismatic, teachers, whom he refers to as
the elders. This is especially true of the Eclogae and the Adumbrationes, where the voice of these ancient teachers is heard more often
and more clearly than in other Clementine writings. As I shall argue
in a separate section of my study, it is in these surviving fragments of
the Hypotyposeis, more than anywhere else in the Clementine corpus,
that the Alexandrian master also sets out certain views of the Spirit
and the angels. Clement reworks early Jewish and Christian traditions
about the seven first-created angels (), providing a complex exegesis of specific biblical passages (Zech 4:10; Isa 11:23; Matt

3
Gieschen, Angelomorphic Christology: Antecedents and Early Evidence (AGJU 42;
Leiden: Brill, 1998), 6: Ignorance concerning the influence of angelomorphic traditions
has also plagued scholarship on early Pneumatology . . . the same or similar angelomorphic traditions also influenced teaching about the Holy Spirit.
4
Gieschen, Angelomorphic Christology, 11419; Fatehi, The Spirits Relation to
the Risen Lord in Paul (WUNT 128; Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000), 13337. See
also Jean Danilou, The Theology of Jewish Christianity (French ed. 1958; London:
Darton, Longman & Todd, 1964), 12731 (The Spirit and Gabriel); Gedaliahu
A. G. Stroumsa, Le couple de lange et de lEsprit: Traditions juives et chrtiennes,
RB 88 (1981): 4261.

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xxiii

18:10). The resulting angelomorphic pneumatology occurs in tandem

with spirit christology, and within a theological framework still characterized by a binitarian orientation. All of the above constitute the
subject of the first part of this study.
In the second and third parts, I argue that far from being an oddity of
Clements, the theological articulation of angelomorphic pneumatology,
spirit christology, and binitarianism constitutes a relatively widespread
phenomenon in early Christianity. Evidence to support this claim will be
presented in the course of separate studies of Revelation, the Shepherd
of Hermas, Justin Martyr, and Aphrahat.5
This book, then, has three parts. The first one deals with Clement of
Alexandria, the second one with some of Clements predecessorsRevelation, Shepherd of Hermas, Justin Martyrand the third one with
Aphrahat. I discuss each of these writers in six separate and, to a large
extent, independent chapters, addressing specific problems in the primary texts and engaging the relevant scholarly literature. In each case,
however, I pursue the three themes announced above: angelomorphic
pneumatology, binitarianism, spirit christology.
It may be objected that proceeding in this manner is fundamentally
wrong, because these categories may not be equally appropriate for
understanding each of the respective texts, and because considering a
rather diverse literature through the same lens might create the illusion
of conformity and coherence.
I respond by pointing out, first, that this is primarily a study of
Clement of Alexandria, and that the coherence of tradition is part of
the Clementine vantage-point that this work must follow in order to
understand its subject-matter. Clement assumes that there is a coherent angelological and pneumatological discourse, rooted in a religious
experience of angels and the Spirit, and shared across the centuries and
across geographical boundaries. Therefore, after discussing Clements

5
Another highly relevant text would have been the apocryphal Martyrdom and
Ascension of Isaiah, which is notorious for its references to the angel of the Holy
Spirit. However, the older research of Georg Kretschmar and Guy Stroumsa, and a
more recent study by Loren T. Stuckenbruck, have already furnished a treatment of this
writings pneumatology, with which I agree entirely and without reserve: Kretschmar,
Studien zur frhchristlichen Trinittstheologie (BHT 21; Tbingen: Mohr, 1956), 6474;
Stroumsa, Le couple de lange et de lEsprit, esp. 4247; Stuckenbruck, The Holy
Spirit in the Ascension of Isaiah, The Holy Spirit and Christian Origins: Essays in
Honor of James D. G. Dunn (ed. G. N. Stanton, B. W. Longenecker, and S. C. Barton;
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2004), 30820.

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introduction

pneumatological speculations, it is important to understand how it is

that the Alexandrian master, who time and again claimed the authority
of the elders for these views, was able to see himself as part of, and
witness to, the tradition that he viewed as apostolic and mainstream. The
coherence with earlier traditions may well be, in some cases more than
in others, Clements own theological construction; but it is crucial to see
on what basis such construction would have been possible. In the case
of Revelation, for instance, even if reading the text with a little bit of
help from Clement is an exercise in tradition-criticism and Wirkungsgeschichte rather than strictly textual-based exegesis, this approach is
important if it can shed light on second-century pneumatology.
Second, I have tried to reduce the risks outlined above by my choice
of non-Clementine authors, in the second and third parts of this work.
Revelation, the Shepherd of Hermas, and Justins Dialogue and Apologies are texts that the Alexandrian master is certain to have read and,
as in the case of Shepherd, held in particularly high esteem.6 They are
important inasmuch as they may offer insight into some of the teachings that Clement ascribed to the tradition of the elders. At the very
least, as I have said, we shall gain some understanding of the elements
in these texts that Clement would have considered to agree with his
own pneumatological views.
The relevance of Aphrahat, a fourth century Syriac writer, is of a
different kind. There is no literary connection, so far as we know,
between him and Clement of Alexandriaand no literary connection, either, between Aphrahat and Justin, Shepherd, or Revelation.
Nevertheless, Aphrahat displays an exegesis of the biblical verses linking traditions about the highest angelic company with early Christian
pneumatology that is strikingly similar to what one finds in Justin and,
especially, Clement of Alexandria. Moreover, scholars over the past
century have raised concerns about the Persian Sages theologye.g.,
Geistchristologie, binitarianism, a certain overlap of angelology and
pneumatologythat are similar to those raised by many of Clements
readers. If it can be shown that the conclusions set forth at the end of
the studies of Clement and his predecessors are also valid in the case of
Aphrahat, then, even though certain details of the demonstration may

6
For precise references, see Clemens Alexandrinus 4.1: Register (GCS 39/1; 2nd, rev.
ed.; O. Sthlin and U. Treu, eds.; Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1980).

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xxv

still call for further investigation, my thesis of an early and relatively

widespread Christian tradition of angelomorphic pneumatology will
stand on solid ground.
Working Definitions
It is obvious that considering pre-Nicene views of the Spirit through the
lens of late fourth-century pneumatology limits our ability to capture
important elements. The doctrine of the Spirit is fluid in the second
century, and one must adopt a wider perspective, one that takes into
consideration the frequent intersection and overlap between pneumatology, christology, and angelology, labeled in scholarship as spirit
christology, binitarianism, and angelomorphic pneumatology.
It is necessary at this point to provide some clarification for my use
of these concepts. I am, first of all, acutely aware of their limitations.
Scholars create concepts in order to grasp and render intelligible their
objects of study; sooner or later those concepts are found lacking in
explanatory power and are discarded. There are numerous examples of
expired and sometimes embarrassing terms, once hailed for their power
to illuminate and guide the scholarly quest: late Judaism, Frhkatholizismus, Pharisaic legalism, Jewish Christianity, Gnosticism, semi-Pelagianism, semi-Arianism, Messalianismthe list
could certainly continue. The time will come for Logos-sarx christology
and Logos-anthropos christology, Enochic Judaism, interiorized
apocalypticism, mediatorial polemics, or consort pneumatology.
I have no doubt that my own terms of choice are also imperfect
lenses, which bring into focus certain things while necessarily overlooking others and perhaps distorting the overall picture to a certain
degree. Nevertheless, I contend that, at the current state of scholarship,
the categories of angelomorphic pneumatology, spirit christology, and
binitarianism allow us to discern certain important elements in early
Christian literature that one would miss without these lenses.
The term angelomorphic was coined by Jean Danilou in his
Theology of Jewish Christianity.7 Even though Danilous conceptual

7
Danilou, Jewish Christianity, 146: These then are the strictly Jewish Christian
conceptions of angelomorphic Christology, those which have been borrowed from the
angelology of later Judaism, and in which Christ and the Holy Spirit are represented

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chapter six

affirm the dynamism of divine indwelling, the partial endowment of

prophets and baptized Christians, and the intercessory activity of the
Spirit. In Aphrahat, Matt 18:10 is instead linked to other texts such as
2 Cor 1:22; 5:5; Eph 1:14; 3 Cor. 2.10; Num 11:17; 1 Sam 16:1423 (the
evil spirit sent to Saul).
It is true that this particular arrangement of the proof-texts is determined by the necessities of the discourse, and that, in other contexts,
Aphrahat would most likely have furnished a different constellation
using the same passages. As the texts stand, however, the scriptural
support for Aphrahats doctrine of partial versus complete possession
of the Spirit differs slightly from that of Justin and Clement. By way
of consequence, the link between the notion of fragmentary Spirit
and angelomorphic pneumatology is also less clear than it is in these
authors.
Conclusions
In the first part of this chapter I argued that Aphrahat witnesses to the
existence of angelomorphic pneumatology in the early Syriac tradition,
which was supported by an exegesis of biblical texts (Matt 18:10; Zech
3:9; 4:10; Isa 11:23) very similar to that occurring in Justin Martyr
and Clement of Alexandria.
The connection, in Aphrahats Demonstrations, between the ascetic
doctrine of the indwelling Spirit, on the one hand, and the angelomorphic representation of the Spirit, on the other, is also significant from
a history-of-ideas perspective. As mentioned above, the idea that the
Spirit would depart from the sinful person was rejected in the course
of the Messalian controversy. The ascetic doctrine, however, survived in
an altered form, as can be seen in Isaac of Nineveh: if the Holy Spirit,
once received in baptism, does not leave, it is the guardian angel who
is driven away by ones sins, and this departure leaves the house of the
soul open to demonic influences.114 In other words, the angelomorphism
Isaac of Nineveh, Hom. 57: First a man withdraws his mind from his proper
care and thereafter the spirit of pride approaches him. When he tarries in pride, the
angel of providence, who is near him and stirs in him care for righteousness, withdraws
from him. And when a man wrongs his angel and the angel departs from him, then
the alien [the devil] draws nigh him, and from henceforth he has no care whatever for
righteousness. The English translation is that of Dana Miller (The Ascetical Homilies
of Saint Isaac the Syrian [Boston, Mass.: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1984], 283).
114

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GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
This work started by pointing out certain gaps in early Christian studies:
the need for a study of angelomorphic pneumatology to complement
the already existing research on angelomorphic christology; the need
to advance the discussion on Clement of Alexandrias understanding
of the Holy Spirit; finally, the need for more attentive consideration
of Clements Hypotyposeis. I have argued that these areas of study are
intimately related, and that research on angelomorphic pneumatology
ought to give special attention to the so-called other Clement.
The Other Clement
The other Clement is a rhetorical term which I have used, both in
this work and in two earlier studies, as a designation for those works
that are usually left out in most scholarly treatments of Clement of
Alexandria: the Adumbrationes, the Eclogae propheticae, and, to a lesser
degree, the Excerpta ex Theodoto. The importance of these writings
lies, first, in their traditional character. They often quote or in other
ways present teachings inherited from the earlier generation of charismatic elders, which Clement holds up as paradigms of Gnostic
biblical exegesis and doctrinal exposition. Secondly, they represent the
pinnacle of Clements mystagogical curriculum, whose purpose is to
communicate the highest mysteries of Christian doctrine by means of
advanced biblical exegesis. Finally, and most relevant for my purpose
here, the Excerpta, Eclogae, and Adumbrationes contain much material
of pneumatological relevance. I have demonstrated that these Clementine writings contain elements of early Christian reflection on the
Holy Spirit and the angels, which are best designated as angelomorphic
pneumatology, and that Clements angelomorphic pneumatology occurs
in a larger theological articulation, namely in tandem with binitarianism and spirit christology.
All of this is not Clements own creation, but part of the older tradition that Clement reworked and integrated into his account of Christian
thought. To prove my overall thesis about the existence of a vigorous
and relatively widespread tradition of angelomorphic pneumatology in
early Christianity, I have discussed Revelation, the Shepherd of Hermas,

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general conclusions

Justin Martyrs Apologies and Dialogue, and the Demonstrations of

Aphrahat of Persia. The first three are writings that Clement would
have read and considered authoritative. Aphrahat, on the other hand,
is relevant because he provides access to early Syriac exegetical and
doctrinal traditions very similar to those echoed by Clement.
Angelomorphic Pneumatology and the History of
Christian Thought
From a religio-historical perspective, angelomorphic pneumatology
constitutes a significant phase in Christian reflection on the Holy Spirit.
Generally speaking, early Christian reflection on Christ and the Spirit
was carried out within the categories inherited from Jewish apocalyptic
literature. I have discussed the ways in which the apocalyptic themes
of the divine Face and the angels before the Face, which were part of
the Second Temple matrix of Christian thought, were used as building
blocks for an emerging doctrine of Christ and the Holy Spirit. In some
of the authors under discussion (Justin, Clement, Aphrahat), I was able
to point to an exegetical tradition using specific biblical texts (Matt
18:10; Zech 3:9; 4:10; Isa 11:23), and the resulting Face christology
and angelomorphic pneumatology.
Face christology never became a major player in classic definitions
of faith. Like Name christology, Wisdom christology, or Glory
christologyonce crucial categories in the age of Jewish Christianity
this concept went out of fashion, giving way to a more precise vocabulary shaped by the christological controversies of the third and fourth
centuries. Angelomorphic pneumatology, however, and the associated
exegesis of Matt 18:10 illustrated by Clement and Aphrahat, became
problematic with the advent of the Arian and Pneumatomachian confrontations, and were eventually discarded.
The Shepherd of Hermas and Aphrahat illustrate the link between
angelomorphic pneumatology and early Christian ascetic theory, which
is also significant from a history-of-ideas perspective. The idea that the
Spirit would depart from the sinful person was rejected in the course
of the Messalian controversy. The ascetic doctrine, however, survived
in an altered form: the angelomorphism of the older pneumatology
was relegated to a real (guardian) angel, while the pneumatological
content was conformed to the conciliar theology of the Spirit and the
sacraments.

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Given the limitations of this study, I have referred only very briefly
to Eusebius of Caesarea and the Apostolic Constitutions, to some of the
anti-Pneumatomachian statements by Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of
Nyssa, and to the Ps-Dionysian Corpus. There would also be much to
add by taking into account the Latin-speaking authors, perhaps especially Lactantius, studied in great detail by Macholz. It is my intention
to discuss these and other texts of the fourth, fifth, and sixth century
in a separate work.
Brief Theological Assessment
So much can be said from a historical perspective. A few notes from a
systematic theological point of view are now in order. First, it is useful to remind ourselves constantly of the fact that in using terms such
as angelomorphic pneumatology or spirit christology we affirm
something about the authors theological language, not about the theological reality signified by the language. These terms are not meant as
descriptions of the divine, but rather as an aid to understand how an
author or a text chooses to speak about things divine.
Second, it would be helpful to distinguish between a creedal and a
functional level of theology, and to evaluate a given Christian text by
the manner and degree to which the two levels are in correspondence. By
creedal I mean those elements of received tradition, such as formulas
of faith, liturgical formulas, blessings, letter greetings and endings, etc.,
which are passed on to the readers in the same prefabricated form in
which they have been received by the writer. The functional level of
theology would represent the authors personal effort of reflection upon
and formulation of the data of Christian faith. The evidence presented
in this work illustrates a certain incongruence, in early Christianity,
between the creedal level of theology (i.e., what is defined as normative faith) and the functional level of theology (i.e., how faith is
expressed theologically). Obviously, articulating a trinitarian doctrine,
in order to reflect a trinitarian experience of God, took longer than
the introduction of trinitarian formulas. In the words of E. W. Turner,
Christians lived Trinitarianly before the doctrine of the Trinity began
to be thought out conceptually.1
1
Turner, Pattern of Christian Truth, 474. See also 13435: If, however, there is
a persistent tendency in the early centuries to interpret the Christian doctrine of the

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Third, any interpretation of the overlap of Christ and the Spirit

(spirit christology), and the overlap of divine and angelic manifestation (angelomorphic Spirit) must take into consideration the
functional identity of Christ, the Holy Spirit and the angel as grasped
by religious experience. Indeed, many of the texts illustrating angelomorphic pneumatology center around the phenomenon of prophecy.
In the hierarchical worldview shared by the texts that I have discussed,
the lowest angelic rank, and, by consequence, the one closest to the
human world, transmits the divine movement to the prophet, who
represents the highest level in the human hierarchy and its link with
the celestial realm.
To take the Father, Son/Spirit, and angelomorphic Spirit scheme as
a (very deficient) statement on theologia rather than oikonomia would
be not only an anachronism, but also a theological misinterpretation.
In the words of Basil of Caesarea, these texts do not set forth the
Spirits nature [ ], but . . . the variety of the effectual working
[ ].2
Finally, the prophetic-visionary context of the writings discussed in
this study should also lead the reader to recognize their mystagogic
role. This aspect is most explicit in the Shepherd: again and again we
see that with Hermas spiritual development his perception of celestial
realities and his ability to comprehend their meaning also improve.3
Godhead in a bi-personal rather than in a tri-personal manner . . . [t]here is no reason
to believe that those who worked normally with a Binitarian phrasing in their theology were other than Trinitarian in their religion. There is no trace, for example, of an
alternative Twofold Baptismal Formula.
2
Basil the Great, Spir. 8.17. Along the same lines, I find it interesting that the
angelomorphism of the Spirit reemerges in the writings of no less than the champion
of Byzantine theology in the fourteenth century, Gregory Palamas. This author is uninhibited in using precisely those biblical verses that had once supported angelomorphic
pneumatology. In his Fifth Antirhetikos against Akindynos (chs. 15; 17), Gregory Palamas
identifies the seven gifts of the Spirit in Isaiah 11 with the seven eyes of the Lord (Zech
4:10), the seven spirits of Revelation, and the finger/spirit of God (Luke 11:20; Matt
12:28). All of these, he says, designate the divine energies referred to in Scripture as
seven, and should therefore not be considered created. The exact same cluster of passages occurs also in Palamas One Hundred and Fifty Chapters (chs. 7071), and in his
Dialogue between an Orthodox and a Barlaamite (ch. 27).
3
The angel of repentance, he came to me and said, I wish to explain to you what
the Holy Spirit that spoke with you in the form of the Church showed you, for that
Spirit is the Son of God. For, as you were somewhat weak in the flesh, it was not
explained to you by the angel. When, however, you were strengthened by the Spirit, and
your strength was increased, so that you were able to see the angel also, then accordingly
was the building of the tower shown you by the Church. In a noble and solemn manner
did you see everything as if shown you by a virgin; but now you see [them] through

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Revelation, the Shepherd, and the Clementine writings are simply not
designed to be approached like extraneous objects. Their function is
rather to draw the reader into reenacting the same type of dynamic
message-appropriation which they narrate. What, then, of the angelomorphic description of the Spirit? One is tempted to respond by
quoting Goethes Faust:
I have, alas! Philosophy,
Medicine, Jurisprudence too,
and to my cost Theology,
with ardent labour studied through.
And here I stand, with all my lore,
poor fool, no wiser than before.
Magister, doctor styled, indeed,
already these ten years I lead
up, down, across, and to and fro
my pupils by the noseand learn
that we in truth can nothing know!

For my part, I prefer to borrow a page from Hermas: Sir, I do not see
the meaning of these similitudes, nor am I able to comprehend them,
unless you explain them to me (Herm. Sim. 5.3.1).

the same Spirit as if shown by an angel. You must, however, learn everything from
me with greater accuracy . . . (Sim 9.1.1, ANF; emphasis added).

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