SUPPLEMENTARY PAPER 



A short paper was contributed to this Section by Professor Henry C. Sheldon, 

 of Boston University, on "The Contributions of Alexandrianism to New Testa- 

 ment Thought." The speaker denned Alexandrianism briefly as marked by the 

 following peculiarities: "(1) A prodigal use of allegorical interpretation, largely 

 under the stimulus of an ambition to show the accord of the Sacred Oracles 

 with various products of Greek philosophy. (2) Great stress upon the tran- 

 scendence of God and a somewhat dualistic conception of his relation to the world. 

 (3) Interposition between God and the world of a mediating agent, this agent 

 being termed in Philonian phrase the Logos, and embracing in its significance the 

 gist of the Platonic doctrine of ideas and of the Stoic doctrine of an immanent 

 reason in the world. (4) Affiliation with the Hellenic anthropology in a disparaging 

 estimate of the body as a clog or fetter to the spirit. (5) A somewhat abstract 

 representation of the future life, a representation setting forth the general notion 

 of an immortal existence of disembodied souls, and discountenancing or ignoring 

 the idea both of a bodily resurrection and of a world crisis." 



The speaker first considered at some length the possible obligation of Paul 

 to Alexandrian teaching, but held that the resemblances are not such as to 

 testify to any explicit borrowing, and, even where it appears, it is still to be 

 proved that he borrowed specifically from Alexandria instead of imbibing through 

 contact with the general sphere of Hellenic culture. On the whole the speaker 

 agreed with the conclusion of Professor Harnack, that the writings of Paul afford 

 very little indication of the influence of Philo. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, 

 however, we enter into an atmosphere which bears an unmistakable tinge of 

 Alexandrianism. 



Concerning the Johannine writings the speaker concluded that while they reflect 

 in a measure the Alexandrian, there is no good reason to suppose such a radical 

 dependence of the one upon the other, as some writers have assumed. The author 

 of the Fourth Gospel used the Philonean teaching, not as a copyist, but as a man 

 of strong original bent uses material from any source. 



