著者

戸田 聡

出版者

日本西洋古典学会

雑誌

西洋古典學研究 (ISSN:04479114)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.59, pp.118-130, 2011-03-23

---

Bardaisan, the first Christian author in Syriac, whose thought is known mainly from the Book of the Laws of Countries, is often considered as a philosopher, and his thought is very frequently understood in the light of Greek philosophy (e.g. Stoicism). However, scholars who argue for Greek influence on Bardaisan seldom ask whether or to what extent Bardaisan really knew Greek; and curiously enough, some rare evaluations of his knowledge of Greek are rather negative. This problem needs to be solved. The present article addresses the problem by examining the Greek loan words used by Bardaisan in the Book of the Laws of Countries, and also by comparing his knowledge of astrology with that of the astrology as presented in Greco-Roman astrological literature, and argues that his knowledge of Greek was far from extensive and that he should be considered as one of the first thinkers who thought not in Greek but in Syriac.