Browsing by Author "Mylov, Petr"

This research examines the aspects of Jesus’ life related to food in the writings of Clement of Alexandria. In discussing the relevant descriptions of Jesus that we have in Paedogogus and Stromata of Clement, the author reveals some views that Clement adopts from Greek philosophical tradition. This study also investigates how Clement combines concepts developed in Greek philosophy and religion with Christian teaching based inherently on the Bible. This thesis is divided into four chapters and an appendix. The first chapter deals with the proper relationship to food according to Clement and antiquity. It serves as background material for Clement in questions about how ordinary people should eat and the exceptional cases of gods and divine men in relation to food. The second chapter is focused on what Clement considered some extraordinary abilities of Jesus’ body: Jesus did not experience hunger and Jesus did not defecate. The last two chapters deal with the human side of Jesus’ life on earth. First is an examination of Clement’s teaching on the Savior’s body grounded on the Gospel of John. This is contrasted with the docetic views that Jesus had phantasmal body. Clement argued against this opinion and his main proof that Jesus had real body is that He ate food. This statement is discussed in the last chapter. The appendix contains an analysis of a fragment from Clement that con-tains a clearly docetic description of Jesus.