διῆλθεν εὐεργετῶν (Acts 10:38) as a dogmatic expression used by Basilides (per Alfred Loisy)?

[Giuseppe]

You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good (διῆλθεν εὐεργετῶν) and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

(Acts 10:37-38)

I read, but unfortunately without the comfort of the quote of the source, that the same expression (διῆλθεν εὐεργετῶν) was used by Basilides to refer not to the actions of Jesus in Galilee, but to the actions of the Son of God while descending the concentric heavens between the pleroma and the earth, also there "by doing good".

I know that Alfred Loisy realized this point.

Question: can you refer where is said that Basilides used precisely that term? (VERY THANKS)

Question: if this is true, isn't this evidence that Tronier is totally right when he writes:

If we compare this with the description of the Christ figure in Paul, we can see that the
geographical location in the first part of the gospel (the periphery, Galilee) corresponds symbolically
with the heavenly world in Paul. In Galilee Jesus appears as Christ with authority,
power and glory, even though he is not generally recognized as such. By contrast, the geographical
location of the second part of the gospel (the centre, Jerusalem) corresponds with
the earthly world in Paul: the place where Christ appears as crucified and disgraced. More
over, just as we find in the cosmic movement in Paul (from heaven to earth), so in Mark the
direct, geographical movement from periphery to centre connects glory and authority with the
cross. In fact, since the periphery is in Mark to be understood as the heavenly world, it makes
special sense that the starting-point for the direct movement towards the cross is located at the
point where the disciples are as far out in the periphery as they will get, at Caesarea Philippi

https://web.archive.org/web/20101127224 ... ryMark.pdf

[andrewcriddle]

I think it is this passage from Hippolytus Against all Heresies Book 7

And Basilides styles such, not a wing, but Holy Spirit; and Sonship invested in this (Spirit) confers benefits, and receives them in turn.

For Grrek text see https://archive.org/details/origenisphi ... p/page/234

Andrew Criddle

Edited to Add

There are other passages in this section about Basilides referring to the Sonship conferring benefits. These may possibly be better parallels.

[DCHindley]

Giuseppe,

The whole segment in Acts 10:36-38ff seems to have more seams than one can shake a stick at. More than one theme can be discerned intertwined together.

Acts 10:	ET
36 τὸν λόγον [ὃν] [ὁ θεός, vs 34] ἀπέστειλεν τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ	36 The word [which] he [i.e., the God, vs 34] sent to the sons of Israel,
εὐαγγελιζόμενος εἰρήνην	preaching good news of peace
διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ,	through Jesus Christ
οὗτός ἐστιν πάντων κύριος,	he is Lord of all,
37 ὑμεῖς οἴδατε τὸ γενόμενον ῥῆμα καθ᾽ ὅλης τῆς Ἰουδαίας,	37 you know this talk spread throughout all Judea,
ἀρξάμενος ἀπὸ τῆς Γαλιλαίας	beginning from Galilee
μετὰ τὸ βάπτισμα ὃ ἐκήρυξεν Ἰωάννης,	after the baptism which John preached:
38 Ιησοῦν τὸν ἀπὸ Ναζαρέθ,	38 Jesus the (one) from Nazareth
ὡς ἔχρισεν αὐτὸν ὁ θεὸς	how anointed him the God
πνεύματι ἁγίῳ	by a Holy Spirit
καὶ δυνάμει,	and by power;
ὃς διῆλθεν	how he went about
εὐεργετῶν	doing good
καὶ ἰώμενος πάντας τοὺς καταδυναστευομένους ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου,	and healing all that were oppressed by the slanderer,
ὅτι ὁ θεὸς ἦν μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ.	because the God was with him.

DCH

[Giuseppe]

I have found the source of Acts 10:38 for διῆλθεν εὐεργετῶν ("going around doing good"):

Now it is an excellent thing, methinks, as all men of understanding must agree, to receive in exchange for mortal labours an immortal fame. In the case of Heracles, for instance, it is generally agreed that during the whole time which he spent among men he submitted to great and continuous labours and perils willingly, in order that he might confer benefits upon the race of men and thereby gain immortality; and likewise in the case of other great and good men, some have attained to heroic honours and others to honours equal to the divine, and all have been thought to be worthy of great praise, since history immortalizes their achievements. 5 For whereas all other memorials abide but a brief time, yet the power of history, which extends over the whole inhabited world, possesses in time, which brings ruin upon all things else, a custodian which ensures its perpetual transmission to posterity

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/R ... s/1A*.html

[Ben C. Smith]

I have found the source of Acts 10:38 for διῆλθεν εὐεργετῶν ("going around doing good"):

Now it is an excellent thing, methinks, as all men of understanding must agree, to receive in exchange for mortal labours an immortal fame. In the case of Heracles, for instance, it is generally agreed that during the whole time which he spent among men he submitted to great and continuous labours and perils willingly, in order that he might confer benefits [εὐεργετήσας] upon the race of men and thereby gain immortality; and likewise in the case of other great and good men, some have attained to heroic honours and others to honours equal to the divine, and all have been thought to be worthy of great praise, since history immortalizes their achievements. 5 For whereas all other memorials abide but a brief time, yet the power of history, which extends over the whole inhabited world, possesses in time, which brings ruin upon all things else, a custodian which ensures its perpetual transmission to posterity

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/R ... s/1A*.html

There is no διῆλθεν in this text. (Nor is that word in the example from Hippolytus about Basilides.)

[Giuseppe]

I think that I have found where the mythicist William Benjamin Smith derived the idea of the OT (I quote from his Appendix to Birth of the Gospels):

A few lines further on we find an idea frequent and central with Basilides, of
"all the Sonship, that left behind to benefit the souls in Formlessness and to be benefited" ( Els TO EUEp''(ETEiP Tlls 'if;vxas EP ap.oprpla. Ka.' .EUEp"(ETEiuOa.L ). Here is suggested a remarkable phrase standing quite isolated in Acts 1038, "who went through benefiting" ( os oLfi'MEP "'EVEP"fETWP). It is well known that this whole passage, verses 35-39, is an inextricable tangle. Verses 34-35 are not continued either in thought or in structure by verse 36; TOP >..lryop is without any governing word or relation; "He is Lord of all" is clearly an interpolated parenthesis ; verse 37 has no grammatical connection with verse 36; the participle ap�ap.EPos hangs in the air without any possible attachment; in verse 38 'I71uovP ToP a'l!"o Na.ra.p�T is also
asyntactic, nothing governs it in the accusative and it is a pis alter to refer it to
Pfil-'a. (word) by apposition. The theme announced in verses 34-35 is never heard
or hinted again in the speech! That any one could have thought or spoken or
written so originally is incredible. The text is at best very uncertain: {J"hauK�PIJ"f!-'O.
for {Jo:rrnu!-'a. etc. The paragraph is intelligible only and easily as rather rough
patchwork, in which edifying phrases are tacked together with little respect for
grammar or logic. Such a phrase seems to be this "who traversed benefiting." We note it follows immediately upon the phrase "how God annointed him with Holy Spirit and power." Here then we find a whole group of Basilidian ideas, and the resemblance can hardly be accidental. In Basilides these ideas are all in place and naturaiiy connected; in Acts we have just seen that they are part of a patchwork.
The conclusion seems hard to resist that Acts has borrowed from some ancient
source also represented in Basilides. Wendt declares &.p�a/-'EPos "grammatisch un￾moglich" and adopts &.p�tt/-'EPOP, evidently a later correction to restore syntax. Weiss recognizes redactor's additions in 39a, 4Th, 43b; Spitta and Jiingst in 36-43. Patch￾work, then, certainly. Note furthermore the word oLfi'MEP; This may of course be
rendered "went about," but "went through" is the more natural, frequent, nearlying meaning, and it is repeatedly used in Basilides of the progress through the
Cosmos. In the sense "went about" it is not used in profane Greek, though used
of a report ( M")'os) by Thucydides and Xenophon; nor indeed without any limitation is it used even by Luke of a single person. In Acts 84 it is used of the numerous disciples that otijAOov, some this way, some that; in Acts 2025 EP ols limits OtijAOov, so that the bare phrase o,ijAOEv EUEp")'ETWJI is highly improbable.

(my bold)

The copy and paste from pdf don't allow to show correctly the Greek quotes. But at least I know now where to search for an explanation. The thesis is clear: that Acts is giving an euhemerized version of a mythical action of Jesus done in heaven.

[Giuseppe]

The very conservative Christian scholar James Dunn writes (I am translating from an Italian translation made by a fool Christian apologist of my knowledge):

"This representation of Jesus' ministry is unique in the speeches of Acts and presents several signs of very ancient tradition.
(1) It is particularly remarkable that the beginning of the gospel is linked to the Baptist (cf. Acts 1:22; 13:24). Almost certainly we see here already fixed what will be the traditional format of the gospel, as we find it later in Mark.
(2) Jesus is indicated as "that of Nazareth", still needing to be better identified in the absence of a title of greater weight.
(3) God anointed him with the Spirit and with power. He is presented as an inspired prophet, with a scriptural echo of Isaiah 61,1. Luke made much use of this passage for the composition of his gospel (cf. Lk 4:17-21), but the allusion was already implicit in the traditions from which he had been able to draw, and could indeed reflect Jesus' own self-understanding (cf. Lk 6:20; 7:22).
(4) Jesus' therapeutic ministry is described in a sober way (beneficial actions and exorcisms), attributing its success to the fact that "God was with him". (cf. Acts 2:22; 7:9). This is the kind of description that could have come from the mouth of any sympathetic observer of Jesus' ministry".

(James D.G. Dunn, The Acts of the Apostles, Epworth Press, Peterborough, 1996, p. 143, my bold)

Now I quote better the original William B. Smith's words above again:

A few lines further on we find an idea frequent and central with Basilides, of "all the Sonship, that left behind to benefit the souls in Formlessness and to be benefited" (εἰς τὸ εὐεργετεῖν τὰς ψυχὰς ἐν ἀμορφία καὶ εὐεργετεῖσθαι). Here is suggested a remarkable phrase standing quite isolated in Acts 10:38, "who went through benefiting" (ὃς διῆλθεν εὐεργετῶν). It is well known that this whole passage, verses 35-39, is an inextricable tangle. Verses 34-35 are not continued either in thought or in structure by verse 36; τὸν λόγον is without any governing word or relation; "He is Lord of all" is clearly an interpolated parenthesis ; verse 37 has no grammatical connection with verse 36; the participle ἀρξάμενος hangs in the air without any possible attachment; in verse 38Ἰησοῦν τὸν ἀπὸ Ναζαρέτ is also
asyntactic, nothing governs it in the accusative and it is a pis alter to refer it to ῤῆμα (word) by apposition. The theme announced in verses 34-35 is never heard or hinted again in the speech! That any one could have thought or spoken or written so originally is incredible. The text is at best very uncertain: βλασκήρυγμα for βάπτισμα etc. The paragraph is intelligible only and easily as rather rough patchwork, in which edifying phrases are tacked together with little respect for grammar or logic. Such a phrase seems to be this "who traversed benefiting." We note it follows immediately upon the phrase "how God annointed him with Holy Spirit and power." Here then we find a whole group of Basilidian ideas, and the resemblance can hardly be accidental. In Basilides these ideas are all in place and naturaiiy connected; in Acts we have just seen that they are part of a patchwork.
The conclusion seems hard to resist that Acts has borrowed from some ancient source also represented in Basilides. Wendt declares ἀρξάμενος "grammatisch unmoglich" and adopts ἀρξάμενον, evidently a later correction to restore syntax. Weiss recognizes redactor's additions in 39a, 4Th, 43b; Spitta and Jiingst in 36-43. Patchwork, then, certainly. Note furthermore the word διῆλθεν This may of course be rendered "went about," but "went through" is the more natural, frequent, nearlying meaning, and it is repeatedly used in Basilides of the progress through the Cosmos. In the sense "went about" it is not used in profane Greek, though used of a report (λόγος) by Thucydides and Xenophon; nor indeed without any limitation is it used even by Luke of a single person. In Acts 8:4 it is used of the numerous disciples that διῆλθον, some this way, some that; in Acts 20:25 ἐν οἷς limits διῆλθον, so that the bare phrase διῆλθεν εὐεργετῶν is highly improbable.

(my bold)

...paraphrasing Jim Dunn:

This is the kind of description that could have come from the mouth of any sympathetic observer of Jesus' ministry".

I may well say:

This is the kind of description that could have come from the mouth of any banal euhemerizer of a previous mythological story about Jesus".

[Giuseppe]

The reason I can't interpret the first gospel (beyond of what it was) as an allegory of Israel (et similia) is that the notion of a "descent benefiting" (ending obviously with a celestial death) through the lower heavens is totally unrelated, in Basilides, to the idea of a 'going through' the country of Galilee.

Sic et simpliciter.