Francesca Minonne: Early Christians and the debate on a new τέχνη γραμματική

In a passage from the Refutation of All Heresies, attributed to the so-called western Hippolytus, the Gnostics were accused of being “the discoverers of a new art of grammar” (ἐφευρεταὶ καινῆς τέχνης γραμματικῆς). By speaking of a “new” – i.e. invented and technically groundless – grammar, the author discredited them as erroneous interpreters of the sacred texts. He also blamed them for deceiving the untrained people through their fallacious exegesis of the Scriptures. These accusations reveal the value the author of the Refutation attributed to grammar, as it was for him an important tool of textual exegesis. Interestingly, the idea of discovering “new arts”, that is new methods to trick the enemies or take advantage of the situation, occurs also in Athenaeus of Naucratis’ Deipnosophists and is attested in the more ancient poem commonly referred to as Batrachomyomachia. These parallels allow us to deduce also the meaning of the expression contained in the Refutation, in relation to the contemporary cultural context in which Christianity flourished. From this passage we can then reflect on the Christian exegetical tools and the cultural references of the debate between the Gnostics and the author of the Refutation.