Numenius
Numenius
(), son of Antiochus, was sent by Jonathan on an embassy to Rome (1Ma 12:16) and Sparta (12:17) to renew the friendly connections between these nations and the Jews, B.C. cir. 144. It appears that he had not returned from his mission at the death of Jonathan (14:22, 23). He was again despatched to Rome by Simon, B.C. cir. 141 (14:24), where he was well received, and obtained letters in favor of his countrymen, addressed to the various Eastern powers dependent on the republic, B.C. 139 (15:15 sq.). See Lucius.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Numenius (2)
() OF APAMEA, in Syria, a Greek philosopher who lived in the second half of the 2d century A.D., was one of the first philosophers who attempted to reconcile the Greek schools with the Oriental doctrines, a conciliation previously undertaken by Philo, and later by Plotinus. The personal history of Numenius is unknown, but it appears that he acquired a great reputation, and we often find him quoted with Cronius by the Neoplatonic philosophers as one of the chiefs of the new school. Nothing precise is known as to the opinions of Cronius; those of Numenius are better known. Numerous fragments of his works, quoted by Origen, Theodoret, and Eusebius, show the essential features of his philosophy. He professed much respect for the Oriental religions and doctrines. including Judaism and Christianity. I know, says Origen, that the Pythagorean Numenius, who has explained Plato, and who was so well versed in the philosophy of Pythagoras, quotes in many places of his works passages from Moses and the prophets, and he skillfully discovers the hidden meaning. He has done this in his work entitled Epops, in his book upon Numbers, and in his treatise upon Space. Much more, in his third book Of the Supreme Good’ he quotes a fragment from the history of Jesus Christ, of which he seeks the hidden interpretation. In his eclecticism, more fervent than enlightened, Numenius endeavored to bring back Plato, whom he calls an Attic Moses, to Pythagoras, and Pythagoras himself to the wise men of the East, so that the Platonico-Pythagorean philosophy, the true Greek philosophy, restored to its original purity, and freed from the interpolations of Aristotle and the Stoics, is identical with the dogmas and mysteries of the Brahmin, the Jews, Magi, and Egyptians. He sustained this proposition in a treatise entitled , and in .
Many fragments remain of this treatise, which give a poor idea of it. An erudition without criticism is found in it, many stories, and no discussions at all truly philosophic. His treatise is better. He endeavored to demonstrate in it, in opposition to the Stoics, that life can neither issue from the elements, which are in a perpetual state-of change and transition, nor from matter, which is movable, inanimate, and which is not in itself an object of intelligence; on the contrary, life, in order to be capable of resisting the principle of death which is in matter, must be incorporeal and immutable, eternally present, independent of time, simple, and unable to experience modifications, either by its own will or by the will of other beings. Life is, then, a spiritual principle () identical with the first God,; who exists in himself and through himself, and who is the sovereign good ( ). But as this absolute and immutable principle cannot be active and creative, it is necessary to admit a second God ( , ) proceeding from the first, who, as bond and author of matter, communicates his energy to the intellectual essences, and infuses his spirit through all creatures.
This second God contemplates the first ( ), and it is upon the ideas that he sees in the sovereign good that he arranges the world. The first God communicates his ideas to the second, without depriving himself of them, the same as we communicate our knowledge () to another without losing anything. We see that Numenius attributes to his second God a double duty: first, to contemplate the ideal; secondly, to arrange the world upon this ideal. This duality of functions led the philosopher to double his second God, and he thus obtained a Trinity. The connections between these two Gods, which are at the same time two and one, are not clearly established in the fragments which remain to us of Numenius. As for his theories upon the soul, they are still more uncertain; but the little that we know of them shows that in his psychology, as in his metaphysics, Numenius confounded the theories of Plato with the Oriental theories, accorded very little place to scientific investigation, and delivered himself too much to his own imagination. See Suidas, s.v. , ; Porphyry, Vita Plotini; Eusebius, Praeparatio evangelica; Origen, Adv. Celsum; Ritter, Gesch. der altenz Philos. 4:427, etc.; Kingsley, Philos. of Alexandria, p. 94 sq.; Simon, Hist. de Ecole d’Alexandrie; Vacherot, Hist. de l’Ecole d’Alexaindrie; Dictionnaire des Sciences Philosophiquees; Ueberweg, Hist. Philos. 1:234, 237 sq.; Smith, Dict. of Class. Biog. s.v.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Numenius
NUMENIUS.One of an embassy sent (c [Note: circa, about.] . b.c. 144) by the Jews to Rome and Sparta (1Ma 12:1-18). He visited Rome on a similar errand a few years later (1Ma 14:24; 1Ma 15:15-24).
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Numenius
nu-meni-us (, Noumenios): The son of Antiochus, and Antipater were the two ambassadors whom Jonathan sent to the Romans, to the Spartans, and to other places, after his victory in the plain of Hazor (Galilee) over the princes of Demetrius (1 Macc 12:1 ff) about 144 BC. Their mission was to confirm and renew the friendship and treaty which had existed from the days of Judas (1 Macc 8:17 ff). They were well received and successful, both at Rome (1 Macc 12:3 f) and at Sparta (1 Macc 12:19 ff; 14:22 f). After the death of Jonathan, the victories of Simon and the establishment of peace, Simon sent Numenius on a second embassy to Rome (1 Macc 14:24), again to confirm the treaty and present a golden shield weighing 1,000 minae – apparently just before the popular decree by which Simon was created high priest, leader and captain for ever (1 Macc 14:27 ff), September, 141 BC. The embassy returned in 139 BC, bearing letters from the senate to the kings of Egypt, Syria and all the countries, confirming the integrity of Jewish territory, and forbidding these kings to disturb the Jews, and requiring them also to surrender any deserters (1 Macc 14:15 ff). See also LUCIUS; Schurer, Gesch. des judischen Volkes (3rd and 4th editions), I, 236, 250 f.