La questione escatologica fra controversie origeniste e polemica antigiudaica

In Cyril of Scythopolis’ Life of Sabas, the resurgence of the Origenist controversy in the sixth century is connected to the re-emergence of heterodox doctrines, including those of the Manichaeans and the Jews. The themes for which such an approach could be understood, albeit in a strongly polemical and distorting view, are the pre-existence of souls, and mostly the refusal of a complete fleshly resurrection. For the latter, the Christian anti-Origenist tradition developed a comparison with two specific Jewish communities: the Sadducees and the Samaritans. Their eschatological doctrines were uncertainly known to Christians, which perhaps explains such rather hasty appraisals. However, it is significant that the overlap of polemical tools and rhetorical strategies against the Origenists and against the Samaritans in the 6th century may be appreciated as evidence of a spreading anxiety, probably due to the perception of an encirclement against Orthodox Christianity.