'Sing psalms with understanding': Some reflections on Evagrius' use of Christos in the Scholia ad psalmos (original) (raw)

Is the Christology of Evagrius Ponticus to be determined by his apparent heterodoxy in the Kephalaia Gnostica or by his apparent orthodoxy in such works as the Scholia ad psalmos? This paper sets this question to one side, and begins with Evagrius' own injunction to his readers in De oratione 82, to 'sing psalms with understanding'. Evagrius' psalm-commentary would have been intended to provide the understanding to which he was calling his readers. Hence the purpose here is to allow the Scholia ad psalmos to speak for itself, independently of any questioning as to its precise relationship with the Kephalaia Gnostica, and to uncover the Christ whom Evagrius was commending in its teaching to those for whom psalmody was a way of life. This paper will briefly outline Evagrius' extensive use of the title Χριστός throughout the