The Phoenix as a Sign of the Resurrection

Chapter 25

1 Let us consider the marvelous sign⁠ that is seen in the regions of the east,⁠ that is, in the area around Arabia. 2 There is a bird called the phoenix.⁠ This bird, the only one of its kind, lives for five hundred years; and when it has reached the time of its end and must die, it makes itself a coffin of frankincense and myrrh and other spices, which it enters when the time is fulfilled, and so it dies. 3 But, as the flesh rots, a worm is produced, which is nourished by the moisture of the dead creature and grows wings.⁠ Then, when it has grown strong, it takes up the coffin that holds the bones of its parent, and carrying them it travels from the country of Arabia all the way to Egypt, to the place called the City of the Sun. 4 and in the daytime, in the sight of all, it flies to the altar of the Sun and lays them on it; and having done this, it sets out to return. 5 So the priests examine the records of the dates, and they find that it has come when the five hundredth year is completed.

Texts in conversation

Compare Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 25:1 and Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh 13

Early Christian

Summary

In 1 Clement, the author refers to the mythical phoenix, reborn from its own remains in Greek and Roman tradition, as a sign that God can raise the dead. The Christian theologian Tertullian uses the same tradition as his strongest proof of resurrection.

Passages

Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 25:1

Early Christian · First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

1 Let us consider the marvelous sign that is seen in the regions of the east, that is, in the area around Arabia. 2 There is a bird called the phoenix. This bird, the only one of its kind, lives for five hundred years; and when it has reached the time of its end and must die, it makes itself a coffin of frankincense and myrrh and other spices, which it enters when the time is fulfilled, and so it dies. 3 But, as the flesh rots, a worm is produced, which is nourished by the moisture of the dead creature and grows wings. Then, when it has grown strong, it takes up the coffin that holds the bones of its parent, and carrying them it travels from the country of Arabia all the way to Egypt, to the place called the City of the Sun.

90–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Clement of Rome, 1 Clement

Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh 13

Early Christian

If the universe is too slight a figure of the resurrection, if creation signifies nothing of the kind, because its several parts are said not so much to die as to cease, and are thought not to be revived but reshaped, take the fullest and strongest example of this hope, since it is a living thing, subject both to life and to death. I mean that bird found only in the East, famous for its uniqueness, prodigious in its posterity, which willingly makes its own funeral and so renews itself, departing and succeeding itself at an end that is a birthday: again a phoenix where there is none any more, again itself which is no longer, another and the same.

205–215 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh

References

“... The first known example of a Christian use of the Phoenix motif is found in 1 Clement. In an argument that serves to enhance the probability of the resurrection of the dead Clement refers to the Phoenix bird. God has in different ways given signs that signify the resurrection. [...] The Phoenix is another wondrous sign pointing towards the resurrection. [...] In analogy with Clement Tertullian also exploits it as a symbol of resurrection. If the interchange of day and night and the alternation of the seasons do not represent a satisfactorily convincing argument because they symbolise cessation of being and not dying, renewal and not resuscitation, the gentile will have to accept the Phoenix as an indisputable proof of the hope of the resurrection. [...] Both Clement and Tertullian endorse Phoenix as a powerful symbol that enables them to render the idea of the resurrection probable. ...”

Anders Klostergaard Petersen, “Between Old and New: The Problem of Acculturation Illustrated by the Early Christian Use of the Phoenix Motif,” in Jerusalem, Alexandria, Rome: Studies in Ancient Cultural Interaction in Honour of A. Hilhorst, ed. Florentino García Martínez and Gerard P. Luttikhuizen, JSJSup 82 (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 161–162.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

The Phoenix as a Sign of the Resurrection

1 Clement65 chapters

Compare Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 25:1 and Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh 13

Summary

Passages

Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 25:1

Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh 13

References

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