Una peculiarità esegetica del cristianesimo romano precostantiniano: i “racconti” di Daniele nella 1Clementis e nella produzione figurativa

Abstract

The objective of the paper is the reconstruction of the circulation of Book of Daniel’s “tales” (in particular chapters 3,6 and 14) in the specific context of ancient Christianity of western and signally roman community. Through a methodological perspective which revaluates both the role of iconography as historical source, and the efficacy of a multidisciplinary approach to the problem of Dn’s reception, the analysis has been conducted starting from the evidences provided by chapter 45 of 1Clementis and considering paleochristian plastic production, in particular Pisa’s sarcophagus. The reception of “tales” in both categories of sources demonstrated to be grounded on the exegetic technique of “typology”, which aims at connecting the experience of biblical protagonists to the one of coeval communities’ exponents. In the case of Clement’s epistle, “martyrial” prerogatives and connotations are transferred from prototestamentary characters to presbiters deposed during the conflict of Corinth, who are interpreted as antitypes of “good ones exposed to persecutions”. The same “ecclesial exegesis” characterizing the so-called “westernlatin” Christianity - according to J. Danielou cathegory - is applied in iconography, where figurative subjects extracted from Book of Daniel are associated to portraits of dead, whose historical experience is “typologically” interpreted and theologically re-read in the light of Scriptures. The inspection further allowed to put in evidence the coexistence of difference hermeneutical techniques within the same document, both literary and iconographic: if, on one side, “typology” lives side by side with “parenesis” in Clement’s letter, on the other, “ecclesial typology” is seamlessly associated with “Christological one” in iconography.