User:Apaugasma

The following is merely meant as an explanation of my user name, for those who are interested. It is not a Wikipedia article, and it is not based on any sources other than my own investigations of historical philosophical texts. However, it does give a good picture of where my general interests lie, and on what kind of subjects you might find me contributing to Wikipedia.

For any queries, please feel free to contact me on my talk page.

Apaugasma (ἀπαύγασμα) is an ancient Greek word derived from apō (ἀπό, meaning "from") and augē (αὐγή, meaning, a.o., "sunlight", "bright light", "brightness", "gleam"; also, "dawn") or augazō (αὐγάζω, meaning, a.o., "illumine", "shine", "reflect"), combined with the suffix -ma, which denotes the result or the product of something. Thus, it means something along the lines of "a portion of bright light", "a shine of light" (cf. LSJ: "radiance", "effulgence", "light beaming from a luminous body"), or "reflection".

It is perhaps most famous for its appearance in Hebrews (second half of first century CE) 1:3 "He [sc. Christ] is the reflection [apaugasma] of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word [...]" (tr. NRSV).

However, it was first used in the apocryphal Bible book Wisdom of Solomon (c. 100 BCE – 100 CE) 7:26 "For she [sc. the world-creating Wisdom, Greek sophia] is a reflection [apaugasma] of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness" (tr. NRSV).

It was also used several times by the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BCE – c. 50 CE). See De specialibus legibus 4:123 "as for that which was breathed in [i.e., the breath of life in Genesis 2:7, which Philo identifies with the rational soul], it is clear that it was an ethereal spirit [aitherion pneuma], or if there be something better than an ethereal spirit, a portion of light [apaugasma] from the blessed and thrice-blessed nature" (my tr.). See also Philo, De opificio mundi 146 "[...] in what concerns the mind, every human being is intimately related to the divine Word [logos], having come into being as an impression, a detached particle [apospasma], a portion of light [apaugasma] from the blessed nature [...]" (my tr.). See also Philo, De plantatione 50.

All of this seems to originate in the Stoic idea that the human soul is a detached portion (Gr. apospasma) of the world-creating, divine, all-pervading, ethereal (i.e., very thin and fine, like the aethēr or "upper air"), and corporeal pneuma ("breath", "spirit"), or logos (a word with many meanings, such as "proportion", "ratio", "rational discourse", "reason", "word"). However, whereas in the Biblical sources this divine spirit (Wisdom, or Christ) is only granted to the pious, a kind of 'super-soul' only reserved for devout believers, Philo rather identifies it directly with the rational soul which God breathed into every human being.

This concept of a subtle but corporeal world-creating principle which is both the active cause informing all material things and the substance of the human soul was picked up by the Church Fathers and a range of late antique and medieval philosophers. It would be especially influential among those interested in alchemy and magical properties.