The Byzantine Apocalyptic Tradition

253 Pages·1985·42.3 MB·English

by  Paul J. Alexander

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The Byzantine
Apocalyptic
Tradition
ThJ... one
Copyrighted material
The Byzantine
Apocalyptic
Tradition
J.
Paul Alexander
EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION lW
DOROTHY deF. ABRAHAMSE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley . Los Allgeles • LOl/doll
Univnsity of Californi" Press
Ilerkeley "nd Los Angeles, California
IJni\'er~ity of e .lifornia Press, Ltd.
L""don, Engl~01d
Cl 1985 by
Tbe Regent' of the lJnn'erSlty of Lahfornla
Printed in tbe Unilfd Sr:llt:$ of ,\mericI
I 2 J 4 5 6 789
Library of Congress Cataloging in I'ublic"tion Data
Alc~andcr, Paul Julius, 1910_197i
Tbe Byzantine apocalyptic tradition.
lndud~s b,bliograpbi~al [dcr~nccs.
I. Apo<:alyptic literature, 1. Chnstian lituafUre,
Byzantine, I. Abr .• hanl"'. Dormhy deF. 11. Title.
BS646.A43 1984 170.3 81·2.1816
ISIlN 0-520·04':198-5
;O\mklnted IT klrial
Contents
I ist of Abbrevjatjons vu
Inwxl.uction by Dorothy cleF. Abrahamse
PART ONE. TEXTS
I. The Syriac Apocalypse 0( Pseudo-Method ius 13
Appendix I: Three Usa of Regions (Pl'Oplcs) Ov~rrun by rhe
Arabs in {he Syriac Texr of Pstudo-Methodius 34
Appendix 2: Translation of (he Syria, Tcxt of Pseudo-
Merhodius from Cod. Vat. Sfr.:>8 36
11. The First Greek Rcdacrjoo of Pseudo-Metbodius 52
Ill. The ViJiom 01 Dafliel: Extant Texts 61
Tb!' Slavonic Danjd 62
Appendix: English Translation of Shn'om( Daniel 65
2. Pscudo-Chrysostom 72
3 Daniel Ko' iaT{u 77
IV. Visi()1Zf of Oanid Summarized by Liudprand of
Cremona 96
V. Three Conglomerate Texts 123
I. The Ajxxal)"/!u o(SI. A"J~IIxFool 123
2. The Cmlo ol/Ix T~uf Empmlr ( 'Anonymous Paraphrosc of
[he Omdf.5o[Uo") 13U
op nghted m na
vi I Contents
3. Pscudo-Ephracm 136
Appendix: Syria, Original of Pscudo-Ephracm 142
PART TWo THEMFS
I. The r~t Roman Emperor 1)1
11. Gog and Magog 185
Ill. The Legend of the Antichrist 193
Index 227
.0';:' 'ngntea IT ~nal
List of Abbreviations
BHC F. Halkin, Bibliothcca Hagiographica Gmeca. 3 vols. 3rd
cd. Subsidia Hagiographica, Sa-c. Brussels, 1957.
BZ ByzolltinisciJe Zeilschrift. Leipzig, 1892-.
CMH Cambridge Medieval History. Cambridge, England,
1913- . VoI. IV, 1966.
CSHB Corpus Scriptorum Hisloriae B),u21ltillac. Bonn,
1828-97.
CCS Die griechischen christlichcll Schriftsteller der erstcn drei
JahrhulIderte. Leipzig, 1897-,
MCH MOIlUmellfa Germalliae Historica. Hanover and Berlin,
1826-.
PC J. P. Migne, Patrologiae CUrs/IS Complcrlls; Series Graeco
La/ina. Paris, 1857- 66.
Thesaurtfs R. 1'3yne Smith, Thesaurus Syriacfls. London, 1901.
Syriaws
ngntea IT na
Introduction
by Dororhy deE Abrahamse
Throughout Christian hiswry, apocalyptic visions of the approaching
cnd of time have provided a pcrsistcm and l'nigmatic theme for history
and prophecy. The world of early Christianity and latc Judaism, as rc
cent scholars have emphasized, was permeated with the expectation of
an imminent Mcssianic drama; the Old and New Testaments, as well as
numerous cxtra·canonical works, testify to the pervasive belief that
God was about to end thc known political order,' Through prophetic
visions the believer might he prepared to recognize the signs of the im
pending cschatological drama in wars, famines, invasions, and other ex
traordinary political events. And although the immediacy of Mcssianic
expectation receded, it left its mark in a tradition of prophetic writing
th:n has surfaced again ::md again in times of tension and adversity.
By medieval times the belief in an imminent apocalypse had officially
been relegated to the role of symbolic theory by the Church; as early as
the fourth century, Augustine had declared that the Revelation of John
was to be interpreted symbolicallr rather than literally, and for most of
the Middle Ages Church councils and theologians considered only ab
stract eschatology to be acceptable speCUlation.' Since the nineteo.:nth
century, however, historians have recognized that literal apocalypses did
continue to circulate in the medieval world and th:n they played a fun
damental role in the creation of important strains of thought and leg-
t. Fur a survcy ul rcCcl1l "'ork,';"': Journal (or "fhrolagy mId 'he Church, \"01. 6, "Apoc
alypticism,"' cd. R"be" W. Funk, (196<;1); Inlerpreltllimr 25, 4 (I972) (~pecial i~~lIe de
voted lu apocal)'plic); and Bnn~rd "kG;"n, "Apacal)'plid~m in ,he Middle Ag.-s; An
HiSloriographical Sketch," Medieval 5'udiu 37 (1<;175), pp. 2:52:-86.
2. P~ul Alexandcr. "'The l\·j«lie,"al Legend of Ihe LaSI Roman Emperor and lIS Me~­
~ianic Origin,"' Jrmm .. 1 of the Wa,bu'g ami COII,/:",Id Ins/;/"t,·s, 41 (1')78), p. u.
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