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The Byzantine Apocalyptic Tradition PDF

253 Pages·1985·42.3 MB·English
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00 I ~AN 00 00 J. PAUL ALEXANDER 00 Edited by Dorothy JeE Abraham", 1HE APOCALYmC TRADmON J. PAUL ALEXANDER Dew.., br E 1"'-1 deF. Ah J J5J ' .. Im. ..... , .. ............ ' ' laof_·., .. -'O.ofn "u. . for F '1£, .. -.: .., ,1;'. .. +If, " WDlb ....c : ... onIr "'""''' Jp ,!pc ..... 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. opvr hIed IT lIa

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