Scrinium, volume 12, Ethiopians and the Others: Cultures of the Christian Orient in the Middle Ages (2016).
CONENTS INCLUDE
“Angels in the Guise of Saints”: A Syrian Tradition in Constantinople
Vladimir Baranov
The article reconstructs the doctrine of Byzantine Iconoclasts on the postmortem inactivity of saints, and finds its background in the early Antiochean and Syrian doctrine on the “sleep of souls,” which occurs in Isaac the Syrian among many other writers.
On the Dating of the Ethiopian Dynastic Treatise Kǝbrä nägäśt: New Evidence
Serge A. Frantsouzoff
The present article argues the garbled text of the Lev. 18:8 as found in the Ethiopian dynastic treatise Kǝbrä nägäśt to be intentional. It refers to the conflict between the King of Ethiopia ‘Amdä Ṣǝyon I (1314–1344) and the Däbrä Libanos monastic congregation. The author argues that the second half of that verse was deliberately changed in order to make the royal marriage of ‘Amdä Ṣǝyon I to a wife/concubine of his late father to be seen as the mother – son incest. The conflict took place in the 27th year of the reign of ‘Amdä Ṣǝyon I. The new interpretation of the Lev. 18:8 as appears in the Kǝbrä nägäśt allows to attribute the treatise rather precisely: the terminus ante quem non can be set from the beginning of the 40s of the 14th century AD, i.e. somewhere in the 1340s.
Joasaph II in an Unpublished List of the Metropolitans of the Ethiopian Church
Ekaterina V. Gusarova
This article introduces new information regarding the Metropolitan Joasaph II (III) (the years of his tenure were 1770–1803). Josaph II (III), the Coptic clergyman, was the head of the Ethiopian Church for 33 years. His service coincided with the initial stage of one of the most complicated period in the history of the Ethiopian Church. This period was marked by the almost complete collapse of the Christian kingdom on the Horn of Africa. The main source comprising these data is the hitherto unknown list of the Metropolitans of Ethiopia, which contains the unique data about Joasaph II. It was discovered in an unpublished manuscript of the monastery Däbrä Damo in the province of Tǝgray in northern Ethiopia and analyzed by the present author. The result of this analysis is obvious: a modern reader receives a trustworthy portrait of this ambitious person who, in spite of his efforts was not able to terminate the long-standing schism in the Ethiopian Church. His efforts, however, left fond memories of himself among his flock.
The Disputed Life of the Saintly Ethiopian Kings ʾAbrǝhā and ʾAṣbǝḥa
Susanne Hummel
The discovery of an Amharic document written by a church scholar from the monastery of Dimā Giyorgis in Eastern Goǧǧām (Ethiopia) throws fresh light on the circumstances and disputes behind the composition of the Life of the Ethiopian twin brother kings ʾAbrǝhā and ʾAṣbǝḥa, as well as on the Dǝrsāna ʿUrāʾel (‘Homily of Uriel’). The legendary characters of the Life and the events it narrates, along with its manuscript tradition, are analysed in detail. The Amharic ‘Dimā Document’ together with a royal letter concerning the Dǝrsāna ʿUrāʾel is edited with an annotated English translation.
An Archaic Jewish-Christian Liturgical Calendar in Abba Giyorgis of Sägla
Basil Lourié
Two difficult passages are analysed in the 26th homily of the book Mäṣḥafä Mǝśṭir by Abba Giyorgis of Sägla, which are dealing with transition from the Old Testament Jewish calendar to the Christian calendar with its veneration of Sunday. The Jewish calendar Abba Giyorgis kept in mind was similar to those of 1 Enoch or Jubilees. According to his understanding, the Christian Sunday was already implied in the Mosaic Law as the year of release, as he has demonstrated with calendrical caluculations.
The Old Chants for St. Gärima: New Evidence from Gärˁalta
Denis Nosnitsin
The article presents an old folio kept in the church of Däbrä Śaḥl (Gärˁalta, northern Ethiopia), one of a few other leaves, all originating from a codex dating to a period well before the mid–14thcentury. The codicological and palaeographical features reveal the antiquity of the fragment. The content of the folio is remarkable since it contains chants dedicated to St. Gärima (also known as Yǝsḥaq) which can be identified as the chants for the Saint from the Dǝggwa, the main Ethiopian chant book. In the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwaḥǝdo Church the feast of Gärima is celebrated on the 17th of Säne. By means of the fragment of Däbrä Śaḥl, the composition of the liturgical chants for Gärima can be dated to a time much prior to the mid-14th century. Moreover, both the chants and the 15th-century Acts of Gärima by Bishop Yoḥannǝs refer to a famous miracle worked by the Saint. This fact proves that the miraculous account, in whatever form, was in circulation prior to the mid-14th century.
The Epistles of Niketas Stethatos: The Data of the Georgian Version
Alexey Ostrovsky and Maia Raphava
Based on the known data of the Georgian version of Stethatos’s works and the new version of Epistle III, we can draw the following conclusions: 1. Niketas Stethatos created his trilogy and the epistles in the period between 1054 and 1080. He died between January 1080 and 1094. 2. At the very end of his life, Niketas became a hegumen of the Monastery of Stoudios, which is confirmed by the data of the Georgian version of his epistles, dated to the end of the eleventh century or the beginning of the twelfth century. The period, during which Niketas was a hegumen of the Stoudios had to have followed the period during which he wrote his trilogy and the epistles. Most probably it was a short period between January 1080 and his death. 3. The name of the addressee of Epistles V–IX was Basil. The name Gregory, found in the Greek version, is either his monastic name, or it is a result of some unexplained error. Based on the data that we can collect about the Sophist it is possible to raise a question whether Basil the Sophist could be identified with Basil protasekretis, one of the authors of epigrams to the Hymns of Symeon the New Theologian, edited by Niketas Stethatos.
The Newly Discovered Treatise on Patriarch Nikon in the Cultural and Historical Context of Its Epoch
Svetlana K. Sevastyanova
The newly discovered anonymous treatise on the deposed Patriarch Nikon (1652–1656, † 1681) belongs to the short-lived Russian seventeenth-century theological and political tradition inaugurated by Nikon himself, where the place of the Patriarch was considered as incomparably superior to that of any secular ruler including the tsar of the Muscovite Rus’. The written monuments of this tradition are rare and mostly include (rather little-known, too) works by Nikon. In the present treatise, the tsar is accused that he is the main culprit of all contemporary evils fallen on the Russian Church, whereas the so-called “schismatics” (the Old Believers – those who stood against Nikon’s Church reforms) are only a secondary target of anonymous author’s criticisms. The copying of such a dissident work would have become dangerous in the late 17th century under the first Russian Emperor Peter the Great. Therefore, its copy, the uniquely preserved one, was deliberately “concealed” within a manuscript collection of Nikon’s works.
Understanding Origen: The Genre(s) of the Gospels in Light of Ancient Greek Philology and Modern Genre Theory
Johan Berglund
The reflections of Origen of Alexandria (ca. 185–254 CE) concerning the nature of the New Testament Gospels may be better understood if viewed in relation to a scheme of standard introductory questions used by ancient Greek philologists in their commentaries on classical Greek literature. While this scheme did not include questions about the form or genre of the writings to be analyzed, Origen repeatedly added such reflections when he adapted the scheme in his commentaries on biblical writings. These reflections inform us of his expectations of the Gospels. Using a modern concept of genre as a system of expectations shared between author and reader, and frequently intended to shape the worldview of the readers, Origen’s views of the nature of the Gospels can be expressed as their simultaneous participation in two genres: Christian teaching and ancient historiography.
The Principle of Individuation in Contra Eunomium 2, 4 by Basil of Caesarea and Its Philosophical and Theological Context
Dmitry Biriukov
The article analyzes the context of describing the human being through the “concurrence of properties” in the Contra Eunomnium 2.4 of Basil of Caesarea and traces the links of this topic in Basil with the theories of individuation current in Antiquity. The continuity of Basil’s teaching of the concurrence in the analyzed passage with the On Prayer 24 of Origen, which reveals some Stoic connotations, is examined. At the same time, the article points to the difference between Basil’s and Origen’s conceptual frameworks. Two paradigms of understanding the material substratum in Basil – Platonic and Stoic – are identified. The article demonstrates the direct Stoic influence on the analyzed passage of Basil and specifies what it consisted of and why exactly Basil used the Stoic paradigm. Then, based on the place from the Apology of Eunomius, which Basil was refuting in his passage, the article reveals both the context of the passage and of the place in Eunomius in a wider setting of the doctrines of language elaborated in Antiquity.
A Brief History of Self-Reference Notion Implementation in Byzantium. Did the Byzantine Theologians and Scholars Formulate Russell’s Paradox?
Oksana Yu. Goncharko and Yuriy M. Romanenko
The article presents an overview of implementation of self-referential notions in the logical and theological texts of Byzantine scholars up to the 12th century. The commentaries on Porphyry’s and Aristotle’s theory of definition by John of Damascus, John Italus, and Theodore Prodromos are discussed. It is argued that the Byzantine scholars performed different original implementations of basic logical notions and discovered their self-referential property. The attention is paid to the five predicabilia notions of Porphyry and Aristotelian categories applications in logical, philosophical, and theological Byzantine texts. The authors conclude that the Byzantine solutions resemble some of the modern logical ideas of 20th century.
Between Tritheism and Sabellianism
Dirk Krausmüller
This article focuses on two confessions of faith, which were composed in the late eleventh century by the philosopher John Italos and by the monk Nicetas Stethatos. In-depth analysis of selected passages shows that the two men subscribed to a Trinitarian theology that could be considered heretical. They denied the existence of a common divine substance that could safeguard the oneness of God and instead emphasised the closeness of the hypostases to each other, which made it impossible for them to accord to the hypostases the distinguishing function that the Cappadocians had given them. Thus it can be argued that it was their Tritheism that pushed them towards a ‘Sabellian’ solution.
Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Gregory Thaumaturgus and the Conversion of Neocaesarea
Byron MacDougall
Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Gregory Thaumaturgus concludes with a scene describing how the people of Neocaesarea, while crowding together at a festival in the city’s theatre, bring a plague upon themselves by praying to their ancestral god. The prayer uttered by the citizens is itself a text from Isaiah in the Septuagint, and moreover a verse which Gregory of Nyssa expounds in one of his homilies. Gregory’s exegesis of that verse in the homily reveals the significance of the same verse’s appearance in the Life’s conversion narrative. In the Life, Gregory Thaumaturgus stops the plague, and his behavior evokes a subsequent verse from Isaiah with a soteriological meaning of its own. The account of the conversion of Neocaesarea, a scene which has otherwise puzzled commentators, is thus structured so that its people and Gregory Thaumaturgus together dramatize Isaiah’s prophecy of universal salvation as it was understood in Christian exegesis.
Identity in Difference: Substance and Nature in Leontius of Byzantium’s Writings
Shchukin
Dirk Krausmüller believes that Leontius of Byzantium in the first book of his early treatise Contra Nestorianos et Eutychianos supposes the singularity to include three elements: (1) unqualified substrate, (2) set of substantial idioms, and (3) set of hypostatic idioms. In my opinion, this structure looks a little different: (1) substance, which represents the universal without substantial and para-substantial features, (2) nature, which contemplated only with these features and (3) hypostasis. The different usage of the terms “substance” and “nature,” as well as the expressions like “communication by nature” and “junction by substance,” which have a completely distinct meaning, serves as a proof of this basically thesis. Nevertheless, the descriptive model of Contra Nestorianos et Eutychianos has been somewhat modified in a later treatise Solutio. Leontius of Byzantium suggests that the singularity should include (1) nature or substance in the meaning of species, (2) individual nature, which, besides the natural qualities, includes also the hypostatic ones, (3) hypostasis itself rendering being to the whole described construction. This transformation has been done due to different polemical purposes (?). Leontius of Byzantium tries to justify not the common character of nature, but the way the common nature takes being in the singularity.
Sur l’origine des sobriquets de Jean le Grammairien « Jannes » et « Sorcier »
Tatiana A. Sénina (nonne Kassia)
The nickname “Jannes” given by iconodules to the last iconoclastic patriarsh John the Grammarian sprang up already in 814–815. It was based on 2 Tim 3:8 and probably on an apocryphal work about the magicians Jannes and Jambres. Initially this nickname implied anything but John’s “corrupt mind.” As to the charges of sorcery against John and to the nickname “Sorcerer,” this is a result of the subsequent comprehension of the same sources and possibly of rumors about semi-occult experiment performed by John.
Caught in Transition: Liturgical Studies, Grand Narratives, and Methodologies of the Past and the Future
Arkadiy Avdokhin
The short paper offers a critical assessment of the historical method in the recent Liturgical Subjects by D. Krueger, and extends the discussion into wider reflections on methodology of the studies of Christian liturgy and how they reflect larger shifts in early Christian studies. It is argued that thinking in terms of ‘grand narratives’ and unchanging liturgical patterns is ultimately rooted in the academic agendas of the nineteenth century. It is also suggested that the quest for innovative approaches to liturgical research should account for both new methodologies introduced and the historical insights of traditional scholarship.
Temporality and a Metric for Created Natures in Gregory of Nyssa
Basil Lourié
The problem of time in Gregory of Nyssa has been reopened in several recent studies. After a review of these new solutions, the author proposes a more formalised approach taking into account our present knowledge of the logical properties of the infinite sets.
The Cosmology of John Damascene and Its Antique Context
Dmitry Biriukov
This article is devoted to the cosmology of John Damascene. The relevant ideas from antique geocentric teachings in cosmology and natural philosophy are summarized and the proximity of Damascene’s views to these teachings is assessed. My conclusion is that the cosmology presented in Damascene is the result of combining elements of Platonic, Aristotelian and Stoic teachings, with the Aristotelian elements tending to prevail. The idea of that Ptolemaic cosmology has an influence on the cosmology of John Damascene is rejected.
Notule sur une mystérieuse église byzantine de Kaouvi
Sergey Kim
The note offers a corrected reading of a Georgian colophon in Iviron, georg. 69, that R. P. Blake published in 1932. It is demonstrated that George the Athonite, its author, did not mention a Byzantine church of Kaouvi, as Blake had read. Several literary parallels from other texts connected to George are provided.
The Most Ancient Greek Manuscripts of the Ladder of John Climacus
Tatiana G. Popova
The Byzantine hand-written tradition of the Ladder of Divine Ascent has poorly been studied. The first step in this direction should be the systematic description of all surviving Greek manuscripts of this book. According to the counting of the author, not less than 511 Greek manuscripts from the eighth to the nineteenth century with text of the Ladder were kept. This article is dedicated to the 35 most ancient books, dated from 8th to 10th century. The most ancient Greek manuscripts of the Ladder are available in the libraries of not less than 8 countries (Italy, Greece, Egypt, Russia, England, Germany, France and Israel (Jerusalem).
Some Notes on the Life and Works of Maxim the Greek (Michael Trivolis, ca 1470 – Maksim Grek, 1555/1556)
Neža Zajc
The Old Church Slavonic language that Maxim the Greek used in his translated and original works was in many respects shaped by his theological views. Therefore, his specific use of the language was intentional.