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Written in
Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...
in the late seventh century, the ''Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius'' shaped and influenced Christian eschatological thinking in the Middle Ages.Griffith (2008), p. 34.Debié (2005) p. 228.Alexander (1985) p. 13.Jackson (2001) p. 348. Falsely attributed to
Methodius of Olympus Saint Methodius of Olympus ( el, Μεθόδιος) (died c. 311) was an early Christian bishop, ecclesiastical author, and martyr. Today, he is honored as a saint and Church Father; the Catholic Church commemorates his feast on June 20. Life F ...
,Alexander (1985) p. 15. a fourth century Church Father, the work attempts to make sense of the Islamic conquest of the Near East.Ballard (2011) p. 51. The ''Apocalypse'' is noted for incorporating numerous aspects of Christian eschatology such as the invasion of
Gog and Magog Gog and Magog (; he, גּוֹג וּמָגוֹג, ''Gōg ū-Māgōg'') appear in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran as individuals, tribes, or lands. In Ezekiel 38, Gog is an individual and Magog is his land; in Genesis 10, Magog is a man and ep ...
, the rise of the
Antichrist In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist refers to people prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus Christ and substitute themselves in Christ's place before the Second Coming. The term Antichrist (including one plural form)1 John ; . 2 John . ...
, and the tribulations that precede the end of the world. The book, however, adds a new element to Christian eschatology: the rise of a messianic Roman emperor. This element would remain in Christian apocalyptic literature until the end of the
medieval period In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
. The book was early translated into Greek, Latin, Coptic, Armenian and later into Slavonic.


Authorship and location

The ''Apocalypse'' is attributed to Methodius of Olympus in the Syriac text,Griffith (2008) p. 33. of Patara in the Greek, both of whom lived in the fourth century.Louth (2010) p. 247. In all likelihood, however, the text was written in the final decade of the seventh century, after 692, by a
Miaphysite Miaphysitism is the Christological doctrine that holds Jesus, the " Incarnate Word, is fully divine and fully human, in one 'nature' ('' physis'')." It is a position held by the Oriental Orthodox Churches and differs from the Chalcedonian posi ...
Christian, hence the moniker of Pseudo-Methodius.Penn (2015) p. 108 Scholars have argued that the work was written as a contemporary to the Arab Conquests in response to the hardships faced by Christians and widespread apostasy to avoid the ''
jizya Jizya ( ar, جِزْيَة / ) is a per capita yearly taxation historically levied in the form of financial charge on dhimmis, that is, permanent non-Muslim subjects of a state governed by Islamic law. The jizya tax has been understood in ...
'' head tax. As well, the author sees the invasion occurring as punishment from God.Griffith (2008) p. 32.Griffith (2010) p. 201.Guenther (2007) p. 371. The text, therefore, employs historiography, geography, and apocalyptic prophecy. The text was originally written in Syriac in Northern Syria. The author claims to have had his vision on
Mount Sinjar The Sinjar Mountains ( ku, چیایێ شنگالێ, translit=Çiyayê Şingalê, ar, جبل سنجار, translit=Jabal Sinjār, syr, ܛܘܪܐ ܕܫܝܓܪ, Ṭura d'Shingar,) are a mountain range that runs east to west, rising above the surroundi ...
. Early scholarship, however, lacked the original Syriac text, and so relied heavily on Greek, Latin, and Slavonic texts for study. In 1897, the scholar V. Istrin relied heavily on the Greek text and at the same time, and independently, Sackur studied the oldest Latin translations. Both of these studies ushered in the scholarly study of the ''Apocalypse'', but it was not until 1931 that the original Syriac manuscript was discovered. With this find, Michael Kmosko was able to ascertain that original ''Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius'' to have been written in the Syriac language.


Content

The ''Apocalypse'' is indebted to earlier Syriac works, including the ''
Cave of Treasures The ''Cave of Treasures'' (Syriac ''M'drāth Gazzē'', Arabic ''Maghārat al-Kunūz'', Ge'ez ''Baʿāta Mazāgebet'' Tigrinya መዝገብ ገዛ ) sometimes referred to simply as ''The Treasure'', is an apocryphal and pseudoepigraphical work, th ...
'', the ''
Julian Romance The ''Julian Romance'' is fictionalized prose account of the reign of the Roman emperor Julian the Apostate. It was written sometime between Julian's death in 363 and the copying of the oldest known manuscript in the sixth century. It does not su ...
'' and the Syriac version of the '' Alexander Romance''. The ''Apocalypse'' begins with a history of the world, starting with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, through to the Muslim conquests, and into the end-times. One notable feature about the work is the presence of sexuality with regards to Christian behavior in the end days—specifically discussing swinging, homosexuality, and cross-dressing as indicators of a sinful society.Garstad (2012), p. 39 et seq. It is only then that the text says the "sons of
Ishmael Ishmael ''Ismaḗl''; Classical/Qur'anic Arabic: إِسْمَٰعِيْل; Modern Standard Arabic: إِسْمَاعِيْل ''ʾIsmāʿīl''; la, Ismael was the first son of Abraham, the common patriarch of the Abrahamic religions; and is cons ...
", that is Muslims, will emerge from the desert of Ethribus to inflict God's punishment upon the Christians who "slipped into depravity". The ''Apocalypse'' also recounts the events that took place at the hands of Muslims in the previous decades.Ballard (2011) p. 52. In invoking figures in other Christian eschatological literature, such as Gog and Magog, Pseudo-Methodius attempts to legitimize his place as a fourth century Church Father.Jackson (2001) p. 353. The manuscript also notes the rise of an Emperor-Saviour figure, echoing the fourth century AD prophecy attributed to the legendary
Tiburtine Sibyl The Tiburtine Sibyl or Albunea was a Roman sibyl, whose seat was the ancient Etruscan town of Tibur (modern Tivoli). The mythic meeting of Cæsar Augustus with the Sibyl, of whom he inquired whether he should be worshiped as a god, was of ...
.Alexander (1985) p. 152. This Roman emperor will save the Christian lands from "the sons of Ishmael", place his crown upon the cross "for the sake of the common salvation of all" thereby saving Christendom as a whole.Debié (2005) p. 65. The work is notable for its vivid description and brutality. Descriptions of drinking the blood of cattle,Garstad (2012) p. 15. stabbing pregnant women, and feeding babies to animalsGarstad (2012) p. 47. permeate throughout the author's work. Ballard notes, however, that Pseudo-Methodius deviates from previous eschatological literature, such as ''Revelation'', in that the ''Apocalypse'' utilizes Roman emperors as agents of change. Guenther notes that Pseudo-Methodius was influenced by the books ''Revelation'' and ''Daniel'', maintaining the lineage of Christian literature. This is an important feature as it shows the author was most likely a Christian cleric and was familiar with past Christian writings. By introducing new features into Christian literature while keeping core Christian beliefs and teachings intact helped to make the ''Apocalypse'' accessible to the laity, as well. Part of the ''Apocalypse'' influence is attributed to its ability to reflect the beliefs of
Eastern Roman The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
citizens; they are merely acting out foretold events, and mankind is bound with the fate of the empire and the capital.Shepard (2010) p. 7.


Historical context

Rome and
Sassanid Persia The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...
had been at war with one another for much of the first quarter of the seventh century. With both empires still feeling the effects of such a long series of battles, an Arab threat took advantage of the weakening empires. The Persians faced defeat west of the Euphrates in Qadisiyya in what Griffith calls "the beginning of the demise of both Roman and Persian rule for good".Griffith (2008) p. 23. This demise would continue throughout the 630s and 640s, as the Arabs conquered much of the Middle East and the Mediterranean world. In 635, Damascus fell, Jerusalem and Antioch followed in 637, Edessa in 640, Alexandria in 642, and Seleucia/Ctesiphon in 645. Three out of the five patriarchates of Roman Christendom were under Arab Muslim rule.Griffith (2008) p. 24. In 674, the
Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...
Caliph Muawiyah launched a land and sea assault on Constantinople. Within three years he was defeated and turned his attention on the rest of the surviving Roman Empire, namely the Middle East, Greece, and the Balkans. As Ballard notes, Constantinople was "reduced to a small Christian enclave within an ocean of Islam." A campaign by the new Muslim rulers was set in place in order to remove any public display of Christian symbolism through building Islamic-styled buildings and issuing coins declaring an Islamic triumph. The most dramatic of such constructions was the
Dome of the Rock The Dome of the Rock ( ar, قبة الصخرة, Qubbat aṣ-Ṣakhra) is an Islamic shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, a site also known to Muslims as the ''al-Haram al-Sharif'' or the Al-Aqsa Compound. Its initial ...
in Jerusalem.Griffith (2010) p. 200. The inscriptions on the Dome of the Rock are taken from the Quran and "proclaim the arrival of a powerful empire that was founded on pure monotheist belief." This, as Ballard and Griffith both note, was in response to Christians believing in the
trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...
, and their supposed worship of the Virgin Mary and the Saints something that Muslims saw as polytheistic. To defend themselves and without any real power or authority, Christians turned to writing. The hardships Christians faced in a Muslim territory caused a "literary awakening", and the earliest of these texts were written in Syriac, Greek, and Arabic. Syriac writers in particular reacted to their world in apocalyptic terms – the fall of their Christian empire was continuing with each Muslim conquest and Syriac writers saw these conquests as a punishment from God. The most well-known of these texts was the ''Apocalypse'' attributed to Pseudo-Methodius.


Translations

By the early 8th century, the ''Apocalypse'' was translated into Greek and then from Greek into Latin. The earliest Latin witness is a codex dated to 727. There are three other Latin manuscripts from the 8th century.Bonura (2016) pp. 263–264 The Latin translation was made by a certain Petrus Monachus in
Francia Francia, also called the Kingdom of the Franks ( la, Regnum Francorum), Frankish Kingdom, Frankland or Frankish Empire ( la, Imperium Francorum), was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks du ...
.Pollard (2010) p. 27. There was also seemingly a Coptic translation by the 8th century, known only from a fragment on papyrus.Bonura (2016) p. 266 All the Greek and Syriac manuscripts, however, are late. There are over 100 Greek copies, but most of them post-date 1453. There are few Syriac manuscripts and many are fragmentary. The best text is from 1586, although there are earlier references found in the 13th-century '' Book of the Bee''. An Armenian translation from the Greek is known from various quotation in Armenian works, but no copy survives. This translation is attributed to Step'anos of Siwnik'.Bonura (2016) p. 267 The Greek text of the ''Apocalypse'' is traditionally divided into four
recension Recension is the practice of editing or revising a text based on critical analysis. When referring to manuscripts, this may be a revision by another author. The term is derived from Latin ''recensio'' ("review, analysis"). In textual criticism (as ...
s called G1, G2, G3 and G4, with G1 subdivided into G1a, G1b and G1c.Cross (1929) pp. 331–332 The Latin and Slavonic translations are both based on G1. The Slavonic versions are divided between three recensions, a Serbian (S1), a Bulgarian (S2) and a Russian (S3). The earliest Slavonic manuscript is of the 12th century. There are four Latin recensions found across about 220 manuscripts. The first and second recensions account for about 50 and 150 manuscripts, respectively.Grifoni and Gantner (2020) p. 198 The second and third Latin recensions are heavily abridged.


Spread and influence

The ''Apocalypse'' marks the end of antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages because of its style and influence. The document was frequently copied and readapted in order to fit the cataclysmic events that occurred in a particular area. The spread and influence of the ''Apocalypse'' was so far reaching that during the
Mongol invasions The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire: the Mongol Empire (1206-1368), which by 1300 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastation ...
of the 13th century, Russian Christians invoked the work of Pseudo-Methodius in order to explain the onslaught by using the historical and geographical explanations found within the text. As well, Christians believed Pseudo-Methodius had predicted the Mongols' arrival because of their lifestyle, dietary habits, and activities. However, Pelle notes the ''Apocalypse'' was not popular in England before the Norman Conquests, despite the popularity of other eschatological literature. Of the almost twenty-four pre-twelfth century Latin manuscripts, only two were in English and none were from before 1075. With the invasion of England by the Normans, however, one of the earliest English texts to explain the invasion of "heathens" on a Christian land included the ''Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius''.Pelle (2009) p. 325. The ''Apocalypse'' was invoked by Christians throughout the centuries in order to explain the turmoil they faced in their respective time and place. As well, it shaped Western Christendom's view of Islam through the Middle Ages because of various re-adaptions and translations. With the fall of more Christian cities from the fourteenth century onwards, along with Constantinople in 1453, the ''Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius'' was invoked once again.


Modern use

Griffith notes, because of questions surrounding the historicity of the ''Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius'', it is easy to dismiss the piece outright. However, for the historian the ''Apocalypse'' sheds a light on the environment of the age and therefore the literature is still relevant. Furthermore, the literature is important because of the anonymity of its author. In a sense, this anonymity lends a sense of "underground literature".Griffith (2008) p. 39. Furthermore, the ''Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius'' allowed the population, regardless of locale, to maintain a "sense of seemingly rightful superiority" despite evidence to the contrary.


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Authority control Pseudo-Methodius, Apocalypse of 7th-century Christian texts Christian apocalyptic writings Apocryphal revelations Pseudepigraphy Historiography of the early Muslim conquests Arab–Byzantine wars