John of Caesarea, also called John the Grammarian, was a sixth-century

Byzantine 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 ...

priest and theologian. His biography is unknown, nor is the origin of his name, either

Caesarea Palaestina Caesarea Maritima (; Greek: ''Parálios Kaisáreia''), formerly Strato's Tower, also known as Caesarea Palestinae, was an ancient city in the Sharon plain on the coast of the Mediterranean, now in ruins and included in an Israeli national park ...

Caesarea Mazaca Caesarea ( /ˌsɛzəˈriːə, ˌsɛsəˈriːə, ˌsiːzəˈriːə/; el, Καισάρεια, Kaisareia) also known historically as Mazaca ( el, Μάζακα) was an ancient city in what is now Kayseri, Turkey. In Hellenistic and Roman times, the ...

. He is usually considered the first Neo-Chalcedonian writer. He may be the same person as John the Orthodox, author of ''Dialogue with a Manichaean''.Kazhdan, "John of Caesarea". Between 514 and 518 John wrote his ''Apologia Concilii Chalcedonensis'', an apologetic for the

Council of Chalcedon The Council of Chalcedon (; la, Concilium Chalcedonense), ''Synodos tēs Chalkēdonos'' was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It was convoked by the Roman emperor Marcian. The council convened in the city of Chalcedon, Bith ...

, in which he tried to reconcile its ideas with those of

Cyril of Alexandria Cyril of Alexandria ( grc, Κύριλλος Ἀλεξανδρείας; cop, Ⲡⲁⲡⲁ Ⲕⲩⲣⲓⲗⲗⲟⲩ ⲁ̅ also ⲡⲓ̀ⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ Ⲕⲓⲣⲓⲗⲗⲟⲥ; 376 – 444) was the Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444 ...

and criticised the position of

Severus of Antioch Severus the Great of Antioch (Greek: Σεβῆρος; syr, ܣܘܝܪܝܘܣ ܕܐܢܛܝܘܟܝܐ), also known as Severus of Gaza or Crown of Syrians (Syriac: ܬܓܐ ܕܣܘܪܝܥܝܐ; Tagha d'Suryoye; Arabic: تاج السوريين; Taj al-Suriyyun ...

. Against

monophysitism Monophysitism ( or ) or monophysism () is a Christological term derived from the Greek (, "alone, solitary") and (, a word that has many meanings but in this context means "nature"). It is defined as "a doctrine that in the person of the incarn ...

, John put forward the " characteristic hypostasis" of Christ, whereby the human and divine natures were uniquely united in one person. Severus responded with a ''Refutation'', which survives only 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 ...

. John's other works include tracts and sermons against the doctrines of the

Akephaloi In church history, the term ' (from Ancient Greek: ', "headless", singular ' from ', "without", and ', "head") has been applied to several sects that supposedly had no leader. E. Cobham Brewer wrote, in ''Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fa ...

, the

Aphthartodocetae The Aphthartodocetae (Greek , from ἄφθαρτος, ''aphthartos'', "incorruptible" and δοκεῖν, ''dokein'', "to seem"), also called Julianists or Phantasiasts by their opponents, were members of a 6th-century Non-Chalcedonian sect. Their l ...

and the

Manichaeans Manichaeism (; in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian prophet Mani (AD ...

, and an exegesis of the ''

Gospel of John The Gospel of John ( grc, Εὐαγγέλιον κατὰ Ἰωάννην, translit=Euangélion katà Iōánnēn) is the fourth of the four canonical gospels. It contains a highly schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "sig ...

''.

Notes

Sources

* Kazhdan, Alexander P. "John of Caesarea". ''The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'', ed. Alexander P. Kazhdan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Notes

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Further reading