A Prophecy of Empire : The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius from Late Antique Mesopotamia to the Global Medieval Imagination.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bonura, Christopher J.

Series:

Christianity in Late Antiquity Series

Christianity in Late Antiquity Series ; v.15

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (445 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, 2025.

Summary:

The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius was one of the medieval world's most popular and widely translated texts. Composed in Syriac in Mesopotamia in the seventh century, this supposed revelation presented a new, salvific role for the Roman Empire, whose last emperor, it prophesied, would help bring about the end of the ages. In this first book-length study of Pseudo-Methodius, Christopher J. Bonura uncovers the under-appreciated Syriac origins of this apocalyptic tract, revealing it as a remarkable response to political realities faced by Christians living under a new Islamic regime. Tracing the spread of Pseudo-Methodius from the early medieval Mediterranean to its dissemination via the printing presses of early modern Europe, Bonura then demonstrates how different cultures used this new vision of empire's role in the end times to reconfigure their own realities. The book also features a new, complete, and annotated English translation of the Syriac text of Pseudo-Methodius.

Contents:

Cover

Series Editors

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Note to the Reader

Abbreviations

Introduction. A Syriac Apocalyptic Tract on Political Theology

What is the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius?

Pseudo-Methodius and Political Theology

The Problem: Misunderstood Origins

Part One: Context

1. Plague, Taxation, and Conversion to Islam: Pseudo-Methodius's Date and Historical Context

The Arab Conquest as Context for Pseudo-Methodius?

The Second Fitna and the Devastation of Northern Mesopotamia

Umayyad Consolidation and Taxation after the Second Fitna

Dating by Weeks of Years

2. Far from Byzantium: The Author and the Literary Context of Pseudo-Methodius

The Place of Composition

The Christological and Ecclesiastic Background

Sources and Literary Influences

In Search of an Anonymous Author

3. The Prophecies of Daniel and Syriac Eschatology: The Context of Pseudo-Methodius's Political Theology

The Four Kingdoms in the Book of Daniel

Rome and the Fourth Beast

The Hippolytus-Jerome Interpretation

The Preterist Interpretation

Aphrahat's Interpretation

The Reception of Aphrahat's Eschatology

Daniel's Prophecies in the Late Seventh Century

Part Two: Content

4. The Historical Part: A History of God's Kingship and Daniel's Four Kingdoms

Nimrod, Yonaton, and the Prophetic Origins of Kingship

A Counter-Umayyad Message?

The Succession of the First Three Kingdoms

The Jews and the Three Gifts

The Four Beasts and the Four Winds

The Family Tree of the Kingdom of the Greeks

5. The Prophetic Part: The King of the Greeks, the Surrender of Power, and the End of the World

Previous Theories about the Surrender Scene

The Surrender of Kingship and Aphrahat's Fifth Demonstration

The Removal of the Katechon.

The Son of Perdition

Part Three: Reception

6. From Mesopotamia to Constantinople: The Syriac and Greek Reception of Pseudo-Methodius's Political Eschatology

The Syriac Reception

The Greek Translation and the Byzantine Reception

The Greek Redactions and Post-Byzantine Legacy

7. From Byzantium to the Orthodox Kingdoms: Pseudo-Methodius's Political Eschatology in the Non-Greek East

The Armenian Reception

The Egyptian and East African Reception

The Slavic Reception

8. From Merovingian Francia to Early Modern Empire: Pseudo-Methodius's Political Eschatology in the Latin West

The Latin Translation and the Latin Redactions

Pseudo-Methodius in the Early Medieval Latin West

A Ghibelline Apocalypse

Pseudo-Methodius and the Late Medieval Joachite Revolution

Pseudo-Methodius at the Dawn of the Reformation

The Habsburg Dynasty and the Fourth Monarchy Men

Conclusion. Pseudo-Methodius: The Unlikely Prophet of Christian Empire

Appendix A. Translation of the Syriac Pseudo-Methodius

Appendix B. Early Interpolations in the Greek Pseudo-Methodius

References

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-520-41826-3

9780520418264

OCLC:

1543207271