Greek Identity in the Sinai

doi:10.1017/9781108684620.015

Fourteen - Greek Identity in the Sinai

from III - Languages, Confessions, Empire

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 October 2024

Hieromonk Justin of Sinai

Edited by

Elizabeth S. Bolman ,

Scott Fitzgerald Johnson and

Jack Tannous

Show author details

Elizabeth S. Bolman: Affiliation:
Case Western Reserve University, Ohio
Scott Fitzgerald Johnson: Affiliation:
University of Oklahoma
Jack Tannous: Affiliation:
Princeton University, New Jersey

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Pilgrims to Sinai in the fourth century witnessed a flourishing monastic presence at the traditional sites of God’s revelations to the Prophets Moses and Elias. Sinai was an extension of the Holy Land. As such, it was also a part of the Greek speaking world. This is borne out by inscriptions dating from the sixth century, when the Emperor Justinian ordered the construction of a basilica and surrounding fortress walls. And yet, if Greek was the language of the Sinai monks at that time, it was not exclusively so, for Sinai was the destination of monks and pilgrims from the whole of Christendom. The history of the centuries immediately following must be reconstructed from the surviving documentary evidence. Manuscripts, icons, and the writings of Saints Hesychius and Philotheus testify to continuity at Sinai. It is especially in the basilica of Sinai that we can sense this continuity even today.

Keywords

Climacus Hesychius Philotheus τυποῦσθαι φωτεινογραφεῖσθαι Eutychius Sinai Horeb Arsenius Poemen

Type: Chapter
Information: Worlds of Byzantium
Religion, Culture, and Empire in the Medieval Near East
, pp. 438 - 467

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108684620.015 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aleksidze, Zaza, Shanidze, Mzekala, Khevsuriani, Lily, and Kavtaria, Michael. Catalogue of Georgian Manuscripts Discovered in 1975 at St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai. Translated by Shanidze, Mzekala. Athens: Greek Ministry of Culture; Mount Sinai Foundation, 2005.Google Scholar

Anastasios of Sinai, . Edifying Tales. Translated in Caner, , History and Hagiography.Google Scholar

Anastasios of Sinai, Questions and Answers. Translated by Munitiz, Joseph A.. Turnhout: Brepols, 2011.CrossRef Google Scholar

Anastasios of Sinai, Tales of the Sinai Fathers. Translated in Caner, History and Hagiography.Google Scholar

Auzépy, Marie-France. “From Palestine to Constantinople (Eighth–Ninth Centuries): Stephen the Sabaite and John of Damascus.” Translated by Turquois, Elodie. In Languages and Cultures of Eastern Christianity: Greek, edited by Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald, pp. 399–442. The Worlds of Eastern Christianity, 300–1500, vol. 6. Farnham: Ashgate Variorum, 2015.Google Scholar

Bindley, T. Herbert. The Oecumenical Documents of the Faith. London: Methuen and Co., 1899.Google Scholar

Blake, Robert. “Greek Literature in Palestine in the Eighth Century.” In Languages and Cultures of Eastern Christianity: Greek, edited by Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald, pp. 365–74. The Worlds of Eastern Christianity, 300–1500, vol. 6. Farnham: Ashgate Variorum, 2015.Google Scholar

Bogdanović, Dmitrije. Jovan Lestvičnik u vizantijskoj i staroj srpskoj književnoti. Belgrade: Vizantološki Institut, 1968.Google Scholar

Boudalis, Georgios. “The Evolution of a Craft: Post-Byzantine Bookbinding Between the Late Fifteenth and the Early Eighteenth Century from the Libraries of the Iviron Monastery in Mount Athos, Greece, and the Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, Egypt.” Ph.D. thesis. Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts, London, 2014.Google Scholar

Brock, Sebastian. “New Fragments of Sahdona’s Book of Perfection at Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai.” Orientalia Christiana Periodica 75 (2009): 175–8.Google Scholar

Budge, Ernest A. Wallis, trans. The Paradise or Garden of the Holy Fathers. Vol. 2. London: Chatto & Windus, 1907.Google Scholar

Cameron, Averil. Procopius and the Sixth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.Google Scholar

Caner, Daniel. History and Hagiography from the Late Antique Sinai: Including Translations of Pseudo-Nilus’ Narrations, Ammonius’ Report on the Slaughter of the Monks of Sinai and Rhaithou, and Anastasius of Sinai’s Tales of the Sinai Fathers. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010.CrossRef Google Scholar

Carr, Annemarie Weyl. “Icon with the Enthroned Virgin Surrounded by Prophets and Saints.” In The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era ad 843–1261, edited by Evans, Helen C. and Wixom, William D., p. 372. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997.Google Scholar

Dahari, Uzi. Monastic Settlements in South Sinai in the Byzantine Period: The Archaeological Remains. Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority, 2000.CrossRef Google Scholar

Duffy, John. “Embellishing the Steps: Elements of Presentation and Style in The Heavenly Ladder of John Climacus.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 53 (1999): 8–13.CrossRef Google Scholar

Eutychius of Alexandria, (Sa’īd ibn Batrīq). Annals: On Justinian’s Constructions at Mount Sinai. Translated in Caner, History and Hagiography, pp. 280–2.Google Scholar

Evagrius of Pontus, , Περὶ τῶν Ὀκτὼ Λογισμῶν, PG 40:1272C.Google Scholar

Griffith, Sidney. “Arabic Epistles and Acts.” In Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition (Seventh to Ninth Century), edited by Evans, Helen C. with Ratliff, Brandie, pp. 61–2. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012.Google Scholar

Grossmann, Peter. “The Monastery That Justinian Built.” In Saint Catherine’s Monastery at Mount Sinai: Its Manuscripts and Their Conservation, edited by Mango, Cyril, pp. 11–13. London: St. Catherine Foundation, 2011.Google Scholar

Hainthaler, Theresia. “Spiritual Life in the Imitation of Christ According to John Climacus.” In Christ in Christian Tradition: The Churches of Jerusalem and Antioch from 451 to 600, vol. 2, part 3. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.Google Scholar

Hesychius the Priest, . Λόγος πρὸς Θεόδουλον Ψυχωφελὴς καὶ Σωτήριος περὶ Νήψεως καὶ Ἀρετῆς ἐν Κεφαλαίοις Διῃρημένος Διακοσίοις Τρεῖς, λόγιον δ΄, Φιλοκαλία τῶν Ἱερῶν Νηπτικῶν, vol. 1 (Athens: Ἐκδοτικὸς Οἴκος Ἀστήρ, 1957).Google Scholar

Hesychius the Priest, “On Watchfulness and Holiness.” In The Philokalia: The Complete Text, translated by Palmer, G. E. H., Sherrard, Philip, and Ware, Kallistos, vol. 1. London: Faber and Faber, 1979.Google Scholar

Horn, Elzear. Ichnographiae monumentorum Terrae Sanctae (1724–1744), 2nd edition. Edited by Hoade, Eugene. Publications of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum 15. Jerusalem: Franciscan Press, 1962.Google Scholar

Climacus, John, St. Κλίμαξ, PG 88:631–1164.Google Scholar

Climacus, John The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Translated by Archimandrite Moore, Lazarus. London: Faber and Faber, 1959.Google Scholar

Johnsén, Henrik Rydell. Reading John Climacus: Rhetorical Argumentation, Literary Convention, and the Tradition of Monastic Formation. Lund: Lund University, 2007.Google Scholar

Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald. “The Social Presence of Greek in Eastern Christianity, 200–1200 ce.” In Languages and Cultures of Eastern Christianity: Greek, edited by Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald, pp. 1–122. The Worlds of Eastern Christianity, 300–1500, vol. 6. Farnham: Ashgate Variorum, 2015.Google Scholar

Justin Sinaites, Hieromonk. “Sinai Manuscript Greek 2: Exploring the Significance of a Sinai Manuscript.” In Approaching the Holy Mountain: Art and Liturgy at Saint Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai, edited by Gerstel, Sharon E. J. and Nelson, Robert S., pp. 259–84. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010.Google Scholar

Louth, Andrew. The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition: From Plato to Denys. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981.Google Scholar

Mango, Cyril. “Greek Culture in Palestine after the Arab Conquest.” In Languages and Cultures of Eastern Christianity: Greek, edited by Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald, pp. 375–86. The Worlds of Eastern Christianity, 300–1500, vol. 6. Farnham: Ashgate Variorum, 2015.Google Scholar

McClure, M. L., and Feltoe, C. L., trans. The Pilgrimage of Etheria. London: SPCK, 1918.Google Scholar

Miller, Dana, trans. The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian. Boston: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1986.Google Scholar

Mary, Mother and Ware, Archimandrite Kallistos, trans. The Festal Menaion. London: Faber and Faber, 1969.Google Scholar

Nasrallah, Joseph. “The Liturgy of the Melkite Patriarchs from 969 to 1300.” In Languages and Cultures of Eastern Christianity: Greek, edited by Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald, pp. 507–32. The Worlds of Eastern Christianity, 300–1500, vol. 6. Farnham: Ashgate Variorum, 2015.Google Scholar

Nicolopoulos, Panayotis. The New Finds of Sinai. Trans. Hatzopoulos, Athanasios. Athens: Greek Ministry of Culture and Mount Sinai Foundation, 1999.Google Scholar

Pahlitzsch, Johannes. “Greek–Syriac–Arabic: The Relationship between Liturgical and Colloquial Languages in Melkite Palestine in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries.” In Languages and Cultures of Eastern Christianity: Greek, edited by Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald, pp. 495–505. The Worlds of Eastern Christianity, 300–1500, vol. 6. Farnham: Ashgate Variorum, 2015.Google Scholar

Parpulov, Georgi R. “Mural and Icon Painting at Sinai in the Thirteenth Century.” In Approaching the Holy Mountain: Art and Liturgy at Saint Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai, edited by Gerstel, Sharon E. J. and Nelson, Robert S., pp. 345–414. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010.Google Scholar

Philothée du Sinaï, . Nouveaux manuscrits syriaques du Sinaï. Athens: Mount Sinai Foundation, 2008.Google Scholar

Philotheus of Sinai, , “Forty Texts on Watchfulness.” In The Philokalia: The Complete Text, vol. 3. London: Faber and Faber, 1984.Google Scholar

Philothée du Sinaï, “Νηπτικὰ Κεφάλαια Τεσσαράκοντα,” λόγιον κγ΄, Φιλοκαλία τῶν Ἱερῶν Νηπτικῶν, vol. 2, p. 282.Google Scholar

Piacenza Pilgrim, . Travelogue 33–42: Jerusalem to Mount Sinai and Clysma. Translated in Caner, History and Hagiography.Google Scholar

Procopius, , On Buildings. Ed. and trans. Dewing, H. B.. 7 vols. Loeb Classical Library. London; Cambridge, MA: W. Heinemann and Harvard University Press, 1914–40.Google Scholar

Rabino, M. H. L. Le Monastère de Sainte-Catherine du Mont Sinaï. Cairo: Royal Automobile Club d’Égypte, 1938.Google Scholar

Ševčenko, Ihor. “The Early Period of the Sinai Monastery in the Light of Its Inscriptions.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 20 (1966): 255–64.CrossRef Google Scholar

Ševčenko, Nancy. “Manuscript Production on Mount Sinai from the Tenth to the Thirteenth Century.” In Approaching the Holy Mountain: Art and Liturgy at Saint Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai, edited by Gerstel, Sharon E. J. and Nelson, Robert S., pp. 233–58. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010.Google Scholar

St. Silvia, . “Quae fertur, Peregrinatio ad Loca Sancta.” In Itinera Hierosolymitana, Saeculi IIII–VIII, edited by Geyer, Paul. Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 39, pp. 39–40. Vienna: F. Tempsky, 1898.Google Scholar

Skrekas, Demetrios. “Studies in the Iambic Canons Attributed to John of Damascus: A Critical Edition with Introduction and Commentary.” D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 2008.Google Scholar

Theophanes, , Chronographia AM 6123, 6124. Translated in Caner, History and Hagiography, pp. 283–5.Google Scholar

“Three Papyri from Nessana: P. Colt 89, 72, and 73.” Translated in Caner, History and Hagiography.Google Scholar

Wasserstein, David. “Why Did Arabic Succeed Where Greek Failed? Language Change in the Near East after Muhammad.” In Languages and Cultures of Eastern Christianity: Greek, edited by Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald, pp. 467–82. The Worlds of Eastern Christianity, 300–1500, vol. 6. Farnham: Ashgate Variorum, 2015.Google Scholar

Weitzmann, Kurt. The Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai: The Icons, vol. 1: From the Sixth to the Tenth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976.Google Scholar

Weitzmann, Kurt, and Galavaris, George. The Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai: The Illuminated Greek Manuscripts, vol. 1: From the Ninth to the Twelfth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.Google Scholar

Book contents

Fourteen - Greek Identity in the Sinai

Summary

Keywords

Access options

References

Save book to Kindle

Save book to Dropbox

Save book to Google Drive