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Peter the Iberian and his Biographers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

D. M. Lang
D. M. Lang
Affiliation:
Lecturer in Georgian, School of Oriental and African Studies, London
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Extract

The career and personality of Peter the Iberian, bishop of Mayuma, near Gaza, present exceptional interest for the history both of the Monophysite movement of the fifth century and of the Georgian Church. At the same time, the hagiographical writings recording his life raise documentary problems of a complex nature.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , October 1951 , pp. 158 - 168
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1951

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References

page 158 note 2 For bibliography and historical background, cf. Bardenhewer, O., Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur, iv, Freiburg 1924, 315–7Google Scholar; Kulakovsky, Yu., Istoriya Vizantii, Kiev 1910, i. 317–9Google Scholar; Tamarati, M., L'Eglise Géorgienne, Rome 1910, 155–8Google Scholar; Markwart, J., ‘Die Bekehrung Iberiens’ in Caucasica, vii. (1931), LeipzigGoogle Scholar; Peeters, P., ‘Les débuts du Christianisme en Géorgie’ in Analecta Bollandiana, 1. (1932)Google Scholar; Karst, J., Littérature Géorgienne Chrétienne, Paris 1934, 85–8.Google Scholar

page 159 note 1 Raabe, R., Petrus der Iberer, ein Charakerbild zw Kirchen- und Sittengeschichte des fünften Jahrhunderts, Leipzig 1895.Google Scholar

page 159 note 2 Marr, N. Y., ‘Ckhovreba Petre Iverisa’ (‘Life of Peter the Iberian’: Georgian text in two recensions, with translation and introduction in Russian), Pravoslavny Palestinsky Sbornik, xvi. St. Petersburg 1896, fasc. 2.Google Scholar

page 159 note 3 Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (Scriptores Syri), series 3, tomus xxv. Paris 1907.Google Scholar

page 159 note 4 ‘Vie de Sévère par Zacharie le Scholastique’, ed. Kugener, M.-A., in Patrologia Orientalis, ii. (1903), fasc. i, 83Google Scholar. There is an earlier edition (Syriac text only) by J. Spanuth, Göttingen 1893.

page 159 note 5 The Syriac Chronicle, known as that of Zachariah of Mitylene, trans. Hamilton, F. J. and Brooks, E. W., London 1899Google Scholar; Die sogenannte Kirchengeschichte des Zacharias Rhetor, ed. Ahrens, K. and Krüger, G., Leipzig 1899Google Scholar; Historia Ecclesiastica Zachariae Rhetori, ed. Brooks, E. W., Louvain 1924Google Scholar.

page 159 note 6 Vita Isaiae, ed. Brooks, 3. Cf. also the German translation printed as a supplement to Ahrens and Krüger, Kirchengeschichte, 263–4.

page 160 note 1 In Byzantinische Zeitschift, ix. (1900), Leipzig, 464.Google Scholar

page 160 note 2 Vita Isaiae, ed. Brooks, 1; Historia Ecclesiastica, ed. Brooks, , i. Louvain 1924, iiiGoogle Scholar.

page 160 note 3 Duval, R., La Littérature Syriaque, Paris 1907, 151Google Scholar.

page 160 note 4 Cf. Baumstark, A., Geschichte der syrischen Literatur, Bonn 1922, 183–4.Google Scholar

page 160 note 5 Kugener, M.-A., ‘La compilation historique de Pseudo-Zacharie le Rhéteur’, in Revue de l'Orient Chrétien, v. (1900), 209.Google Scholar

page 160 note 6 Syriac Chronicle, ed. Hamilton and Brooks, 3.

page 160 note 7 Raabc, Petrus der Iberer (Syriac text), 146.

page 160 note 8 Ibid. (Introduction), 7–8.

page 160 note 9 Published with translation by M. Brière and introduction by Nau, F. in Patrologia Orientalis, viii, Paris 1912.Google Scholar

page 160 note 10 Rccueil d'Archéologie Orientale, iii. Paris 1900, 225.Google Scholar

page 161 note 1 Schwartz, E., ‘Johannes Rufus, ein monophysitischer Schriftsteller’, in Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie, Philosophisch-historische Klasse, 1912, 9Google Scholar. Cf. also the sameauthor's, Publizistische Sammlungcn zum Acacianischen Schisma, Munich 1934, 173 and 211.Google Scholar

page 161 note 2 In his article ‘Zacharias Scholastikos’ in the 92 Jahresbericht der Schlesischen Gesellschaft für vaterländische Kultur, Abteilung iv. Breslau 1915.

page 161 note 3 Marr (Georgian text), 53–4.

page 161 note 4 Brosset, M.-F., Histoire de la Géorgie, St. Petersburg 1849, i. i, 136–9Google Scholar; K'art'lis ckhovreba, ed. Brosset, , St. Petersburg 1849, i. 102–5.Google Scholar

page 162 note 1 Marr (Georgian text), 52–3.

page 163 note 1 Syriac Chronicle, ed. Hamilton and Brooks, 137.

page 163 note 2 Syriac and Latin in Vita Isaiae, ed. Brooks, 15 and 10; German in Ahrens and Krüger, Kirchengeschichte, 272–3.

page 163 note 3 Raabe, Petrus der Iberer, 98–9.

page 163 note 4 Plerophoriae, ed. Nau, 128.

page 164 note 1 On this point, one must deviate from the judgment of a distinguished authority, the late P. Peeters, who was inclined to dismiss the Georgian life altogether. In the Analecta Bollandiana, xl. 287–8, he wrote: ‘La vie elle-même a trop l'air d'une supercherie imaginee pour reprendre Pierre l'Ibère à la confession monophysite … Il est done bien inutile de rechercher l'identité du ‘bienheureux Zacharie’, que n'est ici qu'un prête-nom’. In spite of the element of ‘supercherie’ in the Georgian redactor's work, one is not justified in writing off Zacharias altogether.

page 164 note 2 This is the view held by Sikorski, ‘Zacharias Scholastikos’, 14: ‘So halte ich die ganze Zuschreibung der Vita Gruzina an einen Zacharias, einen Schüler und Altersgenossen des Petrus, für eine Unterschiebung, urn die Glaubwürdigkeit der Erzählung grösser zu machen, verursacht vielleicht durch die Kenntis eines Zacharias als Schüler des Petros einerseits, andererseits durch eine Verwechslung dieses Schülers mit dem Biographen des Petros, Zacharias Scholastikos’.

page 164 note 3 Marr (Russian translation), 88, note.

page 164 note 4 Cf. the table of dates in Chabot's, J.-B. article ‘Pierre l'lbérien’ in Revue de l'Orient Latin, iii. (1895), 392Google Scholar. Peter's birth is generally taken to have been in 409. The date of his death must be placed between 488 and 491. E. Schwartz (Publizistische Sammlungen, 211) concludes that he died on 1 December, 491, but the Georgian life says that he passed away in the reign of Zeno, who died on 9 April 491. If the Georgian life merits any credence on this point, Schwartz's date will have to be revised. The date sometimes given by later writers, 513, is obviously impossible.

page 165 note 1 Marr (Georgian text), 53–4.

page 165 note 2 A full account of the incident is given in Raabe, 60–1.

page 165 note 3 Cf. Vie de Sévére, ed. Kugener, 83; Kirchengeschichte, ed. Ahrens and Krüger, xxiv-xxv; Schwartz, ‘Johannes Rufus’, op. cit., 26.

page 166 note 1 This Armenian translation was made in 1248 from a manuscript belonging to the Jacobite patriarch Ignatius II, who had taken refuge with the Armenian Catholicos Constantine at Roumqalah. The translator was a Syrian monk called in Armenian Išawkh, skilled, he tells us, in the art of medicine (cf. Langlois, V., Chronique de Michel le Grand, Venice 1868, 10 and 374Google Scholar). This name probably represents a Nestorian Syriac form of Jesus (Yeshuʻ) (cf. Zhamanakagrowtʻiwn Teaṙn Mikhayēli Asorwocʻ Patriarkʻi, Jerusalem 1871, introd., 11–12Google Scholar), and not, as Langlois (Chronique, 10) supposes, Isaac, Syriac Isḥāḳ, Armenian Sahak or Isahak. The issue is complicated, however, by the participation in this work of translation of an Armenian Vardapet Vardan. Brosset, M.-F. in his Voyage archéologique dans la Géorgie et dans l'Arménie, 3me rapport, St. Petersburg 1849, 42–3Google Scholar, mentioning the existence of eight manuscripts of the Armenian Michael the Syrian in the Echmiadzin Library, ascribes the translation to Vardan. A Venice manuscript, on the other hand, mentions a certain Vardapet David as having translated a portion of the chronicle (Langlois, 10). Comparison of the Armenian Michael the Syrian with the Syriac original published by Chabot between 1899 and 1924 shows that a quantity of data about Armenian history has been added and passages re-written in the light of Armenian national patriotism (Haase, F., ‘Die armenische Rezension der syrischen Chronik Michaels des Grossen’ in Oriens Christianus new series, v. (1915)Google Scholar). It seems most probable that Vardan's role consisted of editing and supplementing Išawkh's draft translation and adding the continuation which brings Michael's narrative up to the middle of the thirteenth century. For details and bibliography, see Karamianz, N., Verzeichniss dcr Armenischen Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, Berlin 1888, 40–1Google Scholar, and Dashian, J., Catalog der Armenischen Handschriften in der Mechitaristen-Bibliothck zu Wien, Vienna 1896, 617–9, 1117.Google Scholar

page 166 note 2 See inter alia, Langlois, 14–15; Macler, F., Catalogue des Manuscrits Arménicns et Géorgiens de la Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris 1908, 111Google Scholar; and the catalogues of the Mekhitarist Libraries at Venice and Vienna.

page 166 note 3 Finck, F. N. and Gjandschezian, L., Systematisch-alphabetischer Hauptkatalog der Königlichen Universitätsbibliothek zu Tübingen: Ver zeichnis der Armenischen Handschriften, Tübingen 1907, 167Google Scholar. The Plerophoriae comprise item No. 18 in Ma. xiii. 102. For photographs of this manuscript I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. R. P. Casey.

page 166 note 4 Described in detail by Melikʻsetʻ-Begi, L., ‘Somkhuri Epistoletʻa cʻignis akhal varianti’ in Bulletin du Musée de Géorgie, xiB (1941)Google Scholar, Tiflis (In Georgian with Russian summary). To judge by Prof. Melikʻsetʻ-Begi's copious excerpts, the Tübingen and Tiflis Plerophoriae are virtually identical. They are arranged in 70 paragraphs instead of 72 in Michael the Syrian and the complete text edited by Nau. The colophons of both the Tubingen and Tiflis Plerophoriae ascribe their translation to Vardan Vardapet, Išawkh being mentioned only in the light of a subsidiary scribe. It seems incidentally that the compilers of the Tübingen catalogue and Prof. Melikʻsetʻ-Begi have misread the phrase ‘Išawkh anown’ as one word, that is to say as ‘of Išawkhan’. The correct reading should surely be ‘Išawkh by name’.

page 167 note 1 Langlois, Chronique de Michel le Grand, 153–4; Zhamanakagrowtʻiwn … Jerusalem 1871, 174–5; Tübingen collection, Ma. xiii. 102, 313; Tiflis State Museum, Armenian collection, Ms. No. 21, 35. A. A. Tsagareli, in his ‘Pamyatniki gruzinskoy stariny’ in Pravoslavny Palestinsky Sbornik, iv. fasc. 1, St. Petersburg 1888, 34–5, erroneously ascribes this statement to ‘the XIIIth century Armenian historian Asogik’ (i.e. Stephanos of Taron, known as Asoghik). No such reference exists in that writer, and ‘Asogik’ is obviously a mistake for ‘Mikhail Asori’ (Michael the Syrian), who is mentioned in this connection by Brosset, Histoire de la Géorgie, i. 1, 139.

page 167 note 2 Marr considered the translation to date from the thirteenth or fourteenth century at the earliest (op. cit., xxi). But since his argument rests on the translator's use of the word ‘mebostne’ (a gardener), which the late Peeters, P. (Analecta Bollandiana, xl. (1922), 287–8Google Scholar; see also the same author's Le Tréfonds oriental de l'Hagiographie Byzantine, Brussels 1950, 209)Google Scholar showed as occurring in a hagiographical text of the eleventh century, this dating is not reliable. It is likely that Macarius belonged to the circle of Ioann Petricʻi, associated with the Gelatʻi monastery in Western Georgia (Karst, Littérature Géorgienne Chrétienne, 85).

page 168 note 1 Crum, W. E., Theological Texts from Coptic Papyri, Oxford 1913, 62–4Google Scholar; Crum, , Coptic Ostraca, London 1902, 42, No. 459Google Scholar; Winlock, H. E., Crum, W. E. and White, H. G. Evelyn, The Monastery of Epiphanius at Thebes, New York 1926, ii. 294.Google Scholar

page 168 note 2 Evelyn-White, H. G., New Texts from the Monastery of St. Macarius (The Monasteries of the Wadi ʼn Natrûn), New York 1926, 164–7Google Scholar. Cf. also P. Peeters, Le Tréfonds Oriental, 167–8.

page 168 note 3 Crum, Coptic Ostraca, 42; Winlock and Crum, The Monastery of Epiphanius, i. 144.

page 168 note 4 Marr (Georgian text), 5: ‘And they called his name Morvanoz’. It is of course possible that this is another of Protopope Paul's inventions. The name Nabarnugi occurs in Raabe's life, 14 and 84, and in the Plerophoriae, 113. For detailed discussion, cf. von Lemm, O., ‘Iberica’ in Mémoixes de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St. Pétersbourg, VIIIme Série, vii. No. 6 (1906), 21Google Scholar, and Markwart, J. in Caucasica, vii. (1931), 135.Google Scholar

page 168 note 5 In spite of the element of spuriousness in sections of the Georgian version, the present writer hopes to prepare a critical translation, which should provide points of interest for ecclesiastical historians and Syriac specialists. Such a project would benefit from suggestions on any of the controversial points on which this study may have focused attention.