Preface

When I set out to do this research, I never imagined that in order for this book to be published, two books had to be written to support its results. These books were published a short while before the present volume. They are, as it were, its siblings and the two pedestals that make it possible to establish definitively the authorship of the Scholia in Apocalypsin, which Adolf Harnack attributed hastily, and erroneously, to Origen a century ago. Codex 573, of the Meteora monastery of Metamorphosis (the Great Meteoron) was discovered in 1908, and it is the sole manuscript that preserves these Scholia. Harnack received them from a Greek theologian in July 1911, and it took him only a couple of months to determine that their author was Origen. It was a time when German authorities of the day pronounced their oracles, and everyone had to comply unquestioningly (as happens today, when they teach the rest of Europe lessons of economic decorum and of the proper organization of life). But Harnack’s research was quite inadequate: it ignored philosophical sources altogether, and sought to detect ‘similar words’ in Origen in order to establish that this was a work of the Alexandrian, while considering too small a number of early Christian theologians. For all the presumed weight of his authority, however, never did this attribution enjoy unanimous acceptance by scholars. As a result, this document, which is pregnant with information about early Christianity as well as about the exigencies of sixth-century life, remained an ‘orphan’, of which scholarship made nothing.

As early as 1986, and then in 1991, in The Concept of Time in Origen, I wrote: ‘As regards other works of Origen, we have reservations about the authenticity of the Scholia in Apocalypsin. Not so much because there is not any testimony that he ever wrote any comment on the Apocalypse; but because to anyone who is familiar with his thousands of pages in Greek, this text seems unlike him and alien to his style. We have no reason to make this point one of dispute whatever. For, as far as our topic is concerned, of what is stated in that work there is nothing to appeal to, or to dispute.’

EN XIIa: τὰ τῆς κακίας βλαστήματα

Didymus used the term βλὰστημα (‘offshoot’). The expression τὰ τῆς κακίας βλαστήματα (‘offshoots of wickedness’) was available to Cassian, since earlier authors adopted it. He presumably took this up from Eusebius, where the phraseology is similar to that of the present Scholion. We come upon it also in Gregory of Nyssa, and in the spurious work on Isaiah. Although there is a single instance in Basil where a phrase similar, yet not identical, where κακίας βλαστήματα is used, I insist that the commentary on Isaiah is not his own, as I hope to show in a future work of mine. Enarratio in Prophetam Isaiam must have been written under the influence of Eusebius, by someone who held the historian in high regard. There are parts of this Enarratio which are plain quotations from Eusebius’ work, even though they purport to deal with different topics. To cite an instance, a specific part from this commentary is a word-for-word quotation from Eusebius’ commentary on the Psalms.

The verb βλαστάνειν (‘to shoot forth, to bud, to sprout’) is characteristic of Theodoret describing the generation of evil and sin, including heresy. On this point Cassian wrote under the influence of Theodoret and Didymus, not Origen. For in the latter the verb βλαστάνειν has only the natural meaning (that is, a certain physical function), whereas in Didymus this is associated with ‘evil’ (κακία) coming to pass. There are of course instances where a simply natural sense appears, but this is only an exception.

EN Xa: ἃ σὺν ἀγάπῃ κατορθοῦται

At this point, Cassian makes a shift from Rev. 2:2 (which is the text under analysis) to 1 Thess. 1:3. Nevertheless, the idea of ‘love’ being an ‘accomplishment’ (κατόρθωμα) is one more instance of Christian authors employing Stoic terminology. The notion of any ‘virtue’ being a ‘feat’ (κατόρθωμα) is a theme occurring abundantly in Gregory of Nyssa. So it does also in Cassian, who once again follows his Cappadocian hero. I have shown Cassian’s debts to Gregory in my edition of his works included in the same ancient codex. Certainly Stoicism in Christian authors is not uncommon; indeed the notion of ‘accomplishment’ (κατόρθωμα) appears in Didymus abundantly. However, in Didymus the association between ‘accomplishment’ (κατόρθωμα) and ‘virtue’ (ἀρετή), although definitely admired, does not enjoy the emphasis it does in Gregory of Nyssa and Cassian. Therefore, this expression is Cassian’s own and marks his wish to show that Rev. 2:2 fits well with 1 Thess. 1:3, which eventually serves to show once again that Revelation concurs with the rest of scriptural canon.

EN Xb: ἀγαπητικὴ διάθεσις

The term is notably present in Gregory of Nyssa and is used by Didymus, too. Again, the latter borrowed this from his Cappadocian hero, while the idiom does not occur in Origen. For it is in Gregory that the idea of the volatility of ‘loving disposition’ appears at various points.