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A Sanctifying Myth: the Syriac History of John in Its Social, Literary, and Theological Context Jacob Aaron Lollar

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A Sanctifying Myth: the Syriac History of John in Its Social, Literary, and Theological Context Jacob Aaron Lollar Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2018 A Sanctifying Myth: The Syriac History of John in Its Social, Literary, and Theological Context Jacob Aaron Lollar Follow this and additional works at the DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES A SANCTIFYING MYTH: THE SYRIAC HISTORY OF JOHN IN ITS SOCIAL, LITERARY, AND THEOLOGICAL CONTEXT By JACOB A. LOLLAR A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2018 Jacob A. Lollar defended this dissertation on June 22, 2018. The members of the supervisory committee were: Nicole Kelley Professor Directing Dissertation Svetla Slaveva-Griffin University Representative David Levenson Committee Member Matthew Goff Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii I dedicate this dissertation to my daughter, Kora, for all the nights spent thinking through the details while I rocked you to sleep. Je t'aime, ma chèrie iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Several people have been instrumental in helping me complete this project. I would like to thank my committee: Nicole Kelley, David Levenson, Matthew Goff, and Svetla Slaveva- Griffin. Thank you to Nicole Kelley for being such a generous advisor and for helping me stay focused on my topic. David Levenson provided so much helpful feedback on my Syriac translations and helped me sort through the manuscript history. A special thanks to Anne- Catherine Baudoin in Paris who was such a wondeful hostess and assisted me in securing access to several libraries and institutions while I was there. So many people have talked with me through the content and helped me articulate my argument better: Blake Jurgens, Carson Bay, Sheldon Steen, Tara Baldrick-Marone, Giancarlo Angulo, Joshua Matson, R.C. Griffin, Rebecca Falcasantos, and so many others—thank you all for your input. I would like to thank Jeff Childers, for teaching me Syriac and getting me interested in this material. Finally, thank you to my family, Sarah, Kora, and Maryn. Thank you for sticking with me and supporting me through this endeavor. It is finally done! iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ vii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................. viii INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: REFUGEES IN EDESSA: REMAKING THE PAST IN THE PRESENT .... 29 CHAPTER TWO: JOHN THE SON OF ZEBEDEE: CONSTRUCTIONS OF AN APOSTLE IN FOURTH-CENTURY SYRIA ..................................................................................................... 77 CHAPTER THREE: BETWEEN EPHESUS AND EDESSA: THE REFUTATION OF PAGANISM IN THE HISTORY OF JOHN ............................................................................... 109 CHAPTER FOUR: “SO THAT WE MAY LIVE AND NOT DIE!”: BAPTISM AND THE PERFORMANCE OF ORTHODOXY IN THE HISTORY OF JOHN ..................................... 138 CONCLUSION: THE HISTORY OF JOHN, A SANCTIFYING MYTH ................................. 163 APPENDIX A: TEXT AND TRANSLATION OF THE HISTORY OF JOHN ........................ 169 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 248 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ...................................................................................................... 271 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Transmission of Manuscripts……………………………………………………………8 Figure 2: Berytus Altar Inscription………………………………………………………….......133 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Bishops of Edessa ........................................................................................................... 53 Table 2: Ephrem and John the Son of Zebedee .......................................................................... 102 Table 3: Anti-Pagan Terminology in the History of John .......................................................... 116 Table 4: Baptism in the Acts of Thomas and the History of John .............................................. 141 Table 5: Baptism in the History of John ..................................................................................... 147 Table 6: Syrian Baptismal Liturgies ........................................................................................... 152 vii ABSTRACT This dissertation consists of two parts. The first part is a compiled Syriac text and English translation of a fourth-century document from Edessa known as the History of John, which appears in the appendix of this project. This original Syriac narrative traces the acts of the apostle John the son of Zebedee in the city of Ephesus. I have combined all extant Syriac witnesses and have updated the old English translation from the nineteenth century. The second part—which is the main body of this project—consists of the first detailed analysis of the text since its publication in 1871. I argue that the narrative originated in fourth-century Edessa and is a product of a Nicene Christian community in a struggle with other religious traditions in the city. Using Bruce Lincoln’s theories of myth, I argue that the History of John should be understood as an ideological narrative that attempted to establish the primacy and authority of Nicene Christianity as the only true religion at Edessa. In particular, the narrative targets groups like Manichaeans and the cult of Atargatis in establishing the dominance of Nicene Christianity over these groups and their traditions. The authors of the History of John sanctified early traditions about the apostle and invented a new history for Edessa, situating themselves and the Nicene community at the center. viii INTRODUCTION The study of early Christian apocrypha has in many ways advanced our understanding of late antiquity, particularly of the diversity of Christianity and its manifestations, but also of social, political, and epistemological issues in which early Christians were involved. Within the subfield of the study of Christian apocrypha, however, those texts that originated in Syriac have been relatively neglected by scholars. Despite the fact that British scholar William Wright published a collection of Apocryphal Acts of Apostles in Syriac in the second half of the nineteenth century, those interested in Christian apocrypha have generally overlooked native Syriac texts, no doubt in part due to their comparatively later provenance.1 Regrettably, even experts in the Syriac traditions and literature have tended to neglect the study of Syriac apocrypha.2 This has been especially true of scholarship in North America; the situation has been better in Europe, particularly in France.3 1 William Wright, Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, Edited from Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum and Other Libraries (London / Edinburgh: Williams and Norgate, 1871). Of the six texts edited by Wright in this volume, the only one consistently present in later collections of Christian apocrypha is the Syriac Acts of Thomas. No other text is included by E. Hennecke and W. Schneemelcher, eds. New Testament Apocrypha (trans. R. McL. Wilson; 2 vols; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1963-1965) or J.K. Elliot, The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation (Oxford: Clarendon, 1993; updated reprinted in 2005). To his credit, Hans-Josef Klauck in his The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles: An Introduction (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2008) mentions these texts in his bibliography and even provides some description and summary of a couple of them, though not all of them. This trend is fortunately being amended by the new project edited by T. Burke and B. Landau, New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016-). The first volume was recently released and subsequent volumes are set to follow. These volumes will include Syriac apocrypha. 2 There is no general entry for Syriac apocrypha in S.P. Brock, A.M. Butts, G.A. Kiraz, and L. van Rompay, eds. Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2011). There are entries for the Doctrina Addai, the Acts of Mar Mari, and the Acts of Thomas, but no other original apocrypha, such as the History of John, the History of Philip, and the History of Simon Cephas are included. 3 The French contribution to the study of Syriac apocrypha is largely due to the work and influence of Alain Desreumaux, one of the original founding members of the AELAC society. See especially Muriél Debié, and Christelle and Florence Jullien, and Alain Desreumaux, eds. Les apocryphes syriaques. Études syriaques 2. Paris: Geuthner, 2005; Debié, Muriél, “Les apocryphes et l’histoire en syriaque,” in Sur les pas des Araméens chrétiens. Mélanges offerts à Alain Desreumaux (Eds. F. Briquel-Chatonnet and M. Debié ; Cahiers d’études syriaques 1. Paris: Geuthner, 2010), pp. 63-76. There have also been groundbreaking
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