The Apocalypse of John Chrysostom, also called the Second Apocryphal Apocalypse of John, is a Christian text composed in Greek between the 6th and 8th centuries AD.[1] Although the text is often called an apocalypse by analogy with the similarly structured First Apocryphal Apocalypse of John,[1][2] the text is not a true apocalypse.[3] In the manuscripts, it is called "a word of teaching" or "a treatise".[4] It is usually classified as part of the New Testament apocrypha because it describes an apocryphal encounter between John of Patmos and Jesus.[1][5] In a number of manuscripts, it is presented as a sermon of John Chrysostom, who, rather than the apostle, is Jesus's interlocutor.[4][5]
The basic structure, which it shares with the First Apocalypse, is erotapocritic (question-and-answer), but, whereas in the First Apocalypse the questions deal with eschatology, in the Apocalypse of John Chrysostom they mostly concern earthly matters.[2][5] John asks Jesus about sin, Sundays, fasting, the meaning of the liturgy, deference to priests, baptism, the proper length of hair and love.[2]
François Nau first published the text with a French translation based on the 16th-century manuscript Parisinus Graecus 947, where it is found at folios 276–282, at the end of a collection of miscellaneous texts. There it is written in garbled Cypriot Greek, probably a translation from an earlier vernacular Greek original. Nau believed that the original was also written on Cyprus.[6] There is an English translation.[7]
Notes edit
- ^ a b c Elliott 1993, p. 684.
- ^ a b c Nau 1914, p. 209.
- ^ Whealey 2002, p. 534 n5.
- ^ a b Spittler 2019.
- ^ a b c Tóth 2017, p. 83.
- ^ Court 2000, p. 70.
- ^ Court 2000, pp. 74–83.
Bibliography edit
- Court, John M. (2000). The Book of Revelation and the Johannine Apocalyptic Tradition. Sheffield Academic Press.
- Elliott, J. K. (1993). The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation. Clarendon Press.
- Nau, François (1914). "Une deuxième apocalypse apocryphe grecque de Saint Jean". Revue Biblique. 23 (2): 209–221. JSTOR 44101528.
- Spittler, Janet E. (2019). "2 Apocryphal Apocalypse of John". e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature (NASSCAL). Retrieved 12 June 2022.
- Tóth, Péter (2017). "New Wine in Old Wineskin: Byzantine Reuses of the Apocryphal Revelation Dialogue". In Averil Cameron; Niels Gaul (eds.). Dialogues and Debates from Late Antiquity to Late Byzantium. pp. 77–93.
- Whealey, Alice (2002). "The Apocryphal Apocalypse of John: A Byzantine Apocalypse from the Early Islamic Period". The Journal of Theological Studies. 53 (2): 533–540. doi:10.1093/jts/53.2.533.