A Prophecy of Empire

The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius from Late Antique Mesopotamia to the Global Medieval Imagination

Christopher J. Bonura (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

372 Seiten

2025
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-41825-7 (ISBN)

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The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius was one of the medieval world’s most popular and widely translated texts. Composed in Syriac in Mesopotamia in the seventh century, this supposed revelation presented a new, salvific role for the Roman Empire, whose last emperor, it prophesied, would help bring about the end of the ages. In this first book-length study of Pseudo-Methodius, Christopher J. Bonura uncovers the under-appreciated Syriac origins of this apocalyptic tract, revealing it as a remarkable response to political realities faced by Christians living under a new Islamic regime. Tracing the spread of Pseudo-Methodius from the early medieval Mediterranean to its dissemination via the printing presses of early modern Europe, Bonura then demonstrates how different cultures used this new vision of empire’s role in the end times to reconfigure their own realities. The book also features a new, complete, and annotated English translation of the Syriac text of Pseudo-Methodius.

Christopher J. Bonura is Assistant Professor of History at Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland.

Contents

Acknowledgments
Note to the Reader
Abbreviations

Introduction. A Syriac Apocalyptic Tract on Political Theology

PART ONE. CONTEXT
1. Plague, Taxation, and Conversion to Islam: Pseudo-Methodius’s Date and Historical Context

2. Far from Byzantium: The Author and the Literary Context of Pseudo-Methodius

3. The Prophecies of Daniel and Syriac Eschatology: The Context of Pseudo-Methodius’s Political Theology

PART TWO. CONTENT
4. The Historical Part: A History of God’s Kingship and Daniel’s Four Kingdoms

5. The Prophetic Part: The King of the Greeks, the Surrender of Power, and the End of the World

PART THREE. RECEPTION
6. From Mesopotamia to Constantinople: The Syriac and Greek Reception of Pseudo-Methodius’s Political Eschatology

7. From Byzantium to the Orthodox Kingdoms: Pseudo-Methodius’s Political Eschatology in the Non-Greek East

8. From Merovingian Francia to Early Modern Empire: Pseudo-Methodius’s Political Eschatology in the Latin West

Conclusion. Pseudo-Methodius: The Unlikely Prophet of Christian Empire

Appendix A. Translation of the Syriac Pseudo-Methodius
Appendix B. Early Interpolations in the Greek Pseudo-Methodius
References
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	25.10.2025
Reihe/Serie	Christianity in Late Antiquity ; 15
Zusatzinfo	11 b-w figures, 2 maps, 2 tables
Verlagsort	Berkerley
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte
Themenwelt	Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte
ISBN-10	0-520-41825-5 / 0520418255
ISBN-13	978-0-520-41825-7 / 9780520418257
Zustand	Neuware