A Prophecy of Empire

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.

Contents
 
Acknowledgments
Note to the Reader
Abbreviations
 
Introduction. A Syriac Apocalyptic Tract on Political Theology
                  What is the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius?
                  Pseudo-Methodius and Political Theology
                  The Problem: Misunderstood Origins
 
PART ONE. CONTEXT
1. Plague, Taxation, and Conversion to Islam: Pseudo-Methodius’s Date and Historical Context
                  The Arab Conquest as Context for Pseudo-Methodius?
                  The Second Fitna and the Devastation of Northern Mesopotamia
                  Umayyad Consolidation and Taxation after the Second Fitna
                  Dating by Weeks of Years
 
2. Far from Byzantium: The Author and the Literary Context of Pseudo-Methodius
                  The Place of Composition
                  The Christological and Ecclesiastic Background
                  Sources and Literary Influences
                  In Search of an Anonymous Author
 
3. The Prophecies of Daniel and Syriac Eschatology: The Context of Pseudo-Methodius’s Political Theology
                  The Four Kingdoms in the Book of Daniel
                  Rome and the Fourth Beast
                  The Hippolytus-Jerome Interpretation
                  The Preterist Interpretation
                  Aphrahat’s Interpretation
                  The Reception of Aphrahat’s Eschatology
                  Daniel’s Prophecies in the Late Seventh Century
 
PART TWO. CONTENT
4. The Historical Part: A History of God’s Kingship and Daniel’s Four Kingdoms
                  Nimrod, Yonaton, and the Prophetic Origins of Kingship
                  A Counter-Umayyad Message?
                  The Succession of the First Three Kingdoms
                  The Jews and the Three Gifts
                  The Four Beasts and the Four Winds
                  The Family Tree of the Kingdom of the Greeks
 
5. The Prophetic Part: The King of the Greeks, the Surrender of Power, and the End of the World
                  Previous Theories about the Surrender Scene
                  The Surrender of Kingship and Aphrahat’s Fifth Demonstration
                  The Removal of the Katechon
                  The Son of Perdition
 
PART THREE. RECEPTION
6. From Mesopotamia to Constantinople: The Syriac and Greek Reception of Pseudo-Methodius’s Political Eschatology
                  The Syriac Reception
                  The Greek Translation and the Byzantine Reception
                  The Greek Redactions and Post-Byzantine Legacy
 
7. From Byzantium to the Orthodox Kingdoms: Pseudo-Methodius’s Political Eschatology in the Non-Greek East
                  The Armenian Reception
                  The Egyptian and East African Reception
                  The Slavic Reception
 
8. From Merovingian Francia to Early Modern Empire: Pseudo-Methodius’s Political Eschatology in the Latin West
                  The Latin Translation and the Latin Redactions
                  Pseudo-Methodius in the Early Medieval Latin West
                  A Ghibelline Apocalypse
                  Pseudo-Methodius and the Late Medieval Joachite Revolution
                  Pseudo-Methodius at the Dawn of the Reformation
                  The Habsburg Dynasty and the Fourth Monarchy Men
 
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